Hello everyone,

This situation deserves some light, clarification, and plenty more shed on it. Many people have been saying things, posting things out of context, and plenty more in relation to recent weeks. With a lack of a proper response being due to us taking our time to gather our bearings and ensure everything could be compiled.

I wanted to take my time writing this in order to correct and stop the misinformation, hatred, harassment, and plenty more that a number of our developers, contributors, and staff have all received. I apologize if this took longer than expected to come out, alongside not acknowledging it.

This is not a page being written in order to defend myself, our actions, or anything of the sort. Instead, this is meant to clear up a number of misinformation that has been spread throughout the past couple weeks.

With that said, let us begin.

1. Kaiser’s departure from Forsaken

I will begin by saying this first: Kaiser was not removed due to a collaboration or relations being at stake. Those messages are from a conversation I had the day previous where I was attempting to gather thoughts regarding the situation. Attached below are images of Kaiser stating that he was leaving for the sake of the team, (addendum: this was due to feeling pushed out by all the stress and panic from the team during the situation as Kaiser has informed me):

I will be open on this aspect of things: I’ve always disliked Kaiser’s continued association with Soul. Even if publicly known (as confirmed in Souls own document) I do not like the fact he willingly continues to associate with them. But that has never interfered with their work or their relationship with many team members. Kaiser was not removed due to collaborations, they left on their own. Kaiser is a friend to many on the team who was pushed out due to public backlash (I will be commenting on the public in a later paragraph)

However, as I understand the original post written by our original PR person contained the statement that Kaiser was let go. This is false, as backed up by images. The statement has been removed from the main Twitter account due to this. Going forward I will be focused heavily on managing PR by myself, alongside the aid of leads. With far more care, consideration, and time put in before action is taken.

2. Soul (Vincent) now being labeled as a “Community Contributor”

I really don’t know how detailed I can get into this, so I will focus on restating a post I made previously. SOUL DOES NOT CONTRIBUTE OR WORK ON FORSAKEN. We’ve been trying to resolve a handful of things for the past six-eight  months regarding the contractual dealing of Forsaken to us. We’ve avoided providing a group role to Soul for the clear answer and assumption that many of you came to. That soul would be contributing and working on Forsaken again. This is not the case and never will be. This has been done due to Roblox Policies regarding the legal side of things.

We (the team) all agreed that Soul and Ava would not be allowed to return to Forsaken ever. There is no dancing around this answer nor will it ever be changed.

3. The removal of Forsaken assets from Forsaken: Sandbox.

We, the developers and contributors of Forsaken, reserve the right to file DMCA claims without notice, alongside asking for our assets to be removed from fan games.

In the past I’ve been very lenient and allowed fan games to use our assets due to how rippers work. However, over the course of time, it’s clear many bad apples have taken advantage of this system. With this being said, any attempts to use ripped assets for Forsaken in fan games, monetized or not, and UGC are at risk of being DMCA claimed by us.

Alongside this, the way our staff was treated over asking for their assets to be removed was disrespectful. I will leave them unnamed, but 2 of our contributors were sent death threats, hate, and plenty more following the request for their assets to be removed. This behavior is unacceptable and should not be tolerated in any way, shape, or form.

4. FFPrankster incident

From prankster themselves:

 “I'd like to put out my own personal statement regarding my incident.

I am not racist. I hold myself in contempt for using the word, even while intoxicated. There is no excuse for what I did, and I apologise if any of my prior messages painted it that way.

I have used edgy humor in the past, but this is long, LONG behind me. I'm talking when I was literally 12 years old. I have had multiple sessions of therapy since then, and it was a topic I personally brought up. I do not use racial slurs in my speech when talking to ANYBODY, close or not.

Regarding what I ACTUALLY said - I said "what's a [BAD WORD] gotta do to get a headshot". Shouldn't have said it, simple as that. Everyone there was DMed and apologized to and for over half an hour I was saying I was sorry. Nobody there was hurt, we laughed it off. The images made were in reference to the fact I said it in the first place knowing I wasn't a POC myself. I did not condone their creation.

Regarding my apparent racist behaviour in TC2, I'll be honest, I don't know anything about that. I may have made jokes in bad taste, but I didn't use slurs at all.

Regarding what I said about KMate - this was in response to my initial anger that he was on the Soul stage. I only said what I said in response to that fact, and the fact he was defending Soul. What I said wasn't ok, but it has nothing to do with the fact that they are a POC. I was just angry at Soul and couldn't control myself.

I am truly sorry to everyone on the team and the people that once looked up to me. I feel like I have betrayed so many people, and at the same time feel so powerless to do anything about it.”

5. Basil and I’s finite connection to Soul

To many it should be clear that Basil and I hold some sort of connection to Soul due to the nature of legalities. I will not deny this.

However, I stand adamantly by my stance as stated in the Kaiser section of this thread. Many conversations held pertained to legalities, with me splicing between casual banter in hopes of keeping relations stable while legalities were ongoing. Attached below is a screenshot from 2-3 months ago, showcasing soul and Ava having removed Basil and I from a GC.

I haven’t had a proper legal conversation with them in 1-2 months, as something done made me uncomfortable to the point of no longer trying to be friendly in any way. Now refusing to speak to either parties without lawyers present.

6. Merchandise, and where the money goes to.

The original Chance plushie is gone so no money goes to other parties. All proceeds go towards the development team and nobody else. I saw some people questioning after all this happened, and I want to reaffirm that this is the case.

7. The “corporatization” of Forsaken

This game isn’t corporate. It never will be. The game will continue to only be owned by myself and Basil for as long as the game and the IP continues on. These comments primarily stem from the “Robloxia’s Masqerade” event in which we allowed people to purchase candy boosters and candy itself.

I put this here as an open declaration as to how Forsaken is, and will be continued, to be monetized as we’ve discussed so far.

• No killers or survivors will ever be exclusive/unable to be obtained in any way, shape, or form. If a character comes from an event, and is obtainable via event currency initially, they will be rotated into the shop after the event.
• Exclusive in-game cosmetic merchandise codes will never happen. This is to ensure that any and all skins or monetization can be earned via just by playing the game alone.

8. Hugo image

There’s an image going around pertaining to a private conversation I had with a team member (Hugo acting as an agent for Yeucc)  in the REGRETEVATOR team. Note that anything said in that image was without legal consulting, and was only my thoughts early on. As well, do not harass the REGRETEVATOR team.

The truth, for me at least, is that I want to keep paying people well. We don’t fully know our options when it comes to that matter due to how gray of an area that is. It’s only ever been ideas and thoughts.I want the team to be happy. They have more motivation for this project than I ever have anymore and they’re the ones truly building things still. It’s not fair that my own faults and actions keep dousing the passion more and more. Attached below is the segment cropped out, showcasing my full point regarding my fear of jumping ship.

After consulting with a lawyer, here’s the short of it:

If we jumped ship with everything Forsaken related, even if we changed the name, we’d be in breach of the contract. WE CANNOT JUMP SHIP VIA A NAME AND GAME CHANGE! This is the most amount of information I can provide via this matter. (blacked out part is private info regarding financial situation)

9. Myself

Recently, I received a number of complaints regarding management. Primarily our focus, lack of transparency on a handful of fronts, and a lack of trust.

A lot of this distrust stems from me, primarily past decisions and occurrences which show me as being someone who is easily influenced and easy to erupt. I’m working on these aspects more than ever now, but that doesn’t excuse the actions which have affected many. I will not make promises that things will change, but instead I hope the actions that are taken (like me being more assertive and trying to be more involved) will showcase my attempts to grow and change the direction of things.

I know many don’t trust me. I say it’s okay, but in reality it’s not. There shouldn’t be a case where the head of something is struggling to be trusted. I want to turn that around, I want that to change. I hope that I can change that in the coming months.

10. The Basil section:

Everything in this section was written by Basil:

Hi! This is written by myself (Basil), hello. I know I'm not immune to mistakes or criticism in any regard, I appreciate anyone who's reached out me with concerns and has been been willing to hear my end of things and given me honest feedback with it, as well as encouraged me to give a response at the very least, given this all originally sparked due to a private statement I made. I want to also preface this with the disclaimer that you aren't obligated to forgive me by any means, nor am I asking you to sympathize for me, I'd rather you form your own opinion reading this and stick with it. If you don't forgive me and choose not to interact with or play Forsaken given everything that has happened, that's completely okay, that is your choice and I encourage you hold up on your own opinion at the end of the day.

 "idrc" (Kaiser's affiliation with Soul)

 Beforehand, knowing Kaiser as a friend, I've never understood his connection or insistence to stay friends with somebody like Soul. He's explained to me before, about his personal reasonings as to why he even did in the first place, but regardless I couldn't ever see where he was coming from fully. Admittedly, I never batted an eye to it in the scenario on how it'd affect the game or the team itself because as previously stated, it's been public information, as well as it has never interfered with his work and his relationship with any team member. It stayed a purely personal connection that never reflected him or his own opinions when it came to development or the public, as he was able to be his own individual despite that connection. I admit wording it as "idc" and just playing it off wasn't the best wording or choice on my part, alongside my inaction and inconsideration to the fact of the matter, which I do apologize for. This statement and conversation was had in an old friend groupchat I was in with the person who originally made this public alongside some others. We moved it to DMs, talked about it and they, albeit bothered by it all, "understood where I was coming from, all things considered." So it was left at that until present day. Once again, I do understand the ignorance, severity, and concern of it and how it could affect those who were harmed previously, so I do apologize.

"What do you even do?"

There's been a lot of confusion in some parts that'd I'd like to clarify further on as I don't necessarily publicize what I do anymore due to me cutting off my social media presence entirely very early on. I haven't been in PR for a long while, I don't even utilize any of the main Forsaken accounts nor am I logged into them. I stepped back quite a bit ago due to realizing my inability to maintain the proper responsibilities that came with the role itself and the stress that also came alongside with it. I do understand that some of the comments that I've made recently and beforehand do not reflect the game in a positive or mature manner which I apologize for. There's a time and a place and I shouldn't let offhanded comments, or comments that could be interpreted in tone to be passive aggressive in nature, come out like that nor should I pay the time of day to any comments towards me or anybody else that are purely negative and unconstructive. To further clarify, I've stuck to purely background work, that could be tied to primarily accounting/payouts, staff management with the other head staff member, hiring for positions (staff/tester/contrib.) if needed, handling situations regarding issues between team members/or out of house parties, as well as communications with outside sources such as DevRel, etc. I want to emphasize again, I haven't been PR for a while, that role belonged to someone else, I'm aware that I haven't been capable of maintaining the role itself, which is why I haven't. I do not wish to return to social media, or be in a position that requires me to interact with it, I want to keep that connection severed for my own wellbeing and safety as I'm incapable of keeping up with it without complications to my own mental health.

 "3-4 month break lol"

This never happened actually, the longest break I've been on are typically only a week at most and even so I never have been able to fully commit to them properly. I think the primary reason as to why people believe this is the case was due to my old bio in the main Forsaken server. Originally when I was on break I changed my bio to reflect that as I wanted to actually fully commit to the break itself and wanted to make sure anyone who tried reaching out during that period didn't feel like they were being ignored on purpose. I never changed it after that, at least in the main server, even when I went off break because the only times when I do utilize the server is to ban someone or adjust someone's rank. Other team members and people I've worked with can also attest to the fact that this has just never happened. I can understand why that it's believed though considering my public absence.

"Are you connected with or still in contact with Soul?"

 Personally or for any reasons outside of legalities? No, haven't been for a long while. I'm not comfortable talking 1 on 1 or with him for any reasoning, unless communication is needed for legalities, I'll only interact with him with communication between our own lawyers for my own safety and comfort.

Closing thoughts:

Overall I want to say once more, that you aren't obligated to forgive or sympathize for me for any decisions or poor things that I've said or how I've presented myself, please come to your own conclusions and opinions. But I hope at the very least you'll respect my decision to continue to distance myself from social platforms, as I have no intentions of returning, especially given everything that I've had shown to me these past few days. I will remain firm on this fact. I also want to add, please stop roping the other developers, contributors, and team members into the faults that I've made, it isn't any of their faults, they're not responsible for what's happening and don't deserve the flack that they've been receiving. They're simply here on the sidelines, experiencing the same things and feelings everyone else is, don't loop them into it, please leave them be.

This final section is being written ahead of time in order for full thoughts to be established early:

11. The Public

For a long time now, we (the leads) have always strived for a form of transparency and communication with the community. Even if we’ve failed each time this has always been something we’ve wanted to do. This was to ensure relations with other games, communities, our community, and plenty more were always open and well.

However, it’s become clear that this desire to be open and public has caused many more issues than I’ve ever wanted. From trying to constantly appease the community and to appeasing collaborators, other developers from other games leaking our stuff and plenty more has caused a substantial rift in privacy many of us feel we don’t have anymore.

This is not being said to shift blame, but to instead show our perspective.

Going forward, a majority of leads will be pulling back from Twitter and any media period. With updates only arriving on the official Forsaken related social media.

I cannot stress enough how much I like the community we have. From amazing fan art, OCs, fan maps, fan games, and plenty more. The passion this community showcases day-by-day amazes me, and I’m grateful to be part of this community. However, when we are sent death threats, our lives threatened, our team hated, misinformation spread, and plenty more we are unable to continue on like this. It deteriorates mental health, causes us to constantly feel uneasy, and plenty more. There are many people behind this, and those people deserve the peace of mind without having to constantly worry.

Closing Statement:

At the time of this release I’ll be available for a handful of hours to answer questions that I can and am able to answer. This includes anything I may have missed, any clarification on parts, and plenty more. However, after this window closes my main account will run dormant. I do hope this document has helped inform some about the ongoing things the past couple months, and I hope you all look forward to what content we produce.

Thank you,

Hytoko