Two Disco Elysium spin-off studios have been announced on the same day

Two new studios co-founded by former Disco Elysium developers have been announced on the same day.

On Friday morning, around twelve former ZA/UM staff announced the creation of Longdue Games, a studio said to be working on a spiritual successor to the acclaimed RPG.

At the same time, another UK-based studio, ‘Dark Math Games’, was announced, with around 20 former Disco Elysium staff said to be on board creating their own detective RPG named XXX Nightshift.

Longdue Games, which also includes developers who previously worked at Rockstar, Bungie and Brave At Night, says it “aims to create games that resonate emotionally and intellectually”, and that it’s “here to build a reputation for consistently delivering quality, with a focus on depth and narrative integrity”.

Its first game is being billed as a spiritual successor to Disco Elysium, and Longdue says it “explores the delicate interplay between the conscious and subconscious, the seen and unseen”.

The game is described as a “psychogeographic RPG”, with a unique mechanic “where every decision reshapes both the world and the characters that inhabit it”.

Meanwhile, Dark Math’s XXX Nightshift claims to deliver “a deep single-player role-playing experience with many tools and layers of gameplay”, plus a “unique companion dynamic” which “adds more fun and offers different paths to solve cases”.

“The innovative and powerful role-playing system respects your time and trusts your intelligence with seismic choices,” it says. “It’s up to you to decide how your story unfolds—and how it ends.”

A gameplay trailer for Nightshift’s game can be seen below.

Earlier this year it was reported that Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM was laying off a quarter of its staff and cancelling a standalone expansion for the game. It was claimed that this was the studio’s third cancellation, after a Disco Elysium sequel and a sci-fi game.

Disco Elysium game director Robert Kurvitz and art director Aleksander Rostov do not appear to be involved with either new studio.

Longdue’s narrative director Grant Roberts said in a statement: “At Longdue, we’re inspired by decades of classic RPGs, from Ultima and Wizardry, through Fallout and Planescape, to the justifiably adored Disco Elysium.

“We’re excited to continue that legacy with another narrative-first, psychological RPG, where the interplay between inner worlds and external landscapes is the beating heart of the experience.

“We’re building a world-class team for a world-class game that will tell a world-class story, and we can’t wait to show you more.”

Timo Albert, Art Director/Tactical Lead at Dark Math, said: “Additionally to innovating the traditional RPG mechanics, we’ll bring something fresh to the table. You will see.And of course, a few less words. And a few more bullets, perhaps. In total: lot more fun.”