Google alum Ankit Lal takes over as Roll20 CEO, details plans for expansion and change in focus
The new CEO intends to split focus between users and publishers.
Max Fagandini 
Image via Roll20
Over the last two years of the coronavirus pandemic, many turned to games to keep spirits up and maintain a modicum of social interaction with friends and family. Variations ranged from actual online video games to party games like the Jackbox packs, but 2020 and onward also saw a massive rise in the popularity of virtual tabletop games. Roll20 proved itself a rock in those trying times as a suite of indispensable tools for TTRPG enthusiasts, and new CEO Ankit Lal intends to learn and move forward from the successes — and difficulties — of the last two years.
In an exclusive interview with Polygon, Lal elaborated on what his plans were for Roll20, following his instatement as the company’s new CEO today. He intends to divide the dozens of employees into two main groups, focused on users and publishers respectively. The former group is expected to focus on video tutorials and clear and useable tools to aid with onboarding the two new “key personas” that emerged during the pandemic: those familiar with TTRPGs, but who had never played them online before, and the “TTRPG-curious,” in Lal’s words, who were interested but had never played at all.
On the publisher side of things, Lal plans to further diversify Roll20’s catalog of games and rulesets. While D&D continues to be the dominant force in the tabletop world, smaller and lesser-known games are on the rise, and Lal intends to make it easier than ever for publishers to get their assets and tools on the service.
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