In celebration of Disco Elysium’s five-year anniversary, two separate studios, each made up of people who worked for developer ZA/UM, announced that they were both creating their own spiritual successor.
Disco Elysium is a 2019 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. A TV series adaptation deal followed, as did the release of an expanded version of the game with full voice acting and novel 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.
Now two novel London studios have emerged from the chaos: Dark Math Games and Longdue Games. Each of them made references to both Disco Elysium and ZA/UM, announcing not only their existence, but also their upcoming games.
Let’s start with Dark Math Games. Founded in 2023, Dark Math describes itself as a “breakaway group” from the original Disco Elysium development team. This is a group of 20 people, about half of whom “contributed” to “the creation of the critically acclaimed hit Disco Elysium and Disco Elysium – The Final Cut.”
Dark Math is called XXX NIGHTSHIFT and, like Disco Elysium, is described as a “true detective RPG.” Here is the official note:
In the 2086 set, you will play as Patrol Op, Dinorah Katz, who is stuck in a luxury ski resort in Antarctica. In this original sci-fi setting, you find yourself in a resort that shouldn’t exist, with people you shouldn’t know, during an endless polar night hiding a multitude of sins.
XXX NIGHTSHIFT will deliver a deep single-player role-playing experience with multiple tools and layers of gameplay. Unique companion dynamics add more fun and offer different paths to solving cases. The groundbreaking and powerful role-playing system respects your time and trusts your intelligence with seismic choices. You decide how your story will unfold and how it will end.
Based on the announcement trailer and screenshots, XXX NIGHTSHIFT looks remarkably similar to Disco Elysium, even from an isometric perspective and dialogue text that slides up on the right side of the screen as the player makes choices and hears the voice actors bring in the narrator and the Inner Monologue hero to life.
One of the four founders of Dark Math is art director Timo Albert, who was a motion graphics designer at ZA/UM from 2018 to October 2022. Albert commented: “In addition to innovating on traditional RPG mechanics, we will be bringing something fresh to the table. You’ll see. And of course, a few words less. And maybe a few more bullets. All in all: a lot more fun.”
According to documents filed with Companies House, Dark Math’s dynamic directors include Heiti Kender, while his brother Kaur Kender is listed as a resigned director. Kaur Kender was ZA/UM’s first investor and executive producer of Disco Elysium. In March 2023, a bitter legal dispute between Kender and ZA/UM over ownership of the coveted Disco Elysium intellectual property was resolved, with the court ordering Kender to reimburse ZA/UM CEO Ilmar Kompus for legal fees.
Now let’s move on to Longdue Games. It is said to be developing “a new psychological RPG… set in a gaming world invented by the main characters of the now-canceled sequel Disco Elysium.” Others working on this untitled spiritual successor to Disco Elysium were at the likes of Bungie, Rockstar and Yes, Your Graces, Brave At Night.
Longdue, backed by tech investor Riaz Moola, said it is “focused on creating psychologically deep narrative-driven experiences” and wants to become “a significant and consistent voice in the isometric role-playing game space.”
“With Disco Elysium’s fifth anniversary on the horizon, Longdue is proud to announce the formation of a new, independent studio that has raised seed investment to create an RPG that will continue the award-winning legacy of Disco Elysium and represent a bold new artistic endeavor that has “aimed at leading the way in the narrative-driven role-playing game space,” Longdue said in a note to the press.
Longdue didn’t reveal the name of his game (we only have a single piece of concept art below for now), but he did say that it features what he calls “psychogeographic” RPG mechanics, in which each decision changes both the world and the characters who inhabit it. “In this experience,” Longdue explained, “the lines between mind and environment blur, collide, and transform with every choice, guiding players through an ever-evolving narrative landscape.”
Here is the official announcement about Longdue:
Longdue’s debut RPG explores the fragile interaction between the conscious and subconscious, the observable and the hidden. Set in a world where choices are made between the character’s psyche and the environment, players will navigate an ever-changing landscape shaped by both internal and external forces.
In its press release, Longdue only mentioned one of its creators: narrative director Grant Roberts. Roberts said: “At Longdue, we are inspired by decades of classic RPGs, from Ultima and Wizardry, to Fallout and Planescape, to the rightly beloved Disco Elysium.
“We are thrilled to continue this legacy with another narrative-driven, psychological RPG where the interplay between interior worlds and exterior landscapes is the beating heart of the experience. We’re building a world-class team for a world-class game that will tell a world-class story and we can’t wait to show you more.”
Londue is not announcing that anyone else is currently working at the company, “but looks forward to talking more about the studio and the game in the future,” a representative told IGN.
It is worth noting that neither Robert Kurvitz, the main writer and designer of Disco Elysium and a founding member of ZA/UM, nor Alexander Rostov, who was the artistic director of Disco Elysium, are associated with any of the studios. Both were fired from ZA/UM in 2022 amid allegations of mismanagement and misconduct. Kurvitz and Rostov are reportedly developing their own game at the Red Info studio, which is backed by Chinese internet company NetEase.
As for ZA/UM, it reportedly canceled its standalone expansion of Disco Elysium in February, putting several employees at risk of losing their jobs. While an official Disco Elysium 2 seems as unlikely now as it did when ZA/UM broke up, it’s clear that there are many who want to keep this dream alive.
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.
