Dungeons & Dragons co-creator’s unpublished work to be turned into video games

Never-before-seen work by Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, is going to finally see the light of day.

The Gygax Trust, set up in memory of the roleplaying designer following his death in 2008, has partnered with crowdfunding platform Fig to turn unpublished intellectual property into video games on the 10th anniversary of his passing.

Although there’s currently no details on exactly what the ideas and games will be, the two organisations are currently searching for developers who will be able to announce multiple titles later this year, before running campaigns via Fig to fund them.

According to Fig CEO Justin Bailey, the ideas in development include “some of [Gygax’s] most cherished and shared only with his closest friends”.

Unlike Kickstarter, Fig allows backers of projects to potentially earn money from the campaigns they support, making it more of an investment-driven opportunity.

“The worlds and characters to be discovered in my husband’s unpublished intellectual property are an incredibly important part of his legacy,” said Gail Gygax. “Therefore, it was paramount that we partner with an advanced and innovative platform such as Fig that gave us complete control of his creative vision.”

As part of the move to revive Gygax’s ideas, the designer’s company Gygax Games has been revitalised with his son Alex as CEO, who will ensure that his father’s legacy is properly represented.

As for why his father's work is making the leap straight to the digital world rather than sticking with the tabletop realm he revolutionised, Alex told Polygon that pen-and-paper roleplaying is a "dying art" and that several of the ideas were originally created with computer gaming in mind.