Former screenwriter Disco Elysium Argo Tuulik is forced to ask fans for money. He’s trying to raise 100,000 feet on GoFundMe — that’s about R13 million — to “survive the winter.”
Tuulik was part of the original core of the authors of the unexpected hit, but was later fired, lost his home and was mired in debt, and his newly formed studio Summer Eternal was embroiled in a lawsuit. How did this happen and why was such an outcome in some sense natural? Let’s find out.
Where it all started
Disco Elysium was the favorite creation of its creators. In fact, its origins lay with a group of friends, some of whom had known each other since childhood.
At the center of this confusion was the founder of the ZA/UM studio, Estonian writer and game designer Robert Kurvitz. It was he who brought all the others together at once. According to the documentary People Make Games, Disco Elysium was initially just an idea that came from countless board games similar to Dungeons & Dragons. Initially it wasn’t even planned to be made into a game, but the project generated new ideas and a core of creative people willing to invest in it. Among them was Argo Tuulik.
As he himself said, the development process was difficult. A team of like-minded people targeted the ZA/UM studio and found investors, but contradictions existed within the creative team. The fact that the project was released in 2019 was almost a miracle. It’s hard to describe what happened next as anything other than a miracle: Disco Elysium became a resounding hit and earned the status of one of the best RPGs of the decade. Only success, as usually happens, became the most difficult test for once good friends.
We were also once very happy with the game, and in this article we explain why Disco Elysium is one of the best CRPGs of our time.
Have you played Disco Elysium?
The game sold incredibly well, and the corporate sharks couldn’t resist smelling the money. In 2022, Robert Kurwitz, as well as his closest associates – artist Alexander Rostov, who gave Disco Elysium its special visual style, and screenwriter Helen Hindpere, left ZA/UM and accused the then management of almost a raider takeover of the studio. Argo Tuulik remained, although he later agreed with their claims.
Tackle the devil
Tuulik continued to work at ZA/UM and became one of the few original authors involved in the development of a spin-off, codenamed X7. All this against the backdrop of a scandal.
In short, Kurwitz and the company convicted investor Ilmar Kompus of carrying out an almost fraudulent scheme: he used the funds of the ZA/UM company itself, without Kurwitz’s consent, bought most of it from him and took all the money for himself. and left the founder out of work and fired him from his own studio.
Kompus became the CEO of ZA/UM and Kurvitsa was accused of monstrous treatment of employees, gender discrimination and attempts to sell the company’s intellectual property – it is easy to assume that we are talking about the rights to his most important asset, Disco Elysium and its universe. An Estonian court tried to find out who was right and who was wrong.
However, Tuulik continued to cooperate with management, who almost wiped their feet with his colleagues and friends. Since the summer of 2022, he has become one of the key figures in the development of the X7 project. As the Western press later wrote, it was supposed to be “a psychological RPG about one of Disco Elysium’s most beloved characters.”
Tuulik admitted that he wanted at least some of the original team to remain with ZA/UM so that the rights to the franchise would remain in good hands. He has, if you like, made a deal with the devil – according to him, out of good intentions. But in the end they did the same thing to him as they did to his friends. The work on the X7 resulted in the already well-known conflicts and prolonged crisis, and in February 2024 it was announced that the project had been canceled.
Argo Tuulik was fired along with 24 other employees. During a group discussion, management said that saying goodbye to about a third of the team was unnecessary. Immediately after Argo’s dismissal, Tuulik gave an interview in which he described how he was dismissed by company management.
They said: “We promote intellectual growth, foster a sense of community within our team and create games that are not only entertaining, but also have deep meaning.” I’m not making this up. These are the words
One email – and Tuulik is already unemployed and fired, as Kurvits, Rostov and Hindpere once were. And if his misfortunes had ended there, he might not be asking fans for money today. But alas, everything was just beginning.
Succession War
With the scrapping of X7, the former Disco Elysium team seemed to get a second wind. Robert Kurwitz founded his own studio. Together with Rostov and Hindpere he now works in a certain Red Info, or Red Info Box. According to People Make Games, the developers decided to try their luck with new investors – this time from the Middle Kingdom. Behind Red Info is the Chinese company NetEase, which, for example, owns Quantic Dream (Heavy rain, Detroit: Become Human) and recently released a hit Marvel Rivals.
One day – October 11, 2024, the fifth “anniversary” of Disco Elysium – three studios, somehow connected to the original, announced that they would be working on a “spiritual successor” to the adventures of Harry Dubois. Among them is Summer Eternal, of which Argo Tuulik was one of the founders. The company distinguished itself by publishing a loud manifesto on behalf of the developers.
Our creativity has been turned into an industry, and this industry has been plundered by corrupt leaders, by grossly profitable corporate structures that move like leviathans in the dark, burning human resources in their insatiable greed for money.
True, only a month later it became known that the newly created studio had become the subject of attacks from another “heir” – the Longdue company, co-founded by businessman Riaz Moola. The investor, whose name is on the Forbes list, began to put a spanner in Tuulik’s wheels. The fact is that the screenwriter was initially going to collaborate with Longdue, but due to disagreements chose to start his own project. Everything would have been fine, but the former bosses went to court.
GoGrammar sued me on behalf of Longdue and Riaz Mula and obtained an injunction preventing me from working on anything related to Summer Eternal until April 2025.
According to Tuulik, the reason for the confrontation was Mula demanding a seat in the leadership of Summer Eternal. Argo refused him, a hearing followed, but the court did not follow him. The screenwriter was left alone with debts – it turned out that defending your rights to a higher authority is not a cheap pleasure. If he had won, his costs would have been covered by the losing side, but the cards were different. And the trials will continue – Mula does not intend to let the author go.
You are here
A few days ago, Argo Tuulik launched a GoFundMe campaign asking fans for £100,000. According to him, he is practically homeless – together with his girlfriend and three cats, he lives with relatives and tries to find not only a means of subsistence, but also money for the court. He has the opportunity to make another deal with the devil: allow Mula into Summer Eternal, but Tuulik is not going to make any concessions. Past experience had taught him that this would only make things worse in the long run.
Tuulik will spend around £80,000 of fans’ money to defend his creation in court. Another twenty are intended to cover debts already accrued. He sees no other way out; he is effectively unemployed until April.
Please help me survive this winter, and I will definitely come back and stay with you in the summer.
If at the end of the trial there is any money left over from the fans, Tuulik promises to spend it on the fight for justice. The rights to Disco Elysium are now owned by people who had virtually nothing to do with its development, and the former screenwriter believes they should be returned to the authors. To those who created this fascinating universe and the characters from nothing that have sunk into the souls of many.
For example, one of the authors of the big hit of recent years was left with virtually nothing. The outcome seems natural, but no less tragic. According to Argo Tuulik, all he has now is his brainchild, Summer Eternal, and hope.
It is difficult to believe that justice will prevail. If Tuulik wants to emerge victorious from this battle, it seems a miracle will have to happen. But in the history of Disco Elysium, ZA/UM and its authors, miracles have already happened. Perhaps after a series of problems and failures, Argo Tuulik and his colleagues will be lucky again. What do you think of this confusing story? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Do you believe the former Disco Elysium writer will ultimately succeed?
Source: VG Times
Christina Moncayo is a contributing writer for “Social Bites”. Her focus is on the gaming industry and she provides in-depth coverage of the latest news and trends in the world of gaming.