Hey all!

We're back this week with the second entry of the 'Faces of Revachol' series from our website. Without further ado, meet Joyce L. Messier!



Joyce L. Messier, Senior Labour Negotiator for the Wild Pines Group, has a very big problem: no one wants to negotiate with her. She came to Martinaise hoping to work out a compromise with the Dockworkers’ Union and end to the strike that has been going on for months, resulting in major losses for the Wild Pines. But Evrart Claire, foreman of the Dockworkers’ Union, has been unwilling to make any concessions, and, having kicked out the previous negotiator, isn’t even letting Joyce into the harbour. Worse yet, the Union stopped all communication with her following the murder you’re investigating. And so you find Joyce docked by the pier in her sloop, sipping tea, exasperated by the entire situation.



This must be something of a new experience for her. Not only is she a professional negotiator, she represents a major logistics conglomerate with a 250-year history — The Wild Pines Group owns the harbour! What’s more: it was the Wild Pines Group that built the district of Martinaise, or at least invested the money for it to be built. Trouble is, Evrart Claire and his twin brother Edgar now unofficially run Martinaise, as we discussed in our blog post on Evrart. In this standoff between the Wild Pines Group and the Dockworkers’ Union, who will prevail?


Early concept art — my, how she’s changed.

As befits a representative of the Wild Pines, Joyce has the air of very old money — generations upon generations of politesse and finger sandwiches. She will be more than courteous with you and even helpful — if you can successfully negotiate with her. Beyond information that may aid you in your investigation, however, she has something to offer that came down to her with that very old money: a broad education of the sort one doesn’t usually comes across in impoverished Martinaise. Joyce is a treasure trove of knowledge for an amnesiac detective who doesn’t really understand what planet he’s on and how it came to be the way it is. You just might find yourself whiling away some hours with her by the water, listening to the waves lapping against the hull of her sloop, entranced by her erudition and lulling eloquence.

See you next time!

Hello everyone,

This year we started a 'Faces of Revachol' series on our website, where we began to introduce some of the characters you will meet in Disco Elysium. In case you missed it, here is our first entry in the series... Meet Evrart Claire.



If ever there was a cat who got the cream, it’s Evrart Claire, foreman of the Dockworkers’ Union of Martinaise. Known locally as “the Union boss,” he wields power that far exceeds the powers granted by his office.

This should come as no surprise in Revachol, a city provisionally governed by a coalition of nations less interested in governing than in casual exploitation, where even law enforcement – and that includes you! – has little authority. People like Evrart who know how to be something for everyone flourish in such circumstances. You’ll find that the citizens of Martinaise either love him or hate him, but all of them are forced to reckon with him — and with the members of the Dockworkers’ Union, who think of themselves as the real police in Martinaise.

Upon meeting him, you’ll quickly realise that Evrart is a man of great ambition and few scruples. But he’ll always welcome you with a smile and insist on talking “man to man.” You may find yourself thinking he’s just a mob boss putting up a congenial front, but, then, who and what is there apart from organised crime and corporations (arguably interchangeable terms) to keep the peace and attempt steps toward progress in the region? Surrounded by apartment buildings still bearing the marks of the failed Revolution of half a century ago, you may be tempted to hope that a fat cat whose primary motivations are to increase his power and line his own pockets is an appropriate leader.



And while you may not trust him, you’ll have to reckon with him, just like everybody else. He knows things. He has people.

Oh, and Evrart also has an identical twin brother, Edgar, who is up to pretty much the same things. They’ve taken turns running the Union. Which is to say: the Claires have been an institution unto themselves.

Let’s not forget that Evrart’s also just a man, though. He likes his black coffee. He likes fishing. And he’ll work with you, whatever your political leanings, however odd your behaviour – and he’ll do it with his signature smile.



See you next time!

Hey everyone!

Things have been a bit quiet recently but we’re here to change that! First up we have an update from our trip to San Francisco for GDC, some recent press to share and 5 of our favourite games from the conference. The team had an awesome time, attending numerous talks, events and meeting inspiring developers from all over the world. Lots of awesome people dropped by to play the game, so a huge thank you to those who did. As always we really appreciate the feedback, the support and the patience from all our fans.



We showed the game for 2 days with the wonderful Indie MEGABOOTH. Big shout out to all the organisers, volunteers and crew that help make it possible! You can see their post show recap here!


Since our return Disco Elysium has been featured in a number of articles and videos. Paste Magazine listed us as one of their 10 best gamesfrom GDC and RPG Codex got a hands on show floor demo of the game. Windows Central also highlighted us as an upcoming indie game and GameZakh included us in this mega list of PC RPG's!

Inkle
https://store.steampowered.com/app/774201/Heavens_Vault/
The Wandering Band
https://store.steampowered.com/app/982290/Airborne_Kingdom/
Studio Zevere
https://store.steampowered.com/app/492540/She_Dreams_Elsewhere/
Luden.io
https://store.steampowered.com/app/619150/while_True_learn/
Finite Reflections Studios
https://store.steampowered.com/app/676930/

There were so many awesome games at GDC that we couldn't possibly share them all, but you should check out as many of them as you can.

Until next time!

Hey folks!

We're back with NEW SCREENSHOTS, NEW FESTIVE HATS & OUTFITS! Please also be sure to check us out in the latest issues of  EDGE  and and the dual-cover edition of Wireframe - we're super proud of them both.










Oh, and we happen to be at ACG Play in Nanjing, China later on in the month from the 30th to the 31st of December. Drop on by!



Merry x-mas from everyone at ZA/UM!

Hello everyone and welcome to the last entry in our Day of the Devs Game Highlights series. We hope you have enjoyed joining us on this journey of discovering just a few of the incredible games that were on show at the event. If you missed out on attending this time, be sure to keep updated by following Double Fine so you’ll be the first to hear news about next year's event. We absolutely loved taking part in Day of the Devs, and we love being able to support our fellow developers in their pursuits.

Just so you are aware our first game in this week’s blog, is published by Humble, who is also our publisher. The second game was worked on by our very own EMi, who supported the project as the social media manager for their Kickstarter. We feel so proud to be a part of a community alongside these wonderful games!

Ikenfell (Humble)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/854940/Ikenfell/

https://twitter.com/ChevyRay
A turn-based tactical RPG about a group of troublesome magic students. Use timing mechanics to power your spells and block attacks, explore the twisted halls of a vast magic school, fight challenging monsters and bosses, and uncover dark secrets never meant to be found.

Genesis Noir
https://store.steampowered.com/app/735290/Genesis_Noir/

https://twitter.com/GenesisNoirGame
A noir adventure set before, during and after the Big Bang. Explore black holes, primordial Earth, and jazz cafes. Witness the birth and history of mankind. Find comfort in a glass of gin. Search for a way to destroy creation.

Desert Child
https://store.steampowered.com/app/844050/Desert_Child/

https://twitter.com/moomoomang
You’re broke, you’re hungry, and your only friends are a vintage hoverbike and a bowl of ramen noodles. In Desert Child, you are a young and talented hoverbike racer who needs to figure out how you can scrape enough cash together through racing and odd jobs to punch your one-way ticket to the Red Planet to enter the biggest race in the universe, the Grand Prix.

Noita
https://store.steampowered.com/app/881100/Noita/

https://twitter.com/NollaGames
Noita is a magical action roguelite set in a world where every pixel is physically simulated. Fight, explore, melt, burn, freeze and evaporate your way through the procedurally generated world using spells you've created yourself. Explore a variety of environments ranging from coal mines to freezing wastelands while delving deeper in search for unknown mysteries.

Bee Simulator
https://store.steampowered.com/app/914750/Bee_Simulator/

https://twitter.com/BeeSimulator
See the world through the eyes of a bee! Compete with other bees in races, collect pollen, perform waggle dances, and explore a world inspired by Central Park in New York. Play it with your family or friends, choosing between three modes, including co-op and vs. split-screen.

Let us know which of the games from our series were your top picks in the comments!

Hey folks, it’s that time again!

We’re still going strong with our recommendations of our favourite games from Day of the Devs. This is our penultimate entry in the series, so grab a cup of tea or coffee and take a look at what we have selected this week! Be sure to show your support to the games that you like the look of by adding them to your wishlist or following them on social media.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/427940/Industries_of_Titan/

@IndustriesGame
Create a sprawling industrial city. Compete with the other Great Houses of Titan for resources, territory, and power. Do battle with ships, technology, influence, or the sheer productive power of your factories. Stake your claim to the Industries of Titan in this innovative sim/strategy game!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/711540/Lonely_Mountains_Downhill/

@LonelyMnts
Just you and your bike - take it on a thrilling ride down an unspoiled mountain landscape. Make your way through thick forests, narrow trails and wild rivers. Race, jump, slide and try not to crash - all the way from the peak to the valley!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/683320/GRIS/

@nomadastudiobcn
Gris is a hopeful young girl lost in her own world, dealing with a painful experience in her life. Her journey through sorrow is manifested in her dress, which grants new abilities to better navigate her faded reality. As the story unfolds, Gris will grow emotionally and see her world in a different way, revealing new paths to explore using her new abilities.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/812160/Etherborn/

@Etherborn
Delve into a third-person environmental puzzle platformer built on exploring and understanding gravity-shifting structures. You are a voiceless being that has just been born into a world where a bodiless voice awaits your arrival. Go forth and seek your purpose.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/956030/Creaks/

@Armanita_Design
Meet your new neighbours.

Tune in next time for our last installment in the series!

Hello and welcome back to the third entry in our Day of the Devs Game highlights series. We’re over halfway! We still can’t quite get over how many unique games were on show, so here’s another 5 for you to check out!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/837470/Untitled_Goose_Game/

@house_house_
It's a lovely morning in the village and you are a horrible goose.
Untitled Goose Game is a slapstick-stealth-sandbox, where you are a goose let loose on an unsuspecting village. Make your way around town, from peoples' back gardens to the high street shops to the village green, setting up pranks, stealing hats, honking a lot, and generally ruining everyone’s day.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/729000/Wytchwood/

@AlientrapGames
Wytchwood is a crafting adventure game set in an expressive land of gothic fables and fairytales. As the mysterious old witch of the woods, you will explore a strange countryside, collect magical ingredients, brew sorcerous enchantments, and pass your twisted judgement upon a capricious cast of characters and creatures.
After all, how will they ever learn if you don’t teach them the moral of the story?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/828900/The_Stillness_of_the_Wind/

@MemoryofGod
One by one, everyone left the once bustling village for the city. Everyone, except Talma. Now approaching the end of her days, she maintains a simple, solitary way of life, surviving, subsisting, tending to her homestead and her goats. Develop your own personal routine as you care for your farm and your animals. Tend to your goats, make cheese with their milk, collect eggs and cook meals, grow vegetables and barter with the travelling merchant who brings increasingly disturbing letters from your family in the city.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/355680/Overland/

@OverlandGame
Make the most of a terrible situation. See things no one was meant to see. Survive - barely.
Overland is squad-based survival strategy game with procedurally generated levels set in post-apocalyptic North America. Every random level is full of close calls and hard choices, even though the interface is approachable and easy to learn. Manage fuel supplies, weapons, and other items by making the right choices on the procedural roadmaps. A road trip straight into the heart of the cataclysmic event that changed the Earth forever.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/977880/Eastward/

@eastwardgame
In the near-future society is starting to collapse, with the human population shrinks to an all-time low. As the world around falls to ruin, a hardworking miner called John discovers a young girl named Sam deep underground in a secret facility. After escaping the town, the unlikely pair embark on an emotional journey to discover the strange truth about her origins and the mystery behind the sinister creatures who descend on the local towns, devouring everything in their path.

See you next week!

Welcome back to our second entry in our new game highlights series, where we showcase amazing games from Day of the Devs! You can find all of the games that are currently listed on Steam here.

Let’s go!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/963000/The_Haunted_Island_a_Frog_Detective_Game/

@Gracebruxner
You're a detective, and a frog, and it's time to solve a mystery. A small sloth has been haunted for weeks by a mysterious ghost that nobody can seem to track down. There's a mystery afoot, and the only one who can solve it is the renowned investigator known simply as The Detective. Finding clues and questioning suspects is just part of the job for such an experienced frog, but this case is a tough fly to catch.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/762220/Afterparty/

@AfterpartyGame
In Afterparty, you are Milo and Lola, recently deceased best buds who suddenly find themselves staring down an eternity in Hell. But there's a loophole: outdrink Satan and he'll grant you re-entry to Earth. Milo and Lola are now dead, thirsty, and roaming the streets of Nowhere, the outermost island of Hell. What adventures will you stumble through in the underworld? Every step is up to you. Time to go on the best bender ever, uncover the mystery of why you've been damned, and drink the big guy under the table.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/861540/Dicey_Dungeons/

@diceydungeons
Escape the cruel whims of Lady Luck in Dicey Dungeons! A new roguelike by Terry Cavanagh, Marlowe Dobbe, and Chipzel. Fighting against fortune would be a lot easier if you weren't a walking dice. Learn to master six different characters, each with their own unique playstyles - ranging from the push your luck and risk it all Robot, to the swaggering, just smash stuff Warrior, to the carefully laid plans of the Witch.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/680380/Night_Call/

@nightcallgame
Night Call is a murder mystery noire game set in Paris. You are a taxi driver, working to earn enough to pay your bills while aiding the investigation by doing what you do best: getting people to talk while you have their attention. Can you solve the mystery before it’s too late? Better hurry - both the clock and the meter are running…

https://store.steampowered.com/app/890720/In_Other_Waters/

@InOtherWaters
An alien ocean, rich with impossible life.
A lone xenobiologist, adrift in a world of secrets.
An AI, waking from a dreamless sleep, ready to guide humanity to a terrible truth.
In Other Waters is a unique exploration game, where you must aid xenobiologist Ellery Vas in diving and studying the depths of a distant alien ocean.

See you next time!

We recently attended #DayOfTheDevs in San Francisco, hosted by Double Fine and iam8bit. It was such an amazing day, and we’re so humbled to have been part of the event. Thank you to everyone who made it possible, to all the sponsors & volunteers. A big thank you also to everyone who stopped by to play Disco Elysium- there were so many of you! There were so many incredibly awesome games there, and honestly you should check them all out if you can. While we can’t share every single game we are going to highlight 25 games, 5 per week that we all loved!

So let’s start with our first 5. Be sure to add them to your wishlist!

We couldn’t resist paying it back to Double Fine for showcasing us at Day of the Devs by highlighting their upcoming titles that were on show. Our first three entries are published by Double Fine.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/592480/Knights_And_Bikes/

@foamswordgames
Knights and Bikes is a hand-painted action-adventure set on a British island in the 1980s. You’ll play as Nessa & Demelza, tough imaginative girls, exploring the island in a Goonies-inspired tale. It's an adventure that sees them pedaling into danger, seeking treasure and ancient mysteries to solve.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/593150/Ooblets/

@ooblets
Ooblets is a farming, town life, and creature collection game inspired by Pokémon, Harvest Moon, and Animal Crossing. Manage your farm, grow and train your ooblets, explore strange lands, and have dance-offs!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/793370/KIDS/

@playkids_ch
KIDS is a short interactive animation drawn by Michael Frei and coded by Mario von Rickenbach.
KIDS their second collaboration after the award-winning project PLUG & PLAY.
KIDS allows you to move with and against crowds until everyone is gone.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/546430/Pathway/

@robotality
Pathway is a strategy adventure game featuring turn-based combat and unique story encounters. Explore temples, tombs and the desert wilderness in a grand pulp adventure!


A Light in Chorus
@lightinchorus
"A Light In Chorus" is a first person adventure game about experiencing the world through strange new eyes. Players explore a submerged future Earth via the contents of a crash-landed time capsule, loosely inspired by the Voyager Golden Records.

Thanks for stopping by!

What’s up, pals?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM7ABhRUKpY
Day of the Devs is this weekend!! Myself, Mikk, and EMi are all making our way to San Francisco so we can share Disco Elysium with all of you. Just in case you missed those details, you’ll be able to come by The Midway (900 Marin Street, San Francisco, CA 94124) on Sunday the 11th from 3pm - 9pm and play our game to your heart’s content, along with 70+ other phenomenal titles. There will even be music performances from game industry greats Doseone, Chipzel, and Hydelic. The best part is the whole thing is free, all ages, and open to the public. Just make sure you RSVP! Thank you so much to Double Fine and iam8bit for having us.



We also have some pretty big news! We’ve started work on a Chinese translation of Disco Elysium!! We’ve localized the first hour of gameplay into simplified Chinese, and to celebrate that progress we’ll be showing off that demo at Games Fusion Lite Guangzhou this weekend (November 10th and 11th) as well. There’s a write-up you can look to for more details! While this Chinese localization won’t be available upon launch, we promise we’ll be working hard to make this version be its best. We hope you’ll support us!




We’ve also had a couple more mentions of Disco Elysium in the press. We’re honoured to be included in the final issue of GamesMaster, though we’re quite sad to say goodbye to the magazine and are thankful to everyone who worked hard on that project. Additionally, our lead writer and designer Robert Kurvitz spoke with gamesindustrybiz about Disco Elysium, its exploration of alcoholism, as well as the intersections of tragedy and comedy. It’s a stellar read, so please check it out!

Until next time!