Disco Elysium's exploration of player decision-making, political themes, and storytelling techniques in game development
In the world of video games, the character creation process is a crucial element that sets apart one title from another. This is particularly true for Disco Elysium, a critically acclaimed role-playing game developed by ZA/UM. Justin Keenan, the game's writer and narrative designer, has revealed that his approach to character creation is deeply rooted in extensive reading and research.
Keenan and his team delve into a wide range of materials, from novels and politics to history and various other subjects. This rigorous preparation allows their writing to be richly layered, nuanced, and authentic, resulting in characters that feel genuine, complex, and multi-dimensional.
While specific details about Keenan's character creation method are not explicitly stated, the game's acclaimed writing style and narrative depth strongly suggest that the team's broad and careful research underpins the game's complex characters and dialogue. This background work helps ensure the writing resonates with players across different cultures and languages, as evidenced by the game's successful localization efforts.
In Disco Elysium, players are presented as both nobody and somebody, a departure from the classic lone survivor or courier archetypes often found in other games. The game's map may not be expansive, but the world is deep, offering many reasons to explore and connect with different characters and pieces of the world. Some characters serve important plot functions, while others represent ideas, concepts, fill out the world, or provide humor.
The game's model is reminiscent of the movie Yojimbo, where multiple forces can be played off each other, with the player as the indispensable figure. The developers take the politics of their games very seriously, and the game's portrayal of agency reflects this, emphasizing that players have limited control over material circumstances but profound control over what the world represents to them.
For those interested in gaining insights into the writing process behind Disco Elysium, the GDC Podcast features an episode with Justin Keenan as the guest. The podcast can be easily accessed on platforms such as iTunes, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
Mike Meehan, a music composer, contributes to the podcast's musical score, adding another layer of depth to the overall experience.
[1] Disco Elysium is not intended for players to change the balance of political power in the world or murder the heads of political factions to become ruler of Martinaise. [2] The developers' dedication to understanding complex themes and cultural contexts is further demonstrated by the game's successful localization efforts, which involved human translators skilled at capturing nuance, tone, and cultural context. [3] The writing in Disco Elysium is widely praised for its sincerity, candor, and deep engagement, qualities that are likely the result of the team's extensive reading and research.
[1] Justin Keenan and his team, while creating Disco Elysium, delve into a diverse array of materials such as books, history, politics, and more, to ensure their writing is richly layered and authentic.[2] This dedication to understanding complex themes and cultural contexts is evident not only in the game's writing but also in its successful social-media outreach, where the game's message resonates with players across different cultures and languages.
