New D&D Video Game Announced

New video game developer Giant Skull is developing a new D&D video game. Variety announced the new untitled game today, which will be a single-player action-adventure game set in one of the worlds of the game.

Giant Skull was founded by Stig Asmussen in 2023. Asmussen previously was the game director of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, as well as God of War 3.

“Stig and the team at Giant Skull are exactly the type of exceptionally talented creators we want to work with, and I’m so happy to be reuniting with him on this new project,” Wizards of the Coast chief and digital gaming president at Hasbro John Hight told Variety. “In our time working together on ‘God of War I’ got to see firsthand Stig’s artistry and expertise, and he and the Giant Skull team are the perfect fit for our new game. Worldbuilding and storytelling is in our DNA, and this collaboration reflects our evolution and commitment to our ‘Playing to Win’ strategy, building a stronger presence in digital play. We look forward to revealing more about this brand-new ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ game in the future.”

 

[Ruin Explorer]

If I was making the game, I would lean in to the Jedi Survivor playstyle. Make a defined protagonist who's a bladesinger, or some other existing gish variant (hexblade?). Lean into the D&D brand identity with spells and findable items, and set it on either Faerun, Eberron, or Planescape. Sharn and Sigil both seem like wildly gameable action-RPG settings.

This would be the smart move, but I honestly doubt they'll have the balls to use Sigil or Sharn. To be clear, I think that's a serious mistake - Sigil particularly would attract huge attention and the sheer "accessible weirdness" of it would make it very popular, and as you say, Sharn is extremely game-able for the precise kind of games that Amussen has developed before.

Class-wise I do think some kind of Gish would be the right move, that or something like a Beast Ranger, or a Moon Druid (obvious strong "metroidvania"-type possibilities with a Moon Druid). Whatever they choose, picking a specific class and subclass and really going into it in more detail/complexity than D&D does would likely produce the best gameplay.

Unfortunately I suspect what we may actually see is something where they just let you spend points in say, three fairly straightforward classes - probably Fighter, Wizard and Rogue, and you can combine them as you see fit in a fairly typical way. But you never know.

As the BG3 characters are now owned by WotC, I will be quite surprised if none of them make a cameo or the like.

 

[Parmandur]

My theory is that closing this deal with a big game director and show it to the investors was what secured a huge annual bonus for someone on Hasbro. Now getting this game finished (or even started) isn't a priority until someone need to meet their KPIs or something.

Well, it is more that it takes 6 years to make a game nowadays.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Already exists. There are two in fact.

The Dark Sun games are nothing like Conan Exiles.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

There are two Dark Sun videogames but a new DS title should be a survival using Conan Exiles as reference. If the character is in a isolated place we can avoid those controversial threats.

* Maybe Capcom could talk with WotC for a new arcade of the saga "Tower of Doom" and "Shadow over Mystara".

* How would be a collab "D&D + Shop Titans (a fantasy shop-keeper simulation)"?

* D&D is the big titan in TTRPG industry but a dwarf in videogame industry.

* Ravenloft is perfect for certain crossovers with horror-franchises. For example Aliens in Bluetspur, or predators in Valachan or Vorostokov. Some forgotten or secondary horror IPs could recover power brand thanks these possible collabs.

* Videogames for mobiles need less time and money, and then these could be a better option to test new ideas.

* What happened with D&D: Minecraft videogame?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

a new DS title should be a survival using Conan Exiles as reference

We know this game is not a survival game, so how is this relevant?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

* What happened with D&D: Minecraft videogame?

There never was one.

The was a DLC for Minecraft, which is basically just a short-ish adventure: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/dungeons-dragons-dlc

 

[Zarithar]

Jedi Survivor games were amazing - so this could be good. Not sure that's the style of game I want for D&D, but will reserve judgement until more is known.

 

[MGibster]

I would not want to be the studio that tries to follow up on Baldur's Gate 3.