Documented Claims / Evidence Supporting Exploitive Behavior From Developers
I usually try to avoid unclear links, but I was not comfortable having some of the material below in my personal files ^^"
I will be transparent about any links included, explaining where they lead to and what context they add to claims made.
Some screenshots included in my posts from Twitter / X may have a different layout. This is because I refuse to touch Twitter with a 10ft pole. I use Nitter, a way to access posts from the aforementioned website without having to sign up or use an account. None of the material is tampered with or edited for malicious or deceitful purposes, or even at all.
If you were to look up the accounts in the images you would be able to verify this as true.
Any edits to quotations are only made for readability and saving space. I include what is relevant, and try to trim down what seems unnecessary. I don't believe I've left out any important context, but don't be afraid to notify me about any corrections I should make.
"..." is used to convey that the quote is incomplete and some part has been cut off. [...] is used to convey a larger portion has been skipped over.
Kat is said to have disregarded and dropped previous friends at a moment's notice. While this isn't necessarily connected to the game, I felt I might as well include it.
"Kat and I used to be close mutuals. Hell, I'd consider them my friend way back in the early stages of Pressure (early 2024). We hung out a lot and played a lot of runs... [...] Then they got brought onto the Pressure team. This is where they stopped interacting with me and other friends. [...] They ghosted me and I lost contact."
(Law on Twitter / X)
"Firstly they lied a ton for the sake of trying to look good all the time. They ditched people, all their friends, and the community many times whenever things got a little bit rough. There’s so many people I know who were friends with them at some point but they just unadded them randomly."
(Tall Cow on Twitter / X)
Screenshot 20260422 074752 Kiwi Browser : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive - This is a link to the Internet Archive where someone writes about their experience with Kat.
"Over the months of being on the dev team, they changed, and not for the better. [...] Days without replies even when I try to initiate, then suddenly constant attention."
Kat is also said to have been a poor moderator.
"And not even a good moderator, but a genuinely AWFUL one that consistently banned people without evidence and didn’t ban people who should have been banned. It was so easy to get someone banned by just saying that they did this and without even sending evidence they would still ban them anyway, and many people just exploited this to target others they didn’t like. Kat enabled this behavior to happen in the first place."
(Tall Cow on Twitter / X)
Kat is said to have been ableist
(* Please note! Easy, mentioned above, has been clarified by quite a few to have not been complicit in anything regarding the situation, beyond being lied to. Easy was not involved as far as I'm aware.)
Kibo has been documented forcing users in Pressure's servers to participate in explicit "jokes" or actions.
Screenshot 20260416 094618 Kiwi Browser : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive - The link leads to three videos saved to Internet Archive, showing Kibo using animations to create an explicit pose with another user.
Above is the most damning evidence. A statement was also made explaining what was pictured.
"For context, the 3 videos are of Kibo doing suggestive animations to a minor in a public Pressure lobby. [...] A game tester [Waltuh] let me and a couple friends into the side room, so we witnessed this happening. Kibo continued to do this to the child for about an hour."
(Statement from an unknown user) (*Waltuh is also a minor)
Having this crucial information, we can now completely verify these other images shared on the Pressure subreddit.
Wil has allegedly groomed someone into stalking other users for the sake of the Pressure developers.
"After that bout of drama, our conversations shifted - gradually at first, but then became much more focused on one thing and one thing only: gathering information about others in the community that Wil, and by extension the Pressure team, did not like. Most of these individuals were children or freshly adults at the time."
(Statement from an unknown user)
Screenshot 20260409 193458 X : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive - This is a link to the Internet Archive. While the user who sent it is unknown, there are names mentioned in the statement. Please do not harass anyone mentioned - This was simply included in case it did arise that you knew one of them and wanted to verify what happened, but the gossip alleged by the anonymous user may not have been overt.
Another case of encouraging harassment.
"I've known him ever since around August 2023, when Pressure had their first ever public test and I joined the old Urbanshade Discord server. Him and a lot of his friends / the other admins were always very unkind to me all the time, and they even told me to kill myself a bunch in early 2024 (up until May 2024). And back then I was 13 years old..."
(Tall Cow on Twitter / X) (Later in this post, Tall Cow shows remorse for behaving immaturely, saying they believed it to be their fault.) (* Again, they were, and still are, a teenager)
"The signs were all there, PUBLICLY, that this man Zeal and his friends were bad people. I have not been active in the Pressure fandom since I was harassed out of it, but even I could tell that something was clearly up and that Ren had a good reason to want nothing to do with that man. [...]
I am specifically referring to the December 2024 incident after I had come forward about some concerning screenshots from the official Pressure server... I do remember coming forward about the concerning treatment of queer members of the fandom as well as some vaguely homophobic 'jokes' made by team members, among other things."
(Claimed to be quoted from someone named Zach)
"What people are undeniably calling homophobic remarks and notes in the game's lore were the very same thing certain individuals working for the developers previously excused as harmless or 'simply not homophobic because they wouldn't act like that guys trust me.' But once again, all of these signs have been there."
(Also from Zach)
(Context: Sebastian's document originally said he had DNA from a female angler fish, explaining the lure above his head. The person who commented on how it seems the reasoning behind it was transphobic in nature, but looking at it now, it could also feed into the already existing stigma against intersex individuals.)
"Don't forget the schizophrenia episode thing where Zeal said he was 'glad' people were having episodes over imaginary friend..."
(I cropped out the username because, initially I didn't have any evidence. I never planned to use this screenshot until now.)
There is additional information and evidence below that can support some of the other claims within this post, but ultimately are used to support claims regarding Zerum.
Many artists have claimed they were exploited / used for free art.
(Multiple users on Twitter / X agree that they were taken advantage of.)
While one or two claims on their own don't have much weight, it's incredibly important to consider a claim when there is an entire chorus singing it.
We know that there have been instances of artists not being paid.
While this isn't necessarily related to Zerum, it supports that this may have been a more widespread problem.
"They [Kat] said they would pay me on April 1, the day it would be published.
No response on April 1. I imagined that they were really busy, considering the newest update had just been released. I ended up getting a message 3 days later.
They sent me this message on Friday, so I waited. The weekend passed, no one reached out to me. This was the last message they ever sent me. As of the 10th, I still haven't gotten paid."
(Moose, on Twitter / X)
It's important to note that, according to Kat's document, there have been many issues regarding the payment of employees. They claim they often had to pay out of pocket, and have provided a form for artists who didn't receive payment for work requested (by Kat).
Wil also mentions their work not being sustainable in their document, which may support this claim.
Vazatchula on Twitter / X, someone mentioned above, goes further in depth about their experience with Zerum. This supports some of the claims the others have made.
"I soon only became relevant if I could draw for her. [...] It made me feel horrible. It made me hate my own art, my own slowness with drawing... I got toxic in response to being lifted up so high and then thrown down in the dark, but I didn't get the chance to speak my own feelings."
(Vazatchula on Twitter / X)
"It got to the point where she would only ever talk to me if it were to vent, rant, or talk about others behind their backs."
"I wish I hadn't been so blindsided by her and her group."
(Vazatchula on Twitter / X) (*This may support the claim from Wil's section that the team gossiped about others)
"...I will not go into detail for their (Aust's) sake but Zerum had been talking behind their back, spreading screenshots and bitching to all of her friends. [...] I am not one to silence my friends when they need an ear, but it got to the point of genuine bullying, excused by the fact that Zerum had to console so many of her friends 'Aust had hurt'.
[...]
I finally spoke up about it, which I should've done much earlier, and Zerum panicked like I was going to hunt her down. Playing the victim every single time. It eventually led to a complete fallout between us, her sending me a document with screenshots, timestamps of every time I 'sided' with her, and accusing me for suddenly switching up. It was terrifying."
(Vazatchula on Twitter / X)
Zerum is also reported to have been homophobic.
"...Talking about OCs would not interest her if it was queer in any form. It was quite disheartening. She would defend it by saying she has queer friends, and to not shame her for personal preference, which is fine, yes, but when you specifically ignore your friends and even erase the canonical identities of characters (Phighting, for example, being agender) for your own interests, it gets a little upsetting."
(Vazatchula on Twitter / X)
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