Shroud Of The Avatar Executives Announce New Studio And AI-Powered Roguelike Game

Former Portalarium executives Chris Spears and Starr Long are apparently running a new studio called Pangaea that’s currently working on a new AI-powered roguelike battle royale game codenamed Project Rise. The game promises procedural-generated maps and PvPvE gameplay where “every session is completely unique and player decisions impact the game for everyone.”

Spears defended their use of AI tools in a video presentation last September, saying that it will significantly reduce development costs, particularly for multiplayer and live service games. “The primary costs of developing multiplayer, live-services games are driven by art and backend technology, accounting for roughly 75 percent of the total dev cost of a game,” he explained. “Pangaea tackles that with its proprietary backend tech and efficient use of third-party AI.”

The fully remote studio was co-founded by Spears and Joe Scott in 2022 with Starr Long as its “Stealth Executive Producer”. It’s worth noting that Spears also owns Shroud of the Avatar developer Catnip Games with Starr Long also serving as its executive producer which means that they’re now juggling two studios and two games which doesn’t bode well for either Project Rise or Shroud of the Avatar.