11/15/24: This story has been updated with an official statement from Longdue.
Argo Tuulik, Disco Elysium writer and co-founder of new RPG studio Summer Eternal, says he's being sued by Riaz Moola, the founder of competing RPG studio Longdue, with an injunction preventing Tuulik from working on or promoting his new studio's work.
Tuulik further alleges he has received "baseless legal threats" from his former employer, Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM, in collaboration with Moola. "Today, I learned press has been receiving anonymous tips insinuating there is conflict between myself and [third Disco successor studio Dark Math]," Tuulik wrote. "The Za/Moola—Riaz/UM alliance has been behind my legal struggles and silence as of late." Tuulik also shared images of letters from ZA/UM and CoGRammar alleging "Breach of Contract, Breach of Confidentiality, and Copyright Infringement" from the former, and "Serious breaches of your legal obligations to the company" from the latter.
Tuulik was a writer on Disco Elysium who, among other contributions, was the primary creator of Cuno and the Hardy Boys. Tuulik was laid off from ZA/UM in February with the cancellation of a "standalone expansion" to Disco Elysium. Tuulik and other developers at ZA/UM allege that the project was mismanaged, including the skipping of an industry-standard preproduction period. Tuulik's recently-announced development co-op, Summer Eternal, is one of the most exciting of the schismatic former Disco Dev operations.
Moola, meanwhile, is a curious new figure in the post-Disco Elysium saga. A Forbes 30-under-30 list alumnus and founder of multiple tech companies, Moola is the chairman and investor of Longdue, an RPG studio working on a Disco-inspired game that boasts as-of-yet unidentified former developers from ZA/UM. Adding more confusion to the story, I have previously been contacted by Moola under a Dark Math Games email address, with the signature identifying him as a co-founder of the company. Dark Math is yet another studio boasting former Disco Elysium devs working on a spiritual successor to the beloved RPG. Dark Math and its game, XXX Nightshift, were announced on the same day as Longdue and Summer Eternal. After the initial publication of this story, Longdue provided a statement in response to Tuulik's comments on [[link]] X:
"Following public comments made by Argo Tuulik, we can confirm that an independent judge has ruled in Longdue’s favour in a court hearing over a week ago. We have tried to deal with this matter privately for the sake of everyone involved, but given Argo’s public comments we feel it is necessary to respond to clarify some key facts.
Argo Tuulik was a part of Longdue’s team in the early days of Longdue’s formation, as well as previously Dark Math. However, as [[link]] a studio, we have since grown in a direction that did not align with his approach.
We are a team that values integrity and honouring agreements, and as such, we were disappointed to see Argo breach agreements we had in place after leaving Longdue. Longdue continued to make attempts to settle matters amicably with Argo privately in spite of these breaches. These efforts were repeatedly rebuffed, leaving Longdue with no other option but to ask the courts to intervene. An independent judge has ruled in our favour.
Finding ourselves in this position is disheartening. We did not want to take legal action and we did not want this to become public for the sake of everyone involved. However, there are times when taking action is necessary to protect our work, the team we’ve built, and the agreements we’ve made.
Our goal from the outset was to move beyond the conflicts that have followed the people that worked on Disco Elysium since its release by supporting and uplifting each other as a community of studios making great RPGs. That remains the case and we hope to settle this matter amicably with Argo [[link]] so that everyone can move forward.
Given Argo’s comments, we would like to clarify that ZA/UM was in no way involved in this legal action. This legal action was taken because of agreements between Argo and Longdue that were broken by Argo. Any legal dispute Argo may have with ZA/UM is a matter for those two parties.
We respect the contributions of Argo during Longdue’s early stages, and we hope fans will continue to support all studios that have been inspired by narrative-rich RPG games such as Disco Elysium and Planescape Torment.
Thank you to everyone who has shown support for Longdue. We will continue to create a studio environment that fosters creativity, collaboration, and respect as we remain focused on crafting impactful, meaningful RPGs for our players."
It remains unclear what exactly transpired between all the parties involved, but the messiness of the dispute is reminiscent of the conflict that sundered ZA/UM in the first place back in 2021. Last month, I broke down the "who's who" of the five studios contesting Disco Elysium's legacy, as well as their respective chances of living up to that promise.