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Rue Valley - Disco-like time loop RPG

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
There's a YouTube channel link on the game's website, but it doesn't work.

Survive the unjust psychotherapy

Disco Scientology?
 

Theodora

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Don't think DE-inspired games is an issue, though this comes across (solely going off screenshots) as a bit too directly inspired by DE -- to the point that it would be difficult to engage with in a way that wasn't referential.
 
Vatnik Wumao
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If y'all want a Disco-like game, then I'll shill for it once more:



Still, will prolly give this a try as well when it releases. If for no other reason, then to support Serbian indie bros.
 

The Wall

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Interesting. I'll check it out. Smells of Krug Dvojke and soy tho*. We Serbs have extremely well funded by American taxpayers for decades NGOs, these guys smell like typical Serbian SJWs. Maybe my nose is wrong...Anyway! My uncle and his merry group of fat and grizzly 40somethin senior programmers have hit midlife crises and I managed to convince them that opening gaming studio is solution to that. We'll soon start looking for designers, artist and writer, preferably famous western one that got cancelled on Twitter and now will work for cost of bottle of rakija on next Fallout: New Torment. Yes, game will be RPG. No, won't be about f0kin psychotherapy. :-D Maybe you'll need one after you finish it :smug:

*FUNFACT: Styg and Stygian Software is located in part of Belgrade called Borča. It's heavily industrial, working class part of city, with few middle class blocks. Being able to afford money and time to waste on personal Jordan Peterson is not something Borčans do. They do make one of Codex All Time TOP5 cRPGs, in their spare time. He can only be great source of inspiration to our team
 

FFTW

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As a big fan of DE, I definitely welcome more games inspired by it. Will check this one out after it releases.
 

Chanel Oberlin

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Disco took years to finish (back when its title was confused with furry doujins) and now they shit all these discolikes in mere months. That's all you need to know about their quality; if Disco was already decline, what does it say about copycats with 1/4 of the effort?
 

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Disco took years to finish (back when its title was confused with furry doujins) and now they shit all these discolikes in mere months. That's all you need to know about their quality; if Disco was already decline, what does it say about copycats with 1/4 of the effort?
None of them have actually been released yet.
 

Skorpion

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"Disco-like" is a great genre title as its translates in my brain as "visual novel of vaginas trying to be human" and I know to avoid it like the plague.
Please label all non-rpg games with this in the thread title "Game X is disco-like" and I will know to not bother clicking the thread despite it being in the rpg section.
Saves so much time!
 

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
:necro:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2126190/view/4375894859685973981

We’ve got news!
Emotion Spark is back!
Hello, everyone!


It’s been a while since our last update, but we are happy to report that the development of Rue Valley never stopped. In fact, it’s been picking up pace lately, and our team is having a blast! If you check our Steam page, you can see that we’ve updated screenshots to better reflect how Rue Valley’s art style has evolved. Our numbers are growing too. We even had to move to a beautiful new office, and at this very moment we are busy unpacking boxes.



We didn’t enjoy being quiet all this time, and now we have resources to chat with you regularly and share all the news about Rue Valley! So keep an eye out for more Rue Valley news here on Steam, and follow us on our official social media. Spoiler: you won’t have to wait for long!

YouTube
Twitter (X)
Instagram
Facebook

If you want to chat, we also have a discord server and a subreddit dedicated to Rue Valley.

See you there!

Love, Emotion Spark.

Now published by Owlcat: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2126190/view/4375895494759629662

Rue Valley is back!
Hello, everyone!

We apologize for the lack of news in recent months.

The reason for our radio silence is that we’ve been working on something big, and now the time has come to share the news! We’ve partnered up with
Owlcat Games
, the creators of
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
,
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
, and
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader
. From here on out, Owlcat Games will act as the publisher of Rue Valley, allowing us to fully focus on developing the game. Additionally, they are helping us by sharing their expertise in creating story-driven RPGs with deep narratives and memorable characters.

We’ve been working together for some time and we’ll be able to reveal the first results of our cooperation soon. We are very excited, and we hope you enjoy our upcoming news!

Meanwhile, you can follow us on social media, and join our subreddit and discord to chat with our community managers and devs (just don’t distract the devs too much, please!):

X (formerly Twitter)
Instagram
Facebook
Reddit
YouTube
Discord

One more thing: thank you so much for staying with us during our long months of silence, for believing in us and our game. Now that we have additional resources, we will post regular updates about Rue Valley’s development, and we hope you won’t be disappointed!

Love, Emotion Spark Studio
 

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/r...nteresting-rpg-prospects-since-disco-elysium/

Rue Valley is a gorgeous time loop mystery, and one of the most interesting RPG prospects since Disco Elysium​

Solve a temporal anomaly, and yourself.

I am yet to grow tired of grabbing my sword and spell tome and setting off on some fantastical RPG adventure, but I still feel relieved when a new RPG drops and it offers something different. Rue Valley is a break from epic journeys and goblin-slaying: a contemporary RPG set around a desert motel, featuring a protagonist who's the product of their personality, not a bunch of ability scores.

Developer Emotion Spark Studio and publisher Owlcat Games—known for its massive, numbers-heavy RPGs like Pathfinder and Rogue Trader—had me right away with their pitch of Disco Elysium-meets-Groundhog Day. But playing it reveals that, for all that it shares with its inspirations, there's just as much that makes it distinct: an RPG that is very much doing its own thing.

Right away, character creation shakes things up by making me define my personality, not my skills. There are cognitive, social and emotional tracks, and my selections define how I'm able to engage with the world and its inhabitants. A calculated, introverted and indifferent character is going to have a very different approach to an impulsive, extraverted and sensitive one, naturally.

Within these tracks are traits, unlocked after you've put a number of your 10 allotted personality points into the system. If you put two points into the calculated personality, you unlock the paranoid trait, but if you'd prefer the second trait in this row, indecisive, you are free to switch them. These traits will then lock and unlock different actions and dialogue options.

Narcissist that I am, I create myself. Very impulsive, pretty extraverted, and a bit sensitive. My traits are reckless, impatient, nosy and dramatic. Yep, that's me. Sorry, I'm working on it.

Talking it out​


Character creation



(Image credit: Owlcat Games)
It's 8 pm and I'm in therapy. The narrator sets the scene, describing the sound of an alarm and the stale air of the motel room in which I find myself in. It's not just a therapy session, it's a therapy retreat. Like Baldur's Gate 3 and Disco Elysium, the narrator is not just a casual observer. He prods, mocks and provides insight into my mental state, simultaneously making him feel like an adversary and very close friend.

What's immediately obvious, even in this nondescript motel room, is that Rue Valley is uncommonly striking. It's all hand-drawn, from the extremely animated characters to the lighting and shadows. The thick, bold lines of Rue Valley's cast constantly move and flicker, calling to mind a more colourful version of the music video for A-ha's Take On Me. The stepped animation style, meanwhile, is heavily inspired by the Spider-Verse movies, turning each scene into a living comic book.

This potent comic book aesthetic extends to the text boxes that accompany the voice acting—the quality of which is currently a bit inconsistent—as well as some static art that allows the game to show off scenes from more than the standard isometric perspective. The result is that conversations feel surprisingly lively, even when you're just sitting on a couch trying to avoid talking about your feelings.


Sitting in a motel room



(Image credit: Owlcat Games)
Speaking of which, my choice of traits quickly has an impact. My therapist wants me to acknowledge my "condition", whatever it is. One possible response is to shrug it off and lie about feeling fine. I can't do this, however, because pretending everything is OK isn't very dramatic. I just pick another lie. "I'll try," I tell him.

This currently enigmatic condition has cursed me with an unfortunate status effect: a total lack of motivation. This locks me out of all but the most essential interactions, so when I automatically leave the motel room at the end of my therapy session, I'm unable to strike up a chat with the woman beating the crap out of a vending machine outside. My nosy trait does allow me to hang around studying her, though.

I need to check in at reception next, but the receptionist is on the phone. Earlier, when the developer showed me a quick playthrough, they were able to get her attention and get the motel room keycard with no fuss. Because of my personality, though, I just manage to annoy her, prolonging the wait and forcing me to read leaflets and steal a pen—an epic heist only made possible thanks to my impulsiveness.


Motel reception



(Image credit: Owlcat Games)
Throughout this incredibly long phone call, I keep having to find ways to pass the time. If I didn't have the impatient trait, I'd just be able to wait, but my busy brain won't let me chill. I read, play on my phone, stare out the window, make art out of smudges and get way too inside my own head. I've certainly gone through this routine in my real life plenty of times and feel far too perceived.

Eventually I get to my room, and after refusing to unpack and fiddling with my phone for a while, I fall asleep. It's while sleeping that I'm able to go through the events of the day. This menu does become accessible when you're awake, but not until later. After navigating my most recent memories, I go deeper. Vague recollections of my past, old half-remembered traumas. These memories then become connected to what Rue Valley calls an intention—its take on quests. I can commit to this intention and explore the memories more, but that requires a lot of willpower. I currently have none.


Throwing up in a bathroom



(Image credit: Owlcat Games)
A car wakes me up, and I now have a second status effect: thirsty. I head to the bathroom, but there's a problem with the plumbing and the tap is spitting out some murky, foul-smelling water. In the developer playthrough, they smartly avoided drinking this gruesome ichor, instead going outside to hit up the vending machine. But my reckless trait forces me to throw all sense out the window and quench my thirst with poison. I throw up. I am still thirsty.

Breath no doubt stinking of puke, I finally head to the vending machine. The car that woke me up smashes into a transformer and then peels off, but that's a mystery for another day. I'm too parched to care. I gulp down an entire bottle of water, and then, unexpectedly, I get to witness the end of the world. I don't even have time to enjoy my thirst being quenched before the sky turns red—an apocalyptic anomaly instilling me with dread. How do I stop it? The narrator gives me a simple answer: I stop being me. And the loop begins again. It's 8 pm and my therapist is trying to get my attention.

Do-over​


A bright light engulfs the motel



(Image credit: Owlcat Games)
If you've watched the seminal Groundhog Day, or one of the many movies or TV episodes it's inspired (I thoroughly recommend the excellent Stargate SG-1 episode Window of Opportunity) then you'll know the deal here. You're stuck in a single day—in this case, a single 47-minute portion of the day—forced to relive it over and over again, but you get to keep the skills and knowledge you learn in each loop. And just like Groundhog Day, you escape the loop by working on yourself.

Rue Valley immediately breaks the threat of constant repetition by changing how the therapy session plays out. As well as still lacking motivation, I'm now stuck with another status effect: anxious apprehension. It makes me more calculated and sensitive, but also ladens me with "deep inner turmoil". I'm shaking. I just got booted back in time, so that's a pretty normal response. I fail the emotional check and just start sobbing. This inspires my shrink to give me a herbal remedy, a purple pill, to help me sleep.

There are a lot of opportunities to alter traits and push the personality tracks in different directions. Splashing water on my face calms me down, and taking a glug of whisky from a bottle I find makes me more extraverted. The loop structure gives you a chance to experiment, see the results, and then either repeat or avoid the action on the next run. I really wanted to see what taking the purple pill with the whisky would do, but because I'd just calmed myself with the water, I temporarily lost the reckless trait, stopping me from risking my health.


The memory menu



(Image credit: Owlcat Games)
Day 2 goes by pretty quickly. Being tipsy inspires me to flirt with the receptionist, cutting out all the waiting around I did before. The pill, meanwhile, conks me out right after I get into my room. I've got new memories now. Everything that happened after the car woke me up the previous night gets added to the menu, spawning a new intention. I need to work through it to figure out whether or not this is all real or if it's a fantasy. The pill has helped. I lose my status effects (apart from tipsy) and gain one point of motivation, which I'm able to use to commit to this intention.

So I now have a purpose. I go outside and find evidence that the car has come and gone, leaving shards on the ground next to the transformer. And then the sky turns red. I confirm the time, 8:47 pm, and accept my fate. It's 8 pm again. I'm in therapy. Again. But I'm making progress—now I know it wasn't just a fantasy. With this intention complete, I realise I'm stuck in a time loop. And now that I'm not lacking in motivation or filled with anxiety, I can start to unravel the mystery. Unfortunately, this is where the demo ends.

I'm a sucker for time loops, but Rue Valley is compelling beyond its primary conceit. Unlike most RPGs and adventure games, it wants you to solve people—not epic quests or tricky conundrums. You'll need to figure yourself out, as well as the people staying at the motel and the denizens of the desert beyond it.


Sitting on a bed



(Image credit: Owlcat Games)
Initially everyone is a stranger, even yourself, and your thoughts are largely negative. Your therapist is a hack, the woman by the vending machine is nuts, the receptionist thinks you're a weirdo. You're wrapped up in your preconceived notions and self-esteem issues. But each run through the loop is an opportunity to analyse yourself and learn empathy.

Rue Valley also kinda codifies how a lot of people already play RPGs, gaming the system by using save scumming to land on the best outcomes. Here, though, you don't need to bend the rules—instead you have infinite opportunities to do or say the right thing, and you get to keep the satisfaction that comes from figuring it out yourself. At the same time, you're still a product of your personality traits, so different traits will conjure up a different experience. Even in this short slice, there are a lot of places where events can subtly diverge depending on both the choices you made at character creation and the ones you make in the moment.

I'm actually frustrated that I can't play any further. Especially now that I can actually interact with people. And that road out of the motel beckons. What will I find in the desert? I've played through twice now and might jump back in for round three, even though its big mysteries will remain locked. That's really the best result for a demo: making you ravenous for the full thing.
 

Silvanus

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Honestly it seems like a pile of hackneyed tropes stacked on top of each other - tough sell if the mechanics don't turn out to be great.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Finally, a proper announcement trailer:



Rue Valley is an isometric narrative RPG about a man trapped in a time loop, surrounded by a colorful cast with complex emotional stories, each hiding unexpected secrets.

Dealing with mental challenges, the main character must rise from the depths, delving into the anomaly to uncover its enigmatic origins.
 

PlayerEmers

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I see the potential for a good game but depends entirely on how good is their writing team and how good are the game systems (and how they interact with the time loop thing)
 
Developer
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Been following this for a long while. Great to see they've been picked up by Owlcat!

While there isn't too much to go on so far, I feel like 'Into the Spider-Verse Peter Parker has a Groundhog Day' is a strong initial hook. But it's all going to come down to the quality of the interactivity + writing, so I'm very excited to see where it ends up. Having the marketing focus more on the emotional story rather than the time loop is an interesting choice though. Seems to be leaning more towards the Life is Strange/Interactive fiction audience than the pseudo-core RPG crowd.
 
Last edited:

HoboForEternity

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Been following this for a long while. Great to see they've been picked up by Owlcat!

While there isn't too much to go on so far, I feel like 'Into the Spider-Verse Peter Parker has a Groundhog Day' is a strong initial hook. But it's all going to come down to the quality of the interactivity + writing, so I'm very excited to see where it ends up. Having the marketing focus more on the emotional story rather than the time loop is an interesting choice though. Seems to be leaning more towards the Life is Strange/Interactive fiction audience than the pseudo-core RPG crowd.
This and esoteric ebb are 2 of the most interesting disco clone there out there. I really like timeloop games and they are amazing like majora's mask, outer wilds or forgotten city
 

Konjad

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Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
So, did anyone play the alpha?
 

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