Founding member of Disco Elysium developer claims core workforce members ‘involuntarily’ left the corporate
On: October 2, 2022
Martin Luiga, a founding member of Studio ZA/UM and an editor on PC Gamer’s 2019 Game of the Yr and High 100 chart-topper, Disco Elysium, has introduced the “dissolution of the ZA/UM Cultural Affiliation” through a submit on Medium (first noticed by impartial journalist Nibel on Twitter).
Luiga delineates the ZA/UM “cultural affiliation” as distinct from the corporate, and claims that Disco Elysium lead designer Robert Kurvitz, author Helen Hindpere, and artwork director Aleksander Rostov involuntarily left the corporate on the finish of 2021.
Luiga asserts that ZA/UM as a cultural mission “now not represents the ethos it was based on.” Luiga explains that he believes ZA/UM was a hit, and that “a lot of the errors that have been made have been contingent, decided by the sociocultural situations we have been thrown into.”
“For some time, it was lovely,” Luiga concludes. “My sincerest because of all who’ve rooted for us.”
In a response to a touch upon the submit, Luiga appears in charge ZA/UM’s buyers for its change in character and the departure of key workforce members. Luiga additionally concedes that he does not know if ZA/UM would have been in a position to fund itself with out these buyers’ contribution.
Luiga indicators off on the submit as writing from “Tallinn Inpatient Remedy Centre of Psychiatry Clinic, Ward IX.” Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is where ZA/UM first coalesced. It is unclear to me if the location signature is a real indication of Luiga’s present state, or an especially darkish joke. I sincerely hope that Martin Luiga is secure and effectively.
Luiga, Kurvitz, Hindpere, and Rostov have been all members of the punk collective that ultimately grew to become Studio ZA/UM, as outlined in varied interviews and the Disco Elysium artbook. Kurvitz and Hindpere particularly have been driving forces on the game’s lauded script, and Rostov’s impressionistic artwork type stays one of many game’s defining options.
We’ve got reached out to Studio ZA/UM for remark and can update this story if we hear again.
