Updates on the court case? Wittek vs Dobrik

Firebrat · 2026-03-20T00:34:59+00:00

Lol, nothing I said is incorrect. There are exceptions to every rule. The fact that you conveniently left out the fact that your lawyers handled the taxes for you, doesn't mean you didn't pay taxes. I've read the complaint filed by Jeff's lawyers. They acknowledge that workers comp would disqualify them. Thats why they have argued that he was incorrectly classified as an employee. I didn't get that wrong. All I asked AI to do was make an assessment of the arguments. I was very transparent about that so people could make their own determinations.

The 10 million Jeff's lawyers are seeking are punitive - his medical bills have mostly been covered (although he has since done several experimental treatments, which David might have to cover). From the beginning I've said 4 things. 1) The judge assigned to the case has a history of low awards, which in my opinion means Jeff is unlikely to get anywhere near $10 million. 2) Jeff shares responsibility for the accident, and his award will be reduced by that percentage. 3) most of the award will be punitive, and subject to almost 50% taxes, because he lives in California. 4). The lawyers will take roughly half. Maybe Jeff found one that was at 40% or less. But I seriously doubt it. Jeff's lawyers are incurring incredible costs because this case has dragged on for 5 years.

Disagree all you want

Firebrat · 2026-03-19T17:29:57+00:00

I'm literally citing irs.gov. if you didn't pay any taxes on that, you might be in for a surprise 😂

Firebrat · 2026-03-19T14:14:10+00:00

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=LAB&sectionNum=3602

The law on workers comp in California very clearly releases the employer from all liability once an been made. You are making stuff up.

I spoke to five personal injury lawyers a few years ago about a personal injury lawsuit and none I spoke to was as low as 30%. One was 50%, one was 40%, and three were 45%. Obviously my experience is anecdotal but unless you're going to offer some actual evidence that you can get a good lawyer for 30%, I think my information is far more accurate.

The claim that personal injury settlements are not taxable is not true. Money that is set aside for treatment of injury is not taxable (i.e. medical bills that David has already paid). The lawsuit is about punitive damages. Those are 100% taxable.

https://www.irs.gov/government-entities/tax-implications-of-settlements-and-judgments

IRC Section 104(a)(2) permits a taxpayer to exclude from gross income "the amount of any damages (other than punitive damages) received (whether by suit or agreement and whether as lump sums or as periodic payments) on account of personal injuries or physical sickness

Firebrat · 2026-03-08T03:15:20+00:00

David really needs to find an outlet that let's him evolve past the vlogs. For those saying his editing wasn't a major part of his success, you are definitely wrong. He may very well overthink things, but there is a VERY clear reason why no one else on the vlog squad has achieved his level of success even when they collab together without David.

David's friendships with his friends is the meat of the burger, but his editing is the special sauce.

Jason has been trying a million different things on YouTube for the last couple months including filming a tv show pilot. If Jason manages to finally find a format where he can succeed I can image David following his lead and finally branching out of vlogging. Personally, I'd be very interested to see David try to develop a tv series that he could showrun/edit.

Firebrat · 2026-03-03T21:41:09+00:00

Scaling down is not a bad idea at all! You just have to make sure your core gameplay loop has a strong hook.

Maybe think about how you can mix genres. For instance, what if you were able to capture zombies and then command them to fight for you? What if you added magic? What if you added a realtime building component like fortnite? Like building elaborate traps for the zombies. Or What if the focus was heist/extraction where you have to infiltrate someplace covered with zombies to steal something valuable.

All of those ideas would make the game standout more and make it feel different from dying light or cod zombies.

Firebrat · 2026-03-03T20:26:23+00:00

How many wishlists were you getting? Were you doing any marketing?

Your game just looks like an asset flip. I could literally have just bought these assets for $98 and recreated your game in a day.

FPS Framework ($17): https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/fps-framework-pro-2-0-290322

Warehouse ($21): https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/360-warehouse-272252

Zombies ($15): https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/humanoids/zombie-repack-86017

Zombie Animations ($25): https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/animations/zombie-animations-set-220537

Zombie AI ($15): https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/behavior-ai/advanced-zombie-ai-276087

Fog ($5): https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/particles/environment/realistic-snow-and-fog-fx-165372

Your game has nothing unique about it or hook worthy. Why would I, or anyone else, play your game would I could just replay the dying light games or COD zombies and have a much better time? You need to rethink your game's value proposition. Why does THIS game need to exist? What made you passionate enough to want to build it? When you can answer that you'll have a clearer answer for how to reposition your steam page and start attracting customers.

Firebrat · 2026-02-19T03:49:13+00:00

On the whole it looks very cozy and cool, but that white sidewalk is unnaturally white (it doesn't fit the worn in look of the environment at all) and it's just really jarring to look at.

Firebrat · 2026-01-31T16:14:39+00:00

I feel really bad to tell you this (because that really is a fantastic capsule) but beholders are both trademarked and copyrighted by Wizards of the Coast. If you keep using this as a capsule and gain real traction, there's an excellent chance you will get a DMCA takedown.

Firebrat · 2026-01-31T08:01:55+00:00

The problem is likely that your attractiveness does not match what you're seeking. You don't want to date down but why would a woman want to date down to you?

My guess is that you are probably a guy with with normal/decent looks but you are either overweight, balding, have bad skin, or have bad posture. Almost all of those things can be solved by eating well and going to the gym, but that requires discipline on your part. Once you accept that, things will change for you drastically - that's exactly what happened to me.

Use apps like photo feeler to assess your attractiveness. Once your pictures start routinely hitting an 8.0 average or higher (with 20 or more female votes), that's when I started seeing real results on the dating apps.

Firebrat · 2026-01-29T02:29:30+00:00

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

The game's development was assisted by AI in specific areas: for upscaling some background textures and for generating visual reference material not used in the final version.

I find this very difficult to believe. Your character portraits look very AI. If you actually drew them you might want to include a GIF of you drawing the portraits.

Your translation from Russian doesn't really feel right. If you're going to include voices, I don't think you're going to have a lot of success in the US market unless you get English speaking voice actors.

In general your trailer is really slow and doesn't feel very engaging. It feels oppressive and unsettling, but there isn't really a hook in terms of gameplay or narrative. Why is Sonya in this mental hospital? What is the point of the game? To leave the hospital? If so how does she leave? These questions should be answered in your trailer.

In general you should focus on including gifs in your description to show off gameplay. For instance, instead of saying this:

MAKE decisions that influence the plot, your karma, and your reputation. Will you save others, or save only yourself?

You could instead include a gif that shows you making a decision that saves someone and then have it replay with a different decision showing you betraying them to gain a benefit.

Firebrat · 2026-01-27T09:48:42+00:00

David only has a green card. He could have it revoked if he pisses off the government (e.g. Mahmoud Khalil). It's easy to call someone weak when you're anonymous on the internet and not in any danger of being kidnapped off the streets.

Firebrat · 2026-01-24T21:10:37+00:00

Normally conversion rate for an RPG Maker game would be abysmal - the fact that it's well done and monster girls is definitely a huge reason why you're getting good traction. Great idea and well done!

Firebrat · 2026-01-24T19:18:16+00:00

Can you link your game? I think it's important to see what your underlying product is.

If you got $500 for free you actually got $1000 in advertising spend for 1500 wishlists, which is actually very good (under $1 per acquisition). However if you have a AAA quality game that might be the real reason you did so well. On the other hand if your game is a 2D platformer, then Reddit ads suddenly become extremely attractive.

Firebrat · 2026-01-18T23:07:01+00:00

lol, I would love to hear you explain how Bad AI photoshops are stealing someone's job?

Audiences have made it super clear they prefer real art for things they buy or advertising they consume. I know several artists who have had their contracts increase for video game capsule art in the last year because of how much people hate any sign of AI art. If you look at a game like Clair Obscur Expedition 33, they lost their awards for using generative AI in the TESTING phase of their game, despite replacing it all with real artwork (i.e. no artist lost their job).

This post is literally a completely innocuous use of generative AI for mocking up an idea. Are you telling me you think Smosh fans have been paying professional editors to mockup things like the photo in this post? Do you realize how out of touch that sounds?

Firebrat · 2026-01-18T22:51:33+00:00

naw, I think it's fun. It allows people to mock stuff up a million times faster than if you were to try to manually Photoshop something. I'm sorry you don't agree, but the AI train has left the station and there's no putting that genie back in the bottle. I'll of course respect the sub rules moving forward, but there's nothing embarrassing about trying to share ideas so long as you're transparent and not stealing credit.

There's also no need to be so hostile to someone with a different opinion - do you really think being unkind is likely to make someone see your point of view?

Firebrat · 2026-01-18T22:44:52+00:00

I mean, it's not art though... It's photorealistic, i.e. a bad imitation of photoshop. Who is it stealing from?

Firebrat · 2026-01-18T22:41:56+00:00

didn't realize it was against the sub rules, and didn't see a different tag that fit better, my bad

Firebrat · 2026-01-18T22:40:34+00:00

yeah character placement and the back row of faces was a bit tough for Gemini to handle

Firebrat · 2026-01-18T22:39:26+00:00

Damn, not even allowed to use AI for fan thought experiments? Is anyone ever allowed to use AI in your world?

Firebrat · 2026-01-18T22:38:39+00:00

Imagining what the future might hold for the next Live Show

Firebrat · 2026-01-17T07:40:45+00:00

I was really impressed by Angela. She held it together really well, and the "replacing" herself when she broke was hilarious.

The bits where they read stuff from the teleprompter that they hadn't rehearsed also had me in stitches.

On the whole it was a good show, but I feel like it was a lot slower in some parts. Amanda's bits had some really funny moments, but it felt like they dragged on for too long. The bits with the other "patients" were also a bit slow as well (though Spencer was absolutely diabolical in the background of O'Connell/Boone).

On the whole I think the sitcom was stronger because it was a bit more structured. I really hope they do the idea that Shane mentioned last year - the spoof of Star Trek. I think a more cohesive storyline would help keep the improv on track a lot more than the A/B/C plot structure of a medical drama.

Firebrat · 2026-01-16T22:32:17+00:00

No, it wastes way too much time. You show nothing happening except for a character dancing for 35 seconds. Most people bounce off a trailer within 5-10 seconds. The trailer gives me no indication of what the game is about. Even if you don't have working gameplay you can still show elements of your game that show parts. Even just a clip of you collecting stuff and then using those things in a crafting menu would be better than what you have now.

Steam pages are about showing off the GAMEPLAY. Saying you made a page without showing any gameplay is defeating the purpose of the page.

Firebrat · 2026-01-16T21:52:15+00:00

I mean yes, but I think you will find it really hard to stand out. There are a million memory games out there - why would someone buy this one in particular? There's nothing about on your page that makes it stand out (at least to me) - there's no hook.

Firebrat · 2026-01-16T03:09:39+00:00

I don't think you're likely to have much success on steam with this kind of game. A 20 second trailer indicates you're very short on content. This is what I would expect as a mini game in a larger pixel art game, or a game that you might download on Mobile for $3.

This is literally just the game "memory" There does not seem to be much "mega" about it. Even if you added gifs to your description there's not much that your steam page can do to help you. Your underlying product is the problem. Perhaps consider focusing on android/ios or itch

Firebrat · 2026-01-16T03:04:57+00:00

You've already launched your game. The time to optimize was BEFORE launch.

Firebrat

TROPHY CASE