Just after two ZA/UM spin-off studios announced their existence to the world and were also going to create their own spiritual successors to Disco Elysium, another developer, which included some of the people who created the game, exploded onto the scene.
But this recent, seemingly fifth(!) band trying to keep the Disco dream alive doesn’t seem too thrilled with today’s confusing and messy group of announcements from various collectives of former ZA/UM employees who claim to be doing some of the same thing.
This newest studio, Summer Eternal, was founded by Argo Tuulik, who has been involved in co-creating the world of Disco Elysium since the ZA/UM tabletop RPG sessions in the early 2000s in Estonia. Tuulik was part of a punk collective that grew from this group of friends into a studio that ensured success Elysium Disco gained critical acclaim and commercial success almost five years ago to the present day.
However, Tuulik left ZA/UM in acrimonious circumstances after being fired in February amid the reported cancellation of standalone spin-off Disco Elysium. Leaving, Tuulik accused the studio of “incompetence and injustice”.
Tuulik told IGN that he was starting a “revolutionary new RPG studio” and that several key creators of Elyisum disco music had joined his cause. This is the studio’s lineup as of today, October 11, and reports say more will be joining in the coming weeks.
- Argo Tuulik and Olga Moskvina, who were among the five authors of Disco Elysium
- Lenval Brown, voice actor known for his voice work in Disco Elysium
- Dora Klindžić, ZA/UM chief writer
- Anastasia Ivanova, who was a senior concept artist at ZA/UM
- Michael Oswell, who was a graphic designer at ZA/UM
- And Aleksandar Gavrilović, who was the managing director of the Gamechuck development studio
It is worth noting that neither Robert Kurvitz, lead writer and designer of Disco Elysium and a founding member of ZA/UM, nor Alexander Rostov, who was the art director of Disco Elysium, are currently associated with Summer Eternal, Dark Math Games, Longdue Games, Red Info (see below) or ZA/UM alone. Both were expelled from ZA/UM in 2022 amid allegations of mismanagement and misconduct, and are currently reportedly developing their own game at Red Info studio, which is backed by Chinese internet company NetEase.
“We must be living at the dawn of a cultural Golden Age, when like mushrooms after the rain, companies appear every hour promising ‘the next Disco Elysium’,” reads a statement from Summer Eternal.
“It’s a sure sign that the fifth anniversary of this monumental game is approaching and every corporation wants a piece of the fortune.
“However, in this greed for money, the creators themselves are often forgotten, first exploited for press purposes, then underpaid, silenced, intimidated, sued, harassed… But it is all of us – creators, employees, players – who should be in control of our funds. creation and who should be honored on this day.
“That’s why we’re announcing today our own vision for a workers’ cooperative, a complex structure that will ensure that not just loan sharks, but every worker, every creator, and even every player has a seat at the table.”
Summer Eternal opened the door to her own websitewhich includes a game development manifesto that wouldn’t be out of place in Disco Elysium itself, and news of an upcoming crowdfunding campaign.
“I believe we did something last time that broke the genre,” Tuulik said. “Transcending discipline. Something completely new. I’m not ready to give this up. Lessons learned, skills developed, experience gained – I’ve been waiting for five fucking years to use them. So we went back to the drawing board with one goal in mind – let’s do it all over again, but this time let’s not screw each other over the second the checkered flag drops. It makes all of humanity look bad.”
The above quote is a reference to the famous collapse of ZA/UM after the release of Disco Elysium in 2019. Some information for the uninitiated: Disco Elysium is a narrative RPG game developed and published by the controversial ZA/UM studio. Gameplay focuses on navigating dialogue trees rather than combat, with each of the 24 skills representing a different aspect of the amnesiac detective’s abilities and thoughts. The player can support or suppress their ideologies while working on the story. Disco Elysium is considered by some to be one of the best video games ever made.
The game was a huge success, winning numerous game of the year awards and selling millions of copies. AND Agreement for the adaptation of a television series an extended version of the game was then released featuring full voice acting and new content subtitled The Final Cut. A sequel seemed all but guaranteed, but after celebrity departures and the subsequent messy legal battles that brought ZA/UM to its knees, what could have turned out to be a sequel to Disco Elysium was canceled.
Fast forward to today, October 11, 2024, and the five-year anniversary of Disco Elysium, and we now have multiple spin-off studios laying claim to the spiritual successor throne. One of them, XXX NIGHTSHIFT by Dark Math Games, is a “true detective RPG” that looks remarkably similar to Disco Elysium, even in isometric perspective and dialogue text that scrolls up on the right side of the screen as the player makes choices and hears voice actors bring the narrator and the character’s inner monologue to life.
Asked how he feels about the meteoric rise of new Disco Elysium spin-off studios, all of which claim to be creating spiritual successors, Tuulik told IGN: “You know the scene in The Lord of the Rings where Arwen takes Frodo to Rivendell with the Ringwraiths chasing on horseback, and just before the river scene you finally see all nine of them riding together to stop Frodo? It’s kind of like that.”
What exactly is the Summer Eternal building? Tuulik says it has a elaborate structure that includes cooperatives consisting not only of full-time employees, but also freelancers and part-time contributors, and even player ownership in the game studio aspect. Setup will take some time, he said. There is no footage for the video game Summer Eternal is working on, but Tuulik told IGN about it in vague terms. In low, it’s “definitely not a sequel to Disco Elysium,” but it will be an RPG.
“I can say that here at Summer Eternal we share the belief that RPGs are the pinnacle expression of current human culture – something that any other discipline can contribute,” Tuulik said. “The art form of the century. And we found a way to combine role-playing with serious, funny, moving narratives in a way that allows us, as artists, to express ourselves in a way never before possible. One day when I get to if you want to give you news about something, it will be a role-playing game.”
“This definitely won’t be a sequel to Disco Elysium!” Tuulik continued. “It’s time to break away from the past and start a recent chapter. It will be a completely recent setting and story with recent mechanics. But at the end of the day, we are who we are, and RPGs are what we make – do what you think I will do :)”
Tuulik even had a message for his former colleagues (“comrades”) from ZA/UM, including Kurvitz and Rostov:
“To all other former respected comrades (Kurvitz, Rostov, everyone) – we haven’t heard from you for a long time, but we would like you to also join the fight: it’s time to roll up your sleeves and start building communism!”
As for ZA/UM, yes reportedly canceled the standalone expansion for Disco Elysium in Februaryputting several employees at risk of losing their jobs.
Wesley is the UK news editor at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. Wesley can be reached at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wy100@proton.me.
