Summary
- Critical Role’s CEO reveals that a video game announcement is imminent.
- Willingham doesn’t give much away, but his allusions seem to suggest a type of narrative game.
- As expected, the game will be set on Exandria.
Critical Role chief executive officer (and cast member) Travis Willingham has revealed that the company’s first video game will be announced in the very near future.
In an interview with Business Insider, Willingham spoke about some ways Critical Role plans to expand following the runaway success of its various live tabletop roleplaying series. Willingham begins by saying that the team is “hard at work” producing a Critical Role video game. Better yet, they’re planning to announce the game “any day now.”
Willingham describes the game as an “interactive slate” which could suggest that it’s a narrative-style experience. A “choose your own adventure” style game with characters from Critical Role’s Exandria setting would certainly be thematically appropriate.
Welcome to Exandria
“They’ll actually be getting their hand on the stick and controlling the outcome of the story,” Willingham said. “Changing what might be possible from not just some of their favourite characters, but new offerings in the world of Exandria.”
Although this could describe a plethora of genres, Willingham’s reference to the game’s interactivity and his allusion to players getting to be in control of the story seem to suggest a sort of narrative game. This is supported by the fact that the game appears to be an in-house production, which would suggest a smaller scale. Vox Machina, the adventuring party from Critical Role’s first campaign, actually made their video game debut in an expansion for Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, which added portraits and voice sets based on Vox Machina that could be used for player characters.
Exandria is the world in which most of Critical Role’s content is set. The setting has proved so popular over the years that it has since become an official setting for Dungeons & Dragons’ fifth edition. Several official sourcebooks reference the world of Exandria.
Critical Role just wrapped up its third campaign, with the fourth campaign yet to start. There’s some debate in the community on whether the fourth campaign will continue to use Dungeons & Dragons 5e as the show has done since its inception, or if the players will switch to Daggerheart, an alternative system to Dungeons & Dragons developed by Critical Role.
Dungeons & Dragons
- Original Release Date
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1974
- Player Count
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2+
- Age Recommendation
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12+ (though younger can play and enjoy)
- Length per Game
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From 60 minutes to hours on end.