Web-based party games are making a comeback, now with the infusion of generative AI. Among the startups joining the trend, the current forecast looks good for one startup, Little Umbrella, which leverages AI for its social party games.
The company announced on Thursday its $2 million seed funding round. Little Umbrella plans to use the new capital to help expedite the launch of three AI-powered social games, set to be released in the coming year.
Social games are experiencing a resurgence, particularly within online communities like Discord. This genre is appealing to players and their friends because they are quick to play and primarily depend on group dynamics for enjoyment. Jackbox Games is a notable example; its core focus is on party video games that attract millions of players. In 2021 alone, players reportedly participated in over 72.2 million games.
Little Umbrella believes it can differentiate itself by using AI to develop games more rapidly than ever before. Additionally, because large language models (LLMs) can be unpredictable, employing them as game masters ensures that each round will be different and entertaining.
The startup’s flagship title, Death by AI, quickly became a hit after its launch last year. Within the first three months, the game attracted over 20 million players. Its success is not surprising, as it features a hilarious premise: Players are challenged to create deadly scenarios and observe how they and their friends would react. Utilizing generative AI, the game evaluates whether a player succeeds or fails, allowing each player five attempts before they are eliminated.
Death by AI is available for free on Discord, the web, and iOS. It can be played by up to eight players.
Little Umbrella will soon launch its new party game, tentatively titled The Last Show by AI. The company describes it as a dystopian game show hosted by sinister AI game masters. In the game, players must survive while voting their friends out in the process. The company plans to launch a beta version during the 2025 Game Developers Conference in March.
There has been a significant rise in the use of generative AI tools in video game development. This technology enables developers to create ambitious games with minimal effort, reducing costs in the process. For instance, Little Umbrella claims that it was able to develop and launch Death by AI in just 10 weeks. In contrast, Jackbox Games releases its game packs on a nearly annual schedule.
Little Umbrella developed a cross-platform social game kit called Playroom to power Death by AI, along with its upcoming projects. This kit includes an AI orchestration layer that utilizes multiple custom models in partnership with ElevenLabs, Inworld, and OpenAI.
Playroom is currently available to all video game developers and costs between $10 and $150 per month, depending on the size of the team. There’s also a free version.
The small gaming studio is led by Tabish Ahmed, who was formerly the design leader at Meta’s Horizon Worlds. Recognizing the opportunity to create social experiences on platforms like Discord, where friends already interact, Ahmed noted that cross-platform development poses significant challenges for studios, leading to a gap between demand and content availability.
“At Little Umbrella, we’ve embraced this challenge by creating platform-agnostic social games that are built and maintained at a fraction of the cost using AI, designed specifically for where players gather with their friends, bridging the gaps in both demand and scalability,” Ahmed told TechCrunch.
The team also includes Timothy Johnson (CTO), who previously worked at Gallium Studios building AI-simulated worlds, and Sean Webster (CBO), former AppLovin vice president and head of partnerships at Snap. Additionally, Little Umbrella’s art director, Bill Robison, has contributed his skills to popular titles like “Boss Baby,” “Scoob!,” and “Young Jedi Adventures.”
Investors who participated in the latest round include a16z speedrun, Breakpoint Ventures, Disrupt.com, GFR Fund, ubiQuoss Investment, Venture Reality Fund, and Workplay Ventures (Mark Pincus’ VC firm), along with angel investors Matt Bilbey (former Electronic Arts exec) and Flexport founder Ryan Peterson.
