FORGE (Founders of Rising Games Enterprises)
FORGE is the reimagined Creative Campfire, a one-day event hosted by Diversity in Games (DIG) with the goal of raising the profile of underrepresented groups and emerging studios in the game dev community. Join us for a day of compelling panel discussions, structured networking opportunities, and a deep dive into understanding the gap in funding and investment in Canada’s game sector.
As part of the event, we will be conducting a series of interviews with local game studio founders to better understand the barriers to growth facing independent developers and studios. Insights gathered will be compiled into a community report and published for distribution.
Event Details:
Light refreshments will be provided, including vegetarian, vegan, and dietary restriction-friendly options.
Date: Saturday Sep. 12
Time: 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Location: Funk Coffee Bar, 1025 Dunsmuir St, Vancouver, BC V7X 1M5
Proceeds from ticket sales help cover event costs and support Diversity in Games in delivering future community programs and events.
Hosted by:
Carina Kom (She/Her) Co-founder of Simply Sweet Games, VP of Diversity in Games
Carina Kom is Co-founder of Simply Sweet Games, a Canadian studio building a new category of premium, emotionally intelligent word puzzle games. She is a 2025 Business in Vancouver Forty Under 40 recipient and has been recognized as a Games Industry Leader. Carina has spent over 18 years shaping player experiences across indie and AAA titles and contributing to globally recognized franchises. Today, she is pioneering a games studio where games are made for inclusive, underserved audiences; Expanding who games are designed for and how they are experienced, her work combines product innovation, player data, and community insight to create experiences that are both commercially successful and deeply human. Beyond her studio, Carina is a longtime advocate for equity in game development, supporting underrepresented creators through mentorship, events, and helping to illuminate the next generation of industry talent.
Speakers:
Wren Handman (She/Her) Creative Director at Ludic Lemur
Wren Handman is a queer narrative director, novelist, and screenwriter. She has published eight novels, for both adult and teen audiences, including A Midnight So Deadly (Parliament House Press) and Havoc & Happiness (Wandering Roots Press). Wren was the lead writer for the award-winning sitcom The Switch, and is a co-founder of Ludic Lemur Entertainment, where she is the Creative Director.
Akilah Martinez (She/Her) Founder of Glittering World Girl
The term "Glittering World" is a Diné (Navajo) cultural reference. During emergence in the Navajo creation story, there was a prophecy of a time when the Diné people would be living in a world full of outside influence and glittering technology. During this time, the Diné people were prophesized to lose their language and culture due to outside influence. From emergence, this world was named Nohokáá' Disxǫs (Glittering World) and is the present world that we live in right now.
Despite this prophecy, Glittering World Girl was established to use emergent technology to flourish language and culture revitalization.
Glittering World Girl was founded by Akilah Martinez, an award-winning artist and creative technologist who focuses on the creation of building an Indigenous-based circular economic ecosystem that cycles off of language & culture revitalization through video art and XR technology.
Dana Ramnarine (She/Her) COO at rhum.hr
With 20 years of experience, Dana Ramnarine (she/her) has spent most of her career building high-functioning, inclusive teams in digital media and tech. She has worked alongside founders around the globe to grow some of the world's most creative and purpose-driven teams, with a particular focus on building inclusive cultures where diverse talent can thrive. She has worked at large organizations including Disney and Electronic Arts, and was instrumental in the early-stage growth and stability of tech companies like Unity Technologies.
Now leading the team at rhum.hr, Dana is COO, driving operational excellence for growing startups and studios — bringing HR, leadership development, and talent acquisition strategy to teams around the world. Under her leadership, rhum has grown into a trusted operating partner for founders, delivering fractional, embedded support across people operations to help founders grow with intention.
Dana is also fractional Head of Talent at BKR Capital, a Toronto-based venture fund investing in diverse founders, where she builds HR programs that give venture-backed portfolio companies access to the support they need to scale.
Dana also serves on the Board of Directors at QueerTech, supporting its mission to build a more inclusive tech ecosystem for 2SLGBTQ+ talent and entrepreneurs.
Alex Carrey (He/Him) Founder and Strength & Dexterity Barrier Expert at PlayAbility Consultancy
Alex Carey is a game designer and accessibility consultant. In April 2025 he was part of a team that released Sacre Bleu a French-steampunk hack’n’slash platformer for Steam and Nintendo Switch. He is the Founder and Strength & Dexterity Barrier Expert at PlayAbility Consultancy where they help developers identify and eliminate unintentional barriers in their games. Additionally, he was part of the Independent Game Developer Association Foundation Velocity Cohort Virtual Exchange in 2023.
Alex has given provincial and national level talks on games accessibility at places like The Vancouver Foundation ConnecTra, Diversity in Games – Creative Campfire (That's you!), Cerebral Palsy Association of BC, Technology for Living, Full Indie Vancouver and Gaming and Disability at Xbox.
Danika Kotylak (She/Her) Technology Lawyer
Milissa Maxin (She/Her) Community Lead at Singularity 6
Milissa Maxin has spent more than a decade working in gaming, virtual worlds, and emerging technology, particularly with a focus on community, creators, events, and marketing.
She has worked with companies including Singularity 6 (Palia), Linden Lab (Second Life, Sansar), IMVU, InMobi, Gallium Studios, and more. Her work ranges from building and growing large online communities, to developing creator programs, producing virtual events, managing partnerships, building ambassador programs, and helping launch new products and platforms.
Over her career, Milissa has built and scaled communities with hundreds and thousands of members, worked with creators/developers across the globe, and helped emerging creators gain professional experience through mentorship and paid apprenticeship programs.
She is passionate about building communities and experiences that people connect with, and helping shape a better future for games.
James Smith (He/Him) Principal, CEO at Blackcap Creative
A local Sioux and Cree Métis entrepreneur, James Smith’s journey in the industry began in 3D animation and rigging before quickly pivoting to real-time media using Unreal Engine outside of traditional gaming. His early success in integrating this technology into clients' production processes and managing complex projects inspired him to found Kelowna based BlackCap Creative Ltd. Over the past decade, James guided the company's expansion and ultimate pivot into a dedicated games industry focus. During this process, he gained deep, hands-on experience developing and managing cross-functional teams spanning art, engineering, UI, UX/DX, and production.
Today, as Founder, Principal, and Producer at BlackCap, James leverages this comprehensive background as a game triage specialist. Acting as an external development partner, he steps in to help studios recover projects that have gone sideways or lost direction across a wide spectrum of scales, budgets, and timelines. While very few games survive the triage process, James’ ultimate goal is always to leave a team better equipped for their next title. This approach is rooted in his core philosophy: helping indie studios and new developers build sustainable businesses, rather than just successful games.
Beyond his production work, James is enthusiastically dedicated to fostering tech and gaming growth in his community. He is a founder, director, and digital program coordinator of the non-profit Okanagan Game Developers Association, where he actively builds up the local industry through education, networking, and mentoring. Expanding his reach even further, James co-hosts the Indie Innovators podcast. Dedicated to exploring game development as a business and a process, the show provides practical direction and food for thought for indie developers navigating the real world struggles of building a sustainable studio and team.
Dot Phillips (She/Her) Founder at bigTEAM
Dot Phillips is a games founder and life-long schemer. Beginning at exactly 9:27:25 p.m. on July 4, 2023, with a game-jam group chat that got its 11th member. In the years since, it has evolved, sometimes all at once, into a support community, a heist crew for sneaking indie games into conventions, an open-invite game studio, a “secret plan to hire all our friends,” a queer support organization making games and siphoning proceeds back into local events, and even a cottage-scale physical-games publisher. Dot is a source of relentless ambitions and workable plans, always leading her and her friends against the world together.
Ray Maltby (They/Them) Co-founder, Facilitator at bigTEAM
Ray is a non-binary artist, animator, and game developer.
They are a co-founder of BigTEAM, a Vancouver game development community supporting collaboration, networking, and game jams.
As a 3D Generalist, Ray worked on an educational game for the Aamjinaang First Nations band in Sarnia. Ray is also a freelance videographer and animator for local musicians. Their education includes a 2D Animation Diploma and a 3D Animation Diploma at Capilano University.
Ray is 31 years old with a meandering career, working between professional dog grooming and art/game dev for the last thirteen years. Ray has developed a broad and adaptable perspective. They love to consider different points of views, explore multiple possibilities and create many forms of art.
They also love arts and crafts, including crochet.
More Speakers TBA!
Accessibility Information:
Funk Coffee Bar is fully wheelchair accessible and offers six gender neutral washrooms. We are committed to creating a welcoming and inclusive experience for all attendees. If you have any accessibility requirements or accommodation requests, please let us know in advance and we will do our best to support you.
Film/Photography Notice:
Photography, video, and audio recordings may be captured during the event and used for promotional, educational, or community-building purposes across various media platforms. If you have concerns about being photographed or recorded, please speak with a member of the DIG team upon arrival.
Partners:
Thank you to our generous sponsors and supporters for helping make this event possible! We are proud to partner with organizations that promote a more inclusive and sustainable games community.
Interested in sponsoring FORGE? Please contact admin@diversityin.games to learn more.
Event Sponsors
Event Supporters
Women in Games International (WIGI)
ASGC
OGDA
We look forward to seeing you there! 💖