Lightforge games

 A new challenger enters the arena

So it was an interesting Saturday over here in England. Just finished watching this year's Eurovision during which the UK won exactly as many points that they deserve. (I say that because of the country itself, not because of James Newman. He was fine.) So after I got done laughing, I went looking for the type of story that would indicate a new beginning, something that would totally flip the industry on it's head so that we wash away the sins of the past and strive into the future unabashed. Well, straight away that is a lofty goal as institutions love to remain rigid no matter what, but I did remember hearing about one thing which, if we're being particularly charitable, could certainly be looked on as a new beginning. (Or more of the same. Realistically only time will tell.) So with that in mind let me tell you all that there appears to be about a new game's studio on the block, and her name is 'Lightforge games'.

Formed from a cadre of ex Blizzard and Epic employees (I feel like I hear that refrain a lot- are there any current Blizzard/Epic employees left at this point?) Lightforge want to smush together their considerable talents and enviable resumes to launch themselves into that most underappreciated of fields... RPGs? Wait, did I say 'underappreciated?', I guess what I really meant to say was 'overpopulated to the edge of a mass starvation event'. Don't get me wrong I positively adore a good RPG now and then, in terms of sheer volume it's probably my most played type of game ever. (They still don't quite make stealth games with any sort of regularity in the industry) I just expected a crowd like this to err towards something more communal, like an online action competitive game or strategy titles, but I suppose that's the reason they've forged out on there own, no? To start afresh making games they otherwise wouldn't be.

One Matt Schembari spoke about the new venture with some excitement in a press release, as he likely should be considering he just happens to be the brand new CEO guiding the thing. "We all love highly social, creative games, we particularly love games were players drive the narrative". (Yeah, I used to like those sorts of games too before I decided to start writing one...) "We are looking to combine elemants from Minecraft or Roblox" Huh "with tabletop RPGs to form a new way to play roleplaying games. Given our backgrounds, making a game that looks to revolutionise RPGs was an obvious choice." Okay, so ignoring the self aggrandising pomposity at the end there; are these guys talking about making a narratively flexibkle table-top based roleplaying game with heavy emphasis and user generated content? Or perhaps just a deep soul of creativity imbued in there where players can create whatever they wish in order to play the sort of roleplaying RPG they wish? That sounds... ambitious, but quite interesting too.

Of course, one of the most interesting and underreported parts of this story comes where they reveal that Lightforge is an 'all remote studio'. Now thanks to this little detail being underreported I must say that I'm only 80% sure what that means, but I believe it means that the team are working entirely from home and coming together remotely online. This would obviously be a consequence of the pandemic stopping folk from coming together, because several prominent game studios have had to prematurely adopt similar policies in the past year and reported strained relationships because of it. Communications issues, loss of tactical cohesion, productivity, all these aspects have taken hits in the wake of such measures because these teams were built and designated without consideration of such circumstances ever needing to take place.

 Lightforge, however, are birthing themselves into that environment and are trying to thrive under those circumstances, and it might lead to an interestingly different sort of development studio on the otherend. Like a Snake-brick born from Gold Experience whilst inside of Purple Haze's poison, perhaps the nature of this studio's creation will lead it a natural resistance as teams are built, trained and grown around the 'working remotely model'. If they manage to make it work for them, then the positive benefits could be immense for a studio like this. For one, it would mean that they could maintain studios built of international teams, without having to twist those developers to relocating in whatever stupidly expense city the idiots up in management decided to settle down in. Talent from the world over could be accessible to the folks over at Lightforge games, giving the opportunity to imaginative developers from anywhere with an Internet connection. That's a future more exciting then any RPG moldbreaker premise the studio can come up with.

Coming back to that game idea, however, this really does seem to be the single trump card in Lightforge's sleeve, to the point where it doesn't feel like these guys came together to make a studio, but to make one game in particular. (One that I assume is going to be called 'Lightforge' or some variation upon that) Mosey over to their official website and you'll see such 'eyes to the heavens' statements like; "We want to blur the line between creator and player", "Curiosity is everything", "We're looking for dreamers... from all walks of life". (Really? So if I have the numbers of any plumbers should I send them your way then?) From one point of view these are all the sorts of words that a creator says before the land flat on their face. "I want to change the world! Also, I don't know how to. Oh god, I've screwed up everything. What do you mean we've been stalling for 6 years and need to put something out. Crap, crap, crap; here's a CG abomination I guess. Wait, you liked that and you need it finished in a full game within a year? Here you go, it's Anthem." 

But playing the optimist for once in a blue moon, I truly do wonder at the sort of vision that their painting because this RPG game seems contradictory if not revolutionary. Making a brand new creative engine that's support roleplaying seems to imply what we're looking is a virtual Dnd campaign maker, but perhaps with a sort of gameified creativity to it, similar to how Minecraft functions. Of course, in such a definition, (although I'll remind you it is my own) I would be required to point out that Baldur's Gate 3 is similarly looking to create a Dnd Campaign machine. However, in this stage of whsitle head-in-the-clouds Imagineering I suppose literally any direction is possible. In fact, when I first read their description the game which came to mind was actually Hytale. (Which hasn't made an update on it's blog in 6 months, which is either troubling or indicative of heavy development.) Whatever Lightforge games first title ends up looking like, I bet it's the sort of game that these devs are looking to sit behind for the longhaul, so it is going to be an event no matter which way fortunes turn.

It's always fascinating to me whenever cushy developers look to extravagantly discard the throes of comfort and launch themselves into unknowable exciting ventures. It feels like the world of gaming is slowly starting to decentralise itself and become bigger and more interesting, something which should be championed by all-comers, because it means more of the thing that you love and maybe even something you don't even know that you'll love yet! And the fact that it's happening more and more in the world today is either an indication of great smaller products overwhelming the mass market in the near future or/and an impending total breakdown of traditional mega gamestudio structures. (And I'd champion either eventuality to be honest.) But for now just rest assured that this Lightforge Games have some big moves planned in their future that, should fortune be on their side, might just be the next big thing to rock gaming. I'm routing for ya.