Longdue, one of the studios making what is being described as a Disco Elysium spiritual successor, has revealed its first game. Hopetown is billed as an RPG in which "every choice leaves its mark", with the reveal trailer very clearly taking inspiration from Disco Elysium.

Alongside the reveal trailer, Longdue also reveals that the studio is made of some former ZA/UM talent. This includes Martin Luiga, a founding member of the ZA/UM Cultural Association, who wrote several characters for Disco Elysium.

The First Trailer For Hopetown Is Here

Lenval Brown is back from Disco Elysium, narrating another RPG

Through a mix of the art and the narration, Hopetown certainly has a very Disco Elysium feel to it. However, its ties to ZA/UM had come under question, as did its claim to be a spiritual successor to the much beloved RPG.

Now, Longdue has shed more light on who exactly will be working on the game. The big reveal is Martin Luiga, who was one of the four Disco Elysium developers who had "involuntarily" left ZA/UM in late 2021, which was then revealed in October 2022.

The others who left ZA/UM at this time were Robert Kurvitz (lead writer, designer), Aleksander Rostov (art and design head), and Helen Hindpere (writer). Kurtvitz and Rostov are working on their own unannounced successor.

“I am pleased to share my experiences with Longdue to help them craft the narrative and systems for Hopetown, playing to the strengths that the narrative RPG genre has achieved thus far and attempting to innovate upon them to tell a rich story based in equal parts on what has been, what is and what could be,” Martin says on the trailer's reveals. “I am confident that the team can deliver a worthy addition to the canon of Western RPGs. I call upon the fans of the RPG and adventure genre to back the Hopetown Kickstarter to help us make the game."

This announcement also expands on the experience of another ZA/UM alumni, Piotr Sobolewski. He was the only named former Disco dev at first, and his credentials were unclear. However, Longdue describes him as someone who "oversaw a team of 15 that worked on Disco Elysium".

While the rest go unnamed right now, Longdue says that it has a total of nine individuals who worked on Disco Elysium who are now on Hopetown.

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As for the game itself, Hopetown is described as a "journalism based RPG". You play as a journalist, and can choose how you tell stories, with your work able to "inspire hope or destruction".

"Will you embrace chaos as a gonzo journalist, spinning wild, attention-grabbing narratives?" the game's description reads. "Will you twist reality as a conspiracist, bending events to suit your worldview? Or will you dig deep as a calculated investigator, exposing brutal truths to spark rebellion—or sow complacency?"

Hopetown will fundraise through Kickstarter soon. There, you can see several pieces of art created for the game.

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