Ex-ZA/UM developers reveal Red Rooster, an “incendiary RPG” that is very intentionally not trying to be a “Disco Elysium successor” or “Disco-like”
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Summer Eternal, a studio formed by former ZA/UM developers and other veterans of Disco Elysium, has announced Red Rooster, a politically minded role-playing game. The team describes it as an “incendiary” physics-driven RPG, while stressing that it is not intended as a successor to Disco Elysium or a “Disco-like”.
Players take the role of Redrick Roost, a white-collar prisoner turned arson investigator, working with an opiate-dependent mathematician to trace fires linked to his brother, the city’s fire chief. Set in the three-part city of Arta-Tantor, the game is being made in Unreal Engine as a three-dimensional world with movable, manipulable and burnable objects. It is nearing the end of pre-production, has an internal playable technology demo, and is targeting a “double-A” budget; a 500-page anthology about the games industry and the game’s development accompanies the announcement.
- Former ZA/UM developers announce Red Rooster.
- The RPG centres on arson investigations in a reactive world.
- It is nearing the end of pre-production, with a playable tech demo.
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ZA/UM was the studio behind Disco Elysium, a role-playing game known for its political themes and dialogue-heavy storytelling. Some former ZA/UM developers and other people who worked on Disco Elysium have since formed Summer Eternal, which is developing Red Rooster.
Red Rooster is set in Arta-Tantor, a city divided into three parts, and follows a former office worker investigating fires with a mathematician. Its developers describe it as a three-dimensional game where objects can be moved and burned, and say they are aiming for a “double-A” budget, between smaller independent projects and major studio releases.
The announcement matters because it shows how a group of veterans from a prominent political role-playing game are pursuing a new project with its own setting and design. The studio has said it does not intend Red Rooster to continue or imitate Disco Elysium.