Ethan Crossfield 
Summer Eternal has lifted the lid on Red Rooster, its first RPG and a project with clear creative links to Disco Elysium. The studio was founded by former Disco Elysium writers Argo Tuulik and Dora Klindžić, who had previously worked on the canceled sequel at ZA/UM. Red Rooster is still early in development, but its combination of psychological role-playing systems and physical world simulation makes it a notable new project to watch.
What happened: Summer Eternal announced Red Rooster
Red Rooster follows Redrick “Rooster” Roost, a former convict investigating an unidentified arsonist in the fictional city of Arta-Tantor. Summer Eternal describes the setting as magical realism adjacent to the real world, while the story also carries science-fiction elements. Rather than positioning the game as a direct successor to Disco Elysium, the studio is building a new RPG around its own protagonist, city, and systems.
Why it matters: role-playing choices meet physical simulation
The game’s most distinctive feature is the Coop, a playable mental space inhabited by Redrick’s alter egos, known as Roosters. Dialogue decisions can strengthen, weaken, admit, or exclude these personalities. Ignoring a favored Rooster does not necessarily remove it permanently, either; it may attempt to enter Redrick’s mind on its own terms. That creates a potentially more confrontational version of an internal-character system, where player preference and character instability can clash.
Red Rooster also aims to make its world more tactile than a conventional dialogue-led RPG. Objects are intended to have physical weight and momentum, and players will interact through gestures rather than relying solely on point-and-click actions. Summer Eternal says the city will react to decisions through both authored and randomized events, while objects can be moved, manipulated, or burned.
What to watch next: a long development road
Summer Eternal estimates that Red Rooster could still require three to four more years of development. It is being made in Unreal Engine with PC as the lead platform, although the studio intends to pursue PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch versions later. The planned campaign is ambitious: Summer Eternal has outlined a 25-to-30-hour story with roughly 850,000 words. Those targets signal a substantial narrative RPG, but they also underline how early the project remains.
Key takeaways for RPG fans
- Red Rooster comes from a studio founded by former Disco Elysium writers.
- Its central investigation concerns a mysterious arsonist in the city of Arta-Tantor.
- The Coop system lets players shape which alter egos influence the protagonist.
- Physical objects and a reactive city are intended to drive experimentation beyond dialogue choices.
- PC is the primary platform, with console versions planned for the future.
Red Rooster development details
| Category | Current detail |
|---|---|
| Engine | Unreal Engine |
| Primary platform | PC |
| Planned campaign length | Around 25 to 30 hours |
| Planned story size | Approximately 850,000 words |
| Release outlook | Possibly three to four years away |
Expert View
Red Rooster’s strongest pitch is not simply its Disco Elysium connection, but its attempt to fuse dense character writing with a world players can physically disrupt. If Summer Eternal can make the Coop’s competing personalities feel as consequential as the city’s simulation, it could offer a fresh answer to the question of how RPG choices should affect both the hero and the world around them.
