Game News XXX Nightshift is an upcoming true detective RPG set in Antarctica from former Disco Elysium devs

[Kev Inkline]

Finally a real CRPG to play some roles and none of this combat slog we all hate

You have to be kidding. Go and read a romance drama novel.

And unless you're kidding it seems you need to learn to read the room.

 

[GhostInTheHell]

Is Kender the lead writer on this one?

Title is an interesting choice. Hopefully it won't get you in trouble with whoever owns the movie IP. Regardless, best of luck.

You can see here that apparently his brother and him are at the helm of the company making this game, but it's weird because they're clearly banking on people thinking they've got the ex writers but Kender himself never wrote for DE itself, he just produced it. We know Kurvitz, Rostov and Hindpere aren't there and I'd even go further and say Argo's also not involved since he doesn't seem like the kinda guy to keep his mouth shut about something like this, but that's just me. So that'd leave us with Olga Moskvina/Cash Decuir for the base game and Justin Keenan/Chris Priestman for the final cut for main writers if we go by the game's credits. I know they wouldn't draw as big as a draw as Kurvitz or Rostov, but going by the final cut alone their work isn't bad and some like Justin have been in several interviews before all of the fiasco even talking about his experience developing Elysium. You'd think they would say who they got from the get-go if it was any of these but the way they've said it so vaguely makes me distrust it.
Initially I thought this was ANOTHER "Disco Elysium spiritual successor" with former DE devs (that was announced today also lol) but apparently that's a completely different project made by entirely different people and they're also being vague about who exactly they got on their team. This just really smells like both of them got some ex ZA/UM intern to draw attention, more so when you look at who they do have and it's people from AAA games like Grant K. Roberts who's worked as a writer on that godawful Suicide Squad game and DESTINY of all things.

As I was writing this it has come to my attention that there's YET ANOTHER disco successor announced today only this time they've been forthcoming about which Disco devs they've got -- Argo Tuulik (told you lol), Olga Moskvina and Dora Klindžić (and also the voice actor for the narrator/skills)-- which makes me suspect either this is an agreement between all three to announce the projects at the same time and not "obscure" one another OR two of them caught wind of the other one going to be announced today and decided to also make themselves known as to not have their thunder stolen. Probably this one considering it's the only one with actual gameplay being showcased. Pure speculation on my part, mind you.

As an aside I actually really hate this name. It just makes me think it's one of those tacky WEG patreon porn games. But it looks interesting enough, I'd give it a try whenever it comes out.

So basically there's now four studios, all seem to be compromised in some way.

• I expect the most from Red Info Ltd who haven't announced anything yet. However it's frightening that it's founded by Kurvitz and Rostov "with backing of Chinese publisher NetEase"... I guess some subjects will be off-limits now.
  
  
• Longdue, is already a total write off as the narrative director Grant Roberts worked on Sweet Baby Inc's Suicide Squad KTJL game. And they are not revealing the rest of their staff so that's saying enough - this will likely barely have anything to do with Disco Elysium devs (https://venturebeat.com/games/disco-elysium-spiritual-success-is-in-development-at-longdue/ "Moola (chairman) and Roberts (narrative director) are the only staff being revealed now.").

In another article it states: "Longdue has not specified exactly who from Disco Elysium’s original team is working on its new game, though it has said that Rostov and Kurvitz are not involved." - so that would leave Hindpere? But probably they just forgot to also deny her involvement, and wouldn't she be at Red Info Ltd.?

• Summer Eternal at least has some staff from ZA/UM but will also probably lack any narrative nuance and will likely be a very toxic workplace for regular workers, going by the announcement:

However, Tuulik did address his former coworkers, stating he "would love for you to join the struggle as well: time to roll up our sleeves and start building communism!"

(https://www.gamedeveloper.com/busin...er-launches-third-splinter-dev-summer-eternal)

• This latest one then Dark Math Games, I can barely find who's on board with this apart for Kaur Kender's brother so presumably him. And while they have actually shown something, the writing seems to be trying way too hard in this trailer and the screenshots, as well as containing some rainbow flag propaganda (https://www.gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/XXX-NIGHTSHIFT_2024_10-11-24_002.jpg "KGBT+" - immersion breaking present day politics)

 

[Cohesion]

Solace under Quantum is also a bit cheeky

Whole "build tree" looks like a random mishmash of abstract ((cool)) words. Time - secret life lol. It was more coherent in Disco.

 

[Cohesion]

WEG patreon porn games

What do you mean? Wadjet eye games? They make adventure games AFAIK.

 

[Lord_Potato]

More bullets than Disco Elysium -> it is a rpg and you can't do anything about it

Ten times more than zero is still zero.

Tell me you never found Harry's gun without using those exact words.

 

[Latro]

CYOA codex

 

[KVVRR]

before all of the fiasco

What fiasco? I'm desperately out of the loop (and don't want to get back there except for DE knock-spin-spiritual-offs).
WTF happened in a few sentences?

The TLDR is that the three main guys (Kurvitz, Rostov and Hindpere) that "made" DE were kicked out by corporate out of their own company doing some pretty illegal shit because of several alleged reasons (they didn't like Kurvitz having so much power, they had taken a sabbatical during the entire production of the Final Cut iirc and this pissed off the producers, they wanted to own and sell the company for a quick buck, you take your pick) and it's basically culminated in ZA/UM (corporation that made Disco Elysium) imploding in on itself.

WEG patreon porn games

What do you mean? Wadjet eye games? They make adventure games AFAIK.

Western Erotic Games. I might've mistaken it for something else, I'm not that familiar with that scene, but this title reminds me of one.

• I expect the most from Red Info Ltd who haven't announced anything yet. However it's frightening that it's founded by Kurvitz and Rostov "with backing of Chinese publisher NetEase"... I guess some subjects will be off-limits now.
  
  
• Longdue, is already a total write off as the narrative director Grant Roberts worked on Sweet Baby Inc's Suicide Squad KTJL game. And they are not revealing the rest of their staff so that's saying enough - this will likely barely have anything to do with Disco Elysium devs (https://venturebeat.com/games/disco-elysium-spiritual-success-is-in-development-at-longdue/ "Moola (chairman) and Roberts (narrative director) are the only staff being revealed now.").

In another article it states: "Longdue has not specified exactly who from Disco Elysium’s original team is working on its new game, though it has said that Rostov and Kurvitz are not involved." - so that would leave Hindpere? But probably they just forgot to also deny her involvement, and wouldn't she be at Red Info Ltd.?

• Summer Eternal at least has some staff from ZA/UM but will also probably lack any narrative nuance and will likely be a very toxic workplace for regular workers, going by the announcement:

However, Tuulik did address his former coworkers, stating he "would love for you to join the struggle as well: time to roll up our sleeves and start building communism!"

I'd be optimistic about Red Info considering how much Kurvitz seems to have made a point in recent interviews that if you were to make a project like DE you need to make absolutely sure you own it for yourself and that despite it all they did manage to publish DE on China. But also considering he has also stated that the best way to write an interesting world is to cook it in the oven for over 5 years... yeah it's gonna be a while before anything, if at all, comes out.
Hindpere I'd bet she's also in Red Info since last I saw her she was still in a relationship with Robert.

As for Summer Eternal eh, it's probably not gonna be a pretty place to work at like you say but it FEELS a lot more like za/um from what little they've posted out of the four. My only fear is that with all that's happened they'll double down on the political aspects of their next project instead of the humane ones or better yet having both compliment eachother. I liked the church side quest in DE because of the pale stuff and the ravers, anything about the Fortress Occidental dev group seemed just way too on the nose and I fear they will go in that direction as well.

The other two just seem a lot more corporate and it does smell like they're just jumping on the wagon. At least Nightshift has something to show and it looks interesting but with this little info I don't know how good or bad it'll be.

Guess we'll see in 3 to 7 years, eh?

 

[Rincewind]

But also considering he has also stated that the best way to write an interesting world is to cook it in the oven for over 5 years... yeah it's gonna be a while before anything, if at all, comes out.

That's a rather short wait by Tolkien standards
Creating something interesting needs time, not deadlines.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

At this point even janitor from Disco Elysium has started a game dev studio.

Perhaps Scruffy will resurface at one of these studios.

 

[Hellraiser]

But also considering he has also stated that the best way to write an interesting world is to cook it in the oven for over 5 years... yeah it's gonna be a while before anything, if at all, comes out.

That's a rather short wait by Tolkien standards
Creating something interesting needs time, not deadlines.

Depends, I would have to probably dig around a bit, but I expect that just like technical limitations of the hardware used to force game developers to come up with creative workarounds, I imagine time constraints might have led an author or two to stumble upon some brilliant idea only because they had to avoid a rabbit hole that would bog them down in endless research or some plot tumor that would just grow and grow, taking up page after page instead of the actual plot (then again deadlines also cause filler ).

Still 5 years seems rather reasonable as far as cooking up something interesting goes.

 

[Nortar]

More bullets than Disco Elysium -> it is a rpg and you can't do anything about it

Ten times more than zero is still zero.

Tell me you never found Harry's gun without using those exact words.

Yeah, I also turned the neck-tie into a grenade.
But unless you consider branching dialog for combat, DE has none.

 

[gooseman]

First game was bad enough, now there's going to be a woman talking to me the entire time. Here comes the avalanche of discosoulslikes.

 

[Rincewind]

First game was bad enough, now there's going to be a woman talking to me the entire time. Here comes the avalanche of discosoulslikes.

Not if you don't play the game. Easy

 

[goregasm]

So it's DE with a different pallette.

 

[Rahdulan]

Intradesting.

 

[gooseman]

these wojak political compasses are getting weird

 

[Tarkleigh]

A great reminder of how much I hate this "here are 12 different abstracts of your quirky psyche" bullshit writing. It is retarded, pretentious and kills the flow of the writing. So, thanks for that at least, Infinitron

 

[Roguey]

Intradesting.

Did a DE writer/dev make this, this is impressive.

Edit: found the source, just an artistic enthusiast https://bsky.app/profile/gestaltzerfall.bsky.social/post/3l6geqe45dp24

Could probably land a job at one of these studios no problem.

 

[Fenix]

were kicked out by corporate out of their own company doing some pretty illegal shit

Can you clarify? Who was doing illegal stuff? Devs? or those who threw them out?

because of several alleged reasons

Are these reasons known? Or it's all just speculation of various scales?

 

[KVVRR]

were kicked out by corporate out of their own company doing some pretty illegal shit

Can you clarify? Who was doing illegal stuff? Devs? or those who threw them out?

because of several alleged reasons

Are these reasons known? Or it's all just speculation of various scales?

The ones that threw them out, although it's allegedly ilegal since the charges were withdrawn afterwards and the people involved did end up paying the bill. The gist of it is that one of the shareholders of the company did some shady stuff to get a hold of the majority of the stakes in it, no real papeltrail or anything from the other shareholders (including kurvitz and rostov) that can attest to them knowing this was going on so it's all she said he said.
You can read and watch a 2 hour documentary if you feel like it about it here: https://gameworldobserver.com/2023/...m-shareholders-crunch-kurvitz-kompus-toxicity

As for the reasons themselves, Kurvitz and Rostov claimed they were fired after asking for financial documents. and ZAUM claimed that actually Kurvitz and Rostov and Hindpere were all fired for misconduct. Employees (or now ex-employees i guess) from ZA/UM have said that there was some validity to the claims and vouched for the company but considering how they were under ZA/UM's employment at the time, how apparently management became even worse after Kurvitz & co were fired (and a few months after these employees gave their response they were fired as well), and how messy ZAUM was with the cause of the dismissal at the start (iirc they waited until the last possible second to reveal they were fired, attested to Kurvitz being misogynistic and shit like that while treating Hindpere like shit), it's really up to you who you believe at this point. Personally while I can believe someone like Kurvitz might be an ass and a pain to work with I find the shady shit surrounding the share adquisitions, the multiple firings, project cancellations, and complete inability to keep the story straight from part of the shareholders/zaum to be a lot more suspect. You don't just cancel every single project in development project and fire so many of your remaining writing team/staff AFTER firing the lead writer and lead artist if they were supposedly the troublemakers. You'd think you'd start to get ahead after a while instead, no?

 

[Fenix]

As for the reasons themselves, Kurvitz and Rostov claimed they were fired after asking for financial documents

Lmao, that explains it all.
Shitty - or solid - business practices.

 

[Rahdulan]

Is this an early April Fools?
https://summereternal.com/

© SUMMER ETERNAL D.D.
(TO BE ESTABLISHED on 1 APRIL 2025, zagreb, croatia)

 

[Roguey]

Is this an early April Fools?
https://summereternal.com/

© SUMMER ETERNAL D.D.
(TO BE ESTABLISHED on 1 APRIL 2025, zagreb, croatia)

These ultracommies take themselves way too seriously for that.

 

[sebas]

I don't know who came up with XXX in a game that has nothing to do with porn, but I bet they suck their own dicks: "We so edgy!"

 

[Modron]

I don't know who came up with XXX in a game that has nothing to do with porn, but I bet they suck their own dicks: "We so edgy!"

It was originally going to be a videogame adaptation of the vin diesel movies but then they lost the rights to his likeness but not the title.