Founder at Kitbash
Riley Dutton
In 2012, I Co-Founded Roll20, the largest site for playing D&D online. We grew from a $40k Kickstarter campaign to 18 million users and nine figures of lifetime revenue. In 2016, I Founded OrbusVR, the first MMO built from the ground up for room-scale VR. We were a Meta Quest launch title and shipped more than 200k units even though it was our first VR title. I have proven experience creating gaming platforms, and I'm passionate about democratizing game dev so everyone has a chance to jump in and make games.
Questions & Answers
What's a memorable 'aha' moment you've had while building your startup?
We weren't originally looking to create an AI-powered startup. However, as we started working on the first version of our editor tools to share with our community, we quickly realized that we could pipe all of the documentation we had written into Claude and ask it to start creating content for our game -- and it worked! We now use AI for nearly every part of our process, and it's sped up the development of content for our games ten-fold. I'm incredibly excited about the potential for AI to be a helping hand along the journey to game dev for so many people.
What inspired you to start your business?
A formative experience in my youth was learning that I could edit and change the source files of my favorite game -- Escape Velocity -- on my Mac Performa computer. It taught me that with the right tools, I could not only enjoy playing games, I could help shape them, and it sparked a lifelong passion for gamedev and a very successful career in tech. My two boys, who are 11 and 13, also want to be gamedevs -- but it's gotten much harder to give them access to start building. The games they play are locked down, and starting to build a game from scratch is a much harder challenge, filled with asset needs, engines catering toward professionals, and a lack of audience interested in what they might create. I want to change that, and give them access to the same experience that was so formative for me.
What problem or opportunity inspired you to start your company, and how has your vision evolved since then?
I've always focused on building products powered by community. Originally, I set out to build a games studio, but based on what we've seen out of our early community members, we realized that our tools were actually turning players into gamedevs! Now we're doubling-down on that vision and working to unlock the gamedev in everyone by building a game engine powered by AI assistance that anyone can jump in and use.
