Gloomhaven studio joins Nintendo, Activision and Twitch in list of 2018’s ten most innovative gaming companies

The publisher of legacy adventure epic Gloomhaven has been named as one of the top ten companies revolutionising the face of gaming today.

Cephalofair’s inclusion on the Fast Company’s list of 2018’s most innovative firms is notable for a number of reasons, including the fact that it’s the only tabletop studio in a top ten dominated by video game, mobile and tech outlets – the number one place went to Nintendo, followed by Call of Duty and Overwatch giant Activision Blizzard, and Intermedia Labs, the startup behind live quiz app phenomenon HQ Trivia. Livestreaming pioneer Twitch and movie tech firm IMAX also made the list, alongside a handful of mobile app developers.

Isaac Childres’ independent board game studio, which he launched in 2014 with fantasy quest game Forge War, made it in at number 10.

Of course, it’s best known for Gloomhaven – which we called “an epic achievement in both scale and ambition” in our glowing review and named as one of our favourite games of last year – and its upcoming worker-placement prequel spin-off Founders of Gloomhaven, both of which have raised staggering amounts of money on Kickstarter.

Childres recently announced he is working on an expansion to Gloomhaven, with plans to make the ‘giant’ project comparable in size to the original box with a brand new campaign, characters, monsters and more.

His placement on the Fast Company list is just the latest honour in a shower of acclaim, including Gloomhaven’s trumping of Pandemic Legacy: Season One as the highest-ranked game in BoardGameGeek’s hallowed rankings.

"Right, so this happened today," Childres tweeted in response to the news. "My wife tells me that it's a pretty big deal."