Former Riot Developers Discuss Their New Co-op Game and the Misguided Metaverse Trend

When Treehouse Games first emerged in 2020, the six-person startup had a vision of creating cooperative social connection-building games for audiences who view gaming as a way to hang out with friends. Since then, the metaverse trend has come and gone, with major companies initially chasing it as a driver of future growth before shifting their focus to Generative AI. Treehouse Games, however, has remained focused on its vision, recently releasing a teaser for its first project, Codename: Islands, a strictly cooperative survival crafting game. Treehouse CEO Michael Chu and Chief Product Officer Andrea Sepenzis shared their thoughts on the metaverse trend and why they chose to sit it out. "The metaverse wave felt like a vacuum of attention that skewed things in a way we weren't super-excited about," Chu stated. Sepenzis added that people's need for a 'third space' in addition to home and work has been well understood, and games have often met this need, from MMOs to Minecraft. The mistake tech companies made, according to Sepenzis, was focusing on commercializing and branding the experience rather than considering what kind of experience people would want to have. While Treehouse wasn't vocal during the metaverse trend, the studio grew to 27 people, secured a second round of funding, and took a non-linear path to creating its first game. Sepenzis, a former Riot Games colleague of Chu's, joined Treehouse about a year and a half ago, when the studio had a polished prototype and was about to shift into production. However, they decided to take another crack at prototyping the core mechanics, resulting in a stronger prototype nine months later. Sepenzis is now creative director on the project, which she sees as a more hands-on development role. Chu and Sepenzis believe that Codename: Islands' co-op emphasis will help make their job more manageable in terms of managing toxicity, as competitive games can create antagonistic social systems. They are attracted to the survival crafting genre because it provides a structure for creating shared experiences with friends. Even if it's not a metaverse in the classical sense, Chu believes it's a significant opportunity, as the gaming industry is expected to grow, and games will become part of everyday life, providing opportunities for meaningful social connections.