Poll of the Day > Bad news for Disco Elysium fans hoping for a follow-up

(+) Yeah! (+)

Three of the creative leads have departed the studio...

https://www.ign.com/articles/disco-elysium-developers-involuntarily-left-zaum-responds

Kinda bummed, this game is brilliant and one of my favorites from the past few years.

well fuck

I wanted more Kim

I heard of it. It seemed interesting. But havent played it yet

https://twitter.com/JOHNofWAR/status/1577735563708633088

it's really fucked up

Holy shit it's way worse than I thought

who is to say a sequel will take place in the same world or area of that world lmao

no one is

i highly doubt those people were fired or let go, they left because they wanted to

mainly because they literally quit going to work it seems since they haven't been around for " at least a year"

hera posted...

i highly doubt those people were fired or let go, they left because they wanted to

that's not what the word "involuntary" means

hera posted...

mainly because they literally quit going to work it seems since they haven't been around for " at least a year"

because they were involuntarily let go at least a year ago

if they were fired a year ago why would they only talk about it now

i would say involuntary, in this case, applies to the studio, as in, they didn't want to let them go

idk man, checking their social media they were fairly active and they never talked about it

just seems kinda fishy to me

there's almost definitely some NDA stuff going on keeping them from talking about it

rostov made an art tweet a few months ago of a dude hypnoxing onto an NDA, and lugia responded to a question mentioning NDAs recently

https://twitter.com/martinluiga/status/1576578202197450754

Am I the only one who sees the irony here, in that a studio that was largely ran by people who had a particular belief about economics and policy, were ousted by a group whose views ran counter to that?

https://twitter.com/punished_cait/status/1577253732102049793

https://twitter.com/VoicesByZane/status/1576305781104050176

https://twitter.com/discoelysiumbot/status/1576534276274733056

it'd be hilarious if it wasn't terribly sad. the world of disco elysium was a project the main writer had been fleshing out since childhood

agesboy posted...

there's almost definitely some NDA stuff going on keeping them from talking about it

rostov made an art tweet a few months ago of a dude hypnoxing onto an NDA, and lugia responded to a question mentioning NDAs recently

https://twitter.com/martinluiga/status/1576578202197450754

i think he's just talking about an nda on current game development

point is the company definitely uses NDAs so former employees' radio silence isn't fishy

the best thing they can say is fuck NDAs which is what rostov did via art

I don't know much about IPs and whatnot, but couldn't they make another game? Or hell, write a book or a TTRPG, even? I feel like they're creative enough to do so.

GanglyKhan posted...

I don't know much about IPs and whatnot, but couldn't they make another game? Or hell, write a book or a TTRPG, even? I feel like they're creative enough to do so.

Certainly. But Disco Elysium was a surprise hit and a commercial success. They caught lightning in a bottle. It put their indie studio on the map.

Although the creators have some cache and swagger now, unless they can secure some investment or funding they'd pretty much be starting from scratch. It's no small task starting a new studio. Name recognition is great but it's not like these people are industry giants like Miyamoto, Ken Levine, Gabe Newell, Shinji Mikami etc etc. Even after reading several articles on their departures and being a fan of the game I couldn't tell you their names off the top of my head. They can say "from the creators of Disco Elysium..." but so can their former studio... So they'll have to make sure they can stand out and apart from ZA/UM.

I'm not saying their success and notoriety is worthless. They're definitely in a better position than when they founded ZA/UM. But it's an uphill battle. Catching lightning in a bottle is tricky and requires some measure of luck.

Having name recognition dulls the reliance on luck, but there's a multitude of factors that go into launching a project. Money. Having a decent idea for a game. Having the passion to see the project through. Disco Elysium was very much a passion project. Who's to say they'll have the desire to create an entirely new universe, characters, lore, plot, etc? It can be very demoralizing to have all of those things you worked so hard to establish be pulled from your grasp. To see the fruits of your creativity under someone else's control. Maybe they don't want to start over.

I dunno. I'm just pointing out that it's not so simple as just "hey, go make another game" and hoping it's as good and well-received as the last one. They beat the odds once. No guarantee that they can do it a second time.

agesboy posted...

point is the company definitely uses NDAs so former employees' radio silence isn't fishy

If they know something and are not talking, that is per definition fishy.

Nichtcrawler-X posted...

If they know something and are not talking, that is per definition fishy.

NDA = Non-Disclosure Agreement.

Meaning they are legally bound to not talk about certain things pertaining to the business, or they risk being sued or otherwise penalized.

Given that context, their silence is not fishy if they are bound by an NDA, which seems very likely.

Then you would just say you cannot talk about it.

There is also a difference between talking about intellectual properties and why they left the company. I really cannot think of many situations where the second could actually be covered by a legally sound NDA.

You'd be surprised at how comprehensive and petty NDAs can be, then

It all hinges on how thorough and well-worded their legal team was when drafting them

Far-Queue posted...

Money

They could go for the crowdfunding if that's still a thing. Sorry for the short reply to something you typed up a lot on, I promise I did read it all haha

Don't sweat it dude you bring up a good point I hadn't even considered crowdfunding to be honest.

https://twitter.com/Nibellion/status/1578056751915712512

Explicitly confirms NDAs are involved

GanglyKhan posted...

I don't know much about IPs and whatnot, but couldn't they make another game? Or hell, write a book or a TTRPG, even? I feel like they're creative enough to do so.

https://twitter.com/KeiKate_Phazmi/status/1576509735360417792

I tried to touch on the gist of that second tweet in that long post I made.

Could you imagine pouring your heart and soul into making some fantastic world and then losing the right to continue working on expanding the very world you built? "Just start over" is easier said than done.

I didn't even know wtf a paracosm was or if it was common, but I think I had one too that I grew out of

but sticking with it for 20+ years? goddamn

Well, hopefully they'll all find someway to continue what they've been passionate about for all these years. I know this kind of outlook is super unpopular in current year, but if they are truly as heartfelt and in love with what they've made, they will absolutely find a way for it to carry on in some form. All creatives do.

why would he just sign away the rights to the IP he created like that

that's what i don't get

Imagine a kleptomaniac, if you will. Only that instead of stealing, say, "A Lolly pop", they take pains to manipulate dozens of people to steal, in the end, from themselves, just because they happen to be very proficient in that kind of an operation. It's what they always do, really. One of them was the first guy to be convicted for investment fraud in Estonia. All the same, idk if we would have managed to get the initial investment without these people.

game wouldn't have happened without these scumbags, unfortunately

hera posted...

why would he just sign away the rights to the IP he created like that

that's what i don't get

Investors typically make some sort of stipulation. They aren't just going to freely give money/resources away like that. They likely wanted some stake in the company and threw it over internally.