In light of the recent evidence regarding the creator of Pressure, I cannot in good conscience continue this project at this time. My full support is with REN. I strongly urge everyone to stop playing the game and withdraw all financial support from those involved.
I’d love to be the impartial voice here, to sit back and "wait for more facts" like everyone suggests, but I’m past that point. It’s impossible. I won’t spend another second looking at those community-made "inconsistency" reports whose only real evidence is the shameful, ableist claim that "people with BPD are manipulative." I don’t even care to hear your specific arguments; nobody has managed to utter anything coherent beyond "this feels more right than REN’s document." It’s clear your logic is fueled entirely by bias and malice.
The level of coordinated harassment is fucking monstrous. You have entire Discord servers dedicated to deconstructing the victim's life. You’ve publicly defended Zeal with zero evidence, mass-reported REN’s document to scrub it from the internet, and harassed anyone who stands with her. Some of you even tried to have her arrested for being a victim of SA. It is a desperate, pathetic attempt to silence her before she can release the second document. I even saw someone claim they "knew how Zeal felt" because they’d committed SA themselves. The fact that you people are actually empathizing with him—finding common ground with a predator—is exactly why victims stay silent. This subhuman bullshit is the reason they’re afraid to speak.
I am utterly repulsed by this community. Zeal posts one shitty document with zero valid arguments and everyone flocks to his side just so they can keep playing their precious little game without feeling guilty. It’s pathetic. There shouldn't even be "sides." We should be supporting victims and acknowledging that Zeal hasn't proven a damn thing. And let’s be clear: "REN’s side" isn't innocent either. The behavior across the board has been bottom-tier. Watching people tell Zeal to take his own life—against the victim’s explicit wishes—is just more proof of how deplorable this environment has become.
Then you have the vultures like GAMERCHIKEN1234, who represent the absolute bottom of the goddamn barrel. This spineless, disgusting piece of shit has been pumping out a relentless stream of videos, hiding behind a cowardly mask of "neutrality" while doing nothing but mocking REN for clicks. His thumbnails are a disturbing display of narcissism—literally depicting himself being crucified like he’s some sort of fucking martyr for a videogame drama. It’s embarrassing as hell. He, and the rest of the "commentary" leeches sucking Zeal’s dick, are feeding a level of collective inanity I can't even wrap my head around. Here’s the reality: even if Zeal were somehow innocent of the primary accusations, he and the rest of the devs involved are still absolute fucking stains on humanity.
I really thought this community was maturing, but I was wrong. You’re all so goddamn infantile. I cannot remain in a space that fuels rape culture, values a game over a person, and blindly champions a predator just so you don't have to find a new hobby. Despite everything, I will continue to cover this situation for the few sane people left who prioritize the facts. To be clear: I am not interested in presenting "both sides" when the alternative consists of 60-page documents filled with mental gymnastics and biased conjecture. I refuse to jeopardize my mental health digging through community-driven noise just to see where the Zeal sycophants are hiding. My stance is based solely on information surfaced by those directly involved.
As for my own work, the UDA project will move forward, but by the time it is ready, I want absolutely nothing to do with this community. I’m doing this for the sake of the work and the truth, not for a fanbase that has proven itself to be this morally bankrupt. After this, I’m out.
now that pressure’s gone to shit for obvious reasons, here’s a list of things that made me mad about the game & the dev’s treatment of it that i was too afraid to talk about before.
please note: this is not in any way comparable to the deplorable actions of zeal towards ren. that is by FAR the worst thing to come out of any of this, and it needs to be taken seriously. i am posting this as what, prior to the allegations, would have been constructive criticism. now it is coming from a place of anger and disgust, so i’m not mincing words.
additionally, i am on twitter once every few months at most. most of the things i’m citing here aside from the game/wiki are things i either encountered very recently or things i specifically searched for.
-SEBASTIAN-
the fish, the myth, the legend. a character with so much potential, handled in just about the worst possible way. let’s talk about him.
the way his ethnicity was handled was lazy and quite honestly insulting. as a white individual i can’t comment on the experience of being chilean-american, but nearly every recent post i’ve seen from chilean fans (and more largely hispanic fans in general) has been negative, and with good reason. sebastian being chilean felt like a complete afterthought. it never came up in the game at all despite zerum’s claims that he was entirely fluent in spanish and spoke it all the time prior to his arrest (and that, despite speaking in english 100% of the time, he “thinks entirely in spanish”??) and essentially it’s only ever mentioned with the fact that he,, likes empanadas. obviously, a character’s ethnicity does not need to be a large part of their personality, but it feels like zerum reduced him to a stereotype while conveniently avoiding any actual effort or work that could’ve been put in to flesh it out even slightly.
extending my previous point, half of sebastian’s lore and other facts about him were not present in the game. if you didn’t go searching on the pressure wiki, you would not know that he was chilean-american, or that he had a younger brother, or where his ring came from (more on that later), or any of the dozens of other “fun facts” shoehorned into the official wiki by zerum. this is a problem i have with more games than just pressure, but they took it to the extreme.
speaking of the ring… oh god, the ring. for those unaware, “zerum” is both the screen name of sebastian’s “creator” (whether she actually created sebastian is currently being disputed and it’s not looking good for her, but i digress) and the name of her original character, a bunny-humanoid who we know absolutely nothing about. i will refer to the oc as “OC!zerum” to avoid confusion. there was originally no lore between OC!zerum and sebastian in the game, but as people started shipping themselves with sebastian and creating ocxcanon content, zerum became upset and announced that he had been married (or engaged, it’s unclear) to OC!zerum the whole time, so any ocxcanon content was invalid and banned from the discord server and other places she could see it. this was supposedly only enforced in the discord server (which would’ve been fine on its own, it’s her server ig) but it was enforced everywhere else, too, just not officially. there was an onslaught of posts from her that were a mess of passive-aggressive rants about ocxcanon/selfshippers despite both zerum and zeal claiming they were “fine with selfshippers outside of discord”. now, if she genuinely wanted to create a romance subplot for sebastian, it would’ve been at least somewhat more manageable, but it didn’t seem like that was the intent at all. the whole OC!zerum situation wasn’t treated like a plot point, it was treated like a “fuck you” to anyone who made any ship content with sebastian outside of shipping him with OC!zerum… despite the fact that nobody knew anything about her and she was not a character in the game. A ring was added to sebastian’s character model as a “reminder”, and every so often zerum would once again vaguepost about her frustrations towards people not “respecting her boundaries” which would send her fans hunting for anyone posting any non sebastianxOC!zerum content. people were doxxed, sent threats, and insulted. it was extremely ugly and unprofessional on zerum’s part.
this brings me to another point: zerum, and to an extent many of the other devs and writers including zeal, not understanding the concept of a fictional character being public. when you put your oc into a video game or any other piece of public content, you are losing your ability to have full control over them. it sucks, but you have to learn to live with it. people are going to create things that don’t align with the way you see your characters, and you have to accept that. the fact that sebastian was “zerum’s oc” and “belonged to her” was reiterated over and over again to the point where you’d thing you were looking at an adoptables page, not the page for a video game played by millions of people.
with every recent update, sebastian became more cruel, mean-spirited, and inhumane. this directly went against everything zerum and zeal said about his character outside of the game, and it was pretty explicit that it was done solely to make players stop shipping themselves with him. i wouldn’t be surprised if adding an actual animation of him during the death scenes instead of just the light from his eyes was another attempt at that. (quick note, i hated that they did that. it took away the spook factor completely and just made it goofy and aggravating, which i suppose makes sense if they wanted people to like him less. that may just be my personal preference, though). i shouldn’t need to explain why this is a shitty and weird thing to do, not to mention a horrible strategy for game development in general.
-P.AI.NTER-
so much potential, so little time. (except there was a lot of time, actually. it just wasn’t used properly.)
my first gripe with the way painter was handled was that members of the team repeatedly told off anyone who asked about their pronouns or identity (they are a computer, it was a reasonable question) because it “wasn’t relevant to their character” all while giving a hundred fun facts about sebastian that were completely irrelevant to the game but were all added to the official wiki. it was handled super weirdly and even just “painter doesn’t really have a concept of gender” would’ve been an acceptable answer. instead, people were shut down and borderline made fun of for asking.
sebpainter, the ship between sebastian and painter, was very popular for a period of time. now, to the best of my knowledge, pretty much everyone who enjoyed that ship would have had absolutely no problem with the ship not being canon. what was strange was that it was only after this ship started becoming popular that zerum started insisting that they saw each other as siblings. again, if it had ended there, it maybe would have been a little borderline on her part, but still basically okay. and then it got worse. zerum and her fans would harass anyone who enjoyed the ship, all but directly calling it incest despite the fact that in the game there is no reason to infer that they see each other as siblings. players were just expected to have read all of zerum’s twitter page and gathered information about their relationship there. it was really weird and i can’t imagine anyone involved on any side of the argument felt comfortable about it. (and this is coming from someone who personally saw them as sibling figures. the harassment towards shippers was fucked up and completely unjustified.)
-ISSUES WITH THE DEVS IN GENERAL-
the ring incident, the sebpainter discourse, and a lot of the other discourse surrounding the characters in pressure boiled down to a certain type of unprofessionalism on the part of zerum, zeal, and some other members of the team. they saw themselves as being on the same level as the fans to an unhealthy and overall negative extent. things like expressing dislike towards sebpainter or jokingly telling people to “cope” because your ocxcanon is better than everyone else’s are things that are perfectly acceptable to do as a fan, but unprofessional and potentially dangerous to do as one of the creators. this applies especially when you’re the creator of a roblox game where a lot of the fandom is younger and lacks nuance. entire hoards of people would attack each other online because of statements casually thrown around by the development team, and zerum in particular had a habit of treating sebastian like he was still her personal oc and not a character in a video game. again, you can have your own personal version of a character you create! that’s perfectly fine! but when you put them into a public game, you are giving up your ability to make that the widely accepted version of them.
almost every interaction, and i mean, like, 95% of them, that we have seen zeal have with fans has been negative, hostile, and strangely defensive. he has threatened to sell the game on multiple occasions when completely valid criticism was brought up, victimized himself in every possible situation, and never acted mature or like he fully understood the extent to which his actions were reaching people. his suicide threats now are a repetition of behavior he’s had for a long time. any time someone would accuse him of something, he would guilt-trip them, bring up his autism and poor mental health, and refuse to actually acknowledge what he was being accused of. if his first half-joking threat to sell the game had been a one-and-done, whatever. everyone freaks out sometimes, it happens. but instead of getting better, zeal got worse. it happened multiple times to the point where everyone was walking on eggshells posting any sort of constructive criticism or bringing up anything he’d done wrong. i can’t imagine how it must have felt to work on the team during that time. as we now know, he would only get worse.
i want to state again that none of this in any way compares to the atrocities committed by zeal against ren. that should be the main focus right now. this is just a rant written by a tired college student because it finally boiled over. please send your support to ren and to others who have come forward about their experiences. if you see something, say something. keep yourselves safe, keep each other safe. thank you for reading. <3
The google doc. (If it gets taken down, archive.org link)
Zeal's initial statement
Suicide baiting (screenshot from [RAAAAH THE ARCHIVE HAS BEEN CENSORED] !)(+video archived)(another link to the archived video, but not broken.)
Zeal's mother's initial statement. (At least, the Pressure staff claims she is.)
Zeal caught playing Arsenal after his suicide attempt.
Concerning Zerum:
Zerum's lie, predicted by the doc.
"Stepping Down"
Toxic behaviors (if the linked tweet gets taken down, archive.org link)
Deleting evidences (to take with a grain of salt, as it could be fanarts she reposted being deleted)
Zerum exploiting people (if the linked tweet gets taken down, archive.org link) (note: victim was 17 at the time [CONFIRMED INFORMATION]) (+other victims speaking up)
Zerum's homophobia (if the linked tweet gets taken done, archive.org link)
Zerum admitting she supports Zeal + backtracking (if the tweet gets taken down, archive link 1 and 2.)
Zerum changing from "I didnt mean to type this" to "I got hacked" + saying the n word and backtracking afterward. (if the tweet gets taken down, archive.org link)
Deleting her strawpage to avoid consequences (beware, the URL got snipped)
Zerum still has Zeal friended on Roblox.
Concerning Kat:
Kat's initial reaction (Deleting the twitter account)
A testimony on Kat's ableism. (if the linked tweet gets taken down, archive.org link)
Kat has exploited artists and didn't pay them. (if the linked tweet gets taken down, archive.org link)
A testimony on Kat's toxic behavior toward her friends. (if the linked tweet gets taken down, archive.org link)
Concerning Wil:
Wil's initial statement (Will need to add the screenshot of him blocking Ren)
Non-sexual grooming (if the tweet gets taken down, archive.org link)
Wil was aware.
Wil's updated statement. (If the tweet gets taken down, archive.org link)
Wil still has Zeal friended on Roblox.
Other stuff:
Financing Pressure
The devs are silencing anyone speaking out against them. (If the tweet gets taken down, archive.org link)
The team has encouraged harassment. (If the tweet gets taken down, archive.org link) (+other testimony and its archive link)
People speaking up on Sebastian's poorly executed double nationality.
^ This is likely due to human!sebastian was based on Zerum's k-pop crush. (If the tweet gets taken down, archive.org link)
The team has manipulated other devs such as Kobrik into believing Ren was lying and into making disgusting statements. (Link has Kobrik's initial statement+the explaination.)
They have also lied and told some people that Ren was the abuser. (If the tweet gets taken down, archive.org link. It. doesnt show the stuff in the right order, look at it from end to start.)
GIANNI STEPPING DOWN !!!! WOOHOO !!!!!
ARTY STEPPING DOWN !!!! WOOHOO !!!!!
JS HARRIS STEPPING DOWN !!!! WOOHOO !!!!!
ELLIS KNIGHT STEPPING DOWN !!!! WOOHOO !!!!!
(other VAs have also stepped down, but I haven't found their statements. Feel free to send it to me !)
the pressure situation is horrible and people genuinely need to shut the fuck up.
To clarify:
Wishing death upon somebody and laughing at their supposed suicide video is NOT okay in any capacity. I get the anger, I truly do, but it is extremely unhealthy to cope with your anger in that fashion.
Most of the arguments zeal supporters use consists of misogynistic and ableist language. People with BPD are not “unstable,” “manipulative,” or “dangerous.” They are regular people who may be struggling with mental health. Women are not untrustworthy by default, that is misogynistic. Zeal’s actions are not excused by his autism and never will be. By giving his autism as a reason for his behavior, you are painting autistic people as sexual assaulters.
Even if Ren’s accounts aren’t 100% reliable in your eyes, she still suffered genuine trauma as a result of the encounter and is STILL dealing with the aftermath.
Zeal and zerum are horrible people regardless. They both have a history of treating their fanbase horribly + other disgusting things. There are numerous screenshots and docs made about Zerum and Zeal besides what’s currently happening
Dude. This is getting out of hand. People are trying to get Ren arrested and sending the police over to her now.
Zeal also tried to join her discord server.
They're actually doing everything in their power to prevent the second document as well as shielding Zeal from the consequences of his own actions. It's utterly despicable and abhorrent.
"Why don't victims ever come out?" CAUSE OF THIS SHIT BRO. You're trying to get a victim of sexual assault imprisoned because you can't play your mediocre game anymore. Get a fucking grip.
It’s going to be difficult to cover everything given the massive amount of information that has come to light, but I’ll do my best. If you feel I’ve missed any relevant details, please let me know.
Before starting, I want to make one thing clear: the document Zeal released in his defense is not proof of innocence; it’s simply his perspective. Lacking sexual experience does not give you the right to push someone else's boundaries. Likewise, being neurodivergent or having autism is never an excuse for failing to understand when someone says "no."
It is also vital to recognize that the "perfect victim" does not exist. Even if REN acted erratically at certain points, that does not strip away their status as a victim, nor does it allow us to jump to instant conclusions. We cannot start supporting Zeal or claiming REN lied while ignoring 200 pages of evidence just because the situation has become messy.
REN acknowledged (in their document, which was taken down due to mass reporting) that they may have appeared enthusiastic as a trauma response. However, we must not forget that Zeal remained the aggressor, utilizing coercion to force "consent." Furthermore, he and his accomplices—Kat, Zerum, Wil, and Cyborg—are still being held accountable for being homophobic, transphobic, racist, misogynistic, and ableist. Their track record as overall toxic individuals remains unchanged.
With that in mind, I will summarize the defense document, the multi-tweet threads, and REN's recent statements, alongside new information regarding Zeal’s actions—points that his supporters have yet to address. I’m not claiming to have the absolute truth; I am simply presenting the information that has surfaced so we can look at the full picture.
Following his hospitalization on April 9th, Zeal’s family released these responses on his behalf. According to their statement, Zeal remains offline under medical supervision without personal internet access. He reportedly wrote most of the 10,000-word document on a borrowed laptop while in the hospital, with his mother helping to structure and post it, as well as reading supportive messages aloud to him.
The Timeline and Hospitalization
Zeal claims that when the 145+ page document was dropped on April 8th, he immediately signed off to write a defense because he believed the claims were false. However, within 24 hours, he experienced what he calls "mass abandonment"—friends, co-workers, and idols blocking and distancing themselves before he could respond. He states this spiral led to his suicide attempt that same night. He remains hospitalized and describes the process of writing this document as "painful, grueling, and deeply humiliating," but necessary to defend his name.
The Core Defense: Mutual Interaction
Zeal’s central claim is that the encounters during RDC 2025 were mutual and consensual the entire time. He points to their five-year history of flirting and notes that REN had been constantly venting to him about their mental health and past relationships. His detailed version of the events:
September 3rd: After comforting REN (who was crying in the lobby) with permitted hugs, they invited him to their room. He claims they initiated the first kiss ("Can I kiss you?"). He denies aggressive pinning, stating they simply interlocked fingers. He asserts that when they said "it hurts," he immediately stopped, checked if they were okay, and only tried again after they said yes. He notes there was no penetration that night; he was embarrassed by his "poor performance" and even joked about writing a "Google Doc" about how bad he was at it.
September 4th: They reportedly bought lube together. He describes this second encounter as slower, at REN’s pace, and involving more consent checks. Again, he states no penetration occurred. Afterward, they showered together and REN slept on his chest.
Specific Rebuttals to Graphic Claims
Zeal provides verbatim counters to the most serious allegations:
Physical Restraint: He denies "pinning them down," stating his only intention was to hold their hands.
Physical Contact: He denies "aggressive" fingering, claiming it was merely "poorly" done. He asserts REN was visually guiding him by doing it themselves.
The Oral Incident: He denies forcing a finger down their throat, explaining that his long hair accidentally fell into their mouth once.
The Word "No": He claims that when they said "no" to something later, it was in a "laughingly embarrassed" tone, and he covered up immediately. He insists he provided aftercare (washing them both up) and was not dismissive.
Post-Event Evidence
Zeal’s strongest evidence consists of logs and social media posts from REN following RDC. He highlights a tweet where they praised him for "not trying anything uncomfortable" and messages calling him "gentle," "soft," and "handsome." He notes that they continued to send explicit fantasies and drawings weeks later while they were thousands of miles apart, arguing this contradicts an immediate assault narrative.
Breach of Trust and Conclusion
Zeal explains his eventual distance as a reaction to REN disclosing their private intimacy to six people and team members against his wishes, which he viewed as a major breach of trust. He also alleges they harassed other staff members with uncomfortable DMs. He claims he tried to distance himself slowly to avoid triggering them.
Ultimately, Zeal owns his "communication failures" and blurred professional lines but refuses the "assault" label. He suggests REN may now genuinely feel the encounter was non-consensual due to retroactive trauma processing and their mental health history, but argues that their contemporaneous words show otherwise. He clarifies that no other team members were present during the encounters; they only learned about it from REN afterward.
Evidence of Culpability That Cannot Be Refuted
Beyond the narrative presented in the counter-document, there are several critical points and pieces of evidence that suggest Zeal’s accountability, many of which remain unaddressed or are exacerbated by his own defense.
First, a major point of concern involves Zeal’s awareness of who he was interacting with. Despite claiming to have known REN for five years, records show he asked for their age thirteen days after the incident; he was also reportedly unaware of their real name at that time. This raises a disturbing red flag: it suggests Zeal proceeded with the encounters while believing there was a possibility that REN could have been a minor.
Then there’s this absolute piece of shit statement in his document: "Consent given cannot be retracted 6 months later." Not only is this fundamentally untrue, as it dismisses the reality of how victims process abuse, but it also inadvertently implies that genuine consent was never established from the start. This pathetic line of reasoning seeks to invalidate victims who take time to understand or come forward about their trauma, which is a common and documented psychological response.
Regarding REN's behavior following the event, it is essential to look at it through a lens of trauma. The reactions and interactions Zeal cites as "proof of enjoyment" can be explained as hypersexuality or "fawning," which are recognized coping mechanisms used by survivors to navigate the aftermath of an assault.
Finally, the document appears to be selectively edited to favor Zeal's narrative. He notably omitted a section where REN explained the concept of consent to him, as well as an indirect admission where he apologized and cited being "excited" as a reason for his actions. Additionally, his defense fails to provide any logical explanation for the physical bruising on REN's neck, leaving a significant piece of physical evidence completely unaddressed.
Current Updates from REN
After seeing REN’s latest updates on their server, I’m even more convinced of where I stand. Even if this has turned into a "he said, they said" mess, we have to keep supporting REN. Trauma isn't a clean, perfect story, and a polished document can't erase the reality of what happened.
It honestly makes me sick and sad to see who’s actually defending Zeal. It’s mostly just little kids who care more about a video game than a human being's life, along with irresponsible, stupid adults who choose to be blind to the facts. It’s revolting.
At the end of the day, supporting a victim shouldn't be up for debate. Despite how much information is being thrown around, the core of this situation hasn't changed. Stay with REN.
This is my final statement regarding Pressure, including the situation around it and any further works from me. Of course, this is all in support of Ren. However, I wish to focus this post towards Zerum, specifically “Sebastian Solace”. I feel obligated to share the truth from my short yet surprisingly telling experience working on his ref sheet.
I would also like to take this time to finalize my stance as an artist and a person, now that it’s been a second.
———
PLEASE READ:
I trust. I hope and trust all of you. ALL OF YOU. To know that I don’t do this with intent of “making more drama”. I want to give people peace of mind and let the truth be heard. I want people to have solace.
———
“Sebastian Solace”
It has now been brought to my awareness several times that Zerum is publically racist (as well as homophobic, ableist, yada yada). This allows me to reveal my disgust with how Sebastian Solace has been treated.
I will reveal *for her* that Sebastian, the Chilean American angsty 2012 grunge character, is intended to be 100% based off of a Kpop idol in personality, looks, body type, accessories, everything.
You can figure out who for yourselves, I feel no need to bring the person into this. But the guitar pick necklace he wears is the group’s merch. As far as I’m aware, it has no deeper meaning. I suggested changes to it. She denied changes. It is the merch to a T.
I mean no hate to kpop fans or that group btw. I don’t mean that in any way, I think they’re fine
Zerum sent me countless photos as reference, but only used the aforementioned idol, saying she wanted him to be “just like him”. I questioned it, voicing concern for not being Chilean if I made the modifications. I asked if she had any input on the fact that those were modern outfits and hair, but this was Sebastian pre-experimentation (early 2010’s). Instead of responding with her thoughts, she drew over my artwork asking for me to do “exactly so”: A modern hairstyle akin to that of the idol. She wanted a toned body akin to that of the idol. Clothing exactly like the idol. HEIGHT exactly like the idol. The only time his race was ever mentioned to me was by Kat, who told me to make sure that his skin tone was the same. “We don’t want any whitewashing”. I had trusted the writers- I had trusted ZERUM with at least depth of character writing. But what I got instead was the belief that whitewashing was purely skin tone. I was disgusted.
I have since deleted our dms, but she said to me along the lines of “this is so stupid, everyone would laugh”. Her and Kat both said if people found out about this, “[idol]’s photocard would increase in price!” I hated these statements the moment it entered my dms. The arrogance.
So I will say this with confidence: Sebastian is Zerum’s kpop crush. And she proudly married him, boasting about how she kept him from everyone. He wasn’t made for anyone else.
Please see this post if you would like proof of some shitty stuff she said (tw: homophobia, transphobia and the like)
I am putting the ref sheet here as I have deleted it off of my page, my portfolio, and I feel sick knowing she has my work on her twitter. But it’s just for reference to what I’m talking about.
I get it may not Look like much. I tried to keep what I thought was true as much as I could. I kept his body shape wider than I think she wanted. I kept his hair curly, trying to keep strands flying around. But the outfits, the accessories, all of it. It was directly from Zerum, telling me to copy the idol verbatim.
My final proof to that situation is the third image there. I posted with my original post. Frankly, I didn’t want to post it. I saw someone with it as their pfp though, meaning Zerum posted it elsewhere. I thought no reason to hide it. It is once again, a direct rip from the kpop idol in the exact pose. I hope some of you connect the dots. She just wanted a version of him that was hers and only hers.
Now, I don’t want this to sound like you can’t make a character in which you yourself love and adore, romantically or platonically. You can make characters based on your irl crushes, that’s fine. That’s awesome! What’s not awesome is lying, letting people believe there was truth to everything you made up. Putting labels on the character just so it was “different”. Shunning people who didn’t believe what you believed about a widely beloved character (that in turn wasn’t even the real character??!??). But you shun them because the widely beloved character was actually just your crush, hand-tailored for you and Only You. This should not have been in the game or even related to the game. This should be a private oc. By integrating this into the game, Zerum has caused what she hated: people “taking” her crush. But it’s her fault.
I beg of any of you who love the Sebastian we were led to believe existed, whether that be platonically or romantically or whatever. I beg you to rip it away from Zerum’s arms.
The writers do not get to choose what entire culture and heritage is just a label to give an oc for fun.
My statement was prepared before this came out. See the details. It’s exactly the photos I was given and whatnot.
An addition: Just to add to the lack of depth we all thought Sebastian had, Painter’s VA has now revealed that the secret redacted dna on his document was… a mermaid. Fml.
———
My final thoughts to Pressure and its community
We are all left in shambles. The amount of artists I’ve seen completely devastated because they poured their hearts out into the media, only to feel like they were held in a chokehold because of it. I am disgusted. I want nothing to do with Pressure. Nothing to do with its IP. I have deleted my official art, as mentioned. I leave my fan work up as a statement of my progress and a statement to how I approach characters and their relationships.
I am so sick to my stomach knowing I was ever involved in this fucking game. Knowing I ever wanted to be a part of it. I might speak for more people than I think, but I personally always saw the way they connected with community artists and thought “that could be me”. I wanted to interact with the devs, to be a part of the team somehow. How fucking vile. How fucking horrendous everything would turn out to be, and I feel ashamed to have had that hubris within me. I say it as I’m sure I’m not the only artist, commissioned or not, who wanted to be involved in its “open community of developers”. I hope I speak for all of us when I say that the people we idolized do not represent us now. But I know I’m not the only one ashamed of it anyways.
I wish luck to those like me who feel taken advantage of. I wish luck to those who feel like they can’t trust a community again. I wish luck to those who relied on the game as a comfort. I don’t have kind words, some advice, or really… anything. I don’t have anything to say, because I haven’t figured it out.
But there’s no rush.
To those of you who found comfort in Sebastian, just know that the Sebastian you loved was already your own original take. “He” was never who you thought he was. “He” was made for Zerum, and nothing more. Any headcanons, any gender identifications, any sexualities you gave him, that is more than Zerum ever would have the gall to do. He is not Zerum’s character. Sebastian was a PR act.
Please. Make your own Sebastians. Give him his chilean heritage. Let him somberly play guitar in the park at midnight because he needed somewhere to think. Let him pierce his ears impulsively at the age of 12, only to be caught by his mom or his siblings. Let him be in middle school band playing the trumpet. Let him be who Zerum never wanted him to be.
———
I need time. I haven’t been thinking straight or drawing straight or anything. I feel so ashamed I tried to rush through it via the greed day artwork I did. I can’t shove myself into another hyperfixation forcibly. For now, I will probably lean back on my OCs, waiting for the next fixation to come.
I am hugging my sea bunny and convincing him that he’s been saved from the hellhole he was born. I am taking my seb keychain and retiring him to my merch collection, forever to be held in pristine condition as a relic of my loving past. I am trying to move forward with kindness in my heart towards myself for loving what I loved. I encourage you to do the same.
Do not be ashamed of who you were before this all came out. We didn’t know. And we loved the material. Nothing will deny that. Don’t shun it out of your life just because of that. Accept it happened, accept the source material is dead, know you’re not supporting it anymore in a physical and monetary sense, and move on.
Not much has happened in the last few hours, which I consider a good thing given the circumstances. Regardless, here is a summary of what I’ve been able to document regarding the developers and the overall response.
As most of you likely know, a Twitter user leaked all of the game’s assets. While this is a serious legal matter, the reaction has been split. Some see it as a win, while others have complained on behalf of those involved in production who "had nothing to do with it." To those individuals, I have to say: there is no turning back now, and the state of the game should be the least of our concerns.
Previously, Pressure was a property potentially valued at over a million dollars. However, with the departure of the voice actors and key developers, its commercial value has vanished. There was never an scenario where other staff members could simply take over, especially since most have been shown to be accomplices. There was no way for this to end well, and holding a sexual predator accountable for the consequences of his own actions is not wrong, it’s basic justice.
Furthermore, several creators have started posting disgusting videos, protecting or even sympathizing with Zeal. Kreekcraft has spoken on this from a very questionable perspective, with some even going as far as blaming the community and claiming the developers are faultless. To anyone making this kind of content: your videos are shameful and repulsive. Delete them. I’m not going to claim the fandom has been perfect, but it is precisely the side of the public that attacks REN that is poisoning the discourse. YouTube and TikTok have become a refuge for these users; if you want to protect your mental health, I highly recommend avoiding those platforms for any information regarding this case.
People have found very peculiar ways of dealing with this situation, such as the remixes of the clip of Zeal sobbing. While I don’t personally support or consume that kind of satirical content, I can’t blame anyone for making them as a way to cope with such a heavy situation. On the other hand, it’s inspiring to see many artists channeling this into something meaningful. I’ve seen some great work for Sexual Assault Awareness Month, as well as OCs closely resembling Sebastian Solace as a healthy way to reclaim the character. This movement gained momentum following the recent spotlight on Zerum, one of the accomplices. She has been called out for being homophobic, transphobic, ableist, an race fetishist, and for claiming sole ownership of Sebastian despite him being a collective creation. Furthermore, she has been accused of manipulating artists into providing free labor and harassing community members who dared to question her.
Genuinely, seeing those involved finally face the consequences they deserve, and witnessing the solidary reaction of the majority, is truly heartening. As a side note, I also like seeing the public becoming more open to critiquing the game’s lore. I personally always noticed these flaws and was actually on my way to making a full critique or rant about the game right before the truth about Zeal came out. In the future, I might revisit that critique as a guide for writers on what NOT to do when building a game's story.
Lastly, I would like to mention that REN has expressed that they want us to stop using the term "rape" when discussing this situation. They have also asked for the space to start posting silly content again; this doesn't mean they don't care about what happened, but rather that they need to move forward. Please, let REN exist and heal without constantly being reminded of the trauma. That being said, please remember to take care of yourselves as well. Drink some water, take a break from the screens, and prioritize your own mental peace. Thank you for being here.
I said I would take some time off, but given the gravity of recent events, I feel it is my responsibility to inform the community. Zeal recently uploaded a video to YouTube titled "i have killed myself," which was deleted approximately 5 minutes later.
As you can imagine, the video is a farewell message and a supposed response to the serious public accusations made by REN. However, over the course of an hour, Zeal fails to provide any evidence that clears his name or defends him in any substantial way. He limits himself to pointing out three minor inconsistencies that are easily explained given the context of the abuse. In his own words, because of how quickly his team and the community cut ties with him, there was "no reason to keep going."
Most disturbing is that he once again claims his relationships with REN were consensual and mutual, going as far as to apologize for "being bad at sex." This statement, besides being disgusting, completely downplays the nature of the assault allegations. He even refers to those episodes with nostalgia, as if they had been positive experiences, only to then label REN a liar and claim he doesn't understand why they did this.
Later, he apologizes to his work team (programmers, animators, artists, and external collaborators), lamenting that he ruined their reputations and "wasted" their talent and the time they dedicated to Pressure. He also speaks in what appears to be Danish for about 7 minutes to address his family. The video concludes with Zeal crying and constantly repeating his intentions to take his own life, expressing fear regarding the outcome of this entire situation.
It is vital not to be deceived. What we are witnessing is an emotional manipulation tactic aimed at both the general public and REN. They specifically stated that they did not want Zeal to hurt himself, and the fact that he is using self-harm as a response proves that, once again, he has no real consideration for the victim’s feelings or well-being.
While the community was processing this, the user who re-uploaded the video reported that Zeal was allegedly in the hospital. Hours later, a new statement emerged, this time attributed to "Zeal’s mom," threatening to take legal action against REN for supposedly damaging the developer's reputation, career, and mental health.
It is important to understand that this is another form of intimidation; legally, a defamation lawsuit would crumble in the face of the overwhelming amount of evidence presented, and a "damages for emotional distress" argument would hardly succeed when the truth is the primary defense. The real goal of these threats is usually to financially drain the victim, clean the accused's public image, and force a narrative shift from "aggressor" to "victim of harassment."
However, the most recent update suggests that all of this might be a sham to buy time. Zeal's account was detected as active on Roblox, presumably playing Arsenal, while he was supposedly hospitalized. Furthermore, a deeper investigation has raised suspicions about the authenticity of his mother's account, which appears to have been created for this purpose and shows signs of being an alt managed by him.
Finally, i want you to know, REN, that you have our full support and solidarity. It is devastating that you are being subjected to these fear-based power plays after showing such immense courage, but you are not standing alone. Your truth matters, and we will continue to uphold it against every attempt to distort the narrative.
To the community: stop playing Pressure and withdraw all financial support. Continuing to engage with the game now means actively enabling an abuser. Do not feel guilty for your past support—you didn’t have the facts then; however, now that the truth is out, the responsibility is to act.
This goes beyond Zeal. People like Wil, Kat, and Zerum, who were aware of the situation and chose silence to protect their profits, are accomplices. Choosing money over human lives is inexcusable, and they must be held accountable as well. No piece of entertainment is worth the cost of a person's safety and dignity.
Please take care of yourselves and try to take a break from this situation as well; I know how heavy and difficult it is to process. I will keep you updated if anything else comes to light. In a few days or weeks, I will decide the future of this fan-project, but for now, it will serve its role in spreading awareness.
The end of my involvement with Pressure and the UDA project
I am struggling to find the words to express the sheer disgust and disappointment I feel right now. Part of me doesn’t want to accept that my favorite game was planned and developed by an abuser, but I refuse to look away from the truth.
Zeal is a sexual assaulter. There is more than enough evidence to say this with absolute certainty. I firmly reject the idea of "separating the art from the artist" when the "art" is tainted by this level of abuse and suffering. My empathy and my principles will not allow me to continue supporting anything tied to him. I am glad to see people like Gianni Matragrano already stepping away from the game; I hope the rest of the developers and voice actors follow suit and take an ethical stand.
It hurts deeply that this comes just as I was about to finish the first phase of my Pressure fan-project after two years of work. I’ve spent countless hours studying geology, biology, and physics to fix a lore that now tastes like ashes. I feel like all my effort has been caught in a cruel coincidence, but I cannot simply ignore what happened just to "save my work." The victim’s courage in speaking out is infinitely more important than any Word document or drawing I have ever made.
My friends tell me that because of all the technical and scientific overhauls I implemented, what I’ve written barely resembles the original material anymore. Maybe they’re right, and perhaps in the future, this can evolve into something entirely different, but right now, all I feel is the need to walk away. There is no room for humor or lighthearted critiques when we are dealing with such atrocious acts.
I hope Zeal faces the full legal and social consequences of his actions. If this game has to die, then let it die. It is for the best.
You can find the full evidence in this document:
What Zeal Did to Me at RDC 2025 Written and compiled by the person to whom this happened. Edited with the help and support of my friends.
I’m going to take a break for a while to process all of this.
if none of the other pressure devs speak out against him then fuck you all as well
Ren, if you are somehow reading this, I wish you nothing but healing and support, you did not deserve this
A poorly made sketch of an angler that I threw together by combining several fan interpretations and loosely basing it on the real animal to make it feel more grounded.
I don’t like it, so I didn’t even bother putting my name on it.
Do whatever you want with it.
Sorry for breaking the usual tone of this account, but… what the hell is this?
For those who know this account or my main one @amandxdd, you probably know I’ve been working on a fan lore project where I rewrite Pressure in a more mature, grounded, and internally consistent way—without removing the anomalous elements. It’s basically a creative exercise exploring what this game could have been and the potential it’s currently wasting.
And now they changed the Let-Vand lore… trying to make it more “technical”… and somehow made it objectively worse.
I genuinely can’t.
They reduced the Let-Vand from over 20 km deep to 11—basically turning it into the Mariana Trench. That alone strips away part of its identity. But that’s not even the worst part.
The worst part is the new explanation: that you need to reach MACH 4.8 to cross the Veil.
Excuse me?
That’s not how physics works. At those speeds, underwater, a submarine wouldn’t survive—it wouldn’t even remain intact. Cavitation, friction, structural stress—it would disintegrate long before reaching the Let-Vand. This isn’t nitpicking, it’s basic physics.
And you know what’s actually messed up?
I’ve spent months working on a full document on how to make the Let-Vand realistic WITHOUT changing its original concept or atmosphere. Months reading about geology, hydrostatic pressure, material science, structural behavior… not because anyone asked me to. Because I love this game, i love pressure. Because it’s my favorite, and I wanted to explore its potential the way it deserved.
And I haven’t even been able to publish a single one of those documents. Every time I get close to finishing one—every single time—the lore changes again. It keeps shifting just enough to invalidate hours of work, forcing me to go back, revise, rethink, and rebuild from scratch. Over and over.
And now they change it—into something even more absurd.
Before, the submarines were already ridiculous: 638 km/h underwater, basically a commercial airplane submerged. It was absurd, sure—but at least it could be reinterpreted.
Now it’s ~6500 km/h.
At that point, it’s not even science fiction anymore. It’s just ignoring how reality works.
Honestly, I’m done.
Over the next few days, I’m going to publish a full critique of Pressure, and I’ll probably start sharing my version of the Let-Vand as well. At this point, I might as well rewrite the entire lore the way it should have been handled.
And yeah—maybe this is a small detail in the grand scheme of things. Maybe it’s stupid to be this frustrated over it.
But I’ve put too much time, too much thought, and too much care into this to just shrug it off.
I’m not even angry at anyone in particular anymore. I’m just tired.
This is a formal request—formal—from the Provisional Operator regarding recent inquiries submitted through official Deep Archive channels.
Please, for the love of god, stop asking me about “Containment Club.”
I must state that I am not authorized to discuss, disclose, validate, deny, contextualize, reference, archive, or even casually acknowledge the existence of any alleged internal entertainment software, morale support initiatives, experimental simulations, or 'dating simulators' that may or may not feature anomalous entities portrayed in forms that are, once again, outside of my department.
This is not a loophole. Please stop trying to find one. I am especially asking you to stop sending:
character route charts,
“tier lists,”
screenshots (please stop sending screenshots),
and questions that begin with “okay but between you and me—”
There is NO “between you and me.” This system logs everything.
The Urbanshade Deep Archive is intended for classified record access, operational review, and archival continuity, not for speculation about recreational content that I am absolutely not saying exists, and which I cannot talk about even if it—hypothetically—did, which it doesn’t. Probably.
Please redirect your attention to approved documentation and use UDA responsibly.
As the calendar turns to 2026, we want to pause for a moment and recognize that the past year was… a lot.
The recovery and restructuring of the Hadal Blacksite after the events of October 14th—containment breach, lockdown procedures, confirmed fatalities—placed an enormous burden on every division involved. It was not a quiet year, and it certainly was not an easy one.
More importantly, we want to acknowledge the people behind the work. Our sincere condolences go out to everyone who lost friends, teammates, or partners during the breach. Moving forward isn’t easy when familiar faces are missing, and their absence is felt across the Blacksite.
To everyone who remained—our collaborators, analysts, engineers, and scientists—thank you. You kept critical systems online, maintained continuity under pressure, and ensured that things didn’t spiral further than they already had. Your effort, patience, and resilience are the reason we’re able to start a new year at all.
A Small Pause (And Yes, I’m Looking Forward to It).
The Deep Archive will be entering a short, one-week administrative break.
Officially, this is a routine pause for system maintenance and internal reorganization. Unofficially, I have been informed that I am allowed to stop staring at classified documents for several consecutive days, which I am choosing to interpret as a gift.
Regular operations will resume in seven days.
Some updates may still appear during this period—old habits die hard—but nothing is strictly scheduled.
I plan to spend this break doing very normal, non-archival activities. Sleeping. Drinking something that isn’t cold coffee. Possibly remembering what daylight looks like. I’m genuinely excited about that. It turns out that working in a facility twenty kilometers below sea level does strange things to your sense of time and space, and vitamin supplements don’t quite fix the very human desire to see the outside world again, even briefly.
For now, please try to rest if you can. If rest isn’t an option, stay safe—and let’s all make a collective effort not to trigger any emergency protocols before the year has properly started.
looking at document information is very coolio it inserts a lot into my brain .
since im bodily an eldritch horror . But shhh they don't have to know that
anyways uh .
papaya
wait wrong blog WRONG BLOG TO AS
[SYSTEM NOTICE]
The Urbanshade Deep Archive does not guarantee manual review of messages that fall outside operational, technical, or administrative relevance.
Non-actionable communications may be indexed, logged, and stored without further analysis.
No anomaly designation assigned.
No procedural follow-up required.
[Addendum — Provisional Operator No. 2]
I’m… not entirely certain what was being communicated here. If this was intended as a test of the system’s filtering parameters: noted. If it was a metaphor: it has been logged as such.
If it was neither: please disregard this message and proceed as normal.
Also, for the record, there is no “papaya” protocol currently listed in the archive.
Due to administrative complications, no major updates have been deployed to the database over the last three days. This delay was not caused by system failure, external interference, or anomalous activity, but by a combination of onboarding procedures and… human factors.
While familiarizing myself with the Urbanshade archival systems, a senior technician—assigned to “assist”—accidentally overwrote a local working directory while demonstrating a legacy indexing tool. The action was followed by the statement “it usually works on my terminal”. Several hours of preliminary edits were lost. The incident has been logged.
Additional assistance has been promised by other field agents, though their current contribution consists primarily of unsolicited advice, unclear instructions, and reminders that the previous Operator “never had this problem.” I am assured this will improve.
Normal update cadence is expected to resume shortly once system access privileges, file redundancies, and interpersonal variables are stabilized.
Access to personal entertainment software is not permitted on Urbanshade work terminals. Additionally, I am contractually obligated to deny owning any handheld gaming devices during active onboarding periods.
The recent delays are the result of documented administrative setbacks and human error, as previously stated—not recreational activities.
Due to administrative complications, no major updates have been deployed to the database over the last three days. This delay was not caused by system failure, external interference, or anomalous activity, but by a combination of onboarding procedures and… human factors.
While familiarizing myself with the Urbanshade archival systems, a senior technician—assigned to “assist”—accidentally overwrote a local working directory while demonstrating a legacy indexing tool. The action was followed by the statement “it usually works on my terminal”. Several hours of preliminary edits were lost. The incident has been logged.
Additional assistance has been promised by other field agents, though their current contribution consists primarily of unsolicited advice, unclear instructions, and reminders that the previous Operator “never had this problem.” I am assured this will improve.
Normal update cadence is expected to resume shortly once system access privileges, file redundancies, and interpersonal variables are stabilized.
