There's a playable Disco Elysium 2 prototype in the wilds, according to a report on clashes between the "spiritual successors"

On 11th October 2024, three video game studios announced themselves near-simultaneously as the creators of “spiritual successors” to ZA/UM’s mournful Marxist RPG Disco Elysium. First came Longdue, a conspicuously corporate operator who are making an untitled “psychogeographic RPG”. Dark Math Games followed around lunchtime - they’re making a sexy Antarctic ski resort mystery called XXX Nightshift. Finally, there was Summer Eternal, the mouthiest and Marxiest of the lot, who have set themselves up as a workers co-operative and have yet to announce a specific project.

All three new studios owe their rise to the sad break-up of the original Disco Elysium team – a torturous series of events involving legal proceedings, firings, allegations of misconduct and claims of a fraudulent studio takeover. All three new studios claim to have former Disco Elysium devs on the books, though Longdue have yet to share any names.

Dark Math’s founding members include former Disco executive producer Kaur Kender and art director Timo Albert, while Summer Eternal’s members include former Disco writers Argo Tuulik (who resigned from ZA/UM earlier this year, apparently because he suspected he was about to be fired for talking to the press) and Olga Moskvina, together with several former ZA/UM staff - principal writer Dora Klindžić, senior concept artist Anastasia Ivanova, and graphic designer Michael Oswell.

The triple Disco Elysulike announcement was a real gift to wise-ass leftists on social media - for what better way to follow up what is probably the definitive leftwing video game than by having the developers promptly Balkanise themselves into rival Monty Python factions. Summer Eternal, especially, seem up for a fight with the other two, commenting acerbically in a press release that "we must be living at the dawn of a cultural Golden Age, when like mushrooms after rain the companies promising 'the next Disco Elysium' are popping up every hour on the hour”.

Now here’s IGN's Wesley Yin-Poole with an insider report on the competition between the studios, based on a mixture of interviews with Summer Eternal’s Tuulik, statements from Dark Math and Longdue, and chat with anonymous sources at all three studios. It’s all rather messy, and it’s getting messier, for Tuulik has now commented on the article on Twitter, calling it “not a bad writeup of what admittedly is a comically confusing situation”, while offering a number of caveats and sharing additional documents. I’ve tried to pack everything into one article.

According to IGN, Tuulik and Klindžić actually once worked at Dark Math, where they were game director and narrative director respectively on XXX Nightshift. According to documents seen by IGN, their contracts were terminated in July 2024 “due to creative differences”, but IGN also suggest that Tuulik and Klindžić’s departure was the result of more personal disputes. As shared by anonymous sources and corroborated by Tuulik himself, Tuulik accused Dark Math founder Kaur Kender of showing naked photos of Kender’s ex-wife to him and other people at the studio, supposedly to provide inspiration for XXX Nightshift characters.

Kender and other Dark Math staff haven’t denied the accusation of sharing pictures, but have denied that Kender's ex-wife appeared naked in the photos. As for the rest of it, they "will not be commenting on the past" and "are focusing our energy and passions on the development of XXX Nightshift."

Tuulik and Klindžić subsequently worked with Longdue founder Riaz Moola at Moola’s other company CoGrammar - according to IGN, they were consultants on Longdue’s new game. Moola is an enigmatic figure in all this - he’s also one of Dark Math’s investors, so he stands to benefit from the success of both Longdue and Dark Math. Following the publication of IGN’s report, Tuulik has asserted on Twitter that both he and Moola “are equal parts minority shareholders in Dark Math Games”.

According to documents IGN have seen, Tuulik resigned and left CoGrammar at the end of September, for reasons not given. CoGrammar have subsequently taken legal action against Tuulik and Klindžić for breach of contract. They’ve obtained an injunction in the Business and Property courts of England and Wales, preventing Tuulik and Klindžić from working on any new games, Disco-related or otherwise, at Summer Eternal until April 2025.

CoGrammar have told IGN that they offered to free Tuulik and Klindžić from the contractual restrictions in question. However, CoGrammar also allege that Tuulik and Klindžić declined to sign CoGrammar's release contract, which included clauses that would have confirmed that the pair no longer owned any intellectual property belonging to CoGrammar, and a commitment not to talk about CoGrammar in the press. They also say that they reached out after Tuulik’s departure in an attempt to settle matters before taking the legal route, but were rebuffed.

Tuulik disputes aspects of IGN’s reporting here, commenting that he never actually worked as a consultant on Longdue’s game, because Longdue was founded two days after he resigned from CoGrammar. With regard to CoGrammar’s mention of trying to patch things up after Tuulik’s departure, he’s also published what he says is a list of demands made by Longdue with regard to Summer Eternal. These require Summer Eternal to give Riaz Moola a C suite advisory role at Summer Eternal and the right of first refusal on investment offers of up to £150,000, as and when Summer Eternal’s working stucture is established.

There’s also a broad demand not to compete with Longdue’s game for attention or funding until early-mid 2025, in return for Longdue helping to market Summer Eternal’s game thereafter. Tuulik further alleges that Moola and CoGrammar do not currently employ anyone who actually worked on Disco Elysium, and that the thinking behind the injunction was simply “to silence me with legal threats and then use my name to promote his project”.

Tuulik is also the subject of a legal complaint from ZA/UM’s lawyers, as detailed in a letter dated 10th October. It isn’t notice of a lawsuit, but it alleges breach of contract, breach of confidentiality, and copyright infringement.

What is the specific subject of this complaint? Well, IGN cite several sources at Longdue, CoGrammar and Dark Math who claim that Tuulik has a USB stick containing a 20 minute playable build for a cancelled Disco Elysium sequel, codenamed X7. He's supposedly been demoing it to colleagues. Speaking to IGN, Tuulik denied the accusation, calling it "absurd." Tuulik has also accused ZA/UM and Moola of teaming up to bombard him with “baseless” legal threats. CoGrammar have denied these accusations, stating that their legal proceedings against Tuulik have nothing to do with ZA/UM.

It's a lot to digest - and all this is without mentioning the fourth Disco Elysium successor studio, Red Info, founded by Disco Elysium’s lead writer Robert Kurvitz and art director Aleksander Rostov, both fired from ZA/UM in 2022 for alleged misconduct. Kurvitz and Rostov are reportedly making a game with the backing of Chinese internet company NetEase. They’ve yet to say anything publicly about the other three studios, and for the sake of my sanity, I hope they never do.