#zaed tag

[hellspawnmotel]

manifesting

[forever-a-goat-kid]

Humanity trying to convince the guardian of the ecosystem that it's okay if their city develops and expands:

[pokecraftking]

Everyone: "Unova had a bunch of references to it recently and we had gen 4 games not long ago, next mainline game is gonna be in Unova!"

Also Everyone: "Gen 2 would be up for a new game soon after Let's Go did Kanto, and the whole Pokemon Present was FILLED with Johto related stuff. Next game will be Johto!"

Gamefreak:

[jei-rifni]

I was listening to The Feels on loop. God help me (im returning to my incredibly brief 2021 era)

[xanderindisguis]

I love randomly disappearing for days upon weeks

[thepictoblr]

zygarde here with some sage advice

[itsza]

look at this grown man

[robinwaaaaa]

Some old F&C doodles and humanisations of mine that I legitimately almost forgot existed until now (awesome).

I'm such a huge fan of the pantheon in this show <3

[literallysatanofficial]

Alright, I'm going to attempt to hopefully clear up a few misconceptions and assuage some worries about this Disco Elysium sequel and the general situation at za/um right now.

I see the shitshow that is unfolding on social media, and as someone who has known about this whole disaster for over half a year now I'd like to weigh in on it and provide some context for everyone who may not know the full story.

First off, Robert Kurvitz was fired at the end of last year. December 2021. As is strongly implied on Martin Luiga's twitter, the reason for this is greed (calling them "money men" and "crooks" and other similar statements for like, months now), and the executive producers, Tõnis Haavel (who has previously been tried for fraud) and Kaur Kender (who has previously been tried for... other things.) screwed everyone over. Kender provided funding for the game, as the majority of the original za/um cultural association did not have the financial means to.

The original za/um cultural association consisted of Robert Kurvitz, Jüri Saks, Martin Luiga, and Aleksander Rostov, originally founded in in 2009. The group, along with Argo Tuulik, played many different ttrpg campaigns over the years, several of them set in Revachol (centred around Precinct 41), and slowly built the world up from there. Kurvitz released the book The Sacred and Terrible Air, set 20 years after Disco Elysium, back in 2013* but the novel flopped, and it was decided that they would make a video game. Rostov has always been more than just an artist for Disco Elysium, as you can see from the dev threads he frequently updated promoting the game, as well as on his personal instagram, tumblr sketch blog, and several other accounts he used while the game was first gaining traction.

*The most notable credits for TSaTA are as follows:

Author: Robert Kurvitz, Editor: Martin Luiga, Cover Design: Aleksander Rostov, Worldbuilding: Robert Kurvitz, Martin Luiga, Kaspar Kalvet, Argo Tuulik. Helen Hindpere and Kaur Kender also appear in the credits.

I say this because some of the staff at za/um are now accusing fans of being unable to overcome the "auteur theory" of it all (ie. seeing Kurvitz as the singular creative mind behind it all) but the fact is that they have now lost not only the original ttrpg campaign's game master, The Sacred and Terrible Air's author, and Disco Elysium's lead writer/director (Kurvitz) but also their lead writer for the Final Cut's political vision quests (Hindpere) as well as their "co-founder" and art director/designer (Rostov). They are all CREATIVE LEADS, and not just well known only for their reputations/titles.

Luiga himself (who originally broke the news) was an Elysium world builder and provided much of the pale and innocence-related lore. He was also a part of the original tabletop campaigns (Chester McLaine is his player character!), but left midway through Disco Elysium's development due to creative differences (or as he says, "bad vibes" at the company). He is credited as an editor, but claims to have written a good chunk of the text in the game, including much of Joyce's dialogue about the pale. I have seen people discredit him due to his early departure, but Rostov also tweeted out confirming that he, along with Hindpere and Kurvitz were no longer at the company, with no additional comments. Rostov also posted a drawing on his twitter several months back depicting a man jerking off over an NDA, so take that as you will.

So what does this mean for the future?

Luiga has said that he has hope for the sequel, which could either mean that the script was finished or nearing completion before Kurvitz was fired (likely, and fits a pattern in the industry) and it's just a matter of finishing the actual game development aspect, or it may be that he has hope for the original za/um creatives to be able to re-acquire the IP.

I think it's worth pointing out that the original pitch for "Disco Elysium" was actually "The Return", and Disco Elysium was meant to be the smaller-scale prequel to introduce players to the world. Considering that the team was planning on this sequel all along, I think it's possible that a large amount of the "original" game was written years ago, so it's not all that far fetched to believe that the basic outline may be finished, or even that a large portion of the script already exists. Keep in mind that there are a large number of writers for both Disco Elysium and The Final Cut, and it may still be possible to work with a base that the others provided. We have no idea how far into development the sequel may be. Of course, proceeding without three key members of the original team is kind of a kick in the balls, and imo really quite disgusting, especially with how long the company has been keeping their departures secret (dishonesty is not a good look lmao), but it may still be canon, true to the authors' vision, and genuinely a good game in the end.

Argo Tuulik, original Elysium world builder and part of the old ttrpg campaigns, as well as a main writer on Disco Elysium, is still working at za/um. Justin Keenan, former writer on The Final Cut who wrote the political vision quests alongside Helen Hindpere, still works at za/um (and has been promoted to lead writer, according to his LinkedIn), as does Kaspar Tamsalu, who painted several character portraits, (René and Gaston) and worked as a concept artist on the original game. Plenty of the original creatives still remain. The sequel could very well still be in good hands at the development level, even if the higher ups are "crooked".

So, in conclusion... If this game comes out and they still haven't worked things out with Kurvitz, Rostov and Hindpere? Honestly... fuckin' pirate it. But it is very likely it could still be a great game that plays out as it was meant to! All that being said, FUCK za/um as a company, don't support them through Atelier or their merch store. I wish everyone luck if they do attempt to get the IP back, and I sincerely hope this fan pressure will help get things moving for them.

[zagrubosc]

AKTYWNE KONTA MOTYLKOWE REBLOGUJCIE!! ✨

[hellspawnmotel]

Your Volo in z-a manifestation post makes me wish for Volo(new immortal) and AZ (old immortal) beef.

yeah that would be funny

[sycamore-labs]

WAKE THE FUCK UP

[jokrrouttfynn]

ah yes, all I want in a movie:

Bojan crying over lesbians and masturbating in 4k HD

[nothing-but-tears]

Dlaczego coś zjadłam... Dlaczego zawsze jak jestem sama w domu nam ten niepohamowany przymus żeby coś zjeść... Jakie to właściwie żałosne, głupie, prymitywne... Jaka ja jestem głupia, bez chwili przemyślenia rzucić się na żarcie...

Tak jak ostatnie dni były nie idealne, ale okej, tak dzisiaj po prostu zjebałam po całości... Także fast do jutra... A jutro kurwa mam psychiatrę a pojutrze dietetyka... I komu oni tu chcą dawać skierowanie do szpitala? Mi, która nawet nie potrafię się kontrolować i są dni kiedy co chwilę coś wpierdalam..?!

Pierdolona wannarexic...

Nic tylko się zajebać

[itsza]

kang yohan moments that live in my head rent free pt 1/?

[onefey]

prediction/concept for pokémon legends: z-a! it was supposed to just be a doodle but it GOT AWAY FROM ME...

since fantina is french (yeah i know she's american in the jp version) and jupiter didn't get a proper ancestor in legends arceus, i thought it'd be fun if they had a shared kalosian ancestor! plus, of course, jupiter's ace pokémon in fantina's type. lots of purple in this art 🤔