A downloadable game for Windows and macOS

Buy Now$5.99 USD or more

Rivals is the sequel to Family.  A unique puzzle game with an immersive story.

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Soundtrack and the music that influenced Rivals.

Description

Rivals is a unique kind of detective game.

It follows the lives and careers of two musicians, Josh Moore and Luke Jackson over 15 years, as they progress in the alt-country scene. 

The game combines written, audio, visual and meta-game puzzles to create an enthralling and moving experience. It plays for roughly 2-3 hours, including an extensive post main-game experience.

The game also has an original soundtrack, performed by noted Americana singers Robert Chaney and Riley Catherall.

PressKit

Link

Please only use provided images, as this prevents spoilers.

Installation

Windows: Download the Installer and Run.

Mac: The downloadable version will work for versions pre Catalina. For those with Catalina, I suggest using a Master Disable or CrossOver.

StatusReleased
PlatformsWindows, macOS
Release date Sep 20, 2020
Rating
Rated 4.8 out of 5 stars
(10 total ratings)
AuthorOwlskip Games
GenrePuzzle
TagsDetective, Music, obra-like, Short, Singleplayer

Purchase

Buy Now$5.99 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:

Rivals Installer (Mac) 144 MB
Rivals Installer.exe 130 MB

Development log

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Comments

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(+1)

Oh how I wish they were real people whom I could fangirl over.

Another great game! I enjoyed piecing the story together and was curious about where it was all going to lead. The game was challenging enough without frustrating the player. I felt super smart for making some of the connections. :D

Is there a place where I can read the lyrics of the songs? As a non-native speaker, I'd appreciate some kind of menu in the game where I can read the lyrics and audio-files afterwards, to fill in the blanks for the details that I have missed.

Do you have a changelog of the update? I'm on day 2 right now; will it break my save, and are any of the changes high priority?

Thanks for the wonderful game!

The changes are super low priority, but no your save should remain safe as it is part of persistent data. Let me know how you get on!

I would like to buy this game and Family, but I don´t have credit card. Will it be possible to buy it with PayPal in the future? Thank you.

Lol! when first seeing a news article about this, I thought to myself, "someone else has done a Family"

About time too! Enjoy the game 😀

(4 edits)

Rivals is a unique twist on the investigation puzzle genre, a cleverly executed evolution of the type set out by Obra Dinn and Her Story. It's the kind of game you'll want to pull out a pen & paper to scrawl your mad thoughts on the page, and that's why I love it! 

Owl Skip has constructed a detailed tapestry of fictional history tied together with beautifully recorded custom soundtrack, character biographies and audio logs which you use to untangle the storied account of these interwoven bands. 

Like curating your own iTunes library, or digging through wikipedia to piece together the lineage of your favourite band, Rivals effortlessly delivers on the premise of sorting bands and albums into a timeline but peppers it with so much extra juicy detail you'll become lost in its own constructed world.

The game has a good handle on its difficulty curve, with the first chapter being completable with all information available to you, and subsequent chapters expanding the scope to internet sleuthing and riffling through your notepad of hastily scrawled notes desperately trying to make sense of it all.

By the end of the game you will feel like a super-fan at a pub quiz with an intimate knowledge of the subject matter, able to answer any question thrown at you.

Tying into their previous game, Family, Owl Skip clearly has an excellent handle on this burgeoning genre of detective simulation and I'm very interested to see where they take it next!

Thanks! It's like the long-form podcast of a book based on a PBS documentary.

(+1)

Really nice puzzle game. For a fan of alt country or just someone who likes a good story and clever puzzles!