LogInSpiritual successors are coming.
ZA/UM
The developer of Disco Elysium, ZA/UM, as we knew it ended with a huge drama and the departure of many key people. Years later, we now have not one, not two, but three new studios formed by former Disco Elysium developers. Out of the blue, all three of them were announced almost at the same time.
Longdue wants to create really deep titles and is now working on a Disco-inspired RPG with a bunch of ex-ZA/UM staff. It "explores the delicate interplay between the conscious and subconscious, the seen and unseen," and offers choices that "ripple between the character's psyche and environment" (via PC Gamer.) The game will be an isometric RPG inspired by Disco Elysium and Planescape: Torment.
For now, it isn't clear which ZA/UM developers migrated into the studio.
Dark Math Games
Another recently announced studio is Dark Math Games, which is developing the detective RPG XXX Nightshift with a "unique companion dynamic" and a "lot more fun."
"Welcome to World’s End, Mount Hope, Antarctica, 2086 CE. You’re a Patrol Operative, and it’s entirely up to you how you spend your polar nights – solving gruesome murders, breaking sacred hearts, or just killing bloody time."
Dark Math Games
As you might notice from the screenshots, it looks a lot like Disco Elysium as well. 20 developers are there at the moment, including Timo Albert, a former ZA/UM motion graphic designer.
Interestingly, as PC Gamer mentioned, Heiti Kender and Kaur Kender were the company's directors at some point. Kaur was DE's producer and, according to ousted Kurvitz and Rostov, he supported shareholders stealing money from the game's sequel.
Summer Eternal
Finally, there is Summer Eternal, a "bold new art collective aiming to create revolutionary games." There is a whole manifesto to support its determination:
"Our art has been dressed down into an industry, and this industry has been pilfered by corrupt executives, by the vulgar profiteering of corporate bodies moving like leviathans in the dark, burning human fuel in their insatiable lust for money," it starts. "It is not pencil-pushers and moneylenders who make games. It is the relentless passion of the workers that creates an art form capable of saying something true."
Summer Eternal doesn't hide its developers, here are some of them (thanks again, PC Gamer):
- Argo Tuulik, writer on Disco Elysium as well as its canceled sequel and expansion.
- Dora Klindžić, writer on Disco's canceled expansion.
- Lenval Brown, narrator on The Final Cut.
- Anastasia Ivanova, former ZA/UM concept artist.
- Michael Oswell, former ZA/UM graphic designer.
- Olga Moskvina, writer on Disco Elysium, working with Summer Eternal as a narrative consultant.
Together, they aim to create a "cultural megaproject, a role-playing game with complexity and ambition worthy to rival our wretched and wonderful world."
Aside from those three, there is also Red Info, founded by Kurvitz and Aleksander Rostov, and ZA/UM itself, which canceled DE's standalone expansion earlier this year. It looks like we shouldn't have any shortage of Disco Elysium-like games when all of them are done with their projects.
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