Game developer Lightforge Games announced its USD 5 million seed funding round from Galaxy Interactive, NetEase Games, Dreamhaven, Maveron, and 1UP Ventures. The funding will allow the studio to launch, and the team plans to develop a cross-platform role-playing game (RPG) with social elements. The developer claims it intends to blend aspects of Minecraft with tabletop RPGs in its first release.  

Notably, the team is packed with industry veterans from prominent players such as Activision Blizzard and Epic Games. Founder Matt Schembari spent eight years at Blizzard and another five years at Epic, where he led the Fortnite platform team. Furthermore, the team includes veterans such as Dan Hertzka (former Epic programmer), Nathan Fairbanks (former Epic producer), Glenn Rane (former Blizzard artist), and Marc Hutcheson (former Blizzard and Epic marketing director). 

Collectively, the team has contributed to games such as Fortnite, World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Hearthstone, the StarCraft 2 trilogy, Overwatch, and Elder Scrolls Online.