Problems for the Disco Elysium development team
Important members left
Apparently, Disco Elysium ‘s talented ZA/UM development team has gone through some behind-the-scenes issues and thus lost some very key members. Specifically, designer Robert Kurvitz, writer Helen Hindpere and art director Aleksander Rostov no longer work for the team.
The first information came to light through a blog post by Martin Luiga, one of the founding members of the team. His post, and in particular a subsequent comment by Luiga on it, implies that issues have arisen because of the original investors.
As the whole thing got bigger, the team issued an official statement, stressing:
Like any video game, the development of Disco Elysium was and still is a collaborative effort, with each team member’s contribution being essential and valued as part of a greater whole. At this time, we have no further comment to make, except that the ZA/UM creative team remains focused on the development of our next project and we are excited to share more news about it with all of you soon.
Afterwards, the co-founder of ZA/UM, Aleksander Rostov, explicitly confirmed the departure of the developers.
At the moment we can’t know how this affects the team’s next game, which looks like it will be sci-fi themed, so we’ll just have to be patient.
In case you are not familiar with Disco Elysium, George Pritskas stated:
Disco Elysium is one of the most important games of recent years. As well as being wildly original on a systemic level, it’s a deeply humanistic political exploration, full of scathing humor and wonderful characters. Every aspect of it, from the art direction, the music, the writing, the performances to… the interface, is a small work of art in itself. And now, with the Final Cut version, it’s become an even more complete experience. Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend this game to you unless you told me you were allergic to reading. And even there, I’d insist you fight it a little…
