The creator of Fortune's Run, which is in early access, recently reminded everyone of himself. Previously, Dizzie attracted players' attention with his statement that he was suspending game development because he was being sent to prison (he said he beat an extortionist who was harassing his ex-girlfriend).
Dizzie handed over the affairs to Kim, who was supposed to release updates for the game. However, in August, the creator got in touch and stated that the girl had been deceiving him all this time and leading a promiscuous lifestyle, and had appropriated all the money:
Kim abused me and stole all the project's money. She just lied about everything. She cheated on me with people she met through [social network] and went to ATMs with my bank card, withdrawing thousands of dollars. She emptied all my accounts — including Patreon, PayPal, and any other places where money was stored. She took absolutely everything. The only money she didn't touch was my securities portfolio because she herself tried to get into trading. The total amounted to $77,000 plus approximately $9,000 that Valve is withholding and doesn't want to pay me.
The main problem, according to the Fortune's Run developer, is that Valve refuses to transfer legal control of the project to him:
Today, after Valve transferred the money to Kim, we were informed that the transfer request was rejected without explanation. I still don't have an ID because the police won't let me out long enough to get those f***ing documents. And Valve just pretends not to understand: they claim the game belongs to Kim and have been regularly paying her since last year. I haven't received a cent from sales. All sales revenue went to my abuser. At any moment, if she has a bad day and needs money, she can contact Steam support and gain full control of the project. This has happened before. She used two-factor authentication on her phone to lock me out, then blackmailed me with it, manipulated me, and got what she wanted from me.
Now, explains the Fortune's Run developer, the tax authorities are demanding money from him, allegedly received from the sale of the game. And recently he was again imprisoned for almost a month — he claims that Kim beat him, and the police who arrived at the call did nothing, but the specialist supervising him used this for the developer's re-arrest.
As a result, the author of Fortune's Run stated that "the game is canceled because of Gaben":
Forgive me, everyone. I tried very hard to fix everything, but dozens of people conspire to make it impossible. Institutions actively condone the abuse I have suffered. The police protect Kim. My own probation officer takes a "both sides are to blame" stance and says I am an annoying and scandalous person, so this supposedly justifies the psychological abuse I have endured. Valve literally acts like a clown and claims the game is not my intellectual property, while paying my abuser tens of thousands of dollars. I cannot fix this — I have no power, I don't even have rights in this society [...] I give up. I will no longer work on this game until my legal ownership and right to sales revenue are recognized again. This is absurd. Goodbye.