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More details have come to light about the canceled standalone spin-off for popular RPG Disco Elysium.

Back in February, it was revealed that work on this project, codenamed X7, had stopped, 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 ZA/UM Studio staff, lead writer Dora Klindžić said this release would be “110 percent authentic” and “the most hardcore disco since disco”.

X7 “was going to refine the story, the emotional threads, and the gameplay elements all at once to really evolve the psychological RPG genre like Disco Elysium started,” Klindžić said. “For a while it seemed that miracles were possible, and with them redemption.”

Another developer told the publication that the spin-off is about “one of the most beloved characters” in Disco Elysium. “I feel like it was the best possible shot at a disco-like game [Kurvitz]Rostov and other people who made the original Disco Elysium,” they said.

Internal response to the X7 was positive when it was shared at a company-wide launch late last year. “Everyone was looking forward to its development,” said a developer from another team at ZA/UM, adding that “his internal announcement lifted a lot of spirits after a heavy period of bad press around the studio.”

They also thought it was “just that kind of game [ZA/UM] Several developers believed that the spin-off could “reassure fans that ZA/UM is not a shell, that the IP is in safe hands, and that the studio is full of talented people with a genuine love for the world of Revahol”.

While some of those who spoke to PC Gamer said they believe this Disco Elysium spin-off could launch this year, others believe that next year is a more likely target. Klindžić said that if the team had been allowed to continue developing the title with less intervention from management, “it could be a three-year development cycle from start to finish”, with work on X7 initially starting in 2022.

Klindžić initially quit her job as an academic physicist and space mission scientist in February of that year to work on the sequel to Disco Elysium. However, it was an inauspicious start for the project. “On arrival I was told all the cables were gone and replaced but it was framed as a good thing, a healthy thing. Four months later, the project was shelved overnight. I began to express concerns as I felt like I had just abandoned my entire life and career only to find myself in a studio where the people I had come to work with had been fired and the project I was supposed to be working on was postponed without reason.”

Then, in August, studio management approached Klindžić and Disco Elysium writer Argo Tuulik⁠ about pitching a spin-off. “We were only given about a week to create a full-fledged representation of the game, and we worked around the clock to create a new story, new characters, new game mechanics and new creative direction, including an initial vision for design, art and audio. We presented the presentation to management, it was a huge success and it was codenamed X7, and its initial production schedule was set at one year.

However, even when the project was given the go-ahead, Klindžić said the team was “set up to fail from the start” due to not being allowed a pre-production period. “Every time we expressed concern about it and expressed that we needed more writers to meet the deadlines, we were accused of not wanting to do our job,” Klindžić said.

“Much of the time the script team’s submission was approved in August 2022, the other teams began production,” Tuulik added. “We didn’t even really know what the story or the characters were going to be when the art teams were already doing the first character and environment concepts. I’m sure you can see how much of a problem this is when you’re making a narrative-driven game.

“Essentially, the writing team had to work double-time from day one to keep other disciplines busy while trying to write the first lines of dialogue and sketch out the rest of the game at the same time. The writing team consisted of me and Dora at the time.” Another developer added, “I don’t know if Dora and Argo ever felt in control.”

As for why the X7 was ultimately canceled, PC Gamer’s report doesn’t give a clear reason. However, it is clear that a dark cloud still lies over ZA/UM.

“The whole X7 team loved the world of Elysium⁠,” Klindžić closed. “As fan artists, musicians, iconic voices⁠, we just wanted to preserve it, not let it wither away in some dark rundown cellar of corporate intellectual property.”

Since the release of Disco Elysium in 2019, ZA/UM has been mostly in the headlines due to an extremely public legal dispute with former key members of the team. In 2022, ZA/UM founder Martin Luiga stated that Disco Elysium designer Robert Kurwitz, writer Helen Hindpere and art director Alexander Rostov were fired following the takeover of the company by Estonian businessmen Ilmar Kompus and Tinis Haavel, previously convicted of investment fraud. frauds. This set off a series of lawsuits and accusations of toxic behavior at the studio.