Disco Elysium: Top developers have “involuntarily” left the studio
ZA/UM as a “Cultural Association” has probably dissolved, like Martin Luiga, one of the studio’s founders, in one explained new post on medium. The “Cultural Association” is not Studio ZA/UM itself, as Luiga goes on to explain, but the greatest talents who were responsible for the extremely popular Disco Elysium probably left the company “involuntarily” at the end of 2021. These include lead designer Robert Kurvitz, writer Helen Hindpere, and art director Aleksander Rostov.
ZA/UM isn’t what it used to be
According to Luiga, ZA/UM as a cultural project no longer represents the ethos on which it was founded. Despite this, he sees ZA/UM as largely a success, and “most of the mistakes that have been made stem from the sociocultural conditions we were thrown into.”
in one further comment Luiga seems to blame investors for ZA/UM changing over time. At the same time, however, he is not sure that the studio could have survived without these investors. The post ends with the signature “Tallinn Inpatient Treatment Center of Psychiatry Clinic, Ward IX.” It is not known whether Martin Luiga is actually in a psychiatric clinic, but there is certainly cause for concern as to what the conditions at ZA/UM really are.
Especially the graphics and plot of Disco Elysium (buy now ) was well received by many players. The fact that the very people responsible for this are no longer part of the company could possibly lead to concerns about the future of the studio. However, Luiga himself explains on Twitter that the successor doesn’t look that bad at the momentand we “may even get it the way it was intended”.
The fact that Luiga emphasizes that the developers did not leave the company voluntarily casts a rather bad light on the current situation in which ZA/UM finds itself. With such a passionate team, which even at the award ceremony Thanked Marx and Engels for their “political education”.it makes sense that their interests might not be aligned with those of investors.
Reference-www.pcgames.de