In 2018, Bogotanos Jairo Nieto and Alejandro González they did the deal of their lives: sold their mobile game development company called Brainz to Jam City, the American company of Chris DeWolfe and Aber Whitcomb, the founders of MySpace, one of the first social networks that existed in the world.
When they became part of the organization, Jam City had about 400 employees at that time and currently there are more than 1,000 people working at this important mobile developer. The talent shown by this Colombian duo was so outstanding that DeWolfe and Whitcomb called them to be partners in their new bet.
Is about Plai Labs, a spin-off (company that created Jam City) that will be dedicated to creating video games incorporating technological advances such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the blockchain. For this new stage, Jairo and Alejandro went from being employees of Jam City to becoming the co-founders of Plai Labs, which had seed capital of $32 million dollars from the famous investment fund Andreessen Horowitz.
“The idea is use these new technologies to transform the gamer’s spaceto change some rules a bit and some things that we feel can be improved within the industry, and on the other hand to further democratize access to games and the creation of content within video games through these tools”, he explained. Grandson, systems engineer by profession.
And they have already made the first progress. The first game they released is Champions Ascension which is found on the www.champions.io page and is free: for now it can be played Thursday, Friday and Saturday because it is still in a pre-alpha version, it is not finished yet. It is a proposal with which they point to it being a AAA game (it has a high budget for its production and promotion) to compete with the big ones in the market.
Champions Ascension It is like being in an amusement park where there is a coliseum and the characters must fight intense battles of life and death. Around this space there are other auxiliary attractions and a virtual world where you can walk and socialize.
In addition, you can enjoy other games: there is one in which, for example, you can create works of art on canvases that work with AI. Using this technology, users also have the option to create worlds and scenarios in real time.
Although the proposal was initially intended for computers, later the game will be taken to other platforms such as cell phones and consoles.
González, who is an architect by profession, said that Plai Labs currently has a team of more than 60 people globally, 60% of whom are in Colombia. A number that speaks highly of local talent.
“Beyond being one of the first Colombians to be in the big video game leagues, it is the fact that we did not open a door and close it, but what we did was open paths for the industry. Ten years ago nobody knew that games were made in Colombia or there was great skepticism when services were offered to an international partner“Gonzalez said.
And it is that World War Doh, one of the video games created by Brainz, was awarded Apple’s “Best of 2017” award in the “Tech and Innovation” category, as well as the “Best In Show: Audience Choice” award at the 2017 Casual Connect USA conference.
Now in Plai Labs what they are looking for is to land at that third level of the internet known as Web 3.0: They are working on building the next generation of social platforms, based on the implementation of AI, social networks and advanced technology.
“Chris DeWolfe and Aber Whitcomb’s vision is always very ambitiousThey are people who think very long term and it is very interesting to work with this type of people because what it does is that you aim for something higher. They have a lot of experience in the social space and what we are creating is closely related to that element of socialization”, Jairo pointed out.