ZA/UM's next game is Project C4, a psychedelic espionage RPG, more details at GDC on March 17th
ZA/UM's next game is Project C4, a psychedelic espionage RPG, more details at GDC on March 17th
Game News - posted by Infinitron on Tue 11 March 2025, 19:28:55
Tags: Project C4; ZA/UM
https://www.eurogamer.net/disco-ely...rt-espionage-thriller-part-psychedelic-sci-fi
Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM - or at least what remains of it after a fractious few years of mudslinging, firings, and lawsuits - has announced its next game: a dice-rolling blend of psychedelic sci-fi and espionage thriller it's calling C4.
C4 casts players as an operant serving a questionable global power who finds themselves "locked in a vicious, clandestine struggle for the truth and influence". It's a quest for secrets, set in a world of shadowy characters and concealed conflicts, that's said to offer a blend of player introspection, deep character-driven dialogue, and dice-based high-stakes encounters.
"Yet it is the mind that takes centre stage in C4," ZA/UM explains. "More vulnerable and somehow more powerful than the physical world, it can be erased, changed, reordered, and of course significantly altered through regular use of psychoactive substances. Players must steel themselves with whatever comfort they can to survive the violent canvas of the real."
In a brief conversation with press ahead of C4's official unveiling, ZA/UM writer Siim "Kosmos" Sianamäe shed some light on the philosophy driving C4's development. "We want to build on what we've done before," he explained, "but not simply by repeating it or rehashing it. This is not Disco Elysium 2, this is C4. We've spent the last three years developing this brand-new, gripping, completely original work exploring the theme that each and every member of the ZA/UM collective is inherently obsessed with: espionage."
Fellow C4 writer Jim Ashilevi added, "[This] is a game all about spy stuff - spy games, allegiances, betrayals - [but it] is not 007, with his hero complex, the Bond girls, gadgets. It's more like Slow Horses: doing the work you love even if it does not get you any fame or praise. No heroes, only the stench of failure."
And failure appears to be a theme central to C4. "What differentiates us from other RPGs out there," Ashilevi continued, "is failing forward. Instead of failure being something that makes the player trigger a reload, start save scumming, we make failure a joy in itself, validating the player choice where other games may deny it. This is something very unique to our games, and we all know nobody fails more often than spies."
As to how all this will play out in more specific terms, that remains to be seen. For now, ZA/UM seems content to speak in more thematic terms, with C4's striking announcement trailer being accompanied by Sianamäe's tease that "betrayal is only possible in the presence of love".
What the studio is willing to share, though, is a whole heap of influences it's drawing upon for its latest project, ranging from the spy fiction of John le Carré to the "weird" science fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin, Phillip K. Dick, and Stanisław Lem. Even Park Chan-wook and French TV drama Le Bureau get a mention, with Ashilevi noting the latter "really [captures] how normal civilians get entrapped or seduced into intelligence work, and how keeping secrets compounds for those members of humanity who do it professionally."
At the moment, there's no hint of a release date - or even target platforms - for C4, but ZA/UM says it'll be sharing more details during next week's Game Developer Conference.
C4 casts players as an operant serving a questionable global power who finds themselves "locked in a vicious, clandestine struggle for the truth and influence". It's a quest for secrets, set in a world of shadowy characters and concealed conflicts, that's said to offer a blend of player introspection, deep character-driven dialogue, and dice-based high-stakes encounters.
"Yet it is the mind that takes centre stage in C4," ZA/UM explains. "More vulnerable and somehow more powerful than the physical world, it can be erased, changed, reordered, and of course significantly altered through regular use of psychoactive substances. Players must steel themselves with whatever comfort they can to survive the violent canvas of the real."
In a brief conversation with press ahead of C4's official unveiling, ZA/UM writer Siim "Kosmos" Sianamäe shed some light on the philosophy driving C4's development. "We want to build on what we've done before," he explained, "but not simply by repeating it or rehashing it. This is not Disco Elysium 2, this is C4. We've spent the last three years developing this brand-new, gripping, completely original work exploring the theme that each and every member of the ZA/UM collective is inherently obsessed with: espionage."
Fellow C4 writer Jim Ashilevi added, "[This] is a game all about spy stuff - spy games, allegiances, betrayals - [but it] is not 007, with his hero complex, the Bond girls, gadgets. It's more like Slow Horses: doing the work you love even if it does not get you any fame or praise. No heroes, only the stench of failure."
And failure appears to be a theme central to C4. "What differentiates us from other RPGs out there," Ashilevi continued, "is failing forward. Instead of failure being something that makes the player trigger a reload, start save scumming, we make failure a joy in itself, validating the player choice where other games may deny it. This is something very unique to our games, and we all know nobody fails more often than spies."
As to how all this will play out in more specific terms, that remains to be seen. For now, ZA/UM seems content to speak in more thematic terms, with C4's striking announcement trailer being accompanied by Sianamäe's tease that "betrayal is only possible in the presence of love".
What the studio is willing to share, though, is a whole heap of influences it's drawing upon for its latest project, ranging from the spy fiction of John le Carré to the "weird" science fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin, Phillip K. Dick, and Stanisław Lem. Even Park Chan-wook and French TV drama Le Bureau get a mention, with Ashilevi noting the latter "really [captures] how normal civilians get entrapped or seduced into intelligence work, and how keeping secrets compounds for those members of humanity who do it professionally."
At the moment, there's no hint of a release date - or even target platforms - for C4, but ZA/UM says it'll be sharing more details during next week's Game Developer Conference.
