The next Jackbox style game in Jackbox style and your friends against the host of Ai Game Show

Web -based party games are returning, now with the infusion of generative AI. Among the startup companies that joined the trend, the current forecast seems good for a startup, Small umbrellawho uses AI for his social parties games.

The company announced on Thursday its round of $ 2 million seed fundingS Little Umbrella plans to use new capital to help speed up the start of three AI -powered social games that need to be released next year.

Social games are experiencing revival, especially in online communities like Discord. This genre is attractive to players and their friends because they quickly play and depend mainly on the group dynamics for pleasure. Jacbox games is a remarkable example; His main focus is on party video games that attract millions of players. Only in 2021 the players participated in Over 72.2 million Games.

The small umbrella believes it can be distinguished by using AI to develop games faster than ever. In addition, since large language models (LLMS) can be unpredictable, their use as a master’s games ensures that each round will be different and fun.

The leading title of the startup, Death from AIHe quickly became a hit after his launch last year. Within the first three months, the game has attracted over 20 million players. His success is not surprising, as he has a fun prerequisite: players are challenged to create deadly scenarios and watch how they and their friends will react. Using a generative AI, the game evaluates whether the player succeeds or fails, allowing every player five attempts before being eliminated.

Death from AI is available free of charge in Discord, Web and iOSS It can be played from up to eight players.

Little Umbrella will soon launch its new party game, entitled “The Last AI Show”. The company describes it as a dystopic game show hosting the sinister Ai Game Masters. In the game, players should survive as they vote their friends in the process. The company plans to launch a beta version during the 2025 game developers conference in March.

There is a significant increase in the use of generative AI tools in the development of video games. This technology enables developers to create ambitious games with minimal effort, reducing costs in the process. For example, Little Umbrella claims to have managed to develop and start death from AI in just ten weeks. In contrast, Jackbox Games launches its game packages on an almost annual schedule.

Little Umbrella has developed a Social Games Kit with a cross -platform called Gaming room To power the death of AI, along with his upcoming projects. This kit includes an AI orchestration layer that uses many custom models in partnership with Elevenlabs, Inworld and Openai.

The playroom is currently available to all video game developers and costs between $ 10 and $ 150 a month, depending on the size of Team. There is also a free version.

The small playful studio is guided by Tabish Ahmed, who was previously the leader of the design in the horizon of Meta Horizon Worlds. Recognizing the possibility of creating social experiences on platforms such as Discord, where friends are already interacting, Ahmed noted that the development of cross platform represents significant challenges for the studios, leading to a gap between demand and the availability of content.

“At Little Umbrella, we accepted this challenge by creating social games that are being built and maintained at some of the costs using AI created specifically for players gathering with their friends, overcoming the gaps both in demand and in The scalability, “Ahmed told TechCrunch.

The team also includes Timothy Johnson (CTO), who previously worked at Gallium Studios, building AI-symulated worlds, and Sean Webster (CBO), former Vice President of Applovin and SNAP partnership leader. In addition, the art director of Little Umbrella, Bill Robyson, has contributed his skills in popular titles such as Boss Baby, Scoob! And Young Jedi Adventures.

Investors who participated in the last round include A16Z Speedrun, Breakpoint Ventures, Disrupt.com, GFR Fund, Ubiqus Investment, Virtual Reality Fund and Workplay Ventures (Mark Pincus VC ) and founder of Flexport Ryan Peterson.