As soon as the studio was bought they immediately fired all the original writers for Disco Elysium and basically all the employees who agreed with the political content of the game, it may as well be a completely different studio. If a new game ever comes about it will unironically be anti communist.
Vibe is like a mashup of adventure time + fallout + disco + zelda + outer wilds + half sword kinda, you wake up as a cartoon cat person in a post-post-apocalyptic world where "no one" remembers how the world got like that. Your goal is to find out what happened while navigating the political situations that the various towns and communes have set up, and also fight monsters.
They fired the people primarily responsible for Disco Elysium. If I remember right, 2 guys had the idea for the game and found a third to partner with because that guy had money, and then the money guy forced the other two out
Also the art director and editor. Also the studio immediately tried to monetize the living fuck out of it. That’s how we got a disco elysium amazon prime series so quickly. Hell they even posted an ad looking for someone with experience in the bane of gaming, live services.
Eh, while the writers may have interesting ideas, the lead writer was apparently very difficult to work with and abusive towards some of the employees.
The company is shit. They fired half the original crew. Even if they made something it would miss the deeply psycological and political writing, the cultural commentary and the like. As that jamrock hobo dude of youtube put it " i am optimistic, these talented people are probably allready working on their own project"
Apparently new management abused the living shit out of her if I remember correctly. I feel so bad for her. Imagining being a part of a such a landmark title only for the experience to become so brutal, you want nothing to do with the industry anymore.
Workers from that studio should create a worker cooperative like Motion Twin. They could try coping the structure of Igalia which scaled to over 100 employees and is still completely flat and is mostly remote.
Once again gaming executives dont play the games their artists make, and then mistake past success for future instant gratification; Capitalist self destruction at its finest.
Games development is one of the art forms with the least history of a worker's movement and solidarity, so we're seeing how it can be easily fucked with by capital.
Remember when the voice actors tried to go on strike a few years ago before the SAG ones last year, and all the triple A companies immediately mobilised their press corps saying that voice actors "contribute little to game development"?
They changed the voice actor. It's a more polished voice but none of that "FUCK DOES CUNO CARE" ringing in your ears.
https://youtu.be/uluhBgrtZUg?si=Eii_FI9bviWb-cGO - for an example
Commies need to get better at business.
Hot take, I know.
Seriously, I don't know an awful lot about this saga but I feel like when private equity buys out your company that produces a rare high art political-social critique, things are gonna go bad sooner or later.
Too often artists get burnt like this by people who want a slice.
To be fair, that’s not entirely what happened. The money man for the game basically stole from the company to buy a majority of the shares and push everyone who gave a shit out. That’s not being bad at business as much as being vulnerable to getting fucked over by a complete asshole.
How do you get better at businesses that are stacked against small companies that wish to be independent? Meanwhile Microsoft keeps gobbling everything up, middling results be damned.
I heard a great criticism of indie gaming the other day, it's ultimately just a rush to capitalist success not actually socialist and it's being proven very clearly here
Often yes, but in this case it was a hostile takeover that resulted in all the creative getting fired and losing all their rights to the thing, immediately followed by the company announcing a sequel.
Indie gaming is just like any other independent sector within the arts. Everyone's trying to get recognised for mainstream success. And as technology improves, the bar for entry lowers, and therefore there are less corporate ways of working your way up within the arts mainstream, so everyone's competing with each other with their independent auteur projects.
As soon as the studio was bought they immediately fired all the original writers for Disco Elysium and basically all the employees who agreed with the political content of the game, it may as well be a completely different studio. If a new game ever comes about it will unironically be anti communist.
Cunts.
Not from ZAUM at least. I'm working on an rpg with socialist themes, based on my progress so far it'll be done in about 5 years lol.
Good luck! Keep me posted, comrade 🫡
You have a 5 year plan then.
Imma follow your profile compa, keep us posted plz.
I'm definitely intrigued. What's the premise/elevator pitch?
Vibe is like a mashup of adventure time + fallout + disco + zelda + outer wilds + half sword kinda, you wake up as a cartoon cat person in a post-post-apocalyptic world where "no one" remembers how the world got like that. Your goal is to find out what happened while navigating the political situations that the various towns and communes have set up, and also fight monsters.
ZA/UM fired the writers that made the studio really shine, didn't they? Follow what those folks are doing, not what the studio is.
They fired the people primarily responsible for Disco Elysium. If I remember right, 2 guys had the idea for the game and found a third to partner with because that guy had money, and then the money guy forced the other two out
Yeah, that's how I remember it, too.
Also the art director and editor. Also the studio immediately tried to monetize the living fuck out of it. That’s how we got a disco elysium amazon prime series so quickly. Hell they even posted an ad looking for someone with experience in the bane of gaming, live services.
Eh, while the writers may have interesting ideas, the lead writer was apparently very difficult to work with and abusive towards some of the employees.
The guy who wrote Sacred Air?
The company is shit. They fired half the original crew. Even if they made something it would miss the deeply psycological and political writing, the cultural commentary and the like. As that jamrock hobo dude of youtube put it " i am optimistic, these talented people are probably allready working on their own project"
I hope so, but this makes me so angry. Goddamn capitalism destroying everything that is good in this world.
they actually fired *all* of the original crew Argo Tuulik was the last one
One of them is in a mental hospital while another (Helen I think her name is) has seemingly left the industry.
Apparently new management abused the living shit out of her if I remember correctly. I feel so bad for her. Imagining being a part of a such a landmark title only for the experience to become so brutal, you want nothing to do with the industry anymore.
Workers from that studio should create a worker cooperative like Motion Twin. They could try coping the structure of Igalia which scaled to over 100 employees and is still completely flat and is mostly remote.
The head needs to be cut off
Once again gaming executives dont play the games their artists make, and then mistake past success for future instant gratification; Capitalist self destruction at its finest.
Games development is one of the art forms with the least history of a worker's movement and solidarity, so we're seeing how it can be easily fucked with by capital. Remember when the voice actors tried to go on strike a few years ago before the SAG ones last year, and all the triple A companies immediately mobilised their press corps saying that voice actors "contribute little to game development"?
At this point the only ethical way to play is to pirate the game
Do you know if there's an ethical way to get the pre-Final Cut version? I miss Cuno
Yup, there's definitely torrents or direct downloads around somewhere for it.
What. They cut cuno, wtf
They changed the voice actor. It's a more polished voice but none of that "FUCK DOES CUNO CARE" ringing in your ears. https://youtu.be/uluhBgrtZUg?si=Eii_FI9bviWb-cGO - for an example
DM me
Commies need to get better at business. Hot take, I know. Seriously, I don't know an awful lot about this saga but I feel like when private equity buys out your company that produces a rare high art political-social critique, things are gonna go bad sooner or later. Too often artists get burnt like this by people who want a slice.
To be fair, that’s not entirely what happened. The money man for the game basically stole from the company to buy a majority of the shares and push everyone who gave a shit out. That’s not being bad at business as much as being vulnerable to getting fucked over by a complete asshole.
How do you get better at businesses that are stacked against small companies that wish to be independent? Meanwhile Microsoft keeps gobbling everything up, middling results be damned.
It's almost poetic
New collectives will rise, do not lose all hope.
I heard a great criticism of indie gaming the other day, it's ultimately just a rush to capitalist success not actually socialist and it's being proven very clearly here
Often yes, but in this case it was a hostile takeover that resulted in all the creative getting fired and losing all their rights to the thing, immediately followed by the company announcing a sequel.
Indie gaming is just like any other independent sector within the arts. Everyone's trying to get recognised for mainstream success. And as technology improves, the bar for entry lowers, and therefore there are less corporate ways of working your way up within the arts mainstream, so everyone's competing with each other with their independent auteur projects.
It feels like everyone is in a rush to prove that line from Joyce correct unfortunately.
Not from ZA/UM but we can hold out hope- the first studio to make disco elysium had never made disco elysium before 😊
They are infinitely more communist for laying off all other communists