DreamCraft Entertainment is a San Mateo-based startup building a code-free game creation platform that lets anyone design, publish, and monetize video games without programming or art skills. Its game editor handles the heavy technical lifting - multiplayer, cross-platform support, performance and memory management - while bundling a library of casual and cartoon-style art assets, so creators can focus on gameplay. Founded in 2018 by Tianyin Zhang and Veronica Yao and backed by Y Combinator, Tencent, Makers Fund and March Gaming, the company raised a $10M Series A in 2021 to democratize game development.
Manticore Games is a San Mateo game studio behind Core, a free platform that lets people build, share, and play online multiplayer games without deep art or coding skills. Founded in 2016 by industry veterans Frederic Descamps and Jordan Maynard, the company built accessible creation tools on top of Unreal Engine and raised roughly $164M from backers including Epic Games, Benchmark, and SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 to power what it calls a 'games multiverse.'