Last week saw no fewer than three game studios launch as “spiritual successors” to Studio ZA/UM, the developer responsible for the masterpiece that isDisco Elysium. It was around the fifth anniversary of the game’s release, so it was only natural that every former developer wanted to get in on the action.
The first I was made aware of wasLongdue, which says it has employed former Disco Elysium developers to make its as-of-yet untitled spiritual successor, but refuses to name any of them. There’s not a lot to go on with this one, other than the fact that the studio says it has former Disco devs on the team, says it’s working on a spiritual successor to the iconic CRPG, and says it’ll be good. I’ll need a little more information before pinning my hopes on this one.
Dark Math Games also announced a spiritual successor to Disco Elysium on the same day, and has more credentials to back it up. Dark Math’sXXX NIGHTSHIFTlooks startlingly similar to Disco, and the DNA is clear to see from the screenshots. Personnel-wise, one of the studio’s founders is Timo Albert, who worked as a motion graphic designer at ZA/UM.
IGNalso followed the trail of breadcrumbs to Companies House, which includes details of previous (and current) ownership or board status of any businesses registered in the UK. Here, it lists controversial figure Kaur Kender as a resigned director of Dark Math Games. Kender wasembattled in a bitter legal dispute with ZA/UM last yearbased on the ownership of the Disco Elysium IP. It makes you wonder if Dark Math’s game looks so similar to Disco Elysium because the developers thought they might have the rights to the IP.
Summer Eternal has the best shout of creating a true spiritual successor to Disco Elysium, thanks to the fact that it’s founded by Argo Tuulik, who was sat around the RPG table with Robert Kurvitz as the latter crafted the world of Revachol and everything within it. Tuulik approached IGN to explain that his studio is filled from top to bottom with Disco Elysium alumni, publishing an exhaustive list including Olga Moskvina, Lenval Brown, Dora Klindžić, Anastasia Ivanova, Michael Oswell, and Aleksandar Gavrilović, alongside Tuulik himself.
None of these studios or their games are related to Disco Elysium creator Robert Kurvitz and art director Aleksander Rostov, who are working on their own spiritual successor at NetEase-backed Red Info, taking the total of ZA/UM offshoots up to four.
It’s this last studio that has piqued my interest. “We announce today our own vision of a worker-owned co-operative, a complex structure that will ensure that not only moneylenders but every worker, every creative, even every player, has a seat at the table,” reads a statement from the company. It’s very fitting, very Disco Elysium, and very in keeping with early ZA/UM’s values.
Summer Eternal is intending to crowdfund its studio, promising a worker- and player-owned artist’s collective. It sounds like how Studio ZA/UM was founded, by artists wanting to make art, and I hope that all of its lofty goals can be achieved.
But the most interesting part of this whole ordeal is Tuulik’s interview with IGN. As well as the Lord of the Rings references – the studios scrambling to be the ‘true’ Disco Elysium spiritual successor are like “the scene from Lord of the Rings, where Arwen is taking Frodo to Rivendell with the ringwraiths giving chase horseback and right before the river scene you finally see all nine ride together to stop Frodo? It’s kind of like that.” – he wants to stay away from Disco Elysium comparisons.
Summer Eternalis making an RPG, but Tuulik says it’s “definitely not a Disco Elysium sequel.” That’s enough to get me on board. Of the five studios currently vying to be the true Disco Elysium successor (that’s Longdue, Dark Math, Summer Eternal, Red Info and ZA/UM itself, if you’re counting), this is the most interesting to me. Summer Eternal isn’t interested in making a spiritual successor to Disco Elysium, but a spiritual successor to ZA/UM itself. The ZA/UM of the early days, before the money lenders and legal disputes.
I’ll be following each one of these studios and their games closely, but the announcement that struck me as most interesting from this weekend is that of Summer Eternal. From its striking black and red website, to its staff list, to its profanity-strewn manifesto, thisfeelsthe most like Disco Elysium. And I want a game that makes me feel.
