Developer The Indie Stone appears to be having a hard time of it lately. They have had to take their game down due to serious piracy concerns, been locked out of their Paypal cash for the last year, and their office was broken into just yesterday. Other than the fact that two business computers and the credit card belonging to developer Chris (Lemmy) Simpson were taken, not much else is known about the event.
Following the appearance of the heist on Twitter, the "fan" response on Reddit has changed from being insensitive to being rude and heartless. Simpson went on a bit of a Twitter tirade as he was still getting over the invasion of his house and this significant loss of employment. He took offense at some Reddit and Twitter comments, as well as other developers.
In an attempt to make up for his remarks from last night, Simpson wrote an apology on his blog earlier today. Additionally, he says in the apology that he no longer want to be the "public face of Project Zomboid.." He has also ceased posting to his blog on The Indie Stone website and canceled his Twitter account.
The timing of this tragedy couldn't have been worse for the Project Zomboid crew, since they were almost finished with the next update. Customers are reassured by The Indie Stone's declaration that no personal information was on those systems and that, despite this being just one more setback for Project Zomboid, they would, as they put it, "come back stronger." The Indie Stone is one developer that can roll with the punches.
The thing that really surprised me was how many people commented that they were disturbed that the Project Zomboid team didn't frequently backup their data, but that they weren't at all concerned that two developers' shared house had been broken into. I recognize that it's crucial to practice self-discipline and make backups of all digital content, but just because you consistently remember to store an extra copy of your Word documents on your USB key doesn't mean you can't feel a little sorry for the two guys who just had something taken away from them after much effort.