[ WARNING: Effortpost!] The story of Gausswerks and Brigador, or How an indie dev got exposed for un-wholesome phobia on a private forum.

Introduction

Jack Monahan (Gausswerks) and his brother Hugh Monahan are the co-founders of Stellar Jockeys, an indie studio known for the isometric mech game Brigador and its currently in-development sequel Brigador Killers. Gausswerks was a long time Something Awful user, most active on the YCS forum where much of Brigador's development prior to the game's release in 2016 was documented. For reasons I won't get into (genre nerdshit) Brigador was a flop at release before a re-release in 2017 called Brigador: Up-Armored edition allowed it to become a cult hit thanks in part to this video by MandaloreGaming (relevant later).

And then out of nowhere...

The YCS forum had become defunct, and its longtime users had moved to a separate off-site that was only visible to logged-in members, and became invite-only after this event. From when YCS has been shut down to mid-2020 Gausswerks was active on this off-site posting horrible transphobic, anti-semitic, homophobic, etc etc content (you get the idea) under the same username and profile picture he had always used. In June of 2020 (when terminally onlines were stuck inside for months) someone from the offsite leaked a selection of some of the things he had said, some of which were only a few days old relative to the leak. It's believed that he had some sort of feud with another forum member who then leaked this as he was a public figure, and none of this is visible without an account.

The reaction

Knowing that he had to save face, Gausswerks posted an apology to the Stellar Jockeys twitter .

For years, I've posted to a private forum where I've made many transphobic, racist, and anti-semitic remarks. I'm deeply sorry for that, but know that apologizing will not change what I have done. Over the last decade, I fooled myself into thinking that my words had no consequence, but over the past few days, I've discovered the opposite to be true. It matters what you say, even in private. I've hurt many people. Effective immediately I am suspending my involvement with Stellar Jockeys & Brigador Killers. I love the game, I love how excited our fans and community have been, but I have jeopardized the trust we've worked so hard to build with everyone. I made this happen, and that means I need to step away. I can't undo what I did, but I can work forward from here. I have deleted my account for the forum in question. I've been talking to people whose values and perspectives I've been critical of. I now need to spend time listening, learning and growing as a person. I am truly sorry for what I have done.

In short, he was leaving the company and had deleted both his SA and YCS offsite accounts, leaving his brother and a couple others as the sole developers for the sequel, Brigador Killers. An important thing to note is that Brigador is inspired by 90s isometric games like Star Control 2 and Syndicate, along with plenty of Battletech influence; therefore it has a niche and neurodivergent fanbase, which means there's a lot of s. As a result drama was abound during this time until three days later when the aforementioned Mandalore video was released, with its creator choosing to upload it despite recent events, explaining his position in the SJ groomercord .

Much to the displeasure of those who had their lives shattered by the dev of their favorite mechshit game being a , this video was well received as most normal people didn't know or care, or otherwise can separate the art from the artist.

The return

About a year later, in mid-2021, Gausswerks returned to the SJ team and work on the sequel was resumed, because come on, killing a game in development because one of the devs said some things is an r-slured business decision. This is something that those who were greatly impacted by the events will never let go of. His brother Hugh stated:

My brother took an extended leave of absence but has now returned, and while this significantly delayed progress on Brigador Killers it is still in the works. We will have more news for you over the next month following the 5-year anniversary update this Monday. We appreciate everyone's patience on this, 2020 was a very difficult year.

Brigador is fondly remembered by many, and work on Brigador Killers is ramping up with Gausswerks recently streaming game dev stuff and uploading his work to twitter.

Drama?

You might be wondering, where's the drama ? Well, dear dramatard, I saved it for last because despite being such a niche game with a niche audience, this is something people will never get over.

The initial reaction on r/brigador. An equal mix of people outraged and those who know its stupid drama, probably the only rational discussion about it.

Here's a r/hobbydrama post with literally every piece of information about the situation available. abound in the comments. (also thanks to the OP for doing my work for me)

Ah shit. I'm one of the people who bought Brigador after Mandalore's review because it looked good and was on sale for a dirt cheap price. It really hurts that what is a genuinely fun mech game is now tainted by that prick and his company quietly readding him. I'm definitely gonna avoid the sequel out of spite now.

Yep, it really sucks when a creatore being a douche kills enjoyment of a thing. I'm on the same boat.

I already own it so if I ever reinstall it I can just do the "Brigador was co-developed by Hatsune Miku" thing at least.

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(-22) I mean in my opinion we shouldn’t just stop playing his games because of his opinions.

(32) We shouldn’t stop giving him money because of his bigotry?

(0) Because I don't think he made the game entirely by himself and there's surely a lot of other relatively innocent people that'd be darned because of someone they have no control over.

(17) But they’re standing with him.

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This was a wonderful write up, thank you. As a trans women, I have to keep my eyes trained on companies to make sure I’m not inadvertently supporting open transphobes. Transphobia is one of those things that has no true consequences except for trans people’s pain.

I've started using the Shinigami Eyes add-on lately and it's honestly super useful for things like this - it's definitely made me more conscious of my really self-destructive habit of clicking on things that I know full well are going to make me miserable

These people really look for every opportunity to shill that keylogger.

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: he FRICKING WHAT I had no idea he was back with the studio for the sequel, they can consider my support for brigador killers gone lmfao, thanks for this post

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(-10) absolutely nothing in the game would hint at that, so I'm just gonna not give a flying frick about this and continue loving it thank you very much

(32) The game actually includes a bunch of winking in-jokes to the people from his private hate forum, including at least one of the pilots being an actual guy from there, so the universe and lore and art design of Brigador is inextricably built on and linked to his hate. Also the plot about hyper-capitalists massacring unarmed civilians and causing as much collateral damage to destabilize an independent socialist nation was taken by many to be satirical and knowing the guy was secretly a chud casts the entire game in a completely different and unfavorable light.

The game is explicitly based off of US foreign policy in south america and it's clear from the lore entries that the "independent socialist nation" is an authoritarian shithole that you're working to seize for even worse corporate interests. These people thinking that everything is actually face-value just because he's a heckin transphobe is hilarious.

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: canceling people is bad

There is literally nothing wrong with people letting other people know (with evidence) that someone has volatile/inflammatory beliefs.

Accountability is bad? Since when?

Is it really cancelling if you pretend to voluntarily step down, lay low, then reappear like nothing happened?

A twitter and apparent oldstrag SA user makes a thread writing about how their love for the game was destroyed by these events. Heckin valid enby (male) btw.

Outroduction

I love this stupid mech game because I'm and it has a ton of stuff I like, and drama surrounding trains and an off-site made me think of this place. The moral of the story here? If you're gonna post stuff on a forum make sure you do it under a name you didn't form your company around.

My first effortpost since the subreddit days so if it's shit don't be too hard on me.