Game publishers rarely let you behind the curtain to see exactly how a game was made. So I’m quite taken with the fact that AdHoc Studio marked Dispatch’s first anniversary by letting you play through the whole thing using its original storyboard animatics. This means all those slick, TV-style superhero workplace scenes get swapped back for the rough drawings they started out as, timed against the dialogue, with all the awkward pauses and unfinished staging that implies.
It’s one half of a free update for Dispatch Deluxe Edition owners, out now on PC (Steam), PS5, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2, and Xbox Series X/S, and the other half is Commentary Mode, with more than 16 hours of cast and crew talking you through the episodes.
What’s in the Dispatch anniversary update?
The commentaries include two tracks, one for the cast and one for the crew, with different choices unlocking different commentary, and you can switch it on over the top of Storyboard Mode.
So you can sit and watch a scene in its scrappiest form while somebody who worked on it explains why it ended up looking the way it did. Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad, BoJack Horseman), Laura Bailey (The Last of Us Part II, Critical Role) and Erin Yvette (Hades II, The Wolf Among Us) are among the cast voices, and they’re talking about bringing the characters to life, which is a nice thing to hear while you’re looking at the version of those characters that hadn’t been animated yet.
What Storyboard Mode shows about how Dispatch was made
I’d be wary of expecting a full production breakdown, because the idea is the animatics themselves and playing them. But for anyone who draws, animates, or storyboards for a living, seeing where a gag gets its timing or a reaction shot gets an extra beat before anyone’s spent a fortune finishing it is a more dynamic way to see a game's scaffolding than doomscrolling ArtStation. We previously went behind the scenes of Dispatch, exploring how AdHoc used Unreal Engine, previsualisation and cinematic tools to bring its superhero workplace comedy to life.
Nick Herman, Co-Creative Director on Dispatch and COO of AdHoc Studio, put it this way: "Dispatch was only possible because of folks who believed in it enough to show up and do their best work. In our industry, it's often really hard to showcase those people and how the development process actually works, but fortunately our game is very weird and specific and affords us some unique opportunities."
Dispatch Deluxe Edition price and who gets the update
Standard Edition owners aren’t left out and can access these neat extras, though the Deluxe upgrade costs $10.99 and includes a digital art book and four digital comics. I think that's good value. Herman says the idea was to give people more ways into a game that’s become part of their lives, "whether that’s playing alongside the cast and crew, experiencing the entire game in its original storyboards, or hanging out together IRL at the wildest version of a Dispatch concert our finance team would sign off on".
The rest of the celebration releases are for people who’d like something to take home. Those four digital comics are now getting a physical release as a complete set, with covers that join up into one big battle scene, and the first 1,000 orders on the AdHoc store get a numbered collector’s card. T-shirts and hoodies feature artwork by art director Derek Stratton, originally made for the three-record soundtrack vinyl set exclusive to Lost In Cult, and they also include 100 signed Stratton album-art posters.
Lost In Cult is also behind Dispatch: Design Works, a hardcover making-of book and collectable box with interviews from the cast and developers, though there’s no date yet, only an alert sign-up on the Lost In Cult site. For another look at the thought that goes into building a game's visual identity, read how the team behind Dustborn created its comic-book-inspired art style, turning a deliberately stylised look into part of the storytelling.
Dispatch mobile release date and price
If you haven't played Dispatch, there’s a new phone version releasing on iOS and Android on 9 December, rebuilt for touch and vertical play, with PC support via Google Play Games. The first four episodes are free, and the full game is $19.99, with Google Play pre-registration and App Store pre-orders coming soon. If you're still looking for something new to play, our pick of the best hidden-gem indie games of 2025 also features Dispatch, alongside other games worth seeking out.
And the music is going live too: on Thursday, 3 December, AdHoc and Banter Events are putting on a one-night soundtrack show at AVALON Hollywood in Los Angeles, featuring composer Andrew Arcadi and the SDN Company Band, joined by THOT SQUAD, Bershy, Primer, Caroline Kingsbury, and Fartbarf. Tickets go to AdHoc email subscribers first, and Herman describes it as “the wildest version of a Dispatch concert our finance team would sign off on”, which tells you most of what you need to know about the tone.
