After a successful 2019 crowdfunding campaign and an unsuccessful plan to launch in 2021, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is now set to launch on Steam on August 3.
Stray Gods is written by David Gaider, best known for his work at BioWare on games including Baldur’s Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and the Dragon Age series. But this new project is a different sort of fantasy: It’s “a heartfelt reconception of Greek mythology blended with the magic of contemporary musical theater” that follows the adventures of Grace, a college dropout who’s granted the powers of a Muse, which she must use to uncover the truth about her predecessor’s death.
The game is being developed by Gaider’s Summerfall Studios and features an impressive voice cast including Laura Bailey, Troy Baker, Allegra Clark, Merle Dandridge, Felicia Day, Rahul Kohli, and Anthony Rapp. The soundtrack will include music from famed game composer Austin Wintory, as well as Scott Edgar, Steven Gates and Simon Hall of the musical comedy trio Tripod, and Australian art pop musician Montaigne.
Stray Gods was originally known as Chorus, and was envisioned as more of an adventure game than an RPG. But after the 2021 release was missed, it was “re-revealed” as Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, with an increased emphasis on roleplaying. I initially assumed the name change was to avoid confusion with Deep Silver’s sentient starfight sim of the same name, but Gaider said when the new title was revealed that “the primary motivation was that as the project grew past what we’d originally envisioned, we felt it needed a fresh new name that better fits the game’s tone and themes.”
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is available for wishlisting now on Steam. It will also be featured in the upcoming LudoNarraCon showcase, which is set to run May 4-8.