Siddharth Dhulipalla built Hathora to provide a “streamlined development experience when starting a multiplayer game from scratch”. The framework apparently provides the right abstractions so that a game can be prototyped in minutes and scaled to millions of users. It’s a self-serve product. 

Hathora can be used for turn-based multiplayer games such as chess or Scrabble-like games. It can also be used for real-time multiplayer games like Among Us. And it can be used for real-time social applications like chat, delivery tracking, and more.

Tim Morten, CEO at Frost Giant Studios, says he plans to use Hathora for its upcoming real-time strategy game.

The round also saw contributions from strategic angels including Jonathan Lai (a16z Games Fund One), Steve Arhancet (CEO of Team Liquid), Richard Ma (CEO of Quantstamp), Orange DAO, George Strompolos (founder Fullscreen), and more. Previous investors include Transcend Fund, Kevin Lin (co-founder of Twitch), Holly Liu (co-founder of Kabam), and Furqan Rydhan (CEO of Thirdweb). 

The funds will apparently be used to hire talent, market the live beta, and build on-chain technology to support a massively multiplayer world governed by professional game masters and directed by millions of players.

Heroic Story says it is trying to reimagine the traditional gameplay of pen-and-paper role-playing games into a new gaming platform that combines matchmaking services with the world’s best game masters, and story-led digital collectibles that allow players to direct their shared adventures together.