A group of developers who previously worked on the acclaimed Disco Elysium have formed a pristine UK studio, Longdue.
The company already has quite a few staff, including staff who worked on the ZA/UM accident and its unreleased aftermath. Other members of the group have previously worked at Bungie, Rockstar and Courageous At Night, including narrative director Lend Roberts.
The studio is “not ready to talk about specific names at this time” regarding who is in the group, a consultant said. GameIndustry.biz. However, the company confirmed to us that Robert Kurvitz and Aleksander Rostov are not involved.
In October 2022, Kurvitz, Rostov and Helen Hindpere were once reported to have “involuntarily” left ZA/UM. The two men claimed it was an unfair dismissal, and a company where Kurvitz was a board member filed a lawsuit against the studio, alleging that CEO Ilmar Kompus spent €4.8 million of the corporate budget to illegally download a majority percentage of the study.
The dispute arose with more accusations between the two parties, in addition to the sport’s manufacturer Kaur Kender, but the criminal dispute was resolved in March 2023.
It has cast a shadow over the acclaimed sport and the companies involved. We asked Longdue if this had affected the pristine studio.
“As a long-time gamer and big fan of all types of role-playing games, gaming is obviously an industry where there can be so much tension between the art and the commerce of it all, and when those elements collide, no matter the circumstances, “It’s really disruptive and prevents creatives from doing what they love and giving players the experiences they want,” said Longdue president and investor consultant Riaz Moola.
“I don’t think there’s anyone on the Longdue team who isn’t really hooked on what they do and who isn’t happiest when they appear to be creative, and this is why we decided to put our money into the industry.
“I think that’s what Longdue represents for the team: an isolated environment where these disputes are not a factor and an environment with a strong mission and creative drive. That’s something we really want to cultivate.”
“Longdue is its own entity with our own vision. The studio is certainly inspired by [Disco Elysium’s] ideals, but we focus on innovation and innovation, not replication.”
Riaz Moola, Longdue
The week the pristine studio features former Disco Elysium developers, they are keen to emphasize that this will be an intact start and won’t necessarily build on any work done on the game’s unannounced sequel.
“Longdue is its own entity with our own vision, and that’s really important,” Moola said. “The studio is certainly inspired by the ideals of those projects (intelligent storytelling, psychological depth, and solid world-building), but we’re focused on innovation and innovation, not replication.
“So, if anything, the real bottom line is to keep moving forward, and what we can really take away is that if we put the story first, write well, and treat players with respect, they will respond to that. Which is easier “. said than done, but that’s what we’re here to do.
Details of Longdue’s first sport are minimal so far, although the startup has said it will “explore the delicate interplay between the conscious and the subconscious, the visible and the invisible.”
The game revolves around a pristine “psychogeographic RPG” mechanic, which supposedly “reshapes both the world and the characters” according to the players’ choices. And the age won’t be directly based on their work on Disco Elysium, the group has said it’s considering what made ZA/UM’s RPG so popular.
“One of the things that resonated with players was the combination of deep, layered world-building and psychological complexity,” Moola defined. “In the game Longdue is working on, we’re focusing on that and seeing what boundaries we can push there. We’re creating a world with constant, meaningful interaction between the protagonist’s inner reality and the outside environment.
“Every decision and thought process leaves a mark, not only on the characters but also on the world around them. The line between the character you play and the environment in which you move becomes blurred, creating an experience in which “The two are deeply intertwined. It’s a pretty abstract idea, but we’re really excited to push it and see what comes of it.”
