Dupery: A Game of Solo Deduction will launch on Steam on October 15th with a 20% discount, after players in the game’s Discord community cracked an ARG tied to its release.
The detective game is developed by Gilded Rune Games and published by Yogscast Games, which announced the discount during the Convergence Showcase on October 8th. An ARG, or alternate reality game, is a puzzle hunt that hides its clues outside the game itself, while Discord is a chat platform used by many gaming communities.
According to a release, the community’s ‘Discord Detectives’ worked through a series of increasingly difficult clues to unlock the offer. The 20% discount will apply on Steam, the PC gaming storefront, when the game goes live.
What is Dupery?
Dupery is a single-player detective game set in a film noir mystery, where players work through cases and decide who to arrest. According to the release, it combines elements of social deduction games, roguelites and puzzle games.
Social deduction games are usually played in groups, with players trying to work out who among them is lying. Roguelites are built around repeated runs that play out differently each time. Dupery takes those ideas into a solo format, which Yogscast Games has called ‘a standout solo experience’.
The publisher has also pointed to the game’s replayability, much of which comes from procedurally generated cases. In other words, the game’s code builds a fresh case at the start of each run (instead of the developers writing each one by hand). According to the release, its key features include:
- A solo deduction roguelite with more than 175 handcrafted roles
- A reputation meter that players must protect as they make arrests
- Three regions, each with its own mechanics and roles
- Procedurally generated cases, so no two runs are the same
- A choice of roles, quirks and modifiers between missions
- A notation toolkit with strings, pins and notes for building an in-game crime board
Who is behind Dupery?
Gilded Rune Games is a three-person independent studio in Bristol, UK, run by Matt, Luke and Lydia. The team makes small 2D indie games and, according to the release, favours projects with ‘unique mechanics and rich story elements’.
Yogscast Games was founded in 2017 and works with independent developers to develop and publish their games. Its stated goal is to back titles that people enjoy watching as much as playing.
The publisher’s previous releases include PlateUp!, which has sold over 3m copies on Steam. Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers, another of its titles, grossed over $1m in its first month on sale, according to the release.
