Right, hello. Remember the Disco Elysium spin-off game codenamed Project X7, which was in the works at ZA/UM before it was canned early last year – at the same time folks working on it were let go as part of some layoffs?
Well, what looks like an internal presentation discussing and demoing several elements of that cancelled game has now allegedly leaked, and it claims that what we’d likely have been in for if the game had released was a single-player adventure starring Cuno and Cunoesse as dual protagonists. Oh, and a box of locusts.
The alleged presentation was uploaded to YouTube by Disco Elysium content creator/community member Jamrock Hobo on April 1, though it doesn’t appear to be a joke. “Internal presentation of ZA/UMs Disco Elysium sequel ‘Locust City – An Elysium Story’,” they wrote in the description, “It was made nine months before the project was cancelled. This was sent to me with the request to upload it, so I guess that’s what I’ll be doing. The things you find in your inbox huh.”
So far, so very in-line with the weird and concerning series of messes both involving ZA/UM and would-be Disco successor studios that’ve sadly been a regular occurence since the original game came out all those years ago. This allegedly leaked presentation runs for 15 minutes and judging by the date on the computer screen in the video, was seemingly given on May 10, 2023.
Assuming it does turn out to be legitimate, we get a picture of how various elements of the game were coming togetherat that point in development, with various devs chatting through stuff like the narrative – that part appears to be delivered by ex-ZA/UM writer and current Summer Eternal member Dora Klindžić -, the art, and a vertical slice the team has put together.
The cliff notes are that you’d be playing as both Cuno and Cunoesse, the two kids Harry and Kim famously meet in a certain yard containing a dead body, with the ability to switch between the two and oversee their separate sets of thoughts, but a shared inventory and task list. Everything looks a lot like the original Disco, including the thought cabinet, which looks to have been split in half between the two characters, with some new skills specific to Cuno and Cunoesse swapped in.
As for the plot, it looks like we’d have been in for five acts, with things kicking into gear in act two via the two trying to flee by train following the opening act murder of Cuno’s father, and four or five different endings you could end up with. Throught all of this, Cuno carries around a cardboard box of locusts – the titular Locust City – which would have served as a very Animal Farm-sounding allegory for his personal journey, as the state of the locust civilisation changed to match Cuno’s situation and choices.
VG247 has reached out to ZA/UM for comment on this story.
Do you think running around with a box of locusts as Martinaise’s foremost swearing merchants would have made a fun Disco spin-off? Let us know below.
