Author of groundbreaking RPG Disco Elysium is suing former studio [Update]

The sad situation regarding the collapse of the collective that created Disco Elysium, ZA/UM took another turn with writer Robert Kurvitz sue the remaining ZA/UM company.

Disco Elysium is one of the smartest, most cerebrally intriguing Modern role-playing games. Released in 2019, the non-combat game blew our minds and won tons of awards, and has since been in development with dj2 Entertainment for a possible Amazon Prime TV show. All from the extraordinarily humble beginnings of an Estonian collective. Unfortunately, however, it now appears to have collapsed, with allegations and little clarity as to what actually happened.

In early October, one of the group’s founders, Martin Luiga, announced that the “ZA/UM cultural association” “dissolvesThis came in response to an unknown internal dispute that Luiga said had resulted in three key members of the group leaving late last year in a way he described as “involuntary”. tech news section reports today that the game’s lead designer, Robert Kurvitz (one of the three fired from the studio), is suing the ZA/UM company, though again few details are available.

There is a lot of confusion, not the least of which is what ZA/UM actually is. The answer is of little help, two things. The first was an informal art collective from Estonia, founded about a decade ago, which was responsible for all kinds of projects related to literature and cultural criticism. The second is a game studio that grew out of the former some claim was taken over by his British investors and Luiga has indicated that his colleagues have been fired. He also said that “it no longer represents the ethos on which it was founded”.

Continue reading: Disco Elysium Studio accused of ousting creators, Dev says it’s ‘bad news’ for sequel

To hopefully offer a bit more flavor, I recall a conversation with the original group of Estonian creators (before Disco Elysium First publication) that their beginnings were unlike any other. I was told how ZA/UM once operated from an abandoned building in Estonia, where sleeping bags were hung over the glassless windows to keep out the freezing winter. So when they talk about an ethos shift, you can see they might have a very special perspective.

ZA/UM, meanwhile, responded earlier this month, saying that the continued development of Disco Elysium “was and still is a collective effort,” before adding that they had no further comment on it.

Our Australian siblings did some diggingand discovered that Kurvitz is a board member of another Estonian company named Telomere OÜ, and it is this company that is suing what remains of ZA/UM. A listing on the Estonian Ministry of Justice’s website says Telomer is trying to “obtain information and review documents,” with a court date of November 28. Beyond that, and presumably up to that date, further details are not available. However, one could speculate that the creator of the Elysium The world might want to restore ownership of his creation, especially given that Kurvitz’ Telomere is listed as a video game publisher and a sequel should already be in the works.

We’ve reached out to the people involved on both sides and will keep you posted as we hear of more. In the meantime, we spoke to ZA/UM founder Martin Luiga to get his perspective.

It should be emphasized that Luiga stopped direct involvement in the creation of Disco Elysium in 2016, but for a two-month stint in 2021. However, he was the editor of the Kurvitz novel, set in the same world that preceded the game’s release, and was in fact the person who officially initiated the dissolution of ZA/UM announced as an art collective earlier this month. I asked Luiga why he chose to disband rather than distance himself since ZA/UM existed long before a game was made.

“Less confusion when you don’t have’Twhere coperas‘ Luiga replied. “And it provided a good setting for announcing that the three of them were being forced out of the company, which I think should be public information.” I asked if they knew he was going to do that and he said he was told them in advance that the organization would be dissolved and that their job status was already public, just not common knowledge. “The three are, in my opinion, too reserved with information. They themselves also agreed that it is good that this information is now being published.”

Luiga told me the “collective has become dysfunctional” but it’s not necessarily an end. “A collective is a tool. It can be broken up and put back together again if needed, like a band.”

I asked if the ZA/UM founder knew more details about the upcoming court case and he explained that he didn’t know and had been deliberately trying not to find out. But when I asked if he thought it would be to regain control of the Elysium IP, he said: “What else could it be?”

Finally, I wrote to the author, who lives in Estonia and says he is currently “frite some stuff and do primitive witch house remixes.” Let’s say if a certain video game company, maybe called Telomere, regained control of the rights to the Elysium World, would he be someone who could join? “I could,” he replied. “You see, it is important for a writer to have many readers. That makes games a pretty good format for them.”