Daken Spotlight Variant Compensation

Players who obtained the Daken Spotlight variant on December 17, 2024, will now have another Daken variant (illustrated by InHyuk Lee) in its place in their collection after the recent Patch Update and should have received compensation of a Spotlight Key and 700 Gold in their inbox.

Below is an explanation on why the variant was replaced and compensation was sent to affected players.

Spotlight Variant Artist Allegations

When the variant was initially released, a user brought to attention to Second Dinner on Discord about the artist who drew the Daken Spotlight variant:

Hey,

Big fan of the game and formerly big fan of the current spotlight artist for Daken Cameron Stewart (I loved Seaguy), but I can’t read anything he’s drawn anymore because of the very serious grooming and sex abuse allegations (https://www.comicsbeat.com/cameron-stewart-sexual-misconduct-allegations/).

Anyway some questions:

1) Was the team aware of these complaints when you chose or commissioned this art?
2) If not, will you be replacing the variant and offering compensation?
3) either way, could you say more about the process of vetting artists given a number of prominent issues lately?

Thanks!

Second Dinner’s Response

Here is Second Dinner’s response to the question:

After further investigation, we’ve decided to remove and replace the Daken Variant from players’ Collections with another Daken Variant (by artist InHyuk Lee). Once updated, the previous Variant will no longer be available in game.

We understand that for many, that Variant was desirable and added to your decision to spend a Spotlight Key. For that reason, we’re not only refunding all owners of the Daken Variant in question with their Spotlight Key but also providing an additional 700 Gold.

We also will no longer be working with this artist moving forward as well as continuing to improve our vetting and review processes.

The additional 700 Gold compensation has also explained:

The 700 gold is in addition to the refund of the Spotlight Key, which was itself the full value of the Spotlight variant (as you spend one Key for that reward). The value you’re referring to was a price previously attached to Spotlight variants in the shop that were older than one year. While this variant isn’t a year old, we also no longer offer Spotlight variants there.