https://www.tumblr.com/june-egbert-official/764085029432442880/this-is-how-you-know-theyre-really-leftists?source=share

btw is actually five now.

https://www.eurogamer.net/more-former-zaum-devs-have-set-up-another-studio-but-they-are-definitely-not-working-on-a-disco-elysium-sequel

    • CredibleBattery [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      10 hours ago

      the core team? none, Kurvitz and Rostov, inseparable bunch, have founded their own company, ''Red Info'' with backing from NetEase, yet to this day have released absolutely no further information; zero, nada, zilch.

      however, there were more people invovled in the making of Disco Elysium other than them, Argo Tuulik, another estonian artists to have worked on DE has grabbed as many of these other former devs, and started a new studio, SUMMER ETERNAL, the most promising of the bunch solely because Tuulik has a very noticeable passion about making games as art (that and also the fact that they are the only studio that can reasonably claim being the ''successor'' to ZA/UM due to sheer volume of ex-DE devs they have) and their manifesto doesn't sound like some sad corporate piece trying to sound * hip * and * cool * and ''disco''

  • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    14 hours ago

    I can think of no more fitting a fate for a game made by Marxists than having various spliter factions emerge after the studio's death, each claiming to be the true heir to its lost legacy.

  • SSJMarx@lemm.ee
    ·
    16 hours ago

    Best case scenario: 3-5 new games that all have elements of what made DE great.

    Worst case scenario: "Disco Elysium 2" comes out and it's just "remember Harry? remember Kim? drugs LMAO" and all of the other spinoffs die in production for various reasons.

  • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
    ·
    16 hours ago

    Anyone else not want a DE sequel? Everything being a franchise is something we always complain about with movies, don't see how that doesn't apply here. They nailed it, it's good. Make similar stuff but some stuff should be a one off

    • Candidate [he/him]
      ·
      14 hours ago

      Absolutely not, it's very explicitly designed to be a prototype for a larger game and a lot of the plot is entirely set up for that game.

      It can't even be a one-off, there was already a novel in the setting before the game was made.

      • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
        ·
        12 hours ago

        I've clarified elsewhere but I mean as a video game and I'm happy to see the setting used but I don't wanna see Harry in anything else, much like the reast of the cast. And how is it explicitly a prototype for a different game?

        • CredibleBattery [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          11 hours ago

          The original pitch for Disco Elysium, for Harry, for Martinaise, its people and the humiliated city-state of Revachol, was as a ''match-book world'', a short(lol) detective game, meant to be a small window at more to come, they had built Disco Elysium as an introduction to its massive universe, for future games and works to come.

          It's abundantly clear that that's not happening anymore, but Elysium was always meant to become a franchise of some sort.

          edit: i can't seem to find it right now but if i recall correctly, Kurvitz already had an idea for a DE sequel, it was going to be about a pregnant woman, but i don't remember the details.

        • CredibleBattery [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          11 hours ago

          none of them can, kinetically or psychically, because the IP is stuck in limbo. ZA/UM is the only one that could, technically, but they're too busy imploding while they strip the copper pipes from the walls

      • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
        ·
        16 hours ago

        I'm not against the world being explored in different mediums at all. There was books first anyway, a tabletop seems pretty fitting.

    • TerminalEncounter [she/her]
      ·
      16 hours ago

      I wouldn't want a direct sequel with Harry and Kim. Not even a prequel. I kind of thought the fetus and pregnant mom version of DE was intriguing though

      • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
        ·
        15 hours ago

        Oh god no. I'd be fine with something in the same setting but is prefer nonshared characters

      • CredibleBattery [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        15 hours ago

        on a quick glance, it would seem it is, unless its some highly dedicated fan that really likes posing as the official twitter of a company that has existed for double digit hours and constantly shares the official links to their site, which, yknow, could be entirely possible!

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      16 hours ago

      I hope so. It'd be very disapointing if they were at odds and didn't at least somewhat support each other's efforts. A fire divided, provided it has fuel, does not diminish but rather brings life and warmth to more and more people.

  • Redcuban1959 [any]
    ·
    15 hours ago

    Goes to Gamejolt/Itch dot Io and creates a ZA/UM (REAL!) account :troll:

  • TerminalEncounter [she/her]
    ·
    16 hours ago

    TBH if all of em can make a decent spiritual successor to Disco Elyisum I'll be happy. Even if only like 3/5 manage. And I think we have good odds that at least ONE out of five will scratch the same DE itch

    • CredibleBattery [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      11 hours ago

      The original (mostly) estonian team that used to work out of a re-converted house/wharehouse building, there were a bunch of them, so it depends on what you measure ''original'' as; Kurvitz, Rostov and Hindpere are notoriously touted as THE original core team (understandably so, Disco Elysium was born out of a setting they had come up with for a TTRPG campaign almost 15 years prior).

      They were apparently fired after they had discovered a scheme by Toni Haavel and Ilmar Kompus (allegedly with help of Kaur Kender) to pipeline money out of the funds for a side-project and straight into buying up a majority of shares in the company, effectively wrestling out the ownership of both the IP and the ZA/UM corporation (not to be confused with the ZA/UM artist collective, founded by Martin Luiga, which was disbanded for semi-unrelated reasons after his apparent internment in a psychiatric facility).

      But Kurvitz's core team weren't the only ones that contributed to bringing Disco Elysium to life; Argo Tuulik, Dora Klindzic and Justin Keenan, by example, remained in the company for quite some time after the ownership legal fiasco had happened, with Argo himself even being interviewed in the infamously biased People Make Games docu-report, this would later lead to a ''humiliation campaign'' by the managers in ZA/UM targetting Tuulik, resulting in his demotion and subsequent firing from the company.

      the last bunch of original developers that had contributed to Disco Elysium were either fired along with Tuulik during company re-structuring events or had already left the company beforehand. If im correct, Summer Eternal seems to be made up of this last wave of original devs, since it does not include any of the aforementioned Core Writers. SE also seems to be the only ''successor company'' to actually proudly announce the amount of original devs it actually has, unlike Longdue and Dark Math who constantly parade two or three graphics and environment designers as proof of their legitimacy as ZA/UM successors or something