Ex-Blizzard + Ex-Epic Veterans Announce New RPG Studio: "Lightforge Games"

[KOUNTERPARTS]

SOURCE: https://www.ign.com/articles/blizzar...ghtforge-games

In the last year or two, we've seen a surge of new studios founded by long-time Blizzard veterans. Though their teams and projects are different, companies like Dreamhaven, Frost Giant, and Warchief Gaming have plenty in common beyond their Blizzard connections: a love of fantasy worlds, interest in games that bring players together, and a desire to work in a small team. Now, former Blizzard and Epic engineer Matt Schembari is joining that collective with a new endeavor: Lightforge Games.

Schembari spent over eight years at Blizzard, followed by another five at Epic Games, and his four Lightforge co-founders also represent a blend of those two company cultures. Opened alongside former Epic programmer Dan Hertzka, former Epic producer Nathan Fairbanks, former Blizzard artist Glenn Rane, and former Blizzard and Epic marketing director Marc Hutcheson, the studio opened about a year ago but has been working quietly since. It now has 11 employees, many of whom come from the same, or similar, industry backgrounds.

What is Lightforge working on? Schembari isn't saying just yet, apart from that it's something in the RPG genre. What he will say is that the team's collective experience with making social, creative games at their past companies is being put to good use:

"When you look at anything from Minecraft to Dungeons & Dragons, these are games where people come together, they have shared connectedness, they're creating a world together, they're creating a story together in a very emergent together kind of way. These are the kinds of games that we love, and we've got experience and expertise working on games like this. We all came together with a shared vision that we can rethink RPGs through the lens of social and creation."

One dramatic difference between Lightforge and the big studios its employees hail from is its structure: Lightforge is fully remote. Schembari tells me that this is in keeping with one of the studio's values, "Embrace empathy." Remote work, he says, is one way in which Lightforge can ensure its employees are healthier, happier people.

"There is nothing more disruptive to a person's life than to ask them to relocate for a job. We are now culturally and technologically at a point where we don't have to do that anymore. And so we made a decision from the very beginning, because most of us have relocated for jobs lots of times; it's been very disruptive. We don't want to put people through that. Let people live wherever is best for their life situation, wherever they want to live, and let's build everything from the ground up to be all remote."

So Lightforge was built with remote work as a pillar, with everything rigorously documented, video chat open all the time (but only if people want to participate), and asynchronous communications between its members, who are based in locations ranging from Hawaii, to the US east coast, to Scotland. Everyone works the hours that make the most sense to them.

I think the more gaming studios out there, the better, for gaming as a whole.


It's a decently long article but it goes on to speak about the many different studios that have popped up in the past couple of years comprised of ex-employees from various bigger companies like Blizzard.

"Something that was a surprise to me and probably shouldn't have been a surprise is just how positive this community is," he says. "It can be really scary as a small studio, and what we've got now is, instead of just being lonely in this dark scary place, we've got this crop of all these different studios that are all starting up right now. And everyone is super collaborative and super supportive and super helpful and we're talking to each other in a very open way and a very helpful way.

"I've heard the analogy a couple of times, this is like the Seattle rock scene or something like that where you've got all these groups that could be competitors, but instead we're working together to create something better and bigger than all of us."

https://www.lightforge.gg

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Not much to say about them until they actually show a new game off in two or three years. Wish them well.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Not much to say about them until they actually show a new game off in two or three years. Wish them well.

Yeah that's my sentiment with this studio and like, what, the 3 others that have been announced in the past 3 years? Dreamhaven? Bonfire? I forget the other one. At least Metzen's "Warchief Studios" had something to show upon their announcement.

[Trumpcat]

Is this the fourth studio by Blizzard exes? Either way, there is always room for good games if they can make them.

Two different thoughts on this:

1. What will the corporations that own the old great studios do when the talent that made them great all leaves? Fifa, sports games and Call of Duty until forever?

2. Why do some people think that if a developer made a successful title/franchise, they will keep springing new successful ones over and over? If anything, very rare in entertainment for anyone to keep creating new hits.

[Varitok]

Yeah that's my sentiment with this studio and like, what, the 3 others that have been announced in the past 3 years? Dreamhaven? Bonfire? I forget the other one. At least Metzen's "Warchief Studios" had something to show upon their announcement.

They're more about a recruitment drive then a game announcement.

- - - Updated - - -

Is this the fourth studio by Blizzard exes? Either way, there is always room for good games if they can make them.

Two different thoughts on this:

1. What will the corporations that own the old great studios do when the talent that made them great all leaves? Fifa, sports games and Call of Duty until forever?

2. Why do some people think that if a developer made a successful title/franchise, they will keep springing new successful ones over and over? If anything, very rare in entertainment for anyone to keep creating new hits.

1: They pretend it's the same studio with the same devs like Microsoft does with Rare.

2: It's just about game design. I'll like how a certain dev lead a project. For example, Josh Sawyer. I trust his name as a Game Director because his mindset for games is what I love to play. So it's less about it being a hit but more about the type of game I want to play.

[Ielenia]

1. What will the corporations that own the old great studios do when the talent that made them great all leaves? Fifa, sports games and Call of Duty until forever?

"Talent" or no "talent", games such as those will always be churned by which I mean, blatantly copy-pasted out, year after year, unfortunately.

2. Why do some people think that if a developer made a successful title/franchise, they will keep springing new successful ones over and over? If anything, very rare in entertainment for anyone to keep creating new hits.

Yes. Not to mention that people change. And some are one-trick ponies. Or just lucked out with the 'right-place-right-time' kind of thing. I mean, remember Mark Kern? One of the founders of World of Warcraft, who helped develop "the greatest game of all time", a.k.a. vanilla WoW? Who can tell me of the guy's best accomplishments in gaming after he left Blizzard?

[Varitok]

"Talent" or no "talent", games such as those will always be churned by which I mean, blatantly copy-pasted out, year after year, unfortunately.


Yes. Not to mention that people change. And some are one-trick ponies. Or just lucked out with the 'right-place-right-time' kind of thing. I mean, remember Mark Kern? One of the founders of World of Warcraft, who helped develop "the greatest game of all time", a.k.a. vanilla WoW? Who can tell me of the guy's best accomplishments in gaming after he left Blizzard?

The only person who actually believed Mark Kern was a corner stone of WoW was Mark Kern.

[VinceVega]

Is this the new selling point? Once you worked at Blizzard just say: "New studio from ex-blizzard developers where we worked once"

Which is a huge number of people given that at any time there are a few hundred devs working at Blizzard who are rotating in and out like in any other company.

Honestly it was interesting at first with the big names like morhaim. But here. Never heard of them. Doesn't mean they are bad. Just that the tag is... getting annoying tbh^^

Find me a gaming company without anyone who ever worked at Blizzard or Epic. They are big companies. Of course there are many companies with ex employees. But that does not mean it is automatically a godsend product just becuase they left these two companies and, at least for me, not a selling point unless you are someone like Morhaim.

All of them probably release some varation of slay the spire with pixel art because it is easier to do with a low number of people. You know, like the games that pop up left and right the last few years.

[Egomaniac]

1. What will the corporations that own the old great studios do when the talent that made them great all leaves? Fifa, sports games and Call of Duty until forever?

The same thing they do now...buy the new studios.

[Fluxoz]

The notion that we are meant to care, purely because its ex-blizz is getting a bit tiresome. Quite a solid chunk of the various companies that have sprung up have made, as of yet, absolutely nothing, it's starting to feel like movies with "FROM THE MAKERS OF AWARD WINNING FILM X" and it is just some lighting guy that is the overlap.

Once they make a game, and that game is good enough to indicate that they weren't part of the reason for blizzards stagnation, I dont see a reason as to why I wouldnt be as interested as I would be with any other game, but ex-blizzard as a buzzword alone doesn't do that for me on its own, if anything it's starting to have a negative association.

[Zenfoldor]

I’m personally hyped that a lot of talent decided to make good games.

[Ielenia]

The only person who actually believed Mark Kern was a corner stone of WoW was Mark Kern.

You weren't here during all this Nostalrius drama and "we want vanilla WoW" movement, right?

[starstationprofm]

The more RPGs the better.

Look how far Larian's come. BG3 looks like it's gonna be huge.

[Kathranis]

Yeah that's my sentiment with this studio and like, what, the 3 others that have been announced in the past 3 years? Dreamhaven? Bonfire? I forget the other one. At least Metzen's "Warchief Studios" had something to show upon their announcement.

Well, Warchief Gaming is a tabletop board game company, not a video game developer, and their first product is built using D&D 5E.


There are quite a few game dev studios recently founded by ex-Blizzard employees:

• Dreamhaven - Mike Morhaime (Blizzard co-founder)
  
  • Moonshot - Jason Chayes (director for HS)
  • Secret Door - Chris Sigaty (designer for WC3, WoW, SC2)
• Frost Giant Studios - Tim Morten (director for SC2) & Tim Campbell (designer for WC3)
• Bonfire Studios - Rob Pardo (designer for SC, WC3, WoW), Nick Carpenter (VP for Blizzard's cinematics department), Wei Wang (principle artist)
• Imagendary Studios - Wei Wang (left Bonfire in 2019)
• Second Dinner - Ben Brode (director for HS)

They've all also poached a handful of other known Blizzard devs.

Dreamhaven snagged a bunch: Alan Dabiri (HotS director), Ben Thompson (HS art director), Dustin Browder (SC/HotS designer/director, also was directing Project Ares before it was canned), Laurel Austin (concept artist, did art for most of the motion story animated shorts).

Frost Giant Studios has a bunch of ex-WC3/SC2 devs.

Second Dinner has a handful of mostly ex-HS people.


If you go back farther, there have been a lot of others.

Ex-Blizzard North folk founded Flagship Studios (defunct; Hellgate: London), Castaway Entertainment (defunct), Hyboreal Games (defunct), Runic Games (Torchlight series), Double Damage Games (indie; Rebel Galaxy), and Graybeard Games (indie; It Lurks Below) over the years.

ArenaNet (Guild Wars series) was founded by Mike O'Brien, Patrick Wyatt and Jeff Strain, all of whom worked on the early Battle.net platform and games (WC1-2, SC, D1-2).

Carbine Studios (defunct; Wildstar) was founded by a bunch of ex-WoW devs, but was shut down in 2018 a couple years after being acquired by NCSOFT.

Red 5 Studios (defunct; Firefall) was founded by Mark Kern and a few other Blizzard devs. By all accounts that was a dumpster fire; Mark Kern was kicked out by the board in 2015, and eventually a bunch of folks got laid off and didn't get paid and shit.

Undead Labs (State of Decay series), Fireforge (defunct; Ghostbusters 2016), and En Masse Entertainment (defunct; Tera) were all also founded by ex-Blizzard employees.


And, of course, some big names have recently joined other studios or moved into other fields after leaving Blizzard.

A lot of writers have left in the last five years; James Waugh left to work at Lucasfilm, Micky Neilson left to work on his own stuff (and is doing work on contract for Frost Giant), Dave Kosak went to Deviation Games (founded by ex-CoD vets), Michael Chu went to work for 31st Union (2K satellite studio), and Alex Afrasiabi just up and vanished.


Overall, there's honestly not a lot to see from ex-Blizzard studios, either because they crashed and burned or because they just haven't announced anything yet. Only time will tell when it comes to the most recent batch, I suppose.

[scelero]

You think Mcdonalds does this with their ex-employees? Again, you think Burger King keeps track of all the employees who go to Wendy's for better chance at working with only fresh beef patties?

Some of you will sit and watch anything as long as you think it's burning down. It's sad. You know how many people quit their job and find other companies or start their own in the same field they just left?

Instead of using these stories as a way to show another company is failing, how about you apply it to your lives and find a better opportunity for yourself. Imagine taking the skills you gain in one job and applying them to another. I know, the nerve....

[Sentynel]

And another one...

[aceperson]

"When you look at anything from Minecraft to Dungeons & Dragons, these are games where people come together, they have shared connectedness, they're creating a world together, they're creating a story together in a very emergent together kind of way. These are the kinds of games that we love, and we've got experience and expertise working on games like this. We all came together with a shared vision that we can rethink RPGs through the lens of social and creation."

This makes me think no man's sky meets minecraft meets kotor. lightforge has a very space-esque ring to it so thats why i think kotor. sounds very ambitious to me but these are skilled devs. as long as they manage the scope of the game, they can certainly avoid having a no man's sky happen to them.

- - - Updated - - -

1. What will the corporations that own the old great studios do when the talent that made them great all leaves? Fifa, sports games and Call of Duty until forever?

I mean EA is doing rather well killing them all for money. that's my guess.

2. Why do some people think that if a developer made a successful title/franchise, they will keep springing new successful ones over and over? If anything, very rare in entertainment for anyone to keep creating new hits.

we have people who still fight over whether a console or a pc is better... idiots will think what they want and ignore logic.

[Toppy]

Is this the fourth studio by Blizzard exes? Either way, there is always room for good games if they can make them.

Two different thoughts on this:

1. What will the corporations that own the old great studios do when the talent that made them great all leaves? Fifa, sports games and Call of Duty until forever?

2. Why do some people think that if a developer made a successful title/franchise, they will keep springing new successful ones over and over? If anything, very rare in entertainment for anyone to keep creating new hits.

There's been over a dozen over the years.
Only two have done anything of merit. One help make GW1. The other made Torchlight.

The rest all flopped spectacularly after releasing one, or no, games.

Having a "veteran blizzard crew" is more often than not a major red flag.

[aceperson]

You think Mcdonalds does this with their ex-employees? Again, you think Burger King keeps track of all the employees who go to Wendy's for better chance at working with only fresh beef patties?

Some of you will sit and watch anything as long as you think it's burning down. It's sad. You know how many people quit their job and find other companies or start their own in the same field they just left?

Instead of using these stories as a way to show another company is failing, how about you apply it to your lives and find a better opportunity for yourself. Imagine taking the skills you gain in one job and applying them to another. I know, the nerve....

i get what you're saying but you also have to realize none of us have ever formed a deep emotional connection with a cheeseburger.

[Cosmic Janitor]

"What is Lightforge working on? Schembari isn't saying just yet, apart from that it's something in the RPG genre. What he will say is that the team's collective experience with making social, creative games at their past companies is being put to good use:"

THe second part about being social mostly kills all my hopes for the first part about the genre.