The game has he player take on the role of Rita, a barista stuck on a desert island after a plane crash.

Rita, an art graduate working as a barista and the game's protagonist; Steve, a pessimist; Teddy, a conspiracy theorist; Garret, a gamer; and George and Jolene, a couple with marital problems.

The player is encouraged to replay the game to make different decisions and in turn to obtain alternate endings.

[7] Dyscourse was first conceived at an "IndieCabin" retreat with Owlchemy Labs founder Alex Schwartz, CTO Devin Reimer, and artist Carrie Witt.

[9][10] The developer described the game as "Lord of the Flies plus a choose-your-own-adventure book, with a dash of Lost, and a sprinkle of The Walking Dead (minus the zombies), crafted with the humour and style Owlchemy Labs is known for.

[8] Taking between 60 and 80 minutes to complete,[11] the game contains about 80,000 words of text, with a typical playthrough seeing around fifteen percent of these.

[15] In May 2015, Owlchemy Labs joined forces with the subscription box company IndieBox to offer an exclusive, individually-numbered, physical version of Dyscourse.

The limited collector's edition included a flash-drive with a DRM-free copy of the game, official soundtrack, instruction manual, Steam key, and various custom-designed collectibles.