More details have come to light on the canceled standalone spin-off for the acclaimed RPG Disco Elysium.
In February, it was revealed that work on the project, codenamed X7, had been halted, along with news of layoffs at developer ZA/UM. At the time, it was claimed that the spin-off was only “one to two years from completion”.
Now, in a report from PC Gamer with current and former ZA/UM Studio employees, lead writer Dora Klindžić has said that this version would be “110 percent authentic” and “the strongest Disco since Disco”.
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X7 “would have advanced the story, emotional themes and gameplay elements all at once to truly evolve the psychological RPG genre as Disco Elysium started it,” Klindžić said. “For a while it seemed as if miracles were possible, and with them, redemption.”
Another developer told the publication that the spin-off was about “one of the most beloved characters” in Disco Elysium. “I feel like it was the best shot possible in a game like Disco pa [Kurvitz]Rostov and other people who made the original Disco Elysium,” they said.
Domestic response to the X7 had been positive when it was shared during a company-wide exhibition late last year. “Everyone was looking forward to its development,” said a developer on another team at ZA/UM, adding that “its internal announcement lifted a lot of spirits after a rough time of bad press around the studio.”
They also thought it was “just the kind of game [ZA/UM] should be extinguished”. Some 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 thought next year was a more likely target. Klindžić said that if the team had been allowed to continue developing the title with less interference from management, it “probably could have been a three-year development cycle from start to finish”, with work on X7 initially starting in 2022.
Klindžić had originally quit her job as an academic physicist and space mission scientist in February of that year in order to work on a sequel to Disco Elysium. However, it was an inauspicious start for the project. “Upon my arrival, I was told that all the leads were gone and replaced, but this was considered a good thing, a healthy thing. Four months later the project was shelved overnight. I began to raise concerns, as I felt that I had just given up. My whole life and career ended in a studio where the people I had come to work with were fired, and the project I was supposed to work on was shelved for no reason.”
Then, that August, studio management approached both Klindžić and Disco Elysium writer Argo Tuulik about creating a spin-off. “We were only given about a week to create a complete game area, and we worked around the clock to create a new story, new characters, new game mechanics and a new creative direction, including a initial vision.For design, art and audio We presented to management, it was a resounding success and was codenamed X7, and its initial production schedule was set for a year.
However, even when the project was given the go-ahead, Klindžić said the team was “set up to fail from the start”, due to not being allowed a pre-production period. “Every time we raised concerns about this and expressed that we need more writers if the deadlines were to be met, we were accused of not wanting to do our job,” Klindžić said.
“Pretty much from the time the writing team’s pitch was approved in August 2022, other teams started production,” Tuulik added. “We didn’t even really know what the story or the characters were going to be when the art teams were already doing the first character and setting concepts. I’m sure you can see how that’s a big problem when you’re made a story-driven game.
“Essentially, the writing team had to work double-time from day one to supply other disciplines with work while trying to write the first dialogues and outline the rest of the game at the same time. The writing team consisted of Me and Dora at the time.” Another developer added: “I don’t know if Dora and Argo have 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 clear that a dark cloud still hangs over ZA/UM.
“The whole X7 team loved the Elysium world,” Klindžić concluded. “As adoring artists, musicians, iconic voices, we just wanted to keep it going, instead of letting it wither away in a dark, crumbling basement of corporate intellectual property.”
Since the release of Disco Elysium in 2019, ZA/UM has been largely in the headlines due to an extremely public legal dispute with former core members of the team. In 2022, ZA/UM founder Martin Luiga claimed that Disco Elysium designer Robert Kurvitz, writer Helen Hindpere and art director Aleksander Rostov had been fired after the company was taken over by Estonian businessmen Ilmar Kompus and Tõnis Haavel, previously convicted of fraud investments. This launched a series of lawsuits and accusations of toxic behavior at the studio.