Autodesk buys Wild Pockets game design platform (exclusive)

Autodesk, the 3D computer-aided design company, has purchased 3D game design platform Wild Pockets, VentureBeat has learned.

Wild Pockets, which launched at DEMO in Fall 2008, was working on technology that allowed ordinary folks to create their own game worlds using simple 3D animation tools. The goal was to democratize game development.

San Francisco-based Wild Pockets offers a free, crowdsourced 3D game platform for browser-based games. Formerly known as Sim Ops Studios, Wild Pockets was the brainchild of Shanna Tellerman (pictured), chief executive and founder of the company.

The technology came from a project that Tellerman did at Carnegie Mellon University. Neither Autodesk nor Tellerman commented on the rumor. But Tellerman’s LinkedIn page shows that she now works as a product manager at Autodesk.

It’s not clear what Autodesk will do with the technology, but Autodesk makes a variety of game-making tools such as 3ds Max and Maya.

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.