ZA/UM Studio, the corporate behind Disco Elysium, simply introduced a brand new sport known as Undertaking [C4]. It’s being described as a “genre-defining RPG” and there’s a teaser trailer that’s gentle on gameplay however heavy on disturbing imagery.
Primarily based on the trailer, we nonetheless don’t know if the sport will pull mechanics or visuals from the highly-regarded Disco Elysium. A press launch did notice that people would play as a spy of some variety and instructed that the sport might really, partly, happen within the human mind. The whole lot else continues to be shrouded in secrecy.
What’s not shrouded in secrecy? ZA/UM has had, to place it frivolously, a tumultuous a number of years since Disco Elysium was launched in 2019. It has been affected by layoffs, firings and departures of the core crew that made Disco Elysium, together with creator Robert Kurvitz, artwork director Aleksander Rostov and author Helen Hindpere.
Again in 2022, the corporate’s new govt suite fired all three, accusing them of misconduct and tried mental property theft. It’s value noting that Kurvitz wrote the novel that Disco Elysium is predicated on, so we aren’t certain how somebody might steal from their very own e-book. Lawsuits have been filed and Kurvitz and Rostov arrange their very own firm.
The pair additionally refuted the allegations of IP theft, writing in an open letter that they have been fired as they tried to analyze suspicious exercise surrounding the takeover of ZA/UM by Estonian businessmen Ilmar Kompus and Tõnis Haavel. These two have been beforehand convicted of funding fraud. The pair has additionally been accused of making a hostile work atmosphere, significantly for ladies.
"I do know no less than 5 ladies who've left or been made to go away the studio since Disco’s launch, naming Tõnis Haavel as a significant factor. There are zero ladies in artistic management and only a few ladies in management positions generally,” a former author for Disco Elsyium told PC Gamer amidst recent company-wide layoffs.
A handful of different earlier ZA/UM staff lately fashioned a dev firm known as Longdue to create a brand new sport that acts as a spiritual successor to Disco Elysium. Kurvitz and Rostov’s firm, Crimson Information, is claimed to be making a brand new sport with the monetary backing of NetEase, however no concrete particulars have been launched.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-studio-that-technically-made-disco-elysium-has-a-new-game-in-the-works-185218695.html?src=rss