Angelo / Ivan

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.

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Hi. Since this is going in the pressure tag, I might as well introduce myself. I’m Cotgar, the artist of the Gotchapon birthday artwork and the most recent Sebastian Solace reference sheet. I’ve been fixated on Pressure since October 2024, even committing personal things to it such as cosplay, merchandise, personal poster works, and two years of fan art.

My statements here assume you know the bare minimum of what happened: Zeal sexually assaulted the previous soundtrack musician, Ren.

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I want to approach this as a community member first and foremost.

My take? The game’s done. I personally wish to see no more support for it, as although the main focus of the document is Zeal, Ren mentions cruel involvement from the dev team and their blatant coverups of Zeals actions, painting Ren as “unstable”. I have promptly left the discords, which I encourage you to do as well.

As for what to do mentally? That’s the hard part as someone who’s been so invested in the lore, story, gameplay, and every other aspect of the game. I literally doodled gotchapon this morning all over my work papers. But as someone who doesn’t wish to support the game anymore, I really find it hard to just cut that off. I am not defending the devs in any way by saying that. I am coming purely from a hyperfixation standpoint where my blorbos are jingling around in my brain.

I would like to say: you will not be incriminated to still love the characters for who they were before this point. I will still forever adore the characters I’ve grown to love. But not the ones who wrote them. Anything with them beyond this point in time is considered Not the characters I’ve surrounded myself with. With losing your sense of humanity as a person and involving yourself in disgusting shit like that, I believe that you lose the right to keep people “doing what You want with their characters”. AKA. If I were to still draw Sebastian, let’s say, I could with no connection to the writers. I will not draw him with his wedding ring, for instance. He does not deserve to be “married” to a dev self insert. It’s not the self insert that’s the problem, mind you. It’s the dev.

I suggest now is the time to maybe review that list of shows you’ve been dying to watch. Check out those games that maybe, if you’re like me, you’ve been scared to play because of fear that it’ll take over the hyperfixation.

Move away.

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My connection and statement as *technically* an artist for the game:

I am horrified. One of the most prevalent things in Ren’s document was the use of cute animal imagery to lull Ren into a sense of security. (From my experience), Kat and Zerum do the same thing. It is unbeknownst to me if it was manipulative. That is not my point. My point is that it’s real language used in the dev team, and it does not surprise me it’s being used maliciously. I am more so scared because I began picking up this habit because people I thought were “cool” were using it as fun conversation. I am impressionable. I began picking it up. Ren’s document showed this to me and I suddenly felt my gut drop.

I will be brief. I have past experience of mental abuse and manipulation. Reading Ren’s document was familiar to me. Not to such a sexual extent, but in a manipulation extent. Seeing the bunny imagery sickened me, as it made me realize that trauma flares that I had worked years and years in therapy to get rid of were now validated: I don’t know whether to trust the devs that were smiling and being so polite to me.

I will not work with Pressure anymore. End of story.

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You are allowed to still like the characters. The lore. The story. But supporting it is different, and I am ashamed that I have for this long. Am I sad that I probably can’t post any more drawings of the silly fish being sad? Oh fuck yeah. That dude fucking rocks.

But this is not about me. To fellow people who feel sad about it too, this is not about you.

This is about being a fucking human being

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