Summer Eternal, a studio founded by key members of the 'Disco Elysium' development team, has revealed its new RPG, 'Red Rooster'.
Prior to the reveal, Summer Eternal teased the announcement on September 28 with a roughly 49-second teaser video. The video featured a cracking egg with a yolk turning red, the phrase "Come home to roost," and a countdown to October 14, though no concrete details about the game were disclosed at the time.
On October 14, as the countdown came to an end, Summer Eternal officially released details on 'Red Rooster', including its world setting and core gameplay direction.
'Red Rooster' is an RPG centered on physics simulation and a high degree of interactivity. Players step into the shoes of Redrick Roost, a white-collar inmate serving time in prison, who is offered a proposal by a government agency ahead of his parole to investigate a string of serial arson cases. At the center of the investigation lies his brother, the city's fire chief.
The game is set in the fictional city of Arta-Tantor, a setting that blends political alternate history with science fiction elements. Its world draws inspiration from the 1980s Yugoslavian coast and Eastern Bloc, as well as Ottoman culture, Scandinavian social democracy, and the Dutch Empire. Set against a backdrop of record-breaking heatwaves, power outages, and wildfires, the city is simultaneously hosting a massive sporting event.
Summer Eternal describes 'Red Rooster' as a fusion of traditional dialogue-driven RPGs and physics-based immersive sims. Players can directly move, manipulate, or set fire to objects, departing from a fixed isometric view in favor of 3D environments with a variable camera. The project is being developed using Unreal Engine.
The main inspirations cited by the developers are explicit. The concept combines the non-linear RPG structures of 'Planescape: Torment', 'Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines', and 'Arcanum' with the physics-driven environmental interaction seen in titles like 'Exanima', Larian Studios' RPGs, and 'Dark Messiah of Might and Magic'.
Summer Eternal is drawing significant attention due to the high concentration of former 'Disco Elysium' talent on its team. The studio includes Argo Tuulik, who worked as a writer on the original game, alongside Lenval Brown, the narrator of 'Disco Elysium: The Final Cut', and writer Olga Moskvina. Former ZA/UM staff such as Dora Klindžić, Anastasia Ivanova, and Michael Oswell are also part of the venture.
Released in 2019, 'Disco Elysium' was an RPG that prioritized dialogue, choices, and a granular skill system built around the protagonist's inner psyche over traditional combat. By portraying an amnesiac detective investigating a murder case, it explored political, social, and psychological themes, earning acclaim for its open-ended freedom and novel narrative design. The PC release scored a 91 on Metacritic.
Most notably, at The Game Awards 2019, it won four categories—the most of any title that year—including Best Narrative and Best Role-Playing Game. Later, 'Disco Elysium: The Final Cut' was released with full voice acting and additional content.
However, Summer Eternal is not an official successor studio to ZA/UM, and 'Red Rooster' is neither a direct sequel nor a continuation of the 'Disco Elysium' setting. It is an independent project created anew by members of the original dev team.
'Red Rooster' will launch first on PC, with PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2 versions planned for a later release. An exact release date has not yet been announced.
