It’s been five years Disco Elysium and the curious detective story, set in the fictional, post-communist town of Revachol, was released. Disco Elysium has since been heralded as one of the best games ever made, a testament to its complex conversation system and brilliant writing that combines a compelling mystery story with the deep world-building of Revachol’s failed revolution. Disco Elysium is one of those games that pops up again and again – a testament to what games can be.
After the success of the game came the internal and external pressure of what would come next Disco Elysium creator ZA/UM seemingly began to collapse under the weight of it all. It too It makes sense that undoing ZA/UM – and the reconstruction of Disco Elysium‘s legacy – would be as complicated as the game itself. ZA/UM obviously still exists in some form, despite reportedly firing its writing team: Several vacancies have been posted, including one published in the past month. ZA/UM too owns the trademark for Disco Elysium also in Great Britain.
From the proverbial ashes, Disco Elysium head writer Robert Kurvitz and Sander Taal (who goes by Aleksander Rostov) filed to form a company Called Red Info in 2022. Not much is known about the company other than that there appears to be involvement from NetEase, according to PC Gamer. (That reporting seems to stem from the recording of Qihao LiuNetEase’s investment director, as director of the company.) But in the lead-up to Disco Elysiumthe fifth anniversary, three More studios were announced – not all of which were spiritual successors Disco Elysiumbut each with some claims on his estate.
The first additional studio is Dark Math, which has at least some involvement controversial Disco Elysium producer Kaur Kender; his sibling, Heiti Kender, is stated in the company files. Also the founder and CEO of Dark Math, Mihkel Oja praised Kaur Kender’s involvement in Dark Math in a post on LinkedIn. Dark Math makes XXX Night shift, described on Steam like a detective RPG set in a luxury ski resort. Then there’s a studio called Longdue, which is making an unnamed “spiritual successor.” Disco Elysiumreportedly staffed by veterans from ZA/UM, Bungie and Rockstar Games. A Longdue representative declined to share the names of those involved with Polygon, beyond those mentioned in the press release: former Rocksteady story director Grant Roberts and “investor rep” Riaz Moola (neither of whom are former ZA/UM) . While there is no specific information yet on Longdue’s game, it is described in a press release as a “psychogeographic RPG with narrative depth”; it promises to be a “stable and reliable voice in the future of isometric RPG design,” according to the press release.
Roberts told Polygon via email that Longdue, despite the name all over the press release, “is not limited to honoring one game.” But it will examine the “touchstones” found in Disco Elysium: “Psychological complexity, intelligent storytelling, rich interiority, seismic conversations with characters,” Roberts said. “All in a world like ours, with themes that are extremely relevant to our world – but that make the truly extraordinary possible, both inside and outside the main character’s head.”
Asked if he was surprised to see two others Disco Elysium-like studios announced on the same day, Roberts said it was “as surprising to us as it was to the rest of the world when we weren’t the only studio announcing on Friday.” He continued: “We are very excited to create something new, but we also share the world’s excitement about so many titles that aim to build on the great things that have happened Disco did.”
The last and perhaps most revolutionary is Summer Eternal, a studio that introduced itself with a manifesto recognizing the “apocalyptic material conditions for game makers around the world.” So far, Summer Eternal consists of Disco Elysium writers Argo Tuulik, Dora Klindžić and Olga Moskvina; Disco Elysium: The latest version narrator Lenval Brown; Disco Elysium concept artist Anastasia Ivanova; Gamechuck developer Aleksandar Gavrilović; and ZA/UM graphic designer Michael Oswell. The studio will not have a traditional model. Instead, the experimental structure means the creative co-op owns 50% of the company’s shares, while full-time employees retain creative control. A second co-op for part-time, freelance or outsourced help will have a 25% stake in the company. The next 20% will be owned by an LLC that investors will fund, while the final 5% of shares will be given to a nonprofit intended for people who buy copies of Summer Eternal’s games.
“We do not want to live in the NDA dystopia where labor law is weaponized against people who are too poor, broken, exhausted and stupid to defend themselves, and are often silenced with enormous consequences for their self-esteem and future mental capabilities . health,” Tuulik told Polygon in an email interview. “It is bad when you are wronged; not being able to talk about it can break someone. We want to make it work based on trust, and not on fear and backroom deals.”
That is why the studio wants to build a culture of transparency, both internally and externally. “Our meme-worthy slogan ‘Every Player – Member of the Board’ should not be taken lightly,” Gavrilović told Polygon via an email interview. Tuulik added that the goal is for players to be able to hold Summer Eternal accountable; with that 5%, players can call a general meeting with the studio. However, it will take some time for this part of Summer Eternal to be set up, Gavrilović said, to ensure it is “stable and robust”.
Responding to a question about ZA/UM’s other offshoots, Tuulik said that “all these bold new efforts to look forward to are a cause for genuine excitement and celebration.” He continued: “I couldn’t be happier to live in an era where descendants of what we started as children in Estonia are now shaping the role-playing landscape together. It’s great!”
According to him, the differences between the studios lie ‘under the hood’:
“Disillusioned with the artistically stifling predatory nature of the corporate culture, we decided to design everything from the ground up to serve the ‘words of our house’: ‘Artistically driven, creatively led, employee and player owned.’ We publicly ask our community to hold us accountable, to judge us by our actions not our words, and to scrutinize our actions so we can continue to do better. We do not want to leave ourselves any room to stray from the Radiant Path.”