aughty Dog's Neil Druckmann has revealed some more details about the studio's next game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet (which, incidentally, is a dreadful name and one I'm surprised the creators of The Last of Us are satisfied with) and if you were hoping its sci-fi setting might mean a lighter, more frivolous adventure than the The Last of Us, you might want to think again.

Speaking to Civil War and Ex Machina director Alex Garland on the Creator to Creator podcast (via Eurogamer), Druckmann revealed that the game will be diving deep into the not-remotely emotionally charged waters of faith and religion.

Druckmann broached the topic on the podcast by referencing the mixed reception The Last of Us: Part 2 received from players, stating, "We made certain creative decisions that got us a lot of hate. A lot of people love it, but a lot of people hate that game." When Garland dismisses the hate the sequel received, saying, "Who gives a shit?", Druckmann responded "Exactly. But the joke is like, you know what? Let's do something that people won't care about as much. Let's make a game about faith and religion."

According to Druckman, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet takes place "2000 years" into a future which "deviates" from our own timeline in the late 1980s. Part of this deviation involves the rise of a new religion, which "becomes pretty prominent, and then we spend years just building out this religion from the original prophet all the way [to] how it gets changed and sometimes bastardised and evolves over all these years."

As is hinted at in the title, Intergalactic doesn't take place on Earth, and is instead centred around a planet called Sempiria which is the centre point of this religion. "This whole religion takes place on this one planet," Druckman says. "And then at one point all communication stops from this planet and you're playing a bounty hunter that's chasing her bounty and she crash lands on this planet."

It also seems that, unlike The Last of Us and its sequel, Intergalactic will see your character Jordan A. Mun adventuring on their own, with Druckmann stating, "So many of the previous games we've done there's always like an ally with you." Intergalactic, by comparison, will be more about deciphering the mysteries of Sempiria. "I really want you to be lost in a place that you're really confused about what happened here, who are the people here, what was their history."

Frankly, I reckon Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet dabbling in fictional religions is far less likely to incur the kind of Metacritic bombings The Last of Us 2 received. The primary objects of ire for Naughty Dog's sequel were the decision to kill off Joel, the fact that a girl had muscles, and the depiction of a lesbian relationship between Ellie and Dina, all of which were destined to set off individuals incapable of tolerating any perspective that doesn't default to heteronormative male. Then again, maybe Intergalactic's big twist is that God is a lesbian, in which case Druckmann probably has a fair point.

A 55 year-old man from Texas has been convicted by a jury of "causing intentional damage to protected computers" owned by his former employer, Eaton Corp, after creating malicious code that sabotaged elements of the company's network alongside a "kill switch" designed to shut down everything if he were laid off.

The US Department of Justice announced the conviction (thanks, ArsTechnica), adding that Davis Lu faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Lu had been employed by Eaton Corp for 11 years before a corporate reshuffle in 2018 "reduced his responsibilities", with the coder beginning his efforts to sabotage the company network later that year.

Lu created "infinite loops" that would delete coworkers' profile files, preventing staff from logging in, causing system crashes, and denting Eaton Corp's overall productivity. The software developer named these programs "Hakai", Japanese for destruction, and "HunShui", the Chinese term for sleep or lethargy.

But the coup-de-grace was what the DOJ describes as a "kill switch" that was designed to activate if Lu ever lost his job. The criminal mastermind named this "IsDLEnabledinAD", an abbreviation of "Is Davis Lu enabled in Active Directory." Per the DOJ, this was "automatically activated upon his termination on Sept 9, 2019, and impacted thousands of company users globally," causing "hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses."

Lu's code was discovered by other Eaton Corp software engineers trying to solve the system crashes and infinite looping, and was found to be being executed from a computer using Lu's user ID and running on a server that only Lu had access to. This server was found to contain other malicious code, including the string that activated the kill switch.

The court filing goes on to say that, when Lu was requested to return a company computer, he "deleted encrypted volumes, attempted to delete the Linux directories, and attempted to delete two projects." Examination of the computer further showed that Lu had "conducted internet searches querying how to escalate privileges, hide processes, and delete large folders and / or files."

Finally, on October 7, 2019, Lu "admitted to investigators that he created the code described."

"Sadly, Davis Lu used his education, experience, and skill to purposely harm and hinder not only his employer and their ability to safely conduct business, but also stifle thousands of users worldwide," said FBI Special Agent Greg Nelsen.

"Although disappointed, we respect the jury’s verdict," said Lu's attorney, Ian Friedman, adding that they intended to appeal. "Davis and his supporters believe in his innocence and this matter will be reviewed at the appellate level."

Lu faces a maximum penalty of ten years in prison, with a sentencing date yet to be set.

Disco Elysium-like "psychogeographic RPG" Hopetown has announced a Kickstarter campaign launch date of March 17, as well as the addition of new talent from the team that made Disco Elysium. But for a variety of reasons—including that the studio head is allegedly banned from the game's subreddit—I would not recommend backing the project.

The developer's founder is mired in the creative and legal battles that have emerged following the stranger than fiction balkanization of Disco's developers⁠—despite not having been involved with Disco Elysium's development in the first place⁠—and what's been shown of Hopetown so far doesn't make it look like it will live up to the legacy it's attempting to claim.

The Reddit thing

"Backing Hopetown isn't just about funding⁠—it's about building a community, backing a vision, and casting a vote," reads one passage of Hopetown's latest press release. "Longdue is an independent studio daring to create the kinds of games bigger studios won't or can't create."

That leaves out that Longdue is also a business owned by South African tech entrepreneur Riaz Moola, and Moola is mired in what is currently the most active, acrimonious dispute among the developers who worked on Disco Elysium, despite not having been involved with the game himself.

Last November, Moola sued Disco Elysium writer Argo Tuulik and former ZA/UM writer Dora Klindžić, who briefly worked for Moola, over an alleged breach of a non-compete clause. The case is ongoing, but Moola won an injunction against Tuulik and Klindžić which currently prevents them from contributing to their newly-founded development collective, Summer Eternal.

Longdue argues that Klindžić and Tuulik were offered a generous severance agreement that would have allowed them to continue work in game development, but they refused to sign. The two developers say that they had no wish to acquiesce to a non-disclosure agreement, and that the non-compete grounds of the suit and injunction are baseless.

They argue that they did not work in a game development capacity for Moola, parting ways before Longdue was incorporated last November, and that they were exclusively contracted to work for Moola's main company, Hyperion Development, which offers coding bootcamps.

Moola was also involved in some way with yet another post-Disco studio, Dark Math, which is working on an RPG called XXX Nightshift. Moola had previously contacted me from a Dark Math email with a signature identifying him as a co-founder of the company. Moola is not listed on Dark Math's UK Companies House page.

In a strange coda to all of this, Moola is allegedly banned from the Disco Elysium subreddit. Speaking to a moderator of r/discoelysium last December, they told me that they ID-verified an account belonging to Moola, "LongdueHelloToYou." The moderator said that Moola had done so in order to promote the then-unnamed Hopetown to the community, and also to argue Longdue's case to fans who were largely expressing support for Tuulik.

The moderators of r/discoelysium banned this account shortly after verifying it, saying that there was evidence of automated mass upvoting of Moola's posts, and corresponding bot downvoting of ones critical of him and Longdue. Despite the ban on Moola's personal account, a post from March 7 sharing alleged influencer marketing offers from Longdue includes a pinned comment from a moderator saying that directed bot activity against posts critical of Longdue and Hopetown on the forum have been ongoing.

When asked about the account, Moola provided the following statement through a PR representative: “The reddit account you are referring to is not mine and the Longdue team are not involved in the Disco Elysium subreddit in any way.”

But that's difficult to square with the account's now mostly-deleted activity. Its one extant comment on the Disco subreddit reads: "From Team Longdue, we are really flattered to be a part of this and hope to deliver to fans the description for us you've given!" The account was shown as being created on October 15, 2024, shortly after Longdue's initial public reveal, and a month before it was incorporated, though for some reason the account has Reddit achievement badges dating to 2022.

A since-deleted comment on the subreddit by LongdueHelloToYou, which a moderator provided a screenshot of, identifies the account holder as Riaz Moola, and includes details of the dispute with Tuulik that were not widely available at the time.

The comment calls a post about a fundraising campaign by Tuulik and Klindžić for legal fees "hate speech," refers to Tuulik and Moola as shareholders in Dark Math (the XXX Nightshift studio), and includes a screenshot of an email from Tuulik addressed to Moola.

Crowd Funded

Now, the selling points in Hopetown's favor: Disco Elysium: The Final Cut narrator Lenval Brown's involvement is one of today's big reveals. Brown narrates Hopetown's new teaser trailer, and is slated for a major role in the game. Hopetown also boasts Knights of Unity developer Piotr Sobolewski as a "technical partner." The Knights of Unity were credited with "additional development" on Disco Elysium, and the studio played a major role in cleaning up Disco Elysium's code in the final stretch of its difficult development.

New with the Kickstarter release date and trailer, developer Longdue has announced the involvement of Martin Luiga, who was credited as an editor on Disco Elysium. Luiga participated in the formative tabletop campaigns that developed into Elysium, was a founding member of the artist's collective that would become Studio ZA/UM, and also wrote the first short story in the setting. Luiga also, notably, broke the news that Kurvitz, as well as Disco artist Aleksander Rostov and writer Helen Hindpere, had left ZA/UM at the end of 2021 in a dispute with studio management.

Longdue boasts other industry talent as well, but is primarily laying claim to the mantle of Disco Elysium, the 2019 RPG and four-time PC Gamer Top 100 champion, only recently demoted to number two by Baldur's Gate 3. Disco Elysium is mentioned repeatedly in the project's Kickstarter page and a press release for today's announcement, with the only other game directly mentioned in marketing materials being Planescape: Torment, itself the primary inspiration for Disco.

Hopetown's painterly art style and midcentury, industrial aesthetic tinged with hints of something weirder certainly looks the part. I have to admit that, like Rock Paper Shotgun, I'm quite taken with the look of the concept art released so far. But there's not much substance here to put your money on.

Longdue was only incorporated last November, after its initial game announcement. That timetable leaves its story proposal, art, and proposed gameplay features essentially preproduction material. Games have been Kickstarted with as much or less in the past⁠—Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity and Double Fine's Broken Age come to mind⁠—but those came from well-established teams at a boom time for videogame crowdfunding.

Longdue is a brand new developer. As Polygon has pointed out, while it boasts named talent from Disco Elysium, there is a disconnect between the provenance of that talent and how it is being presented in Longdue's marketing. While Brown and Sobolewski's contributions to Disco are critical and not to be dismissed, neither were involved in the concept phase of the project, and what's being sold right now is the concept of Hopetown.

Luiga, meanwhile, appears to have only recently been brought on, after these concepts had been put in place. The pitch for Hopetown feels ad-hoc, with legitimizing, recognizable names added as the project goes on, the rail being laid as the cart's in motion.

Even without the wrinkle of Moola's legal and alleged forum battles, sentiment among the hardcore Elysium-likers I've seen is largely aligned against Longdue and its game. At this point, who else is there to put money on a Disco Elysium-focused Kickstarter at such an early, risky stage and from an unproven, brand new studio? Hopetown's art direction aside, it doesn't have a lot to hang your hat on, and there are more indie RPGs than ever vying for our attention.

Including, as Studio ZA/UM has serendipitously reminded us at the exact same time Longdue's own trailer dropped, its own follow-up game to Disco Elysium. ZA/UM has released a teaser trailer for Project C4, a standalone RPG that ZA/UM employees told me a little about in my investigation into the cancellation of an in-progress Disco Elysium expansion.