After this morning's announcement of the new studies Dark math games and Longdue gamesanother ZA/UM alum has launched his own independent group.
Co-founded by Disk Elisio the writer Argo Tuulik, Eternal summer it's billed as an “art collective/role-playing studio.” His mission? Collect more Nightclub writers and some new blood to “create a liberating space for us and other veteran RPG developers to finally, collectively, begin to innovate in this gaming space again.”
According to the website, they include other prominent personnel Nightclub writer Olga Moskvina, voice actress Lenval Brown, lead writer Dora Klindžić, senior concept artist Anastasia Ivanova, and graphic designer Michael Oswell. Aleksandar Gavrilović, former Gamechuck developer, also joined as an “organizer”.
Summer Eternal will have a co-op structure made up of part-time and freelance workers alongside full-time staff and some players. The studio plans to be fully transparent with a development diary covering its “organizational and creative news.”
“Transparency and true equality to the best of our ability is
what we promise to adhere to in our relentless pursuit of the highest artistic level and social change,” Tuulik wrote. “We invite you to judge
us with our actions, not with our words.”
Every study is here!
Why so many new initiatives from ex-ZA/UM staff? Earlier this year, the developer was fired 24 employees after deleting a project codenamed “X7”. At the time it was supposed to be an expansion for Disk Elisio.
Since several keys Nightclub the developers were presumably ousted in 2023, ZA/UM faced several setbacks, including many discarded projects, legal casesand allegations of mistreatment by staff.
On the Summer Eternal website, Tuulik he said he was “not ready” to give up what he learned while working Disk Elisioand the team came together with a specific goal: “Do it from the start, but this time let's not fuck the moment the checkered flag falls.”
“If we fail,” Klindžić added, “it will be due to incompetence, megalomaniac ambition or any other reason. […] But it won't be out of greed.”
Unlike the other two studios, Summer Eternal had nothing to show for its new project beyond suggesting that it would be something “completely new.”
However, Tuulik addressed his former colleagues, stating that “I would like you to join the fight too: it's time to roll up our sleeves and start building communism!”
