We started Lightforge Games with hopes of being trailblazers in the gaming industry – pioneering an open salary policy, unlimited leadership and communication coaching for our leaders, and a commitment to hiring a diverse workforce. We are honored to have received the “Game Changers” award from GamesBeat and Lightspeed Venture Partners, which serves as an annual list that showcases emerging, innovative gaming and interactive technology companies.

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The “Game Changers'' award highlights our efforts to change the status quo within the game industry. We take pride in fostering an environment that values diversity and growth, and while our current team composition might not yet fully reflect the diversity we aim to achieve, we are actively working towards creating a more equitable and inclusive workspace. We have found 36% of our applicants identify as non-cis male, 27% as part of the LGBTQIA+ community, and 42% as non-white, showing the progress we are making in our pursuit of a more diverse and inclusive team.

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“From the beginning, Lightforge has been a values-driven organization. Our very first meeting of founders, in fact, focused on who we wanted to be when we grew up,” said our CEO, Matt Schembari. “While many startups have a similar focus, especially when it comes to diversity and the inclusion of historically marginalized people, our policies and actions have shown results.”

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Our supporters will know we are currently working on a new genre of RPG, the collaborative storytelling RPG, that combines elements of improvisational comedy and user-generated content to create a tabletop-like gaming experience that helps guide players through creating their own fantastical adventure. 

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Our vision is to create an RPG that connects with players while unlocking their creative potential – we want to help connect players like you, and get them more comfortable with expressing their creativity and telling their stories, and to serve as an on-ramp to role playing for players who are unfamiliar with tabletop gaming. Our main hope is to help otherwise disconnected people gain a sense of belonging through the safety of roleplaying.

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The GamesBeat and Lightspeed Venture Partners “Game Changers” awards highlights 25 companies across five different categories, including game studios, gaming platforms, interactive technology, and more, and we couldn't be more excited to be a part of this incredible list of recipients. You can see a complete list of nominees and recipients here.