The studio behind unexpectedly decent Mickey Mouse life sim Disney Dreamlight Valley are venturing into another fantasy land where anthropomorphic animals adventure with human chums, the Forgotten Realms setting of Dungeons & Dungeons. Today Gameloft announced they’re making a D&D game offering a “hybrid of survival, life simulation and action RPG”. They don’t have much more to share about the game, not even a name, so presumably it won’t be out for some time. Whatever it might be, it’s headed to PC and consoles.
Forgotten Realms is the campaign setting most people think of as D&D, by the way. The fantasy land is home to games (and places) including Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and Neverwinter, as well as the surprisingly fun recent D&D movie, Honor Among Thieves.
All I can tell you for certain about the mysterious new game is that it’s led by Gameloft Montreal, the studio behind Disney Dreamlight Valley, and that they blasted this blurb in today’s press release:
“The game, set in the mythical Forgotten Realms within the Dungeons & Dragons universe, will bring unique cooperative gameplay built around an innovative hybrid of survival, life simulation and action RPG. Players can expect an adventure where the rich lore of this legendary franchise meets real-time survival in a unique campaign of resilience, camaraderie, and danger at nearly every turn.”
Presumably that means something a little more taxing than jaunting about doing paintings of fungus and moss for Drizzt Do’Urden so you become bezzies and he gives you new wallpaper for your hovel.
“Making friends, both on and off the table, has always been a core Dungeons & Dragons value and it is our goal, as life-long fans, to bring this experience to a different genre renowned for emergent gameplay and shared narrative that can be enjoyed by both newcomers and tabletop masters alike,” added creative director Marc-Andre Deslongchamps.
I always associated the Gameloft name with middling mobile games so I was quite surprised when loads of folks were well into Disney Dreamlight Valley. Back in 2022, Steve Hogarty said in our Disney Dreamlight Valley early access review that it was “a top-marks Animal Crossing rip-off that will make fans of too-big mice irreversibly giddy.” We’ve also called it one of the best games like Stardew Valley, and I know the launch version was one of Kiera’s favourite games of last year.
