Disney Dreamlight Valley’s August update adds The Princess and the Frog’s Tiana to the valley — and along with her, a new restaurant called Tiana’s Palace. That’s right, Ratatouille’s Remy is no longer the only chef in town. On Tuesday, Disney Dreamlight Valley developer Gameloft Montreal announced its next update, which will include Tiana, her restaurant, and a new restaurant stall that sells premade meals. She’ll also come with 1920s-style decor to give Dreamlight Valley some New Orleans flair.
Disney just replaced its controversial Splash Mountain ride with a new attraction, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, making it a perfect time to bring the princess to the game. Disney Dreamlight Valley creative director Josh Labelle told Polygon that players can expect lots of new, delightful interactions between Tiana and the valley cohort. “I particularly love seeing Tiana trading recipes with Remy as they compare the finer points of Cajun and Parisian cuisine, clashing with Mother Gothel (of course), and sharing her culinary talents and New Orleans traditions with the Valley,” he said in an email interview.
Beyond Tiana’s appearance, the August update — with timing to be determined later — developer Gameloft Montreal is closing out its A Rift in Time expansion with the addition of Agrabah Palace from Aladdin.
Ahead of the announcement, Polygon spoke to Labelle about Tiana, the ending of A Rift in Time, and the future of Disney Dreamlight Valley.
[Ed. note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]
Polygon: Does Tiana’s Palace function differently than Remy’s?
Josh Labelle: Tiana’s Palace is indeed a new restaurant for the Valley, and it will share some of the same functionality that Chez Remy has, acting as a place for villagers to gather and enjoy meals served by the player. I want to shout out the artists on the team who did an amazing job bringing Tiana’s Palace to life, with direct inspiration from the beautiful visual style of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog.
What will set Tiana apart from Chez Remy is the new stall that will accompany her restaurant. At Chez Remy, players can purchase ingredients, but they’ve never been able to purchase full meals. Tiana will offer players a daily rotation of food, including some meals that are uniquely New Orleans-inspired.
With this addition, even players who don’t love cooking will now be able to get the benefits of 5-star meals each day or have a chance to stock up on gifts for their villagers.
Do you have any favorite moments or interactions — even small things! — from the upcoming new content?
Tiana is such a fun character; the team has done an amazing job creating interesting interactions between her and the rest of the Villagers. I particularly love seeing Tiana trading recipes with Remy as they compare the finer points of Cajun and Parisian cuisine, clashing with Mother Gothel (of course), and sharing her culinary talents and New Orleans traditions with the Valley.
Meanwhile, in the conclusion of our expansion pass, Disney Dreamlight Valley: A Rift in Time, the team has done a wonderful job of creating Jafar’s twisted version of Agrabah Palace for our players to explore, along with a few more surprises that draw on Disney history to create some special moments with a certain classic character.
What have you learned about what players want out of Disney Dreamlight Valley? Has that evolved over the past two years?
We learn more about our players with every update. That direct relationship with the players and community is something I love about working on Disney Dreamlight Valley. We’re continually working to improve and be more responsive to our players.
In terms of big insights, this year has reaffirmed for us how important it is to commit resources to improving our existing features and making the game a smoother experience. In the coming updates, we will have a focus on quality-of-life improvements, while addressing some of the biggest requests from players, like overhauling how our wardrobe and furniture catalogues work and making it easier to sort these items.
We’ve also seen that players enjoy different aspects of Disney Dreamlight Valley. Some players are here to adventure with their favorite Disney characters, while others love the customization and décor. We’re trying to provide something exciting in each update for each kind of player.
Can you speak to the features coming in 2025 that add more ways for people to play together? How important has that functionality been for Disney Dreamlight Valley players?
In terms of multiplayer, we currently have two ways for players to play together: Valley Visits and weekly DreamSnaps competitions. Valley Visits have been a great addition to our game for players who want to share their designs, check out what Scrooge McDuck has in stock in other Valleys, or show off their creativity and get inspiration from each other. We’ve improved that experience since launch, with the ability to do more activities in the Valley while visiting each other.
On the other hand, DreamSnaps allows players to share and vote on pictures in weekly challenges to earn rewards, which has inspired a lot of creativity from our players. As we’ve talked to our players about multiplayer features, we have heard a few recurring things: first, some players are very interested in multiplayer and would love more ways to play together, but simply don’t know enough people who play the game at the same time they do, which limits our current Valley Visits feature. Some of these players are also a bit nervous about playing host to people in their villages.
The new multiplayer features we’re developing for 2025 are aimed at this kind of player, offering them ways to play together and work towards goals without needing to be online at the same time, and without needing to host other players in their Valley.
The other thing that we’ve heard from players is that some of them are just not interested in multiplayer and come to our game for a cozy solo experience. I think that’s totally fair and we want to respect these players and make sure that they are comfortable with the way we integrate any new multiplayer features in the future.
With respect to A Rift in Time coming to an end: What did you learn from the expansion pass and how people experience storytelling in Disney Dreamlight Valley?
With Disney Dreamlight Valley: A Rift in Time, we wanted to give players an exciting side story that would bring new villagers, biomes, and optional features to the game.
As we work on future content for the game, we’ve taken a few lessons from the expansion pass. The first is the importance of pacing. Players were excited to have so much to do and so many new quests in A Rift in Time. Unlike our base game, though, the main story asked a lot of our players in terms of the effort needed to unlock new areas, and the experience didn’t always feel as satisfying as it could have. In the future, we’re aiming to give players more opportunities to stop, relax, and engage with the sandbox without feeling rushed along to the next quest. We’re also aiming to give even more interesting quests throughout.
In terms of our level design, we wanted to create a unique world full of secrets to uncover. In some cases, we heard from players that the world of Eternity Isle had a few too many twists and turns, and it was difficult to navigate and customize. With future biomes, we’re aiming to keep the thrill of exploration, while making them simpler and easier to decorate, with better and more visible landmarks that are true to Disney stories. We also want the secrets and surprises players find to be more meaningful.
A huge success from A Rift in Time that we hope to keep building on is its approach to new characters like Gaston, Rapunzel, and EVE. By being true to their accompanying Disney and Pixar stories, as well as the core of our game, the team created hilarious moments with Gaston, like him building a replacement LeFou out of coconuts, as well as an emotionally moving friendship with Rapunzel and a chance to reunite EVE and WALL-E.
A Rift in Time reaffirmed for us the core of the game that we want to hold onto and build on: magical moments with beloved characters, set in a beautiful world that players can decorate and make completely their own.
Are you able to share the current active player count?
We have a healthy and stable player-base at the moment and see that many of our players continue to be excited to return to the game whenever we add a new character that they love. With that in mind, we’re currently very focused on building out a strong roadmap for 2025, filled with Disney favorites. We’re excited to share more of this roadmap with players soon.
The post Disney Dreamlight Valley update adds Tiana and her iconic restaurant in August appeared first on Polygon.
