Former Epic Games and Blizzard Entertainment developers establish Lightforge Games

Former Epic Games and Blizzard Entertainment developers have announced the establishment Lightforge Games, an all-remote studio “on a quest to change how RPGs are played” and currently developing a “cross-platform, social video game where players have the power to create worlds and tell stories with unprecedented freedom.”

The studio recently raised $5 million with investments from 1UP Ventures, Dreamhaven, Galaxy Interactive, Maveron, NetEase Games, and angel investors from the games and technology industries.

Lightfoge Games was founded by industry veterans Matt Schembari, Dan Hertzka, Nathan Fairbanks, Glenn Rane, and Marc Hutcheson and has since expanded to include another six highly experienced developers. Its team has history at studios such as BioWare, Blizzard Entertainment, Epic Games, Riot Games, and Zenimax Online Media, and has shipped games such as Diablo III, The Elder Scrolls Online, Fortnite, Hearthstone, Overwatch, the StarCraft 2 trilogy, Star Wars: The Old Republic, World of Warcraft, and more.

“We all love highly social, creative games, and we particularly love games where players drive the narrative,” said CEO Matt Schembari in a press release. “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.”

Schembari 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 is currently hiring. For more information, visit its careers website.