210 | How Verse8 's AI smarts empower noobs and pros

Jon Jordan talks to Verse8 CEO Kevin Lee about the challenges and opportunities for the AI game-making platform. [01:09] Kevin Lee’s background at Planetarium doing web3 investing and private equity.[02:56] Verse8 started as a WebGL engine project inside Planetarium.[03:31] We first realized the potential of AI technology for game-making in 2024. [04:44] By 2025, it was clear that LLMs could generate very high-quality and complex. [06:15] Verse8 can do hypercasual games, add crypto and other monetization. [08:15] Verse8 has 200,000 DAUs and 3.5 million MAUs.[10:40] We didn't design this as a web3 project but there's potential for degen experiments.[12:52] Verse8 could be “YouTube for games” because everyone can now make games. [14:20] Verse8's $5 million seed round and why Korean strategic investors backed it. [15:28] Investors also have agreements for use of their legacy IPs within Verse8. [17:44] In particular, there will be an integration with MapleStory Universe. [18:54] There are some technical limitations. You can't make open-world MMORPGs.[20:44] Verse8’s moat is its high performance WebGL game engine. [22:50] Everyone ger $10 of free tokens but then users have to pay for additional usage. [26:10] We're competing with Roblox, Steam, Epic and even YouTube for screen time.[31:19] Over the next six months we need to prove creators can generate real revenue.