Apollo Studio secures seed funding to build AI-powered game engine

(Kakao Ventures)

Kakao Ventures said Tuesday that Apollo Studio, a South Korean startup developing an artificial intelligence (AI)-based game engine, has raised seed funding jointly led by Kakao Ventures and KB Investment, with participation from Base Investment Base Investment Corp.

Apollo Studio is creating F-1, a next-generation AI game engine that allows anyone to easily develop and publish games. The platform enables a “prompt-to-game” environment, where users can simply enter natural-language prompts and automate the entire process of game planning, design, development, and publishing.

With this technology, a fully functional game can be produced within about a month and released across multiple platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and the web. Apollo Studio aims to lower technical barriers to game creation and realize the “democratization of game development,” enabling anyone, anywhere, to become a game creator.

“Apollo Studio seeks not only to build a game engine but also to redefine how AI creates games and to establish a new ‘language of game production,’” said Cho Sung-min, chief executive officer of Apollo Studio. “We will continue enhancing our technology and focus on global expansion so that people around the world can create and share their own games.”