A year ago, my passion for game making returned with a vengeance.

I trusted my gut, and I could not have anticipated what would happen next. Was I nervous? Of course! Excited? Hell yes!

In a span of 12 months, we’ve…

(1) Stood up a game studio from 0 to 37 in Sacramento
(2) Funded with the best-in-class investors in gaming, crypto, and marketplaces (a16z crypto, a16z Games, NFX, Coinbase Ventures, Play Ventures) in May ’22
(3) Launched one of the most successful NFT collections of 2022, The Hopeful
(4) Built a community of over 70K+ Twitter followers & 35K+ Discord members

2022 was a challenging year for us all. Capital markets have been challenging, to say the least. In spite of the headwinds, we’ve grown, executed, and raised multiple rounds of financing — more to announce in the New Year.

As proud as I am of all of our accomplishments this year, there’s only one reason we’re all together. To ship great games. With the year winding down, on Dec. 16, the team delivered our largest to-date internal milestone: the 1st playable build of the studio’s 1st game, Legions and Legends. This will be my 9th RPG game.

Azra Games is on a mission to build the 1st “large toy box” RPG experience. Legions & Legends is our most ambitious game yet, inspired by our childhood play with toys of all sizes. We believe the game must be so fun it doesn’t matter what platform the game is on; in other words, the gameplay will lead the way (and not the technology it’s built on).

Looking back, our social network connections were the seeds that would grow Azra Games into what it is today. It started with my early conversations with Nathaniel Fong, Michael Noriega, Lai Tran, and Michael Chang. The momentum escalated and expanded to substantially include Sonny Mayugba, Ken Walton, and Travis Boudreaux. A mix of experienced game makers, a previous co-founder, and respected business / technology leaders in the making of the decision to found Azra Games in Q1 ’22.

I am so proud of the entire Azra Games team and the opportunity to mentor the next generation of leaders like Neel Upadhye, Michael Noriega, and Scott Kim, who are leading the game team as producer, creative director, and product manager, respectively. They are the strongest creative leaders I have ever worked with, and the team they are leading is 2nd to none.

We are grateful for the unwavering support from general partners Arianna Simpson and Jonathan Lai @ Andreessen Horowitz, Gigi Levy-Weiss @ NFX, and all of our investors, community members, and supporters who took a chance on Azra Games.

We are thankful for the opportunity, humbled by the responsibility, and emboldened to deliver on the game’s promise to millions of players.

Our 1-minute video shows a very early peak (pre-alpha) of the game and the people behind Legions and Legends.

Happy New Year, LFG!

-Mark Otero, Azra Games CEO & Founder