WotC Brand New D&D Video Game from WotC's New Acquisition Tuque Games

Tuque Games has announced it's working on a brand new D&/D video game. "We're developing a brand-new game based in the widely celebrated, enduring, and immensely popular Dungeons & Dragons universe. This yet to be announced title is steepled in classic D&D lore. We aspire to push this game to new heights for the genre. It’s an honour and a privilege to begin a new chapter for Dungeons & Dragons video games."

Not only that, but the company has been purchased by WotC! The press release went out earlier today:

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RENTON, Wash., Oct. 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS), today announced that it has acquired Tuque Games, a digital game development studio based in Montreal. Tuque is led by veterans of the game industry with experience working for leading publishers. Tuque will continue the development of games for Wizards of the Coast's best-known brands, beginning with Dungeons & Dragons.

"At Wizards, we're continuing our commitment to creating new ways to bring our fan favorite brands to life," said Chris Cocks, President, Wizards of the Coast. "Our unique approach of connecting fans around the tabletop as well as through our expanding portfolio of digital games is redefining what it means to be a games company."

Founded in 2012 by Jeff Hattem, Tuque Games released their first title, Livelock, to critical acclaim in 2016. Now with over 55 full-time employees, Tuque will focus on the development of digital games based on the popular Dungeons & Dragons franchise.

"Tuque is thrilled to have the opportunity to be part of the Wizards of the Coast team," said Jeff Hattem, Founder, Tuque Games. "By working more closely together, we can accelerate our joint vision and bring to life new games, characters and worlds in Wizards of the Coast's roster of franchises."

"In Tuque, we believe we have found a unique partner that pairs the nimbleness of an indie studio with the veteran leadership and scale required to deliver complex AAA games for our largest franchises," said David Schwartz, VP of Digital Publishing, Wizards of the Coast. "We are excited to bring Jeff and the Tuque team to the Wizards of the Coast family, which we believe will allow us to continue to meet the needs of our fans while enabling us to scale our digital games development capabilities even faster."

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It seems there's a bit of a D&D video game renaissance going on. Baldur's Gate 3 is coming, as is Solasta: Crown of the Magister.

 

[gyor]

Not at this time. Once you had developed a functional 5e CRPG engine, then you could let it out to different studios to create games with, in the way Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment spun off from Baldur's Gate. But a CRPG engine is far to difficult and expensive to develop for one company to try to reinvent the horse twice over.

Larian Studios is spending their own money on an update of their own engine, and Tuque Studios is spending their own and WotC's money on a seperate engine.

 

[Coroc]

Oh brother... That's not all a bad sign - aggressively proclaiming the "intelligence" of players of a mediocre MMO.



None of that was in at launch or the first year, so must have been added later. Or more likely, you're extremely biased and wildly overstating because you're one of the few thousand actual fans of DDO.

Every MMO, no matter how bad, has some fans. Sometimes it even deserves them! Maybe DDO does now but the basic structure and design of the game are not great, and I say that as someone who bought two copies day one and subscribed for much of the first year.

I actually did play it a bit when it came out, but my computer back then was to slow. I returned to it aprox 2012 and since then it has evolved w/o end. They added a cross from Eberron over to FR via the Demonweb, which is one of the best landscapes in a MMO ever. They added some classic FR and Greyhawk modules, even a TOEE very true to the original, lately also White Plume mountain also true to the original.
They integrated the whole Curse of Strahd 5e campaign as far as I can judge (Did not read it but I am quite sure it is the source), with a super ravenloft feel to it. They added Sharn as a campaign with some of the best ideas on pulpy magitech Eberron ever.

If you are of course a fan of console kind grafix which cannot get realistic enough, or have expect it to be more like WoW then of course you might not like it.

And really, if you look at Neverwinter online, the so called quests even have the option to get a sparkly path displayed leading you to the next quest objective, mostly at best some lever to be pulled which also sparkles for the ultradummies - be honest how much intelligence is needed for that.
Compare this to DDOs The Pit with its jump riddles or the raids where one player has to direct another via voice chat or some of the more intricate tile puzzles.
Or the superb humor they got at some places e.g. all the delirium quests (Drink a beholder under the table build an airship out of floating furniture etc.), everyone with a decent education and taste has to love the intellect which is put into DDO.
Of course all is a question of personal taste, but I give you that I am bored very quick, but even having done each quest in DDO at least once I do not get bored by it. It has the same replay it again and again appeal like all the BG and the other infinity engine games.

I really hope BG 3 comes close to DDOs standard concerning the ideas and creativity then it might be a good game.

 

[Parmandur]

Larian Studios is spending their own money on an update of their own engine, and Tuque Studios is spending their own and WotC's money on a seperate engine.

We don't know anything about Tuque's work yet.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

We don't know anything about Tuque's work yet.

But it's fairly obvious they aren't going to be duplicating what Larian are doing.

 

[Parmandur]

But it's fairly obvious they aren't going to be duplicating what Larian are doing.

It could still be a CRPG in a similar space, ala Planescape: Torment. Or it could be a puzzle game. We don't know anything.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It could still be a CRPG in a similar space, ala Planescape: Torment. Or it could be a puzzle game. We don't know anything.

Planescape: Torment used the Baldur's Gate engine.

Creating the RPG engine is the difficult bit. Once you have that creating another game in a new setting is simple.

I would suggest the "AAA" claim would rule out a puzzle game. I'm not sure any puzzle game claims to be AAA. Maybe Portal?

 

[gyor]

Planescape: Torment used the Baldur's Gate engine.

Creating the RPG engine is the difficult bit. Once you have that creating another game in a new setting is simple.

I would suggest the "AAA" claim would rule out a puzzle game. I'm not sure any puzzle game claims to be AAA. Maybe Portal?

Larian Studios already HAS an CRPG engine and a massively upgraded one at that, I think its the fourth generation of the DOS Engine (giving BG 3 a different look, less cartoonish, is more a textures, colours, and design issue then an engine issue).

But WotC would likely want their own CRPG engine, because they don't own their own Larians DOS Engine, developing their own allows them alot of freedom. They can make deals with Larian Studios for BG3 sequels and spin offs, while using a hypothetical Tuque Studios CRPG Engine for CRPGs in other parts of Faerun like Kara Tur or the Old Empires Region, or the Utter East or Zakhara or Maztica or other Settings like Exandia, Eberron, Ravenloft, Planescape, Ravnica, Zendikar, Dragonlance, Alara, Oerth, Theros, Mystara, Nentir Vale, Ikoria, Innistrad, Khelem, Birthright, ect...







PS One thing it could be is something like a cross between a CRPG and a virtual table top.

 

[gyor]

But it's fairly obvious they aren't going to be duplicating what Larian are doing.

Making a different CRPG is not duplicating what Larian Studios is doing anymore then Solasta is duplicating what Larian Studios is different. Different engine, different look, different region/setting, different story, different solutions to challenges tjat arise.

 

[gyor]

BTW my guess is that Tuque Studios is doing a D&D 5e Ravnica CRPG game. Just a guess.

 

[Parmandur]

Planescape: Torment used the Baldur's Gate engine.

Creating the RPG engine is the difficult bit. Once you have that creating another game in a new setting is simple.

I would suggest the "AAA" claim would rule out a puzzle game. I'm not sure any puzzle game claims to be AAA. Maybe Portal?

We don't know what engine they may or may not have access to: this is a big mystery box right now.