How the Creators of Stray Gods Made a Musical That’s a Video Game

variety.com:

Gordon Cox Theater Editor Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, the musical “If/Then”: These aren’t the usual conversational touchpoints in a discussion about a video game.

But all three of those musical theater references, and many more, were brought up by the creators of the new video game Stray Gods on the latest episode of “Stagecraft,” Variety’s theater podcast. Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: Billing itself as a “Roleplaying Musical,” Stray Gods mashes up musicals and gaming to tell an urban-fantasy story that allows players not only to influence how the narrative goes but also lets them choose, in the middle of a tune, how that song will develop lyrically, musically and emotionally.

It all adds up to something that the game’s composer Austin Wintory (Journey, Abzu, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate) described as “a video game musical where the music is interactive and branching and a real, core part of the gameplay.” Both Wintory and writer David Gaider (Dragon Age: Inquisition, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Baldur’s Gate 2), the BioWare alum who is the creative director and co-founder of Summerfall Studios, cited the musical episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” as an inspiration for the game. “I remember thinking: Oh, the music is such a great short cut to the soul,” Gaider recalled. “Can we put that in a game?” The creative team of Stray Gods leaned on Broadway regulars like Anthony Rapp and Merle Dandridge to fill out several of the roles in the game’s voice cast.

One Broadway alum, Anjali Bhimani (“Ms. Marvel”), appeared on “Stagecraft” with Gaider and Wintory and noted that the unusual process of working on Stray Gods reminded her of devising new stage shows like “Metamorphoses” with the.