Dark Alliance dev rebrands to Invoke Studios, announces new Dungeons & Dragons game

Wizards of the Coast announced the relaunch of one of its internal studios. Developer Tuque Games is now known as Invoke Studios, and its next project is "a triple-A game derived from the Dungeons & Dragons universe."

Invoke already has some experience with the popular roleplaying game. Wizards acquired the Montreal studio in late 2019, and its game Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance released just last year. Per the press release, this new title will run on Unreal Engine 5. 

Serving as general manager and vice president for Invoke is Dominic Guay, who joined Tuque in 2021. Guay previously worked at Ubisoft as a producer on several of its franchises, including Watch Dogs. 

"We have the largest and most popular brand of fantasy role-playing games in Dungeons & Dragons," said Guay. "Such a brand, with 50 years of history behind it, inspires developers and gives us enormous creative freedom."

Earlier in the year, Wizards opened Skeleton Key, a new studio in Austin headed up former BioWare head Christian Dailey. Similar to Invoke, Skeleton Key will be developing a triple-A title for the tabletop publisher. It's currently unclear if Skeleton Key is developing a separate D&D game, or a title in its own unique setting, similar to fellow Wizards subsidiary Archetype Entertainment. 

Dungeons & Dragons isn't just a game, it's a growing lifestyle 

The last several years have been kind to D&D. Actual play series such as Critical Role and Dimension 20 have attracted attention to broader audiences, helped by TV shows like Stranger Things integrating the game into their plots. 

Next year will also see the release of a Dungeons & Dragons theatrical film, its first in over 20 years. 

On the video game side of things, there've been recent games either set in the universe of D&D (see: Baldur's Gate III), or that attempt to mimic it (Tiny Tina's Wonderlands), and which received critical and commercial success.