Hi there. So I got told about this game by a friend maybe a couple hours ago and did a search for it—and though I hardly use itch.io these days (save to slowly download titles from a Ukraine-supporting bundle I bought years ago), your comment was the first I read on this page.
I would consider myself a random person here given that I’ve yet to look more into this game and this is the first time I’ve seen the dev. This is why I’m gonna say what I’m about to say here.
Regardless of how the dev is, regardless of if your intention is merely to get some answers: this IS damaging to read.
My first impression now is that drama exists, that people are trying to stir it up, and this feels like airing dirty laundry in the wrong place.
You say you don’t want to trust random comments from peeps without them giving you solid proof of the harassment stuff, but you also ask if any rando with an account (like me) could confirm or deny whatever harassment you’re talking about. There’s a link to a Discord server up there; if this is something you truly want to learn about, maybe you could ask the community there instead? Like DMing folks after seeing who looks active and all that jazz. People there are directly involved with whatever may or may not be going on, after all.
I’m not saying this taking any sides because I genuinely don’t care about that aspect—but I care about how people generally treat each other and approach each other online, and feel like we could all be better with handling situations. There are more reliable ways to go about learning about the situation than commenting this on a game’s public landing page—which be the first exposure random, uninvolved persons like me get to any of this business. And think about it here: if you’re looking for a response from the dev, too, then they’ll either respond to you and say nothing’s going on (which they couldn’t satisfyingly prove either way, you’d just have to take or forsake them at their word), or they’ll ignore your comment; I don’t think any dev would respond with saying a sincere yes to the “accusations” you were told. If you’re only looking for answers from the other users here, then you’re kinda asking for more random people to weigh in who aren’t guaranteed to be directly involved—and making them aware of the “accusations” that can color their opinions of the dev, too. Joining the Discord looks like the most reliable route for answers.
Your post feels charged (though you’re polite, say it isn’t an attack, and surely intended for it to read neutral). For example, saying that a deletion of your comment would be taken as a confirmation to wrongdoing is quite the oog if you don’t mean to damage this person’s reputation. Just the speculation of drama is, in itself, the stirrup of drama in the public eye.
And all that said, I’ll probs look up a YouTube vid for gameplay reasons and ask my friend more about their opinion on the game itself. Hope you have a good day/night, too—and if I don’t reply to any reply gotten here, know it’s because I’m, again, hardly on this site. The fact I commented to begin with must mean there’ll be a blue moon tonight 👍