Klang: Creating a Large Player-Made Online Universe

Introduction

Klang is made up of a very diverse and talented team. We have people from 30 different countries working together, which creates a really fun and dynamic group. Our Co-Founder and CEO, Mundi Vondi, is originally from Iceland and has worked in film, music, fashion, and art before he decided to focus on game design. Since co-founding Klang, Mundi has most recently worked on the projects ReRunner and SEED.

Isabelle Henriques, our Co-CEO, originally hails from Brazil and previously worked as Studio Director and Lead Producer at Electronic Arts. Isabelle has a rich background in game development and has worked on multiple AAA blockbuster franchises including The Sims, Call of Duty, and Madden.

The rest of our team all have varied backgrounds, all the way from novelists down to technical artists. We are really proud of the diversity that we have cultivated at Klang and we fully believe that it is part of what makes our office and our projects so great. 

As you have heard, we recently raised $41 million in a successful Series C round of funding. This funding round came from all new investors and was co-led by Animoca Brands and Kingsway Capital, with participation from Anthos, Novator, Supercell, Roosh, AngelHub, and New Life Ventures. We are so grateful for the support and trust of our investors, which will allow us to continue growing our team and developing SEED in the years to come. While securing funding has become a little bit harder due to the more challenging market environment in the last couple of months, there is still plenty of money available for the right kind of ideas.  

SEED

SEED is a large-scale, persistent virtual world that is pushing the boundaries of what constitutes an MMO world by offering a completely player-built universe. SEED is set on the newly discovered planet of Avesta. In the game, humans are traveling there in order to escape Earth, which has become uninhabitable.

On Avesta, players are building a new human society together alongside other players. This will all be experienced through AI-driven virtual humans, called Seedlings, which the players will take care of. It is through the Seedlings that the players will experience the world of Avesta and interact with each other.

We chose to focus on realistic instead of fantastic content because we want players to identify with the Seedlings. We are hoping to evoke a spectrum of emotions in our players, which are not often felt when playing fantastical games. We want people to feel joy when their Seedling has achieved something great, and sadness when their Seedling experiences heartbreak or loss. For this reason, we created the Seedlings and their environment to be as relatable as possible.

Our Co-Founders Mundi, Oddur, and Ívar have always been fascinated by multiplayer online games where people can collaborate and build things together. This passion is ultimately what inspired the idea for SEED.

We believe in the success of SEED because of its uniqueness, it’s not your average MMO. For starters, it is going to be on a larger scale than anything that currently exists. Plus, it will be a completely persistent world, meaning that even if people are not actively playing, the game world will continue to grow and change. Lastly, with a fully player-driven economy and self-governance, players will have more agency and control over the game than ever before.

We are still evaluating different monetization options for the game, so it is still too early to talk about that. What we do know is that our vision is to make SEED accessible to the majority of interested players, therefore the monetization of it will need to serve this purpose.

We’re not 100% sure when we will launch the game. As you know, game development is often a marathon, not a sprint, and we are still deep in the development stage. However, besides SEED’s continued development, we are very focused on community engagement, which can be difficult when there isn’t a public game. This is where our playtests, social media, and podcast (The Life Cycle) really come in handy as they are all methods that we use to connect with our current and future players, along with the larger community. 

The Audience

We believe that listening to the community to understand their opinions and desires is one of the most important parts of a good UA strategy. This is why we take our playtests so seriously. We want to know our player’s thoughts, the things that they love about SEED, and the things that aren’t working for them. This way we can continually improve the game in a practical way that mirrors what our community wants. This doesn’t only make the game better, it also creates trust between players and us, which is invaluable. 

The Roadmap

As far as 2022 goes, we are very focused on both development and company growth. We feel that to achieve our development goals in the next coming years, we need to increase our team’s size substantially (the goal is to double our team of around 70 this year). You will continue to hear from us on our social media channels  (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Discord) and our blog, which will showcase all of our latest news and announcements.  

Stephan Röhrig, Marketing Director at Klang Games

Interview conducted by Ana Kessler