More details have emerged about the canceled standalone spin-off for acclaimed RPG Disco Elysium.
Back in February, it was revealed that work on this project, codenamed X7, had stopped, along with reports of layoffs at developer ZA/UM. At this point, it was claimed that the spin-off was only “one to two years from completion”.
Now in a message from PC gamer with current and former ZA/UM Studio staff, head writer Dora Klindžić said this release would be “110 percent authentic” and “hardest disco since Disco”.
Manage cookie settings
X7 “would push the story, the emotional threads, and the gameplay elements all at once to really evolve the psychological RPG genre the way Disco Elysium started it,” Klindžić said. “For a while it seemed that miracles were possible, and with them redemption.”
Another developer said in the publication that the spin-off was about “one of the most popular characters” in Disco Elysium. “I feel like it was the best possible shot at the disco game without [Kurvitz]Rostov and the other people who made the original Disco Elysium,” they said.
Internal reaction to the X7 was positive when it was shared during a company-wide presentation late last year. “Everyone was looking forward to its development,” said a developer from another ZA/UM team, adding that its “internal announcement lifted a lot of spirits after a rough period of bad press at the studio”.
They also thought it was “just the kind of game [ZA/UM] Several developers believed that the spin-off could “reassure fans that ZA/UM is not a shell, that the IP is in safe hands, and that the studio is full of talented people with a real love for the world of Revachol”.
While some of those who spoke to PC Gamer said they believed this Disco Elysium spin-off could have launched this year, others believed that next year would be a more likely target. Klindžić said that if the team had been left to continue developing the title with less intervention from management, “it could have been maybe a three-year development cycle from start to finish”, with work on the X7 scheduled to begin in 2022.
Klindžić originally left her job as an academic physicist and space mission scientist in February of that year to work on the sequel to Disco Elysium. However, it was an inauspicious start for the project. “On my arrival I was told that all the wires were gone and replaced, but this was framed as a good thing, a healthy thing. Four months later, the project was shelved overnight. I started raising concerns because I felt that I he just left My whole life and career I ended up in a studio where the people I came to work with were fired and the project I was supposed to work on was shelved for no reason.”
In August, studio management approached both Klindžić and Disco Elysium writer Argo Tuulik about pitching a spin-off. “We only got about a week to come up with a full game, and we worked around the clock to come up with a new story, new characters, new gameplay mechanics, and a new creative direction, including the initial vision. for design, art and sound.
However, even though the project was approved, Klindžić said the team was “set up to fail from the start” because it was not allowed a pre-production period. “Whenever we expressed concerns in this regard and expressed that we need more authors if the deadlines are to be met, we were accused of not wanting to do our job,” Klindžić said.
“Essentially, from the time the author team pitch was approved in August 2022, the other teams started production,” Tuulik added. “We didn’t really even really know what the story or the characters were going to be when the art teams were already conceptualizing the first characters and environments. I’m sure you can see how much of a problem that is when you’re making a narrative-driven game.
“Basically, the writing team had to work double-time from day one to deliver work to the other disciplines, while also trying to write the first dialogue and outline the rest of the game. The writing team consisted of me and Dora.” at the time.” Another developer added, “I don’t know if Dora and Argo ever felt in control.
As for why the X7 was ultimately canceled, PC Gamer’s report doesn’t give a clear reason. However, it is evident that there is still a dark cloud over ZA/UM.
“The whole X7 team loved the world of Elysium,” Klindžić CLOSED. “As fan artists, musicians, iconic voices we just wanted to keep it going, not let it wither away in some dark rundown cellar of corporate intellectual property.”
Since the release of Disco Elysium in 2019, ZA/UM has been mostly in the headlines due to an extremely public legal dispute with former key members of the team. In 2022, ZA/UM founder Martin Luiga stated that Disco Elysium designer Robert Kurvitz, writer Helen Hindpere and art director Aleksander Rostov were fired after the company was taken over by Estonian businessmen Ilmar Kompus and Tõnis Haavel, previously convicted of investment fraud. This started a series of lawsuits and accusations of toxic behavior at the studio.