God of Wandering
Stray Gods: The Role-Playing Musical is a captivating and innovative video game that seamlessly blends role-playing worlds and musical elements to create a unique and immersive experience for players. Developed by Summerfall Studios and published by Humble Games, the game has received widespread attention for its groundbreaking approach and artistic vision.
The story takes place in a fantasy country where the gods have lost their power and become “wanderers”. Players embark on a great adventure to restore these gods to their former glory. The game is designed to be played on multiple platforms, including Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, ensuring a gaming experience that is accessible to a wide range of players.
How does The Wandering God embrace its inner drama geek?
In April, a prestigious event took place at the historic El Rey Theater in Los Angeles, where Summerfall Studios showcased their first game, “Stray Gods: The Role-Playing Musical.” The game’s protagonist, Grace (played by Laura Bailey), takes the stage to the enchanting melody of Grammy-nominated composer Austin Wintory’s piano score.
She is accompanied by other actors, including Mary Kate Elizabeth McGlynn as Persephone and Ashley Johnson as Calliope. The demo also gave viewers a taste of the choices players will encounter in the game when it launches later this week.
The bold reveal marks a unique and potentially bold move for the independent game studio’s first release. Summerfall creator David Gaider, the former head writer of Dragon Age, publicly expressed his initial skepticism in a blog post following the incident. Nonetheless, this unconventional approach is a nod to the musical theater essence ingrained in The Wanderer and underscores the studio’s commitment to catering to theater lovers.
In an interview with TheGamer, Gaider and Wintory revealed their true passion for musical theater. In addition to the aforementioned influences like West Side Story, Jungle Book, Hamilton, Rent, and The Book of Mormon, Gaider teases Disney-style numbers in the game, while Wintory will Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece is positioned as the benchmark for “Stray”. Gods” aspires to reach. There’s no denying our desire to match the level of storytelling and lyrical artistry displayed by these legends, especially considering the unprecedented effort that went into creating the first musical RPG.
From the beginning, Summerfall Studios recognized the importance of blending the creative process of making a musical with that of developing a game. This translated into a deep collaborative approach involving Summerfall, Wintory, Australian band Tripod, singer Montaigne and voice actors. Such a high level of collaboration is rare, especially in a game that features multiple songs, each offering over 40 minutes of potential replay value depending on the player’s choices.
One unique aspect of this collaboration is how the actors’ contributions extended into the production of their respective songs. During the recording process, Wintory intentionally provided minimal accompaniment—often just a piano or guitar track—for the actors to sing. Additional instruments were added later, recalling how Broadway composers tweaked elements during a production to showcase the actors’ strengths and personalities.
Additionally, Summerfall Studios worked hard to blend two different development approaches when designing “Stray Gods’ branching system.” Carefully crafted choices that work seamlessly with each song’s sonic, narrative, and lyrical coherence present challenges that traditional dialogue decision-making cannot adequately address.
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The development of the wandering god
“Stray Gods” is the first project from Melbourne, Australia-based developer Summerfall Studios. The game’s narrative is crafted by David Gaider, known for his role as lead writer on BioWare’s critically acclaimed series Dragon Age and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The score is orchestrated by Austin Wintory, who is recognized for his contributions to games such as Journey, Flo, and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate.
The game features captivating 2D hand-drawn visuals with a comic book-like look, featuring stylized character designs.
Originally titled Chorus: An Adventure Musical, the game received successful crowdfunding support on Fig.co in 2019 after being first announced by David Gaider during his keynote at PAX AUS. The name change to Stray Gods was revealed on March 18, 2022, as Summerfall Studios partnered with Humble Games on the project.
The creators of Stray Gods drew significant inspiration from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical, Once More, With Feeling, to blend the best of the musical with interactive storytelling in a video game format.
The game features different narrative paths, with player decisions affecting not only the story and tone of dialogue, but also the tune, lyrics, and musical style of the main character Grace’s singing.
Austin Wintory highlighted the huge potential of the different song combinations in Stray Gods, making it unlikely that any two games will be the same. In June 2023, Summerfall and Humble Games announced that the game would be released on Steam in August and would be playable on major home consoles.
The Myth and Music Live Event on April 12, 2023 is a major showcase of “Stray Gods”. The event is co-hosted by Summerfall Studios and Humble Games at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles and is called “Myth and Music.” The hour-long event was hosted by Troy Baker and streamed on Critical Role’s Twitch channel, with Laura Bailey, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Ashley Johnson performed live.
Additionally, the event included an insightful Q&A session, unveiling Felicia Day, Rahul Kohli, Anjali Bhimani and Janina Gavankar’s involvement in the project’s cast.
Wandering God voice actor
Features |
Voice actor |
|
grace |
Laura Bailey |
|
Persephone |
Mary Elizabeth McGlynn |
|
Apollo |
Troy Baker |
|
freddy |
Janina Gavankar |
|
pan |
Khary Payton |
|
cupid |
abubakar salem |
|
athena |
Felicia Day |
|
minotaur |
Rahul Kohli |
|
Hecate |
Allegra Clark |
|
Aphrodite |
Mel Dandridge |
|
Hermes |
Erika Ishii |
|
Calliope |
Ashley Johnson |
|
Venus |
Lauren Lolo Spencer |
|
Medusa |
Anjali Bhimani |
|
Oracle |
Kimberly Brooks |
|
Orpheus |
Anthony Rapp |
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