Summer Eternal’s less-than-Disco Elysian successor needs a focused vision, and the studio’s unique worker-owned setup is key to ensuring it finds the right one

When Summer Eternal was announced, one of the reasons it stood out from the studio that wasn’t quite Disco Elysium’s successor was the unique way its developers (most of whom were ex-ZA/UM) set up its structure.

Co-op was the most popular word at the time (or two acronyms put together), and in the structure of Summer Eternal, a co-op of full-time and freelance workers owned 50% and 25% of the company respectively. . Meanwhile, 20% of it will be held in an investor-funded LLC, and 5% has been set aside for a non-profit organization that aims to give players of the studio’s games a chance to have a say in what comes next. The studio does.

How does all of this become one of the biggest challenges when it comes to game development designed to increase collaboration? Well, in an interview, the main part of which you can read here, I asked the developers themselves how they would respond to potential criticism that the egalitarian focus of the studio structure might make it harder for them to provide a compact platform for their games , centralized vision, if there are differences of opinion among Eternal Summer departments.

“The committee is a factory of compromise. It is impossible to set artistic standards in terms of design, because compromise is the average of everything, the peaks and valleys made out of nothing,” said Argo, the last writer of the original “Disco Elysium” to leave ZA/UM. Argo Tuulik responded, “Art-driven, creative-led, worker- and player-owned,” reading the words of our (burning) house that we will compromise anywhere but our artistic vision.

“Creative decisions are always made by the core art team, and once they agree on what they want to make, a person is chosen to take responsibility and lead the project. A game director if you will. Ideally Next, here’s one: While there’s no doubt our first project will be narrative-driven, imagine one created by visual and/or audio artist Kenny Tartakovsky (“Primal,” “Samurai Jack”) It’s fun to lead projects. I think about these types of explorations.”

Former ZA/UM writer Dora Klindíi added that how Summer Forever handles “artistic projects that create creative works” is an issue the studio team has been having active internal conversations about, in which “Baku is often cited Ning’s famous quote: ‘When it comes to boots, I respect the authority of the shoemaker…'”.

“Just because there aren’t capitalist bosses, it doesn’t mean that creative projects won’t have some kind of seniority structure, delineation of decision-making authority, and some level of project management and accountability,” she continued. “The difference is that this structure should be governed by the world. Underpinned by what really matters, which are skills, knowledge, experience and talent, rather than being imposed by money and perpetuated by fear of economic uncertainty.”

Klindescarron; then cited a line about the scientist Mittis from Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel “The Dispossessed” as an example of the eternal leadership of Summer How the “social authority” held by the character is represented/functioned. It reads as follows: “There is always a psychologically clear space around Mitis, just as there are no clouds around mountain peaks. Lacking all the reinforcement and enforcement of authority, what is real becomes prosaic. Some people are born with it. Come on. Authority; some emperors actually have clothes.”

Finally, she added: “I have seen some speculation as to whether the strong and uncompromising political approach we have taken in organizing our studios is an indication that we will be less nuanced and literary in our typical approach to our artistic projects. Ambiguity. I think we’re going to mitigate that. “As we show more of the work, those fears come to the fore, because the work that makes a good story in fiction requires more than what people hope for when they’re writing it. “Life” has far more moral complexity, contradictions, nuances, and sociopolitical conflicts. This story. “

Meanwhile, Summer Eternal developer Aleksandar Gavrilovi, who wrote a website post outlining the studio’s structure, told me he’s “not too worried.” “Historically and empirically, employee-owned companies are better at strategy than private businesses,” he said. [Basque federation of worker co-operatives] With nearly 100,000 employees and owners, Mondragon has no hesitation in deciding on a centralized vision that makes [it] To become one of the biggest and most successful companies in Europe, I don’t think our small collective of artists would have too much trouble. “

For more on my chat with Summer Eternal, be sure to check out what the developers told me about their expectations for working on Disco Elysium, and how they currently see opportunities for developers to get better in this space. gaming industry.