The Martian Lawyers Club (MLC) is set to revolutionize game personalization through the innovative use of generative AI. While many companies concentrate on generating game assets, MLC's strategy diverges by prioritizing the underlying systems that form the essence of a game. Today, the company announced a successful $2.2 million pre-seed funding round led by Fly Ventures, with contributions from System.One and Amar Shah, co-founder of Wayve and Charm Therapeutics, alongside Dhyan Ventures.
Co-founded by Kamen Brestnichki (CEO) and Levi Fussell (CTPO), who connected at the University of Edinburgh, MLC is driven by a desire to reshape gaming experiences. Kamen pursued his Master’s in machine learning at UCL and later studied at Bulgaria’s AI-centric INSAIT tech institute. Levi is currently completing his PhD in Computer Graphics and Machine Learning, building on his research experience at both Ubisoft and Adobe.
“The core mission of MLC is to tackle the challenge of video game personalization,” Brestnichki elaborated. “Many companies believe that enhancing visual and narrative aspects will allow players to tailor their experiences. However, we assert that true personalization stems from game systems that grant players agency, allowing dynamic interactions that respond to their choices.”
The MLC team likens traditional games to static books, while they envision creating interactive environments resembling a conversation, where players' inputs elicit responses that are not predetermined by the developers. Fussell pointed out that current personalization approaches pose significant resource challenges. While developers might dream of integrating thousands of functional items into a game, executing that vision within budget constraints is often impractical. With MLC's platform, developers will have access to a sandbox for crafting experiences without the need to build every interaction from the ground up.
The company aims to provide a software development kit (SDK) that facilitates this sandbox experience, enabling player interaction within defined boundaries. This SDK will also empower developers by ensuring that the generative AI system remains aligned with the game's intended experience. Additionally, MLC will implement its own safeguards to maintain consistency.
“[In the future], games will be shipped without all their code,” Fussell predicted. For example, titles like Baldur’s Gate 3 currently require over 100 gigabytes of data. Even with its expansive gameplay, interactions with non-playable characters are still scripted, and player engagement with the environment has its limits. “Imagine a scenario where you download a condensed version of Baldur’s Gate—just 10 gigabytes—and the code manifests in real-time. That’s the goal of our SDK: to generate code snippets that facilitate seamless gameplay.”
Fussell acknowledged that this vision is still a work in progress, necessitating further research and development. He highlighted that developers are increasingly embracing procedurally generated game spaces, with successful titles like Spelunky, No Man’s Sky, and, more recently, Diablo 4 paving the way.
To validate its SDK, MLC is currently developing its inaugural game—a collectible card game well-suited for the technology. Recently, the company welcomed its first game designer and plans to hire a programmer and an engineer to enhance its cloud infrastructure, supported by its recent funding round.
Notably, MLC is the first spin-off company from INSAIT, established in collaboration with Switzerland’s ETH Zurich and EPFL in 2022. Consequently, the INSAIT Foundation holds a modest equity stake in MLC.
As for the company’s name, it was generated using a large language model among several options. “The name is significant as it reflects our unique policies and values, embodying our commitment to innovation and creativity,” Fussell remarked.
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