Yesterday we reported on accusations of sexual assault leveled at composer Jeremy Soule, Night in the Woods developer Alec Holowka, and Luc Shelton of Splash Damage, and now a new report from Kotaku has revealed claims by more women against Soule.
Materia Collective, who was working with Soule on a new album, announced on Twitter that they had "terminated our working relationship" with him and that they're no longer developing the album, and three women told Kotaku that they were offered work on the album, only to have deals fall through when they refused romantic advances.
As for the claims made by Nathalie Lawhead - who featured in our report from yesterday - Soule provided the following statement to Kotaku:
"These 11 year old allegations are false. I am shocked and saddened that these outrageous claims have been made."
Kotaku had another interview with Lawhead, however, in which she elaborates on her story, saying that Soule was "something of a mentor" but that he continually made advances. When the incident occurred, she was "afraid of consequences because of my visa situation" and "mortified of what would happen if this exploded and cost me this job. I was afraid. I tried very hard to ignore what happened and just keep going. I would go to the bathroom during work hours to cry, pull myself back together, and just keep working on this trashfire."
What's more is that when Lawhead moved to Interdimensional Interactive, Lawhead claims Soule was "involved in turning things against me", although studio founder Gregory MacMartin denied this to Kotaku.
Vocalist Aeralie Brighton also made accusations against Soule on Facebook this week, who said she was "sexually harassed and violated both emotionally and professionally," praising Lawhead for her courage. She claims Soule also sent her a sexually explicit video as well.
Regarding Holowka, the Night in the Woods Twitter account has explained that they are "cutting ties with Alec", who served as co-designer, composer, and coder for the game.
"We are cancelling a current project and postponing the Limited Run physical release. The iOS port is being handled by an outside company and supervised by Finji and will remain in development," the thread adds.
"We've received a lot of emails and messages in the past few days, often very hurt and angry. That's also how we feel. This has been very, very tough."
"Thousands of people have connected with Night In The Woods in a very personal way. We can't tell you how to feel about any of this. Whatever you're feeling is valid. Your experience with art is yours. What it means to you is yours, regardless of anything else."
When another fan asked if any money will go to the accused, the Twitter response was:
"That's something that will take more than a couple days to work out. we'll be public with what's going on when we can. until then, go with your gut."
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