The head of Nightdive Studios spoke about harassment and threats during the development of System Shock.

Nightdive Studios CEO talks about harassment and threats during the development of System Shock The creation of the remake of the cult classic System Shock took eight long years, and for Nightdive Studios CEO Steven Kick, the journey was a real test of endurance. In a recent candid interview, he admitted that the protracted development and changing concepts turned his life into a nightmare: disappointed fans didn't just criticize the project, they resorted to outright harassment and personal threats.

The problems began when the studio decided to switch engines from Unity to Unreal Engine 4 and temporarily froze the project to rethink the vision for the game. Some of the Kickstarter backers who invested their money in 2015 saw this as a sign of fraud. According to Kik, he was bombarded with a barrage of hate: he was flooded with messages threatening lawsuits, and the most aggressive "fans" went so far as to file false complaints against him with the Internal Revenue Service and even the FBI.

The situation was exacerbated by the fact that Stephen had long been the "face" of the studio and took the brunt of the criticism. He admitted that due to constant stress and ridicule on social media, he suffered from insomnia for a long time.

It was awful. The people we were working for tried to ruin my life just because the process was slower than they wanted it to be. To finish the game, the studio had to spend all the money it had earned from other remasters (Turok, Quake), as the initial Kickstarter budget ran out in the first year.

Despite all the difficulties, the remake was released and received high praise, followed by the successful release of System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition. Today, Nightdive, now part of Atari, feels more confident with legal and financial support.