Critical Role has announced an official videogame partnership. The multimedia company has announced it will be collaborating with AdHoc Studio on several upcoming videogame projects. One of them is an official Critical Role videogame.
The AdHoc Studio Critical Role Videogame Announcement
In an official press release, Critical Role's CEO Travis Willingham discussed the reasoning behind their collaboration with AdHoc Studio. According to Willingham, he was auditioning for a role in the studio's upcoming narrative-driven superhero workplace drama game, Dispatch. Afterwards, more in-depth talks happened, resulting in a partnership which includes official Critical Role videogame development.
"Just from looking over the audition and game materials, I knew there was something special about what AdHoc was creating and I immediately reached out,” said Willingham. “The design, tone, style and storytelling of DISPATCH jumped off the page, and I knew given the pedigree of the folks at AdHoc, this was a team we wanted to collaborate with. Critical Role is always looking to build with people who are innovating around new ways to deliver story, character and worldbuilding, and AdHoc fits that perfectly.”
As part of this partnership, Critical Role will collaborate with AdHoc on future Dispatch brand development. This will include merchandise, tabletop gaming, and more. In addition, both AdHoc and Critical Role will help co-develop the first videogame set in Critical Role's fantasy setting of Exandria, showcasing AdHoc's design strengths in deep, player choice-driven storytelling.
AdHoc's pedigree in videogame narrative cannot be understated. The studio was founded by several veterans of Telltale Games, the studio responsible for their critically-acclaimed videogame adaptations of The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us set in the Fables universe.
Considering the voice cast of Dispatch includes two other key members of Critical Role, Matt Mercer and Laura Bailey, there is clear vested interest in AdHoc from a creative and design perspective.
A Critical Role videogame has been something the company has wanted to do for a while. Given breadth of the world of Exandria, told throughout three major campaigns and several spin-offs spanning ten years, there is plenty of material to pull from.
