Dark Math Games, one of the multiple studios staffed by former Disco Elysium developers to pop up and announce a very Disco Elysiumy RPG last year, have given their game a revamp. XXX Nightshift is now called Tangerine Antarctic, with the switch also bringing a shift from isometric perspective to third-person.
If you missed the recent flourishing of Disco spiritual successors created by ex-ZA/UMers, the others include Longdue’s RPG Hopetown and Summer Eternal’s mystery project. Meanwhile, Disco writer Robert Kurvitz and artist Aleksander Rostov are making something for a studio called Red Info, and ZA/UM themselves are working on a new CRPG called Zero Parades. It’s all very easy to keep track of.
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According to Dark Math Games founder Timo Albert, the pitch for Tangerine Antarctic is as follows: “Set at the World’s End ski village at Mount Hope, British Antartica, Tangerine Antarctic is the name of the in-game hotel, designed by renown Estonian architect Kaur Stőőr, where most of the games’ action takes place. This is where you are stuck because of the blizzard and must solve the mysterious murders. And Tangerine Antarctic is one of the important characters of this true detective’s RPG.”
The switch from isometric to third person could be construed as an effort to distance the game from the ‘Disco Elysium successor’ label that’s been applied with various degrees of cynicism to all of the projects I mentioned earlier. However, as you can see from the freshly posted peek at a bit of Tangerine Antarctic’s dialogue above, it still very much looks like someone’s reinterpreted Disco’s homework.
Dark Math’s revamped Steam page for the game promises “deep single-player role-playing with seismic choices” and a “unique companion dynamic” that helps you solve those murders. The devs write that your “choices, substances, and experiences” will all “affect how you hear and feel the world”. It also boasts a “Dopamine Buffet”, which is described thusly: “Rehearse your moves. Dance through crime scenes. Drift through parties. Or find pleasure in completing the simplest chores. Get better with every action you take.”
So, you’re like Hercule Poirot with the ability to do the macarena whenever someone snuffs it, and also the power to do some “Marafet calculations to alter your time and space”. Sounds like it could be fun, but who knows with any of these games at this point.
Tangerine Antarctic doesn’t have a release date, but you can wishlist it on Steam.