Exploiting Autism in Gaming: The Contrasting Tales of Mike Z and YandereDev
When it comes to abuse and victimhood, it's never so simple. Look no further than the independent gaming scene.
The connection between people on the autism spectrum and the video game industry is nothing new. Among the earliest and most famous examples is Satoshi Tajiri of Pokémon fame, making his mark long before organizations like the International Game Developers Association set up special interest groups for the neurodivergent. Yet even amidst progress, myriad bad actors still seem all too willing to exploit neuroatypicals for their own gain. While some fight back, there are also those keen on jumping on the bandwagon themselves. When it comes to the independent scene, look no further than the tales of Mike Z and YandereDev.
I last touched on Michael “Mike Z” Zaimont in a year-end post over a month ago, though his case remains as relevant as ever. Born in 1981 yet diagnosed as being on the spectrum sometime before 2020, he had always felt different from everyone else and struggled heavily with social cues. These didn’t stop him from becoming a popular gamer, nor prevented him from entering the gaming industry itself and founding Lab Zero Games in 2012, with titles like Skullgirls and Indivisible. A string of alleged misconduct and sexual harassment in June 2020, however, brought down the studio almost overnight. Moreover, it looked as though his reputation was permanently tarred, his career seemingly all but over.
Then, there’s Alex Mahan, also known as “YandereDev”. Born in 1988, his story as an indie developer is among the most peculiar online. While having had some minor parts in various projects, his shot as fame began in 2014, when he started work on his magnum opus, Yandere Simulator. While the project became viral among gamers (as well as popular gaming personalities on YouTube), it wasn’t long before he gained notoriety for constant delays, ego trips, and various misadventures. Then on September 2023, this reached a nadir when allegations surfaced that he had grooming underaged fans, causing many of his voice actors and volunteers to abandon the game. It wouldn’t be until a since-deleted apology video posted on New Year’s Day 2024, however, that he mentioned being neurodivergent, something long speculated due to his behavior.
It’s tempting at a glance to see parallels and similarities between these two developers. Those, however, are where those apparent commonalities end.
The Fall and Rise of Mike Z
While Mike Z and his work alongside artist (and Skullgirls co-creator) Alexander Ahad had brushes with controversy before, his downfall seems tailor-made for indignation. As various outlets like CBR and Gamespot repeated in 2020, he’d been accused of sexual harassment by former coworkers like artist Mariel Cartwright and cultivating a toxic work culture. He also used “intimidating and potentially retaliatory tactics to bully the team while refusing responsibility for his actions," as animator Jonathan Kim purported. Combined with similar statements from other ex-associates, how these coincided with what Game Rant described as a #MeToo wave in the industry, and Zaimont’s frantic attempts at reasserting authority by ultimately firing everyone else, it’s little wonder he was quickly ostracized. Even as recently as PC Gamer’s June 2023 article, the claims being factual had become common knowledge.
The reality proved far more different. Mike Z had not only retained access to Lab Zero’s servers and internal logs before they were scrubbed, but also used the material as evidence after filing a lawsuit against his accusers on April 2021. Thus, in a string of court cases held as recently as April 2023, it‘s revealed that the “toxic environment” the studio’s staff supposedly suffered from was in practice a raunchy, unprofessional work culture that they tolerated and enabled for years. Meanwhile, the alleged sexual offenses were found to have been awkward banter, and miscommunication borne partially by Zaimont’s autism. Rather than proof of a malicious fiend, it turned out that his only real crime was social awkwardness.
Something that his former colleagues were all too keen to exploit. As explained in greater detail by Youtuber Technicals on October 31, 2023, they not only tried to gaslight the public into believing a convenient narrative built atop grossly overblown and outright fabricated crimes, but also bullied him into submission. This coincidentally, allowed said accusers (many of whom founded Future Club) to seize control over Skullgirls and his work in general, all while driving his name to the dirt.
It’s worth noting, as elaborated even further by Technicals in a follow-up video on December 20, that these same people, who Mike Z considered his friends, not only were long aware of him being neuroatypical. They saw him as less than human, as something they could parade as a white bigoted strawman for all to see, while also timing this with #MeToo to maximize the damage. From the correspondence and testimonies that surfaced since the lawsuit, it was found that it wasn’t the first time either. Lab Zero had also discreetly gone after Ahad, to the point of disregarding his ideas for Indivisible despite being part of the culture it’s inspired by, before firing him in 2018, in turn further isolating Zaimont in the leadup to the power grab. Moreover, these make their subsequent grandstanding about being inclusive and progressive, even while censoring “their” game in the name of both, all the more disingenuous.
As for Mike Z himself, while his social media presence is minimal, he’s shown to have had gotten back up on his feet, being reportedly in good company with indie studio Modus Games since 2021, while working on its fighting game Diesel Legacy. While some (including PC Gamer in its June 2023 piece) have either presented his return as a “redemption arc” or rehashed old narratives to justify cancelling him entirely, this nonetheless gives weight to the sense that he isn’t content with being a victim of a crime he never committed. And with more awareness of what happened to him through Youtubers like Technicals, as well as the controversies surrounding Skullgirls’ censorship, justice may soon be served.
The same can’t be said regarding YandereDev.
The Fall and (Continued) Fall of YandereDev
Beyond constant delays which had become an infamous meme in gaming circles, there has been much speculation over the years involving YandereDev’s behavior behind the scenes, not helped by a trigger-happy habit of stifling criticism. The allegations from September 2023, however, turned what had been scattered testimonies and the subject of mockery at Mahan’s expense into indignation. While the original exposé video was pulled down by YouTube for copyright violation (since reuploaded), according to a Reddit post by said video’s author, it showed evidence pointing to him (a 35-year old at the time) grooming a 16-year old fangirl known only as “Jane” or “Jellysquish”. In addition to leading many, including the voice actress for Yandere Simulator’s main heroine, to abandon him outright, this culminated in his since-deleted New Year’s apology attempting to redeem his name.
The apology in question (including a connected blog entry on Mahan’s website) was presented not just so as to downplay his own complicity through skirting any admission of guilt, which clashed with his vaguely-written response post written within a few days of the accusations. It was also framed in a way that made him the victim, by insinuating that the claims had been retracted for being false, and that the girl responsible was prodded by trolls and drama-seekers. It’s within in this context that his autism diagnosis came into play, further underpinning that sense of being oppressed by those denying people like him a chance to pursue their dreams.
That he had a statement from Jelly (since deleted), proving that those allegations were forced on her by bad actors seemed to lend additional weight to his narrative, allowing him to move on. Yet as noted by Youtuber Harley “HarleyTBS” Tatum in a lengthy yet thorough video posted on January 24, 2024, as well as a linked Twitter thread, the reality was much worse.
In what could only be described as near-textbook DARVO (“Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender”), a manipulative tactic common among narcissists, YandereDev and an accomplice named Cameron had gone through many lengths to gaslight the public into believing his claims, which included redefining what terms like “grooming” meant as highlighted by artist callimara (one of HarleyTBS’s sources). This also extended well beyond the video itself, with Mahan rewriting substantial pieces of the victim’s statement, complete with telling comments about rebuilding his image. These were in spite of his disclaimer that he had only been shown the draft and offered feedback. Moreover, through emails and chat logs, it’s revealed that even beforehand, he went so far as to coerce her into silence if not threaten her with legal action.
As it turned out, legal threats and copyright takedowns were all too familiar tools for him, using these to scrub damning critique off the Internet, with varying degrees of success over the years. With how voluminous and verifiable the evidence against him is, with former volunteers even confirming at least some of the speculation prior to the Jelly affair, all these by themselves would be incriminating enough. That the apology came out and was deleted shortly before a string of major updates to Yandere Simulator over the course of January, however, reinforce a portrait of an unrepentant abuser who, despite still having a loyal cohort of fans supporting him, is unable to escape scrutiny, nor the consequences of what he alone did.
A Vicious Cycle of Abuse
In the case of both these developers, there’s been much in the way of misinformation, whether it be bad faith personalities actively trying to spin a narrative, or those capitalizing on the outrage to virtue-signal. While such hurdles have made trying to dig into the proverbial meat all the more difficult for myself, it’s perhaps all the more necessary to see past the smoke. After all, it’s never so simple.
The lengths some will go to ruin someone simply for being deemed different enough to not be treated the same way never cease to astound. That Mike Z in particular was targeted by those he thought he trusted just because of his condition and social awkwardness speak volumes about one of the worst fears neurodivergent individuals could have, as I touched on back in 2021 for Areo Magazine. Yet in spite of being exploited, it’s admirable how he was able to power through a gauntlet that most neurotypicals would struggle through in the same situation. That there are people out there still willing to care and reach out also suggests that even with all that’s been said, progress is being made that would benefit more like him in the industry.
At the same time, the escapades of YandereDev go to show how exploiting autism isn’t a one-way street. It is hard to brush off the feeling that he saw what happened to Mike Z and likely took lessons from it, which given his petty grievances with Zaimont in the past isn’t too implausible. Regardless, from invoking DARVO to self-awareness, he’s living proof that alas, there are neurodivergent people who are just as eager to not only abuse victimhood but also weaponize the spectrum as a convenient crutch. It clearly didn’t matter to Mahan that his antics have done harm to others, let alone played right into negative stereotypes of degenerate creeps with no place in proper society. All for so long as he could bury the crime and finish his magnum opus.
It’s still an open question whether Yandere Simulator will be completed, due to the stigma placed even on the very concept at least in Anglophone circles, or if Mike Z will be fully vindicated among gamers and the industry at large. Whatever happens, I believe their tales deserve to be preserved for posterity. For better or worse, they’re a reminder of how much work remains to be done to break this vicious cycle of abuse. For their benefit, and ours.
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/aoi-character-pack-12495
Also why this character asset resembled those in Yandere Simulator.