Pocket Worlds, the Austin-based developer behind the virtual world Highrise, has launched two platforms to empower its creators – Highrise Studio and Highrise 4.0. These new offerings aim to provide Highrise’s community of over 40 million users with expanded tools to build and monetize virtual experiences.

“Pocket Worlds has officially launched Highrise Studio and Highrise 4.0 today! Our new Unity creator tools allow anyone to build immersive worlds and games, and then deploy and monetize them with a click,” the company has announced.

Highrise has emerged as a hub for user-generated content (UGC), with 680,000 weekly active users who spend an average of 90 minutes engrossed in the virtual world. The platform enables players to create and share their own interactive spaces, games, and accessories that align with popular culture trends like the “Baddie Red Carpet” jacket and “Stan-cups.”

The newly launched Highrise Studio is a suite of development tools built on Unity, the industry’s leading game engine. This encourages creators to build without limitations, crafting entirely new 3D game modes, environments, assets, and more within the Unity platform. Their creations can be deployed into the Highrise virtual world with just one click.

Highrise Studio’s functionality is made possible by Highrise 4.0 – a complete rewrite of the core experience using Unity. Version 4.0 also delivers quality-of-life improvements for players, including enhanced character customization and profile options.

As the creative community continues expanding their virtual worlds, Pocket Worlds provides avenues for monetizing their efforts. The Creator Exchange program compensates designers based on sales of their items and user engagement time. In 2023 alone, over 5,000 designers published unique creations, resulting in nearly half a million dollars paid out to creators.

“At Pocket Worlds, we are building bleeding-edge technology that enables creators to build the next generation of immersive experiences,” CEO Anton Bernstein has said in a statement. “Through Highrise, we are connecting the world through shared virtual spaces and experiences, realizing the positive potential of the internet to foster human connection – a fundamental need that is more crucial than ever.”

Established in 2013, the Y Combinator-backed company now has 103 employees. Highrise first launched on mobile in 2019 and has quickly grown to serve over 50 million users supported by a creator community of 10,000 individuals.

The new Highrise 4.0 virtual world is live and available immediately for players. Highrise Studio has also launched, providing creators with the tools to start building and deploying their creations into the Highrise universe. While currently available on mobile, the company is actively developing desktop versions for Windows and Mac.