However, even when the project had been given the go ahead, Klindžić said the team was “set up to fail from the start”, due to not having been allowed a pre-production period. “Whenever we raised concerns about this and expressed we needed more writers if the deadlines were to be met, we were accused of not wanting to do our jobs,” Klindžić said.

“Pretty much from the moment the writing team’s pitch was approved in August of 2022, the other teams started production,” Tuulik added. "We didn’t even really know what the story or the characters were gonna be, when art teams were already making first character and environment concepts. I’m sure you can see how this is a big problem, when you’re making a narrative-led game.

“Essentially, the writing team had to work double-time from day one to supply other disciplines with work, whilst trying to write the first dialogues and sketch out the rest of the game at the same time. The writing team consisted of myself and Dora at the time.” Another developer added: “I don’t know if Dora and Argo ever felt in control.”

Yeah, I’m going to go ahead and call the headline bullshit. It should also be noted that Disco Elysium had 8 writers, on top of Kurvitz, and Kurvitz himself still argued that he went through crunch. Current ZA/UM’s management is a disaster and nothing good is going to come from it unless a brick falls upon their heads, and they magically learn that making good games requires a lot of work, or if you’re a capitalist, a lot of investment.