Making creating games as fun as playing them

After raising $2.5m in a pre-seed round, the start-up is all set to launch its innovative platform this year and ‘empower the next generation of game creators’.

“I’ve always been deeply passionate about games. Games have always been something that brings people closer together,” says Richard Whelan. “Growing up, gaming with friends not only built lasting friendships but also unforgettable memories and shared experiences.”

Whelan, a serial entrepreneur based in Ireland, has made this passion his profession after co-founding Irish gaming technology start-up Jamango, a browser-based game creation platform that helps users instantly create and play user-generated games online.

Despite the popularity of consoles, the browser-based gaming industry has been steadily growing. According to Statista, revenue generated by the global browser gaming market was more than $15bn last year. This figure is expected to surpass $22bn by 2028.

But Jamango isn’t just any other platform to help make the game creation process easy for developers. Whelan says that while other sandbox games often have separated creator and player experiences, tools in Jamango are in-game, making the creative process an “immersive and interactive” experience.

“The platform combines familiar block-based world-building with accessible game creation, so from a creator’s perspective, they can build whatever they want without needing to code or learn 3D modelling, which can be a barrier for aspiring creators,” Whelan explains.

“As a browser-native platform, there are no downloads required, and therefore no worrying about what device or version your friends have. Jamango works on any device, anywhere, at any time. [The idea is to] turn the creative process of building worlds and making games into a simple, fun and connected social experience.”

How it started

The story of Jamango goes back to when Whelan decided to follow his passion for video games and learn game development a couple of years ago, starting with building basic 2D and 3D games.

“This experience gave me a new-found respect for games development, which is truly a complex artform that combines storytelling, game design, art, physics, networking, sound design, to name only a few!”

But what struck him about the process was how difficult it was get started in the world of game creation. “The bar in terms of accessibility is incredibly high,” he says.

Around this time, he came across Dalton (who who previously co-founded edtech platform Robotify) in the NDRC Launchpad as well as Klarenbeek, both of whom shared similar childhood experiences as Whelan and were working on the same problem space.

“It really felt like a match made in heaven!”

How it’s going

Today, Jamango has a very clear mission: to empower the next generation of game creators and provide a new place for people to “play, connect and create” without the barriers that exist.

Established only last year, Jamango is off to a strong start. The company raised $2.5m in a pre-seed funding round co-led by Elkstone Partners and Delta Partners earlier this month.

Other investors in the round included Brian Caulfield (chair of Scale Ireland), Brendan O’Driscoll (vice-president of product at Figma) and Conor Sheahan (founder of CKS Finance), who also joined Jamango as chair.

The pre-seed funding will be used to accelerate the development of its platform ahead of a planned launch later this year. Some people on the team have previously worked on popular game titles such as FIFA, The Sims, Star Wars Battlefront and Horizon. The start-up is also currently hiring.

“Wider trends making game creation more accessible, combined with changing consumer behaviour, are really closing the gap between individual aspiring creators and the established traditional game studios,” Whelan adds. “We expect that trend to continue, and we envision that Jamango will play a pivotal role in that evolution.”

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