ZA/UM, the studio responsible for 2019's cult classic RPG Disco Elysium (although it's fair to say there's a little more to it than that), has revealed its new game Project C4.
The studio describes the game as "a mind-warping story of espionage and team-building" which takes place in an "original yet achingly familiar setting", which might suggest the setting will bear some similarities to Disco Elysium's Revachol.
Project C4's debut trailer is characteristically vague and oblique, with a voiceover intoning vague lines like "my mind is eating itself" and "obliteration wears a rented suit" with a withering English twang. In fairness, this is a teaser trailer (and one made by ZA/UM, no less), so we probably shouldn't expect straightforward.
The opening words of the trailer confidently read "WE ARE ZA/UM" and "WE BROUGHT YOU Disco Elysium", but that's arguably only true up to a certain point.
Back in 2022, Disco Elysium lead designer Robert Kurvitz, along with art director Aleksander Rostov and writer Helen Hindpere, confirmed that they were no longer a part of ZA/UM after it was reported that the three had been quietly removed from the studio.
What followed is a lengthy, winding story of legal disputes and bitter recriminations, so ZA/UM saying that it's the studio responsible for Disco Elysium feels just a little bit audacious given that many of that game's key creative personnel are no longer there.
Additionally, in early 2024, ZA/UM was hit by layoffs, with the studio also canceling one of its in-development game projects (which was reportedly a standalone Disco Elysium expansion).
Since then, a number of ex-Disco Elysium developers have founded their own studios and announced their own games, many of which bear at least superficial similarities to the Disco Elysium formula.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether Project C4 will itself be similar to Disco Elysium, but since ZA/UM reminds us of that game's existence in the first few seconds of the trailer (and describes C4 as "the next genre-defining RPG" from the studio), it's a safe bet it will.
We'll have to wait and see what's in store for us when it comes to Project C4. Stay tuned for more.
