Power, Comic Books and Zero Parades for Dead Spies: How ZA/UM Found Its Disco Elysium Successor

“Zero Parades is an exploration of failure,” explains Jim Ashilevi, writer and VO manager astatine ZA/UM. “What it means to suffer everything and past support going regardless. And then, since it's specified a achy question, it inevitably becomes an exploration of what it means to beryllium human. How uncomfortable and unusual it is to beryllium successful a assemblage that has thoughts and feelings and responsibilities, and a past that they can't spell backmost and fix.”

“This is wherefore I emotion moving here,” says ZA/UM’s caput of studio, Allen Murray, with a smile. “I ne'er had these conversations making Halo games.”

The workplace down Disco Elysium was, of course, ne'er going to travel up its 2019 “disaster cop” RPG with a crippled astir heroes redeeming the world. That’s not to accidental that it hasn’t moved into slightly much accepted video crippled territory, though. Its caller game, Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, is an espionage spy thriller acceptable successful a dark, astir psychedelic reflection of the Cold War’s closing years. Global powers conspire, force agents lurk successful the dark, and the full satellite sits connected the doorstep of the extremity of history. But portion that could theoretically beryllium the elevator transportation for immoderate fig of mainstream, combat-forward RPGs, ZA/UM is doing spycraft the lone mode it knows: Disco style.

“I deliberation the 1 North Star that we person is that we person to beryllium genuinely funny successful the stories that we are choosing to tell,” says Ashilevi. “If we were to commencement mimicking idiosyncratic else, oregon spell bigger and much costly and adhd accumulation worth and warring mechanics and multiplayer, I deliberation we would conscionable destruct ourselves successful the process.”

This “North Star” means that, connected the surface, Zero Parades looks astir identical to Disco Elysium. It’s different dialogue-centric, introspective, isometric RPG with striking creation direction. But that’s not to accidental it’s the nonstop aforesaid crippled dressed up successful a John le Carré skin.

“I deliberation you tin spot the squad has truly wanted to transcend their accumulation chops with Zero Parades,” explains Murray, “in presumption of having the satellite look much reactive, much lived in. There's much action, much radical walking astir doing things.”

While ZA/UM had nary volition of creating a “traditional” video crippled RPG, it did privation to excavation deeper into the genre’s much crunchy elements. This clip astir determination are much accomplishment checks, alongside a intelligence and carnal wellness strategy that tin beryllium exerted to summation the chances of passing those checks. There’s further accent connected aggregate solutions to idiosyncratic problems, the precise instauration of BioWare’s celebrated Infinity Engine games. By pushing the extent of prime disposable and enhancing the world’s reactivity to those choices, the squad saw the accidental to make thing that stood chiseled from Disco Elysium.

“Sophomore efforts are truly challenging,” Murray admits. “You don't privation to repetition your archetypal hit, nor tin you really.”

It took a batch of clip for the squad to travel to presumption with that. During the years pursuing Disco Elysium’s merchandise and consequent “Final Cut” version, ZA/UM experimented with a fig of concepts – immoderate were efficaciously nonstop sequels, portion others explored “a wholly antithetic direction,” according to Ashilevi. The way to Zero Parades arrived with the determination to “not afloat reinvent the wheel.” The goal, Murray says, was to “expand connected what we cognize however to do, and marque a bigger game, some mechanically and successful presumption of accumulation scope, and bash it well.”

Mission Control

Murray acknowledges that determination were “years of drama” earlier the workplace got to that point. For galore fans of Disco Elysium, that volition mean lone 1 thing: the firing of respective cardinal creatives successful 2022 and their consequent accusation that ZA/UM’s enforcement absorption had seized power of the institution done fraud. It’s a analyzable section successful the studio’s story, successful which those exorcised from the institution – including crippled manager Robert Kurvitz, writer Helen Hindpere, and creation manager Aleksander Rostov – are characterised arsenic either toxic disruptors oregon the victims of firm conspiracy, depending connected your source.

But there’s much to ZA/UM’s troubled caller past than those arguable dismissals: this is simply a workplace that has repeatedly cancelled projects and, successful aboriginal 2024, made 20 of its unit redundant. It each paints a representation of an inexperienced workplace struggling to accommodate to beingness aft releasing an unexpected mega deed connected the archetypal attempt, with the workers caught successful the crossfire. Perhaps unsurprisingly, ZA/UM’s UK-based workforce unionised past year.

The artistry comes first, the storytelling comes first. It inactive feels similar the full video crippled improvement broadside of things is conscionable similar a blessed accident.“

But portion corporate bargaining is undoubtedly important, those workers besides request beardown enactment to debar the woes of the past. Maybe they’ve recovered that successful Murray, a 20-year seasoned of the video games manufacture with erstwhile tenures astatine Microsoft, Bungie, PopCap, and Private Division. He was appointed arsenic ZA/UM’s caller caput of workplace soon aft quality broke astir those achy redundancies, and implicit the past 2 years his extremity has been “coaching the radical successful the studio, maturing our processes, helping radical to truly absorption connected what we're making, however we're making it, and wherefore we're making it.”

“It was casual to person a batch of things benignant of floating around,” helium admits. “But however are we actually going to animate this, oregon however are we going to airy this? What does this communicative truly mean? What are you truly trying to get crossed to the player?”

Today, ZA/UM is made up of astir 90 members of staff. Several of them have, similar Murray, been recruited from established developers specified arsenic Rocksteady successful bid to limb the workplace with specializer video crippled experience. But the remaining members of the Disco Elysium team, which makes up astir 35% of the studio’s full roster, positive galore of the caller recruits, “come from a inheritance that has thing to bash with crippled dev,” says Ashilevi.

“As a studio, we inactive presumption ourselves beauteous overmuch arsenic a corporate of artists,” helium explains. “The artistry comes first, the storytelling comes first. To maine personally, it inactive feels similar the full video crippled improvement broadside of things is conscionable similar a blessed accident.”

The Price of Power

That brings america backmost to Zero Parades, which tells the communicative of Hershel Wilk, codename “Cascade”, who’s pulled retired of status for the all-time classical spy trope, One Last Job. By moving into the espionage genre, ZA/UM has been capable to enactment astatine a notably antithetic standard than it did with Disco Elysium. While Zero Parades takes spot successful a carnal abstraction not excessively dissimilar to that of the studio’s erstwhile game, by stepping into the shoes of a spy alternatively than a section detective, the communicative people explores a overmuch grander stage.

“You bash person to contend with satellite powers,” Ashilevi reveals. “It's not conscionable wallpaper, oregon worldly that you work from notes that radical permission successful drawers, oregon newspapers near connected tables. You bash person to travel into adjacent interaction with immoderate of the large players arsenic well.”

This planetary signifier is explored done Hershel’s precise idiosyncratic lens, truthful portion the stakes are surely heightened this clip around, your actions are inactive conducted astatine thoroughfare level. You whitethorn beryllium capable to crook the cogs of a mega corp and displacement the equilibrium of worldwide politics, for instance, but to bash truthful whitethorn necessitate betraying your closest friend. Hershel’s ain symptom volition beryllium tangible, whereas those rotating cogs volition consciousness distant, possibly adjacent unimportant, to her ain life. Such is the toll of espionage.

Hershel volition brushwood radical obsessed with niche corners of popular culture. | Image credit: ZA/UM.

To make thing that reflects Disco Elysium’s triumphs, though, you can’t conscionable tackle issues of the quality condition. You’ve got to get astatine slightest a small eccentric. And that’s wherever Hershel’s hobbies travel into play.

“She's profoundly fascinated with comic books, music, you sanction it,” Ashilevi reveals. “So the communicative is besides an exploration of popular civilization and what brushed powerfulness means. Why is it important for america to beryllium obsessed with popular artists and cartoons, and films and pulp novels, and things similar that? Why are radical truthful profoundly obsessed with retro tech and bootlegged media, similar underground forbidden films? What does it bash to your soul, and however does it specify your identity?”

While music, fashion, TV shows, and retrofuturistic euphony formats each lend to the metropolis of Portofiro’s vibrant texture, determination is simply a acheronian broadside to it all. What is simply a user arsenic a governmental entity? How bash tiny decisions, similar tuning into a peculiar amusement oregon buying a definite magazine, necktie into the movements of the large powers? These are imaginable avenues for Hershel – for you – to investigate.

The conflict for brushed and hard power, waged betwixt planetary banks, imperialist states, and communist unions, is thing that goes beyond conscionable Hershel’s existent mission. “We request to travel up with an inspiring capable sandbox truthful that immoderate we take to bash with those characters oregon this beingness next, we tin conscionable leap close into it and support telling stories due to the fact that the groundwork has been laid,” says Ashilevi. Zero Parades is the starting constituent for thing bigger, then.

At slightest that’s the hope. The satellite of Elysium was besides envisioned arsenic a abstraction for aggregate stories, but it seems that publication is present eternally closed. And portion Zero Parades whitethorn not needfully request to beryllium arsenic important a breakout deed arsenic Disco Elysium was to unlock the imaginable for sequels, it does request to basal gangly successful a satellite wherever the “Disco-like” is simply a rising genre, made up of games developed some by fans inspired by that RPG masterpiece and caller studios acceptable up by the scattered erstwhile members of ZA/UM’s archetypal originative team. But by pursuing their ain originative North Star, the squad down Zero Parades hopes to captivate players erstwhile more.

“We person nary hint what kinds of games oregon stories radical are hoping to get retired of ZA/UM,” Ashilevi says. “The lone happening we tin power is whether we're staying existent to our ain imaginativeness and voice. And that's what we person done with Zero Parades.”

Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.