“We invested before seeing a deck”: Why early-stage gaming funding is altering

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“We are at a Hebrew gaming conference held in Israel, but the biggest gaming power in the world today, by a wide margin, is Turkey,” stated Eitan Reisel, Managing Partner at vgames, talking on a panel at Calcalist’s gaming convention, held in collaboration with Google and Playtika. According to Reisel, the cyber period is over and the gaming period has arrived, but Israel has fallen behind.

“Why are we behind?” Reisel continued, throughout a panel moderated by Nir Miretzky, Head of Innovation and AI at CrazyLabs. “It’s because we fall too much in love with products and don’t get to market quickly enough to test whether a game works. And our iteration speed, refining and improving, is not fast enough.”

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ועידת הגיימינג של ישראל - מימין אלעד קושניר משקיע אנג'ל קווין בקספלר שותף מנהל Remagine Ventures ד"ר ורד פנואלי ראש התואר השני לעיצוב ופיתוח משחקים דיגיטליים שנקר איתן רייסל שותף מנהל vgames והמנחה ניר מירצקי סמנכ"ל חדשנות ו AI CrazyLabsועידת הגיימינג של ישראל - מימין אלעד קושניר משקיע אנג'ל קווין בקספלר שותף מנהל Remagine Ventures ד"ר ורד פנואלי ראש התואר השני לעיצוב ופיתוח משחקים דיגיטליים שנקר איתן רייסל שותף מנהל vgames והמנחה ניר מירצקי סמנכ"ל חדשנות ו AI CrazyLabs

Gaming panel (from left): Nir Miretzky, Eitan Reisel, Dr. Vered Pnueli, Kevin Baxpehler, Elad Kushnir.

(Photo: Ryan Purvis)

Reisel requested why Israeli builders are usually not constructing on platforms reminiscent of Roblox. “All the worlds of UGC, user-generated content, are being driven by independent developers. There are so many platforms that there’s no reason Israeli talent shouldn’t be there as well.”

Asked about rising tendencies, after years of hype cycles involving D2C, Apple- and Google-independent shops, GenAI, and beforehand crypto, the panelists have been pressed on what they search for when a startup sends its fundraising deck.

Dr. Vered Pnueli, Head of the Master’s Program in Digital Game Design and Development at Shenkar, stated: “GenAI will be a technology, not a trend. What’s interesting are the new trends it enables: tools for creators with strong ideas but without the time or money to execute them. We’ll see more skins, more character-creation options, and new experiences built around games. AI expands capabilities because it makes creation easier.”

Kevin Baxpehler, Managing Partner at Remagine Ventures, pointed to “real-world models” as an rising theme. “The data generated inside gameplay is extremely valuable, and we’re seeing a trend of selling that data to AI companies.”

Panelists famous that in contrast to the early iPhone period, when hits reminiscent of Angry Birds and Doom 2 showcased completely new codecs, GenAI has not but produced a breakout gaming utility that will have been inconceivable earlier than.

Reisel cautioned towards overestimating automation: “I wouldn’t say GenAI will replace everyone. Games still need an entrepreneur, a brain, to understand the consumer and teach the machine. In my opinion, half the LLM companies will vanish, as the giants are building massive models. Today, things need to move faster. If a company takes more than three months to get to market, I won’t invest.”

The dialog then shifted to how founders can distinguish substance from hype.

Elad Kushnir, angel investor, stated: “In the end, we invest in people, not presentations, their energy, professionalism, experience. Whether the deck is good or bad matters far less. The investment is always in the team and the idea.”

Still, Kushnir famous that AI instruments create effectivity. “In one of my portfolio companies, six developers do everything.”

Dr. Pnueli added that whereas players are usually conservative, college students are studying to make use of AI successfully. “Some come for the community rather than the game itself, but they increasingly understand how to use AI correctly. The fear is falling into banality.”

Reisel emphasised that early-stage displays are sometimes pointless. “The last five companies we invested in didn’t have a deck, we asked for one after we invested. This is the time to challenge the big companies, including mine. People fear the future because many jobs will disappear. For example, I’d short commercial real estate. But this is the time to build. Don’t be afraid, ship quickly, push games into the stores.”

Baxpehler added that there’s significant alternative in AI-native video games. “Not Fortnite,” he stated, “but super-casual titles, games you can build and push much more cheaply.”

Asked what expertise they now search for in candidates, Baxpehler replied: “I’m mostly interested in what tools they use, because tools can be a shortcut. We constantly talk to our founders, and I’m always learning from the tools they adopt. I want teams that know the fastest shortcut to getting to a ‘yes’ or ‘no.’”

Finally, panelists mirrored on previous miscalculations.

Dr. Pnueli pointed to VR: “It has been the ‘next big thing’ for years. During the pandemic, it seemed we were finally shifting to VR. I told compelling stories about how it was coming, and I’m still waiting.”

Kushnir cited crypto gaming: “The industry missed the entire crypto-games phenomenon. There was a systemic failure of the whole industry, which thought it would work. Free-to-play crypto failed miserably because of a misunderstanding of how games function, a closed economy versus an open one. The industry giants completely missed it. I hope to be convinced otherwise by the next generation of crypto-game builders, but it’s very hard to persuade me it can work.”


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