Former Epic and Blizzard Devs Establish Lightforge Games - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 15 May 2021 / 1,735 Views
Former Epic Games and Blizzard Entertainment developers have established Lightforge Games. The team wants to change how RPGs are played. The studio is developing a new multiplatform, social video game where players can create worlds and tell stories.
The developer was founded by industry veterans Matt Schembari, Dan Hertzka, Nathan Fairbanks, Glenn Rane, and Marc Hutcheson. Since its establishment, they have hired an additional six experienced developers. The developers have previously worked at Epic, Blizzard, Riot, Bioware, and Zenimax Online, and have worked on games such as Fortnite, World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Hearthstone, the StarCraft 2 trilogy, Overwatch, Elder Scrolls Online, and more.
"We all love highly social, creative games, and we particularly love games where players drive the narrative," CEO Matt Schembari said. "We are looking to combine elements from Minecraft or Roblox with tabletop RPGs to form a new way to play roleplaying games. Given our backgrounds, making a game that looks to revolutionize RPGs was an obvious choice."
Matt added, "We're building a studio for the long-haul where empathy for players and developers alike is at the core of everything we do. Building a fully remote company allows each team member to live wherever is best for their life situation."
Lightforge Games raised 5 million with investments from Galaxy Interactive, NetEase Games, Dreamhaven, Maveron, 1UP Ventures, and angel investors from the gaming and tech industries.
Dreamhaven CEO Mike Morhaime said, "Lightforge is creating a game in a new space that has a ton of potential. The team is full of veteran developers, and I'm excited about their vision."
Visit the Lightforge Games website here.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
