More details have emerged about the canceled standalone spin-off of the critically acclaimed RPG Disco Elysium.
In February, it was announced that work on this 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 away from completion”.
Now, in a report from PC gamer with current and former employees of ZA/UM Studio, head writer Dora Klindžić has said that this release would have been “110 percent authentic” and the “most hardcore disco since Disco”.
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X7 “would have brought forward the story, emotional threads and 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 as if miracles were possible, and with them salvation.”
Another developer told the publication that the spinoff was about “one of the most beloved characters” in Disco Elysium. “I feel like this was the best possible shot at a Disco-style game without it [Kurvitz]Rostov and other people who created the original Disco Elysium, they said.
Internal reactions to X7 were positive when it was shared during a company-wide showcase late last year. “Everyone was looking forward to its development,” said a developer from another team at ZA/UM, adding that the “internal announcement was a great boost after a difficult time of bad press at the studio.”
They also thought it was “just the kind of game [ZA/UM] should be released”. Several developers felt that the spin-off “could reassure fans that ZA/UM is not chaff, that the IP is in safe hands and that the studio is full of talented people with a genuine 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 felt next year was a more likely target. Klindžić said that if the team had been able to continue developing the title with less management interference, “it might have been a three-year development cycle, from start to finish”, with work on the began.
Klindžić had originally left her job as an academic physicist and space mission scientist in February of that year to work on a sequel to Disco Elysium. However, it was an inauspicious start to the project. “On my arrival I was told that all the leads were gone and replaced, but this was portrayed as a good thing, a healthy thing. Four months later the project was shelved overnight. I started my to express concerns because I felt like I had just given up my entire life and career only to end up in a studio where the people I had come to work with were fired, and the project I was assigned to work on, without explanation reason was on the shelf.”
Then in August, studio management approached both Klindžić and Disco Elysium writer Argo Tuulik about pitching a spin-off. “We were only given about a week to come up with a full-fledged game pitch, and we worked around the clock to come up with a new story, new characters, new gameplay mechanics, and a new creative direction, including an initial vision . for design, art and audio. We presented the pitch to management, it was a resounding success. It was greenlit and codenamed X7, and the initial production schedule was set at one year.
But even when the project was greenlit, Klindžić continued saying the team was “set up to fail from the start” as no pre-production period was allowed. “Every time we expressed our concerns about this and that we needed more writers to meet deadlines, we were accused of not wanting to do our work,” Klindžić said.
“Almost from the moment the writing team’s pitch was approved in August 2022, the other teams started production,” Tuulik added. “We didn’t even really know what the story or characters would be when art teams were already creating the initial character and environment concepts. I’m sure you can see how this is a big deal if you’re playing a narrative game.
“Essentially, from day one, the writing team had to work double time to provide work for other disciplines, while simultaneously trying to write the initial dialogue and outline the rest of the game. The writing team consisted of myself and Dora at the time.” Another developer added, “I don’t know if Dora and Argo ever felt in control.”
As to why X7 was ultimately canceled, PC Gamer’s report doesn’t give a clear reason. However, it is clear that there is still a dark cloud hanging over ZA/UM.
“The whole X7 team loved the Elysium world,” Klindžić concluded. “As fan artists, musicians, and iconic voices we just wanted to keep it going, instead of letting it wither in a dark, dilapidated basement of corporate intellectual property.”
Since the release of Disco Elysium in 2019, ZA/UM has been in the news mainly due to an extremely public legal feud with former key 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 were fired following the company’s takeover by Estonian businessmen Ilmar Kompus and Tõnis Haavel, previously convicted of investment fraud. This was the start of a series of lawsuits and allegations of toxic behavior at the studio.