Tangerine Antarctic - Isometric prototype. Imperial Bedroom.
Thanks a ton for the great question. I’ll try to give you an idea why we switched from isometric view to 3rd person. While doing my utmost to avoid any spoilers.
Tangerine Antarctic is a living world. While you’re stranded in this off-season hotel, things keep happening non-stop. Dead bodies are found. Parties and afterparties abound. People and objects disappear. While the gym is still open and the spa hides some incredible guests. This is not a static place where you are just sent to do the post-mortem. No. Stuff happens. Your actions matter. And making a true detective’s RPG is all about giving you more of this luxurious freedom, detective. To solve the murders, to live your best life, or simply save the future.
Tangerine Antarctic - Isometric prototype. Imperial Bedroom.
First we had a whole dynamic and branching crime story mapped out with a very wide brush. And at the same time we started designing and producing the first underground level of the Tangerine Antarctic hotel. Designing the gameplay. Populating this Imperial Bedroom and other locations with characters. Writing the dialogues. Testing the role-playing systems. This is where the game begins.
Tangerine Antarctic - Isometric prototype. Imperial Bedroom.
We never wanted to create a spiritual successor to Disco Elysium or, Stalin forbid, some imaginary Disco Elysium 2. Nor did we want to simply polish the formula, to deliver you Disco Elysium 1.2 – once again with a huge painted world map. You know what I mean.
Tangerine Antarctic - Isometric prototype.
We wanted to make the game some of us wished to be making when we were tied down delivering Disco Elysium and the Final Cut. A true detective’s RPG that gives you a fresh and fun role-playing system while respecting your time. A game that you wish was longer. Not shorter.
Tangerine Antarctic - Isometric prototype. Bonsai Nursery.
My baseline is that we’re making a player-first RPG. Isometric perspective just wasn't a good enough tool for you to explore the most luxurious hotel of the world in 2086. It would have been a comfort zone for us. A comfort zone is not a safe space to be. Especially when you are dealing with murderers. And you’ll be dealing with them a lot.
Tangerine Antarctic - Isometric prototype.
So this is it. Change felt good. And now when we have most of this thrilling hotel mapped out I can already tell: it was inevitable. There was no other way for us to deliver you something really fresh and new. A true detective’s RPG.
Added bonus: when we freed our dialogue reel system from isometric view, writing and game design got so much easier and fun. We’ll sure show off something quite soon.
If you want to be the first to play the game, here's the link to Xsolla pre-orders:
https://tangerine-antarctic.xsolla.site/
That's how you’ll get enrolled to the Closed Alpha systems test play and to the Closed Beta.
Thanks a ton
Kaur Kender
Executive Producer, Tangerine Antarctic, DIsco Elysium
Take one last look at the isometric prototype of the Imperial Bedroom with the Wall of Pain. Soon you can be there for real, in person. In 3rd person.
Tangerine Antarctic - Isometric prototype. Wall of Pain.