Don't know if anyone mentioned this, but on the website's official page are some statements by the publisher, as well as an 'interview' with employees who didn't quit the team.
Home - Aeon Must Die! (limestone-games.com)
According to Limestone Games, development is still going, and release is still on track for 2021.
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LIMESTONE GAMES OFFICIAL STATEMENT
The public and unsubstantiated allegations of former employees against Limestone Games studio are shocking as the former CCO has been part of all the company’s decisions. As no real evidence of the alleged transgressions has been submitted or found Limestone Games will be turning to the authorities to disprove the accusers’ claims.
- Limestone Games is turning to the authorities to investigate the allegations of the former employees;
- The CCO Aleksei Nechoroškin has been part of all decision as all company decisions needed the unanimous decision of 3 people;
- Nechoroškin is still a shareholder of Limestone Games;
- No IP theft has happened – the IP of the game has belonged to Limestone Games from the start;
- Aeon Must Die! development and finishing is still on track.
CEO of Limestone Games Yaroslav Lyssenko: “These unfortunate accusation by the former employees are damaging the reputation of the studio, all its other employees still working on the game, other games that are being developed and the publisher behind the studio.“
“As some of the accusations are very serious we will involve the authorities, because the alleged “psychological abuse and dehumanization“ is crime under Estonian law and also it is punishable to make false claims about it. Such serious allegations should not be just thrown out to the public without proper proof and investigation.”
Lyssenko explained that the studio is dumbfounded by the allegations as all of the signatories are members of Aleksei Nehoroškin’s team, who has been part of all the managerial decisions and information. As per company rules all important decisions in the company, including hiring and firing of people, salaries etc required the unanimous decision of 3 people, including Alexei Nehoroškin. It is not possible that Nehoroškin was not aware of the decisions of the company, because he as
the CCO had the power of veto over all company decisions.”
The IP theft accusation is nonsense, because under Estonian law (and indeed the laws of most western countries) the IP of a product developed by the employees belongs to the employer, ie Limestone Games. The former employees “lost” the IP. The IP belonged to the company from the beginning. “Aleksei, who is still a shareholder of the company, never owned the IP as he was an employee. I do not own the IP either – as I’m working for Limestone Games all work done belongs to the company,” said Lyssenko.
Parallel with turning to the authorities and because the accusations and claims have been highly emotional Limestone Games will be looking for a neutral mediator that fits all parties to start dialogue with the former employees.
In addition the local Estonian media representatives are invited to visit the Limestone Games studio and talk to all other employees.
Limestone Games plans on keeping the public up to date about any major findings and give more detailed information about this situation through this blog.
We don’t ask for your blind trust, but for you to be skeptical of all claims.
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There's also this:
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his in an interview done on the 14th of August 2020 by the Diktor Geenius. This is a translation of the
original article by permission of Diktor Geenius
BIG INTERVIEW: The scandalous Estonian game developers are responding to harsh accusations
Limestone Games employees. From left: Suhaib Rehman Khan, Jaroslav Lysenko, Mihkel Haav, Oleg Tsurikov, Sergei Kirillov.
The biggest scandal in the history of the Estonian gaming industry has erupted around the local gaming studio Limestone Games. Company founder Alexei Nehoroshkin and a handful of colleagues resigned on June 22, accusing Limestone’s management and especially CEO Jaroslav Lysenko of creating a toxic work environment, corruption, illegal takeovers, unpaid overtime and many other sins
In an exclusive interview with Geenius Diktor Limestone Games employees talk straight and pass on their version of the events that ended up with the quarrel. In addition to Limestone CEO Jaroslav Lõssenko, other interviewees are the studio’s co-founder and partner Oleg Tsurikov, project manager and designer Mihkel Haav, 3D artist and modeler Sergei Kirillov and programmer Igor Puskar.
On August 6th, millions of pairs of eyes saw Limestone’s long-in-the-works game “Aeon Must Die!” latest trailer for Sony’s hugely popular State of Play event. At the same time, the developers who left the studio uploaded a Dropbox folder to the Internet, which contained highly detailed descriptions of several violations by Limestone’s management. Some of these violations were unethical and immoral, others directly criminal.
We are famous!
If you found out that sensitive Dropbox documents had been made public, what was your reaction?
The room laughs out loud at the question. The accusations of Nehoroshkin and his associates at Limestone Games are not seen as a threat.
Sergei: It’s just funny.
Igor: That’s right, that was the reaction.
However, the content of the documents is very serious
Sergei: There is nothing serious here.
Igor: If you know what the situation has been like in the studio for the last three years, and then at some point you see such documents, then yes, it seems really funny.
Jaroslav: I came to the office that morning (the day after the publication of the Dropbox documents, ed.) And I couldn’t guess what emotions people had here. Sony had just selected our game and showed it at such a big event.
This is a huge achievement. A small Estonian indie game made by poor guys based on pure passion reaching a big Sony event. So when I came to the office after the leak, I couldn’t think of what was going on here.
But when I arrived, everyone was in a good mood. Throw a high five, we’re famous! everyone is talking about us.
I definitely want to emphasize that the work on “Aeon Must Die!” continues. The studio currently employs 12 people and the core of the team is still there.
However, the documents mention that the game is currently in a very poor state and there are few developers left in Limestone.
Jaroslav: That is a very strange statement. They (the departed employees, ed.) Also worked on this game and even if it were in a bad condition, it would mean that they did a bad job and owe the company something for it. I don’t know, I need to talk to my lawyers about this.
Oleg: The deadlines have been met and we are moving forward.
You have mentioned that you refute the charges against you. If this is all a big fiction, why are Aleksei and the other departed employees accusing you in so many different things in great detail?
Jaroslav: It seems to me that the other side is trying to bomb us with a lot of accusations to see if anything is going to stick. Maybe they were offered money for it?
Jaroslav refuses to explain this comment further. Sergei points out that Nehoroshkin has already set up a new company with employees who have left Limestone. The company was founded on June 29, and all its employees, together with Nehoroshkin, are members of the board.
Jaroslav: There are facts in Dropbox documents, like our Discord conversations. If you look at it from one side, you think that Yaroslav is horrible, he is forcing people to work. If you look at things from the board, you will see that, yes, some people need to be reminded of deadlines. I’m just telling people that they should get their things ready.
It should not be forgotten that Aleksei is still the owner of Limestone. Therefore, the success of this company is especially important for him. If he works insanely overtime himself, he invests in the company and I think he understands that very well. He says that he is being bullied, but in the end he is the one who sees the profit from the dividends.
Oleg: Since we don’t have any communication with the departed employees, we don’t know what they want. They have not demanded anything from us. We have tried to engage in dialogue many times, but nothing has happened.
Jaroslav: I have told my lawyers to try to find a middle road and find out what the other side wants. At first, they only communicated through Focus Home Interactive (“Aeon Must Die”! Distributor in France, ed.), But it seems to me that they will soon be ready to talk to us through their lawyer.
There has been no conflict
Fabrication or not, the conflict that has arisen is completely real. How do you explain what is happening to you?
Mihkel: In my opinion, it has happened that personal problems have been brought to the professional sphere. Some people had a conflict, mainly Aleksei and Yaroslavl. It does not get an immediate solution and boils finally over until one party decides to make absolutely all the problems personal. All kinds of worries and conflicts came to light at the company level.
Jaroslav: I completely disagree with Mihkel. We did not have any personal conflict with Aleksei.
Yes, we had problems like ordinary people. We argue, we get back together and we discuss things and move on. These are just different everyday things. If you have a sister or brother, you love them, but there are times when things don’t work out.
So I have no idea what happened. For me, it all happened in one day. I only started to receive information about this situation after I received the resignations on 22th of June, after I received information from various people that action had been taken behind my back. I was ignorant and absolutely could not understand what had happened.
If the problem really started between Yaroslav and Aleksei, how are the people who left together with Aleksei involved?
Oleg: Most of the people who left worked for us for a very short time. Some for one month, others two. A few were also longer-term employees.
There was no big scandal here. There was nothing. One of the people who left even came to me and said thank you, Oleg, for your support and help. At the time, I didn’t know about the resignation that had landed on Yaroslav’s desk a few moments ago, and I was like, wait, did he leave?
Jaroslav: I had noticed a small change in one employee. We usually talked because we have similar hobbies. And I noticed that he was kind of in a bad mood. I asked him about it and he replied that he did not want to talk to me. I said okay, I’m not putting pressure on you. Everyone here can say that I am a very bad boss because I never impose myself, but always ask as a favour.
But it was also the only gentle prophecy that something could be wrong. I have no idea why the others left with Aleksei. At the moment, none of them want to talk to us. Maybe I’ve insulted them somehow, but I sincerely don’t know how. But were they also offended by Sergei or Mihkel or Igor? Any other people sitting in this office too? And they don’t sit here for the first or second day, but for at least a year.
