Nilo

3D game development for everyone

November 3rd, 2025

Happy Monday.

When you think about vibe coding, names like our sponsor Bolt.new might come up in your head.

But what about vibe gaming? Sure, you can build a fun tic-tac-toe grid using ChatGPT. But when it comes to full-fledged, iterative game development, Nilo is taking on its niche in the AI world.

Also: quick question for you! 👇️ 

If given the opportunity, would you invest in a startup we covered?

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Arek and Ethan 🦄

Nilo is a platform on which both users with and without game development experience can generate and play 3D games with AI. Users of all experience levels can create worlds with text prompts or through their voice directly in their internet browser. When they want to share with friends, they can send direct links to their creation and play multiplayer in real time.

Check it out: nilo.io

Let’s be honest: most vibe coding tools are toys.

Fun at first, but often get stuck in endless error loops, infrastructure headaches, and projects collapsing under their own weight.

Meet Bolt.new: the #1 professional vibe coding platform, trusted by product teams at 72% of the Fortune 500.

Bolt puts the most powerful coding agents and enterprise-grade infrastructure directly in your browser:

Let Bolt do the heavy lifting so you can focus on your vision, not fight errors.

This is sponsored content.

Nilo operates with a freemium business model. Users can generate worlds and share them with friends for free. When it launches in 2026, Nilo will offer a paid plan that includes premium features that are yet to be announced.

  • Raised $4 million in seed funding, led by Supercell, the company behind popular mobile games including Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, and Brawl Stars, with participation from a16z speedrun, Kfund, Flex Capital, Next Tier Ventures, Essence Venture Capital, CoreNest Capital, Shilling VC (VC arm of Draycott), Earthling VC, Prototype Capital, and Script Capital

  • Additional angels include Marc Petit (former VP @ Unreal Engine, Epic Games), Blake Hall (co-founder & CEO @ ID.me), Matt Bilbey (former Executive VP @ EA), Logan Kilpatrick (Head of Developer Relations @ Google DeepMind), Denes Ban, and Safi Bahcall

  • Launched an early access program of Founding Builders for early feedback in September 2025

  • Won Most Creative Award at Product Hunt’s SF Demo Night in January

  • Team members have experience at noteworthy companies, including Microsoft, Epic Games, Adobe, Snapchat, and ILM

From the moment Nilo founder and CEO Nuno Leiria played Final Fantasy VII at the age of 12, he wanted to be a game developer, so that he could bring the same sense of excitement he experienced to others. 

Raised in Lisbon, Portugal, Nuno taught himself programming. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Lisbon and his Master’s in Games Programming from the University of Hull in the United Kingdom. Afterward, he became the first engineer at Polystream, a UK-based startup focused on streaming high-fidelity 3D content. During his four years with the growing company, he broadened his knowledge beyond engineering to include how startups scale. 

After Polystream, he joined Epic Games, where he contributed to optimizing both Unreal Engine 5, one of the most powerful game engines in the world, and Fortnite. From there, he joined Ambient, where he helped create an open-sourced multiplayer game engine. Throughout these forays, he consistently experienced a frustrating process fraught with complicated tools and tedious programming. He loved game development, but knew there was an easier and more enjoyable way to do it. 

This pain point, the rise of generative AI, and his time developing game engines and observing startup scaling all combined into an opportunity for Leiria to put himself behind a mission to bring game development to more people while making it more fun.

As we approach the end of this year, the gaming industry will have reached an all-time high, with global revenue expected to be close to $200 billion. Compared to other industries like music and film, which generate around $28.6 billion and $48.51 billion respectively, the gaming industry has become the most dominant form of entertainment. 

In 2024, indie gaming made up 98.9% of the catalog and almost half of all revenue on Steam, a popular online video game distribution platform. However, despite becoming more mainstream, developing games is still a hobby limited by accessibility. Developing games is difficult; just some of the challenges include making animations, debugging, and physics. It’s also a hobby traditionally limited by technical abilities. For beginners, it is nearly impossible to develop the world they’ve envisioned, and for the more advanced, building their dream worlds is still time-consuming and complex.

Nilo is helping creators build their dream 3D worlds in minutes. Using AI, Nilo allows users to create objects and characters in their world through text-to-3D generation. Instead of programming conventionally, creators can speak commands out loud naturally, and program through the built-in AI-powered code generator. They can even collaborate on these projects and share worlds with others through a link. Altogether, the platform removes the need for all game developers to spend hours trying to perfect their designs.

A screenshot from Nilo’s platform

For casual video game fans, Nilo is a great introduction to game development, as it guides them through the process of creating a game while handling the technical aspects. For more experienced creators, Nilo’s value lies in its ability to enhance their experience without losing their distinct flair. Everything in the 3D world is a product of their own imagination, and Nilo just acts as an assistant to create this world easier and faster. 

With 83% of children ages 5-12 and 60% of adults ages 18 and up playing video games weekly, the gaming industry will continue to skyrocket. By capturing even a small portion of today’s market, Nilo can be a unicorn. Beyond the opportunity, we find its promise just as compelling: creating video games faster and easier without sacrificing new creative ideas in the process. It serves as an outlet for people to express their creativity, unburdened by their lack of experience, and to share their creations with friends and the rest of the world.

The best way to support us is by checking out our sponsors. Our partner for this week is Bolt.new!

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