Putting your name, real or otherwise, out online is always going to be a risk especially when you stand out so far from the crowd and The Coffin of Andy and Leyley certainly stood out. The indie game got an enormous amount of attention and notoriety in the past few weeks; its incredibly high user score on Steam contrasting with the very vocal critics of the game on social media, as The Coffin of Andy and Leyley had a contentious portrayal of several intense subjects, namely incest. Social media was quick to attack the game for its depiction of the act and the arguments escalated to the point where the creator of the game was potentially doxed for their trouble.
As explained in the pinned forum post on The Coffin of Andy and Leyley’s Steam board, whether or not the doxxing of the creator was successful or whether or not the information is accurate they’ve seen fit to sell the rights to the game wholesale to Kit9 Studios, giving the studio ownership over the IP. While the situation hasn’t been directly addressed by the creator of the game, they do plan to make a final devlog in December and complete finishing the development of the game before leaving the internet spotlight for good.
The creator probably did the smartest thing they could do in the moment, becoming the focal point of an entire internet community has many positives, such as those who have played The Coffin of Andy and Leyley heaping praise and good word of mouth about the game across the online space. Even now, after weeks of scrutiny, the game holds an amazing ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ review score on Steam out of 8700 reviews, giving it an impressive overall ranking in Steam’s top-rated games as well as making the creator somewhere around the ballpark of a million dollars.
Fame and fortune for their hard work is every artist’s dream, and but with fame comes infamy, and the negative attention received for The Coffin of Andy and Leyley’s depiction of incest and the critical overreaction to said depiction has landed us here, where a creative and upcoming mind has to take a step back from fame instead of push forward with their success. It’s important in situations like these that it’s okay to not want to consume a piece of media because you personally can’t stand it, but also to remember that it is a fictional depiction, one portrayed negatively even, and that the creators exploring these dark topics shouldn’t be personally tracked down and attacked.