Disco Elysium's successor studio was announced today for the second time, which means that there are now four companies vying for the title of ZA/UM’s true inheritor.

How many Disco Elysium-like studios are too many? Trick question: No such number has been invented. today is the second time (and fourth time in total) that a group of former ZA/UM developers has announced their intention to start a new studio. Dark Math Games is working on XXX Nightshift which, huh?, looks a lot like Disco Elysium.

No, we didn't accidentally publish the same story twice. Longdue is the other Disco Elysium sequel studio announced today. It's a studio with DE veterans and claims to be working on a 2019 classic inspired RPG. Dark Math is a contender for the Disco crown, along with Red Info, ZA/UM, and ZA/UM. Was I confused at times when writing this article? You should mind your own business.

Dark Math is a UK-based group that describes itself as a "breakaway group from original

Disco Elysium has a development team of 20 developers. It's a little difficult to tell which ZA/UM vets are on staff. In the press release announcing its existence, Timo Albert, a former ZA/UM Motion Graphic Designer is only named as one of the four studio founders. Everyone else remains anonymous.

There could be a reason: A quick look at the Companies House entry of Dark Math shows Heiti Kender to be a current director and his brother Kaur Kender to have resigned. Kaur Kender, if you haven't followed the drama that has engulfed ZA/UM in the last few years, is one of the key figures.

In court documents, Robert Kurvitz (ZA/UM's founder and DE's lead writer) and Alexander Rostov(founder and DE's art director) alleged they were forced to leave the studio by Ilmar Haavel and Tonis Kompus with the support of Kaur Kender. In 2022, Kender himself retracted a lawsuit he had filed against ZA/UM CEO and majority shareholder Ilmar Kompus.

It's not surprising, then, that the PR for Dark Math does not draw attention to this drama by mentioning names other than Albert. Albert says that the goal of XXX Nightshift was to "innovate the traditional RPG mechanisms" to "bring freshness to the table." You will see. Of course, there will be fewer words. Perhaps a few bullets more. "In total: a lot more fun."

It looks exactly like Disco Elysium. Even the way the dialogue is presented on the right side of the screen is similar. Plus, the game describes itself as a "true Detective RPG" and you are a type of police officer called a "Patrol Operative."

Even though I have a few more questions about Dark Math and their staff, I am definitely interested in checking it out. The dialogue trailer looks moody and intriguing, and the premise -- you're a police officer stranded in a luxury Antarctic resort -- is exactly the kind of weirdness that I could get into.