2024 has been an incredible year for gaming, and it seems to be ending with a bang because December is bringing a whole slew of video game adaptations to Amazon Prime Video through the special anthology Secret Level. Created by the studio behind Love, Death and Robots, fans can expect 15 episodes of Secret Level featuring their favorite gaming IPs from Pac-Man to Concord to be released in pairs every week starting December 10.
One of Secret Level‘s episodes features an adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons, which might confuse some viewers before or after watching, as the short feature does indeed adapt the tabletop roleplaying game rather than any D&D video game. However, Dungeons & Dragons does deserve a place in the anthology, even if it might not be adapting a video game outright due to the connection D&D has with gaming and its subculture as a whole.
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Dungeon & Dragons’ Place in Secret Level Explained
To understand exactly why Dungeons & Dragons belongs in Secret Level, it’s worth looking back at the history of video gaming and the tabletop RPG as a whole. Dungeons & Dragons specifically came around in 1974, 35 years after the World Science Fiction Convention was organized in America, which led to the rise of traditional cons as people know them today.
Science fiction conventions and other types of cons, such as fantasy, served as a hub for many fans of novels, TV shows, and more, which helped like-minded people gather to enjoy hobbies such as Dungeons & Dragons together. Those who enjoyed sci-fi and fantasy typically blended and created more works in the genre after their own favorite stories inspired them. This led to these genres making their way into video games, with a few developers citing D&D, its mechanics, and its classes as their main source of inspiration. This opened the doors for cons such as San Diego Comic-Con and Atlanta’s Dragon Con, which originally focused on comic books and roleplaying specifically, to include anime, video games, and practically every avenue of entertainment.
Just as long as video games have been around, Dungeons & Dragons has been there right beside them as a source of inspiration and a beloved hobby. D&D is constant, hugely successful, and ultimately a central pillar for “geek culture.” Just as there’s a strong overlap between those who enjoy video games and anime these days, the same overlap exists between gamers and Dungeons & Dragons players for a similar, but much more intimate, reason.
While Dungeons & Dragons might not be the biggest influence on gaming as a whole today, the overlap of interests is far too big to ignore, which likely led to its inclusion in Secret Level as it is. There’s arguably no Dungeons & Dragons video game more iconic than tabletop D&D itself, and the Secret Level episode delivers some incredible escapades from one particularly unique party, which leaves very little to want from the short feature by the end.
Amazon Prime Video’s Secret Level is an animated series that explores different gaming worlds, telling short stories within them. Some of the featured games include Armored Core, Sifu, Unreal Tournament, Concord, Ghost of Tsushima, Pac-Man, and The Outer Worlds.
- Release Date
- December 10, 2024
- Cast
- Arnold Schwarzenegger , Patrick Schwarzenegger , Kevin Hart , Laura Bailey , Keanu Reeves , Gabriel Luna , Ariana Greenblatt , Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje , Michael Beach , Emily Swallow , claudia doumit
- Seasons
- 1
- Production Company
- Blur Studio, Amazon MGM Studios
- Network
- Amazon Prime Video
- Streaming Service(s)
- Amazon Prime Video
- Creator(s)
- Tim Miller