Machine Learning Gets Gamified As Utopos Games Brings Advanced AI To Games, Backed With $1 Million Seed Funding

  LAS VEGAS, NV - 10/08/2019 (PRESS RELEASE JET)

Veteran game developers announce new game, Raivo, which gamifies the most ambitious machine learning technology seen in games by combining Pokemon, Championship Manager, and Auto Chess.

Utopos Games today announced Raivo (https://www.utoposgames.com/raivo), the first game to gamify machine learning. In Raivo, the player collects and trains a team of robots into fighters that will enter an online match against robots trained by other players around the world. These robots are intelligent, learning creatures that are based on the latest AI technology that will battle the way they player trains them to battle.

Utopos Games is a new game development studio founded by a team of true game industry veterans who first worked together on Command & Conquer games 20 years ago. Utopos Games is backed with $1 million seed investment round led by byFounders together with Sisu Game Ventures and angel investors.

Raivo is due out in Q2 / 2020 for PC, console and mobile versions to follow later. It features cross-platform multiplayer, movie-quality visuals and audio, and next generation AI.

The intelligent robots of Raivo are based on UtopAI, a new reinforcement learning library developed by Utopos Games. UtopAI is an AI library designed for games. With integrations to Unity and Unreal Engine, UtopAI makes it very easy for game developers to include machine learning in their games.

“In Raivo, your raise your robots as if they are your pets. We have taken a lot of influence from Pokemon in that regard. When the robots fight, it happens autonomously, based on the training you have provided. In short, they fight the way you trained them to fight. This brings in elements from games like Dota Auto Chess and Championship Manager”, explains John Comes, Lead Designer and Co-founder of Utopos Games.

Jani Penttinen, CEO and Co-founder of Utopos Games talks about founding the company: “Utopos Games is a new game studio by true game industry veterans. Most of us worked together 20 years ago at Westwood Studios, and have since then ventured out to become art directors, studio leads, Oscar and Emmy winners, eSports world champions… you name it. Earlier this year, a group of us got together and started talking about how amazing it would be to work together again. I was working as an Entrepreneur in Residence at VC fund byFounders at the time. They agreed that this is a great opportunity for me to jump back to founding a new company, and here we are, making the dream come true!”

Eric Lagier, Managing Partner at byFounders comments: "We're excited to see that our recent Entrepreneur in Residence, Jani Penttinen, has collected an all-star team of game creator veterans to bring the casual "old-school" style of games into new, commercially viable platforms. Drawing on the expertise of some of the most accomplished gaming founders from the New Nordics, byFounders is very well equipped to lead this round in Utopos."

Utopos Games will begin sneak peek play testing of Raivo at the end of October 2019. Those interested in participating can sign up at www.utoposgames.com/raivo for a chance to be among the first to play the game.

More information and images can be found at our presskit: https://www.utoposgames.com/presskit.

About Utopos Games

Utopos Games (https://www.utoposgames.com/) is a game development studio based in Las Vegas, Nevada, led by game developers Elie Arabian, Jani Penttinen and John Comes. Utopos Games has raised $1 million seed funding from byFounders and Sisu Game Ventures. Utopos Games is a Finnish-American game development team. The Utopos Games mission is to create the next generation of entertainment utilizing machine learning toolset they call UtopAI. UtopAI will be available for game developers on Unity and Unreal Engine in 2020.

The word “Raivo” is Finnish and means “fury”. Removing the “R”, word “aivo” means “brain”.

The word “Utopos” is Greek and means “the place that cannot exist” or “the good place”, the place of Utopia.