MMOs in the Instagram Era: Highrise (S18) - YC Gaming Tech Talks 2020

Pocket Worlds, a fully remote developer, launched HiRISE, a social-first MMO that has surpassed five million downloads and generates over one million dollars in monthly revenue following recent Series A funding. The platform reverses traditional design hierarchies by prioritizing community infrastructure through a hybrid architecture that splits functionality between native Swift and Kotlin for UI and shared C++ for game logic and avatars. This modular framework enables the company to rapidly deploy diverse experiences like fashion contests and hero-collector games within a single persistent social ecosystem while actively recruiting talent for expansion.