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There’s a playable Disco Elysium 2 prototype in the wilds, according to a report on clashes between the “spiritual successors"Summer Eternal, Dark Math and Longdue continue to fight over the RPG’s legacy
Summer Eternal, Dark Math and Longdue continue to fight over the RPG’s legacy
Image credit:ZA/UM / Rock Paper Shotgun / The Spriters Resource
Image credit:ZA/UM / Rock Paper Shotgun / The Spriters Resource
On 11th October 2024, three video game studios announced themselves near-simultaneously as the creators of “spiritual successors” to ZA/UM’s mournful Marxist RPGDisco Elysium. First cameLongdue, a conspicuously corporate operator who are making an untitled “psychogeographic RPG”.Dark Math Gamesfollowed around lunchtime - they’re making a sexy Antarctic ski resort mystery calledXXX Nightshift. Finally, there wasSummer 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 involvinglegal proceedings, firings, allegations ofmisconductand claims ofa 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 writersArgoTuulik (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.
Now here’s IGN’s Wesley Yin-Poole withan insider reporton 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.
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.
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 furtherallegesthat 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.
