TV exec Sharon Tal Yguado opens game studio Astrid Entertainment

Sharon Tal Yguado’s work is well-known for creating living, fantastical worlds for TV series. Yguado has worked with Fox Studios and Amazon Studios to develop shows like The Walking DeadThe Lord of the Rings, The Rings of Power and The BoysAnd The Wheel of Time. Now, she’s bringing that experience to video games.

Yguado announced her new studio, Astrid Entertainment, where she’ll serve as CEO, on Monday. Astrid Entertainment currently works on its unannounced first game. It is a collaboration between AAA and indie developers. Astrid Entertainment announced Monday that it’s got a “high seven-figure pre-seed investment” from investors like NetEase Games, Stardom, and Tower 26.

“All of a sudden [TV] felt a little safe, a little repetitive,” Yguado told Polygon. “I felt the the desire to do something a little innovative. I wanted to step aside and rock the boat a little bit with a smaller team and a little more more creativity.”

Yguado said Astrid Entertainment’s first game is not an MMO, but it is a world where players — playing together — will define their own experience. She’s not building another metaverse, she said, but Yguado does recognize that people are spending more time in online worlds; they’ve become social hubs. While the players will only be able to experience this world together, they can also meet others from different worlds. It won’t have a linear story, like Yguado is most familiar with from TV.

As a woman entering the video game industry, Yguado said she’s especially aware of the culture that’s often perpetuated at large studios. She believes that changing this culture will require more women to sit at the table and create an environment where everyone is comfortable sharing their mistakes, learning from them, and being open about it.

“I’m humble to come in and learn, but I do think there’s room to grow,” Yguado said. “There are a lot of companies that said they were going to change their cultures and didn’t. There’s a lot of work to be done.”

It’s part of the reason Astrid Entertainment’s team is starting small and building up slowly.

“We are starting small and planning on growing organically [in team and project],” Yguado said. “We are putting our heads down and building the world and experience before developing and expanding into other mediums, but the plan is to be everywhere over time — multi platform, across various mediums. As we seek to get players in the early stages of development, and then grow the world together with them, it is likely that we will start in early access. Our passion is building communities. We are making an accessible game that inspires positive, community play and hope to see more people play.”

There’s no timeline for Astrid Entertainment’s game just yet; the team is still building itself out.