Disco Elysium name change was a commercial move

Devs ZA/UM adapt project to fit its expanding scope.

We had a chance to chat with the Disco Elysium devs at EGX Rezzed last weekend about their future plans for the game and why they changed the name.

“As we were making this we discvered that it’s really spiralling out of control, it’s 40-50 hours of game now” Lead Desiger, Robert Kurvitz told TIGW.

“We needed a name that’s more novel-like or more massive and since the setting is called Elysium, the urban-fantasy setting we were working on, that felt like a good way to introduce it”

Originally called, No Truce with the Furries, Disco Elysium follows a disgraced, disco washout detective as he explores the shore town of Revachol West, where corruption is out of control and murders go unsolved. Waking up from a night of heavy drinking with cloudy memories of who you are, you find yourself embroiled in a murder.

Disco Elysium isn’t just a detective game though, its mechanics are firmly rooted in the RPG genre. You’re not stuck playing one kind of style, you can become whatever kind of cop you want, whether that be bad or good.

“You may be want to turn up the bad cop a bit, want to start drinking and smoking a lot for those massive bonuses that come from that… Well not massive bonuses, but you think you’re more tolerant to cope with the pain” Laughs Kurvitz.

“Or you can decide to be this Sherlock Holmes type character and put a lot of points into Encylopedia, rhetoric and build a smart guy”

Whatever direction you decide to take through this web-like story you’ll find multiple, branching options that combine information gathered from over fifty people you can interrogate across this open world game. There’s a lot of freedom in the way you approach Disco Elysium and it’s hazy Twin Peaks-inspired narrative.

“We started building this 13-14 years ago as a desktop fantasy RPG” Said Kurvitz. “We come from a Dungeons and Dragons background, that inspires us a lot, pen and paper stuff, really deep roleplay, but also classic detective stuff like the first season of True Detective”

Disco Elysium will be released on PC in the second half of 2018.