Off-Peak and The Norwood Suite developer Cosmo D has announced their next project, which will be released this summer: Betrayal at Club Low. The indie dev and professional musician makes the kind of games that are weird, memorable and inspire a lot of chin-stroking. Using the word 'surreal' seems mandatory. If I had to sum up The Norwood Suite, it would be as an immersive sim in a bottle.
Betrayal at Club Low sets you the task of infiltrating a coffin factory-turned-nightclub to rescue an old colleague who's in over their head: "Your mission is to sneak into the club incognito and get him out before he blows his cover. Can you do it?"
This mini immersive sim takes place in the Off-Peak City setting, which is where the developer's previous games have been set, and promises a somewhat pen-and-paper RPG structure: "tactile dice-driven gameplay, and tense decisions at every turn" that add up to eleven possible endings.
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Well, I know which ending I'll be getting first: the one where your deadbeat character ends up in the gutter with their head blown off after insulting a doorman.
The game's Steam description goes into some detail on the RPG system, which is inspired by "short, punchy, independent zine RPGs" and involves seven skills: Athletics, Cooking, Deception, Music, Observation, Wisdom and Wit. The skills manifest as in-game dice which you upgrade the faces of, which does sound cool.
It can apparently be finished in one short session, but that's not really why people love Cosmo D's stuff. This will be a layered world full of alternative paths, dodgy choices, and some straight-up bizarre nonsense. And a great soundtrack.
To that end, as you play the game new elements of it will unlock: "new challenges, mutators and modes to uncover new layers of challenge and reward." Cosmo D also has something of a pizza fetish in their games and, sure enough, Betrayal At Club Low includes a pizza dice, which will apparently help you "get paid, get healed and gain an edge in the club." Delicious.
Stare at these appropriately weird screenshots while you wait for it to appear this summer.
