Ten years after the death of Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax, his family is hoping to bring his unpublished works to life in the form of video games.
The Gygax trust has announced a joint effort with the crowdfunding and investment website Fig in order to find the right developers for this grand undertaking. In addition, the company Gygax Games has been rejuvenated, with youngest son Alex Gygax as CEO.
Alex Gygax spoke at great length to Polygon about his past, as well as the plans for his father’s work:
“I was gaming since I could walk and talk. My first D&D adventure I’d say was when I was four or five years old, running a solo campaign with my father on his work breaks. So I was playing D&D before I knew what any of that was… I grew up playing this and I’m also a huge video gamer, so I’ve always wanted to see my dad’s work because I thought that they were some of the greatest stories and tough adventures. I’ve always wanted to see them put out in the next level. Pen and paper is a dying art. Computer games, video games, they’re the next generation, the next wave of games and I’ve always wanted to see them on that new medium and I’ve always wanted to be working with someone who’s excited as I am about it.”
Alex also mentioned that many of the games his father created were always meant to be digital properties.
Fig CEO Justin Bailey explained that his company paired with Gygax Games in order to find developers to help make the games while Fig is used to run the crowdfunding campaigns to produce the games. He also added:
“We’re running a full green-light process with our advisory board. Any developer who wants to propose something, get it in through pitches@fig.co and we’ll review it with our green light committee and with Alex to make sure that it’s a good fit. Once Alex is able to get the Gygax Games website up, that will be another avenue for submissions.”