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Luc Bernard

Short Bio

Luc Bernard is a Los Angeles-based game director and the founder of Voices of the Forgotten, a nonprofit that uses video games and digital storytelling to preserve Holocaust memory and push games beyond entertainment into remembrance and action. For nearly two decades, he has pushed the video game industry to confront the Holocaust and other difficult history. He directed The Light in the Darkness, a free narrative game completed by more than 2 million players worldwide, and created the Fortnite Holocaust Museum. After the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, he stepped back from game development for nearly two years to help end the war and save hostages and Gaza civilians, then returned to games.

Long Bio

Luc Bernard is a Los Angeles-based game director and the founder of Voices of the Forgotten, a nonprofit that uses video games and digital storytelling to preserve Holocaust memory and push games beyond entertainment into remembrance and action. His work begins with a simple belief: video games should do more than entertain. They can confront difficult history, challenge accepted boundaries and move people to act.

For nearly two decades, Bernard has pushed to bring Holocaust history into video games, long before much of the industry was comfortable with the idea. Rather than wait for traditional gatekeepers to decide the medium was ready, he continued developing the project that would eventually become The Light in the Darkness.

Released in 2023, The Light in the Darkness follows a Polish-Jewish family living in Nazi-occupied France. The free narrative game rejects the medium’s usual power fantasies and instead asks players to remain with an ordinary family as persecution closes in on them. It has been completed by more than 2 million players worldwide.

Bernard also independently created the Fortnite Holocaust Museum and is bringing Anne Frank’s Life Story to audiences through social media. His current work includes The Light in the Darkness: Director’s Cut, an expanded version that completes his original vision for the game. 

After the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and the war in Gaza that followed, Bernard stepped back from game development for nearly two years to work toward ending the war and helping save hostages and Gaza civilians. That work brought him into direct contact with hostage families, policymakers, international leaders and others seeking a path toward an end to the conflict. He has since returned to game development.

Bernard credits The Light in the Darkness with opening doors to people and networks he otherwise may never have encountered. Those experiences reshaped his understanding of what games can accomplish and strengthened his belief that interactive media can lead to real-world action, not only awareness. His approach is independent and outspoken, but rooted in empathy.

Bernard has spoken at the United Nations and the Eradicate Hate Global Summit. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, The Guardian, WIRED, and Variety.

About The Light in the Darkness: Director’s Cut

The Light in the Darkness: Director’s Cut is a free narrative game following a Polish-Jewish family living in Nazi-occupied France. Rather than placing the player on a battlefield or offering a fantasy of changing history, the game stays with ordinary people as antisemitism, state policy, persecution, and deportation dismantle their lives. The Director’s Cut completes Luc Bernard’s original vision with full voice acting, extended narrative material, new animation and atmospheric detail, refined systems, and a historically grounded reconstruction of Auschwitz. The game launches on PlayStation 5 on September 22, 2026.

About Voices of the Forgotten

Voices of the Forgotten is an independent nonprofit rethinking how Holocaust memory and Jewish history are preserved, shared, and carried forward. Founded by game director Luc Bernard, the organization uses video games, interactive media and platform-native storytelling to reach younger generations through the culture and technology already shaping their lives. Independent and outspoken by design, Voices of the Forgotten challenges traditional approaches to historical education while remaining grounded in historical responsibility, dignity, and empathy. Learn more at voicesoftheforgotten.com.