A story that reshapes itself around your choices
Across the Grooves is an interactive graphic novel set in a magical-realism universe. Alice has an uneventful life: a long-term relationship, a stable office job, a nice apartment in the center of Bordeaux. Then an old vinyl record arrives in the mail from Ulysse, her ex-lover. Putting it on the turntable throws her back into her own past, and when she returns to the present, her reality has changed. Determined to get her life back on track, she packs up and follows Ulysse's trail across Europe, hunting for the origins of the record. The journey gradually turns into a quest of self-discovery as she moves through new parallel realities each time she puts the needle in the groove.
Playing it together
The game supports Remote Play Together, so friends can join in from their own machines while you take the story through European cities. Since the whole thing is driven by decisions, the group can talk through what to do next and watch how each choice alters Alice's personality and the reality she ends up in. It works well as a shared reading session: someone picks the option, everyone sees the consequences unfold, and the discussion about which path to take is half the fun. The narration is dynamic and the art is hand-drawn in a European comic book style, so there is plenty to look at and react to while you play.
What to know before starting
Every playthrough is a novel-sized adventure, and the hundreds of hand-drawn images mean you will not see all of them in one run. Choices matter throughout: each decision slightly shifts who Alice is, and the story branches into multiple paths and endings. The soundtrack adapts to your choices and the mood of each scene, so the audio follows along with the reality you are shaping. Expect a story-rich, choice-driven experience rather than action — this is a visual novel where the mystery, the characters and the destinations carry the game. Going in with the expectation that one run shows only one outcome makes replaying feel natural rather than repetitive.