The rhythmic beats fire up when you venture into the hardcore option of this peculiar indie hit; Disco Elysium. As soon as you select the hardcore mode on the menu, the “anodic dance music” starts to play. A hypnotic anthem of an eclectic game, beckoning you to venture into it’s cruel world. This musical change is just one small touch that expresses Disco Elysium’s soul. Soul; the epitome of vague descriptions of works of art, yet the only term that expresses “that special something”. An incredibly important aspect to the audience, but an impossible element to reproduce through defined parameters.
When this detective RPG with all words and no combat hit the scene, people formed some strong opinions on it. Either it was an amazing game praised as a pinnacle of art and writing, or a boring snooze-fest of dialogue with no action. Disco Elysium is a game you can’t feel nothing about because it has an identity of it’s own. The greatest argument for games being regarded as art, are the ones that have a soul. You could describe this as a culmination of differences between it and the normality. With the inner sphere of gaming being comprised mainly of AAA fast paced live service looter shooters, Disco Elysium is about as far out from the status quo as you can be.
Disco Elysium is spiritual. It’s story touches on all aspects of individuality. The writers did not shy away from topics that terrify the mainstream. Branching into every corner of political orientation, religion, and even sexuality. A forbidden triad of topics in modern creations. The story could have been a bland detective adventure with a strange alcoholic character. Throwing caution away and embracing such defining dialogue options lead them to create a spirit the soul of any player could connect with. Throughout the game you influence not only the protagonist’s present and future but the implied future of the world at large. It’s unfortunate to imagine how that crucial part of this wonderful game would have been stomped out by the worry of stockholders.
Indie games are by definition, outlier art. They break the rules for creating “good” art and are generally passion projects instead of profit driven endeavors. AAA games have become more soulless as the gaming industry grows larger. The stakes of game development now are so high that the concept of risking that much of an investment on anything but a sure thing seems ludicrous. Some creators have taken to describing this as “too big to succeed”, since without creative risks, the industry stagnates. Game design is now full of spreadsheets and meetings for public investors. That kind of environment does not produce a soul. You can’t put it on a graph and chart out it’s projections. Having a soul is having a regard for something that cannot be measured. An example of game development that breeds souls is when the artist created the portrait for the character Kim Kitsuragi. They said it took only one attempt and it just felt instantly right. That first drawing was that character’s personality and the only thing that told the artist this fact, was the feeling itself. No focus groups, just an unquantifiable emotion of an artist.
There are breakthrough cases where a radically different idea manages to get AAA funding and beautiful soulful games have come to fruition this way, just far too few. The void left in the market has been filling with Indie games. Those passionate about games as an art form delight in discovering and sharing these gems. Although I believe everyone could find something to enjoy in Disco Elysium, the game still has not found mass appeal. It was a tremendous success for what it was, but developers are correct that the average person would take one look at it and be filtered by either the game play, art style, or story elements I’ve praised. Proving further that such projects do limit your potential revenue, but I wish more developers in the future would be okay with that. With AAA games building sky-scrappers of mass market content, I hope the ever growing shadow they leave cultivates many more creations like that of Disco Elysium.
Millenial Gamer 