I've decided to step away from development. The game is not shutting down.
That said...
This is a non-profit project
I do not wish to continue working on it given the rampant toxicity. The lies, slander and falsehoods are not worth it.
The smear campaign from the reddit team at /r/mmorpg has been relentless, accusing me of:
1. Hiding a so called "shady past", using "Xjum" as a new name to cover up "Gummy"
2. That I've been distributing malware.
3. And that I stole assets.
All false and every article written cites the same hit piece written by their moderation team.
Here are the facts.
I never hid the alias Gum, or Gummy.
Xjum/Gum/Gummy having been publicly associated since 2009, but these people framed the lesser known name as an attempt to "hide my past". They used archive links... to pages that show the same with without an archive link. The use of archives is a deliberate way of making it seem buried when it never was.
The evidence that I "denied being gummy" are... screenshots. They're lying. Editing a screenshot takes about 30 seconds with browser dev tools. You don't even need Photoshop. Nevermind what else is possible to fabricate.
What I can't fabricate:
A live, publicly accessible WarcraftMovies page from 2009 that anyone can visit and verify right now
A live YouTube channel at @gummy52 that has always displayed "Xjum" right on it and in my videos. Half my videos feature me playing as that name.
They have a screenshot. Give me a break. I'm showing verifiable, independently accessible primary sources.
The source code was published
There is no malware here. This is a lightweight game that was heavily reverse engineered and inspected with API monitors. Nobody found any evidence of this because there is not. And so I went a step further and published the source code. Even STILL this reddit team calls my truly free game malware.
There was no asset theft
The art assets were duly credits at:
https://dreadmyst.com/credits T
They were purchased from UnityAssetStore or downloaded from OpenGameArt, a community for free assets for free games. One of the artists even publicly stated on X that he enjoyed seeing his artwork being used. https://x.com/clintbellanger/status/2011624664964153523.
A portrait pack of 500+ images apparently contained (7) images from Magic: The Gathering, Lords of the Fallen, The Witcher games / Gwent. I immediately removed them. The Aion assets were purchased, but the seller did not have rights, and so NCSoft asked they be removed and acknowledged the game was non-profit.
...but all of this over icons and portraits?
It's an over reaction
This is a truly free game. I didn't advertise or promote this game, streamers loved it and promoted it on their own. I made this in nine months by with no budget and spent a few days telling friends about it, and it exploded in popularity. I even asked the reddit team to take down threads promoting my game, a fact they conveniently omit - or maybe their mod mail doesn't receive it, I really don't know. I can't even defend myself because they banned me before writing their hit piece.
I've had to endure
Dox attempts at myself and any moderators who try to help me.
Massive DDoS attacks on the game server, the website, and the authentication services.
In short, again, this is not fun and not worth continuing for free.
If you already have the game in your library, nothing changes for you, but the game will be removed from the Steam store.
Thank you.