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.”

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You can make a D&D themed ARPG

An “action adventure”, not an ARPG. The Jedi games fit the description, as does the latest Indiana Jones game, as does Elden Ring at a slight stretch. They are very different games to the Diablo clones that the term ARPG refers to.

It's also stated as "single player". Pretty much all Diablo clones are multiplayer.

 

[jaycrockett]

I hope it's Dark Sun. I've never played God of War but tonally it seems to fit.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

An “action adventure”, not an ARPG. The Jedi games fit the description, as does the latest Indiana Jones game, as does Elden Ring at a slight stretch. They are very different games to the Diablo clones that the term ARPG refers to.

It's also stated as "single player". Pretty much all Diablo clones are multiplayer.

This is correct, confusingly there are three different terms that the industry uses to indicate different things:

ARPG - This indicates a Diablo-style game with highly randomized loot, probably randomized enemies to some extent, likely grinding/farming, maybe randomized/procedural levels and so on. Usually optionally multiplayer.

Action RPG/Action role-playing game - This means an RPG, usually first or third person, that uses mainly real-time combat - this most RPGs at this point. Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Dragon Age Veilguard, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Mass Effect, Dragon's Dogma 1/2, Elden Ring, Dark Souls, etc. etc.

Action adventure game - Means a game, usually third-person, rarely-but-not-never first person (Indiana Jones was), which is primarily an action game, but confusingly might often have fairly significant RPG elements, like multiple skill trees (or even classes!), dialogue trees, multiple paths through the game, and so on.

There's significant crossover between the latter two - and not zero crossover between the former and the latter two! For example, Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, at launch, was an open-world first person shooter, but had several different classes with very RPG-esque abilities, and also featured Diablo-style loot of varying quality, with levels, randomized stats and so on. Some people absolutely HATED that because it was otherwise quasi-realistic, so they patched in a mode where guns didn't have levels or stats or anything, which you could use instead (and managed to balance it so you could play with people using the other mode, which kind of impressed me).

 

[belsonic]

Yeah, I wrote ARPG, I meant Action RPG.

 

[Azzy]

This is correct, confusingly there are three different terms that the industry uses to indicate different things:

ARPG - This indicates a Diablo-style game with highly randomized loot, probably randomized enemies to some extent, likely grinding/farming, maybe randomized/procedural levels and so on. Usually optionally multiplayer.

Action RPG/Action role-playing game - This means an RPG, usually first or third person, that uses mainly real-time combat - this most RPGs at this point. Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Dragon Age Veilguard, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Mass Effect, Dragon's Dogma 1/2, Elden Ring, Dark Souls, etc. etc.

Action adventure game - Means a game, usually third-person, rarely-but-not-never first person (Indiana Jones was), which is primarily an action game, but confusingly might often have fairly significant RPG elements, like multiple skill trees (or even classes!), dialogue trees, multiple paths through the game, and so on.

There's significant crossover between the latter two - and not zero crossover between the former and the latter two! For example, Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, at launch, was an open-world first person shooter, but had several different classes with very RPG-esque abilities, and also featured Diablo-style loot of varying quality, with levels, randomized stats and so on. Some people absolutely HATED that because it was otherwise quasi-realistic, so they patched in a mode where guns didn't have levels or stats or anything, which you could use instead (and managed to balance it so you could play with people using the other mode, which kind of impressed me).

That is confusing and unnecessarily so.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Action adventure game - Means a game, usually third-person, rarely-but-not-never first person (Indiana Jones was), which is primarily an action game, but confusingly might often have fairly significant RPG elements, like multiple skill trees (or even classes!), dialogue trees, multiple paths through the game, and so

This class of games are basically descended from the original Tomb Raider games. You can see Tomb Raider DNA running all through the Jedi games.

It’s telling that Asmussen, in an interview about this game, talks about the “three pillars” of this type of game being “story, combat and traversal”. Traversal meaning jumping and climbing on ledges.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yeah, I wrote ARPG, I meant Action RPG.

The letters "RPG" are conspicuously absent from any official communique about this game.

In computer game parlance, "RPG" typically means "create your own protagonist" (although it's not to hard to think of exceptions, like the Witcher games).

 

[Sacrosanct]

Coincidentally, I just got an email from Tactical Adventures that Solasta II will be upgraded to 2024 rules.

 

[Reynard]

This class of games are basically descended from the original Tomb Raider games. You can see Tomb Raider DNA running all through the Jedi games.

Which is ironic because the recent Tomb Raider games had nearly as many RPG elements as Arkham or Horizon -- neither of which are RPGs proper but they get real close at least in their progression systems.

Then we have looter shooters with level advancement. Are those RPGs?

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

This is correct, confusingly there are three different terms that the industry uses to indicate different things:

ARPG - This indicates a Diablo-style game with highly randomized loot, probably randomized enemies to some extent, likely grinding/farming, maybe randomized/procedural levels and so on. Usually optionally multiplayer.

Action RPG/Action role-playing game - This means an RPG, usually first or third person, that uses mainly real-time combat - this most RPGs at this point. Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Dragon Age Veilguard, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Mass Effect, Dragon's Dogma 1/2, Elden Ring, Dark Souls, etc. etc.

Action adventure game - Means a game, usually third-person, rarely-but-not-never first person (Indiana Jones was), which is primarily an action game, but confusingly might often have fairly significant RPG elements, like multiple skill trees (or even classes!), dialogue trees, multiple paths through the game, and so on.

There's significant crossover between the latter two - and not zero crossover between the former and the latter two! For example, Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, at launch, was an open-world first person shooter, but had several different classes with very RPG-esque abilities, and also featured Diablo-style loot of varying quality, with levels, randomized stats and so on. Some people absolutely HATED that because it was otherwise quasi-realistic, so they patched in a mode where guns didn't have levels or stats or anything, which you could use instead (and managed to balance it so you could play with people using the other mode, which kind of impressed me).

I think you're discounting the puzzle solving aspects of adventure games.

By analogy to "action RPG", action adventure games are... combinations of adventure and action games. In the 90s, you had point and click SCUMM games like Maniac Mansion or text parser games like King's Quest, but they didn't have real time combat. Most of the gameplay involved finding items in the world and using them to solve environmental puzzles rather than fighting npcs. I think you're identifying a lot of the hallmarks of adventure games and assuming they're RPG elements.