Today, publisher Owlcat Games and developer Emotion Spark Studio are proud to launch their highly anticipated narrative RPG Rue Valley on PC and console. Praised by Disco Elysium creators Robert Kurvitz and Aleksander Rostov for its signature blend of surreal storytelling and distinctive art direction, Rue Valley sets players on a journey through a man’s mental struggles to uncover the secrets behind the anomaly causing an unexplainable time loop.
Watch the Rue Valley Launch Trailer Here:
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Featuring a dynamic narrative and compelling characters, Rue Valley is an isometric narrative RPG following a man caught in a time loop where each reset changes not only what he can do, but who he will become. Players carry memories across loops, unlocking new dialogue, mindsets, and ways to interact with the strange world around the Rue Valley. Along the way, they’ll encounter a captivating ensemble of characters, each wrestling with their own emotional complexities and revealing hidden depths as you get to know them.
To showcase how deeply the team cares about the game’s central themes, the Rue Valley team collaborated with the leading men’s health charity, Movember, to shed light on mental health issues in an effort to utilize gaming as a casual, non-clinical medium for promoting mental well-being. Rue Valley’s thoughtful approach to storytelling enables players to explore what therapy can feel like in a safe and immersive way.
“It was really important for us to craft an engaging yet poignant story highlighting the struggles many of us face every day,” said Marko Smiljanić, Creative Director of Emotion Spark Studio. “We’re confident that it will resonate with people in a way that conveys that they’re heard, they’re seen, and they matter.”
Key features of Rue Valley:
- Craft Your Personality: Be a cold-hearted loner in one loop and a melodramatic loudmouth in the next. Rue Valley’s time loop resets everything, giving players the chance to experiment with their personalities, actions, and answers.
- Store Your Memories: Important memories can be stored in a graph, unlocking unique interactions around the Rue Valley Motel and new mindsets to help build out the main character.
- Uncover the Secrets of Rue Valley: An anomaly has trapped the area around the Rue Valley Motel in a time loop. Experiment with the main character’s actions each day until you have enough evidence to solve the mystery.
- 2D Parallax Art Style: Rue Valley has an instantly recognizable, visually appealing comic book aesthetic inspired by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Disco Elysium.
Rue Valley is available now on PC via Steam, GOG and the Epic Game Store, and console via Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4|5, and Nintendo Switch.
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About Emotion Spark Studio
Emotion Spark Studio was founded in January 2020 in Belgrade, Serbia. It’s comprised of people with years of experience in the gaming industry, including project design, development, management, and delivery.
About Owlcat Games
Owlcat Games is a developer and publisher with a passion for RPGs and narrative-driven games. From our beginnings as a small group of games industry veterans obsessed with the idea of making our dream games a reality, we have grown into a truly international company, with our headquarters in Cyprus and more than 450 employees spread across offices in various countries. We are continuing to expand and take on new hires from around the world, and we also get together every week to play tabletop games in the office and on Roll20 online.