Theorycraft nets $50 million, hires former League of Legends game director

Fledgling studio Theorycraft has raised $50 million in Series B funding to continue developing its debut project, a competitive team-based adventure codenamed Loki.

The funding round was led by Makers Fund with participation from NEA and a16z. Theorycraft was established around 18 months ago by industry veterans from Blizzard, Bungie, Riot Games, and Valve.

The U.S. company raised $37.5 million at launch to bolster its team with "diverse and driven" talent, with Chinese company NetEase leading that initial investment round.

Since then, Theorycraft has added developers with experience on franchises including Valorant, Overwatch, League of Legends, and Arcane to its ranks, and has now announced another major hire by bringing former League of Legends game director Jonathan Belliss into the fold.

Talking about his decision to leave Riot after over a decade, Bellis simply explained the time was right to try something new.

"I chose Theorycraft because I realized there's no shortage of great ideas out there for great games, but there is a shortage on talented developers that know how to strike a balance between player focus and running a successful game as a service," said Belliss in a press release.

"I'm truly excited to work with the talented team here at Theorycraft and look forward to building a game that's worthy of players time and passion."

Theorycraft claims the cash injection and new hire "won't change much of what we're doing," but will rather give the studio more impetus as it attempts to create Loki and realise its goal of creating "deep, 10,000 hour games" that are best played with friends.

The studio hasn't said when it expects Loki to launch, but claims it wants to get the game out into the world "as soon as possible."