A video game set in Critical Role‘s role-playing game world of Exandria is one step closer to reality — but it will still be a few years before it sees the light of day.
Critical Role is teaming up with L.A.-based indie game studio AdHoc Studio on multiple projects, including the official development of the D&D-inspired company’s first ever video game.
In addition to the Exandria-set game, Critical Role is partnering with AdHoc Studio on the highly anticipated video game “Dispatch,” which will include future brand development inclusive of an animated series, merchandise and tabletop gaming.
The partnership between CR and AdHoc kicked off when Travis Willingham, Critical Role’s CEO and cast member — and a veteran voice actor — received an audition for “Dispatch,” and he was impressed by the narrative game’s design, tone and storytelling style. Voice talent for “Dispatch” also includes Critical Role’s Matthew Mercer and Laura Bailey, along with actors Aaron Paul and Jeffrey Wright and creators JackSepticEye and MoistCr1TiKaL.
“Dispatch,” due to be released later in 2025, is described as “a superhero workplace comedy” where players must manage “a dysfunctional team of misfit heroes and strategize who to send to emergencies around the city, all while balancing office politics, personal relationships, and your own quest to become a hero.” AdHoc Studio was founded in 2018 by industry veterans from Telltale Games, Ubisoft and Night School Studio.
Willingham said that when he saw a demo of “Dispatch,” “I absolutely flipped out. The animation was so amazing. So much so it looked like an animated show.” He called up AdHoc Studio co-founder and COO Nick Herman to ask him about creating a game that would look like that for Critical Role. In the fall of 2024, Willingham and Bailey met with Herman and AdHoc CEO Michael Choung and Herman over dinner in Studio City — and they immediately hit it off.
“It’s the kind of collaboration you hope for,” Choung said in a statement. “We’ve known the Critical Role team for years, so when we finally started kicking around ideas, it all just clicked. It made sense in the best way possible, so we’re thrilled we get to team up and cause some trouble together.”
Willingham said it’s still very early on the companies’ co-development of an original video game set in Critical Role’s Exandria. But in general, CR sees the game following the same template as the narrative gameplay in “Dispatch” in which the player makes choices.
“We’re tossing around ideas, what are we thinking about in terms of scope and budget, and some of the things we must have,” Willingham said. “You are going to want to see your favorite characters.”
The game will be “something unique in the world of Exandria,” he added, and “I think it would have to be something brand-new in terms of storyline.” He suggested that the video game might be set at some point in between Critical Role’s main campaigns. The game could feature characters from Vox Machina, Mighty Nein and Bells Hells (or only some of them), according to Willingham.
The team at Critical Role, which started as a D&D get-together among friends a decade ago, has talked about producing a video game featuring their characters for years. “Taking on an interactive project is such a large endeavor,” Willingham said. “It has to be a Goldilocks zone for us,” he said, by which he means big enough to be a successful game but not as expensive and time-consuming as a AAA title. At a more reasonable and “more responsible” scale, Critical Role is looking at a production timeline of a couple of years instead of five years or more with a larger AAA game.
Critical Role’s founders and cast members are Matthew Mercer, Ashley Johnson, Marisha Ray, Taliesin Jaffe, Travis Willingham, Sam Riegel, Laura Bailey and Liam O’Brien.
Amazon MGM Studios has produced three seasons of “The Legend of Vox Machina” based on CR’s first major campaign and has ordered a fourth. Critical Role is developing “Mighty Nein,” based on Critical Role’s second campaign, for Amazon Prime Video.
Critical Role has an overall first-look deal with Amazon MGM Studios, and Willingham said he would “love to see someone take a swing” at adapting AdHoc’s “Dispatch” as an animated series.
Source link
