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Matt Conn, who left Midboss after he was outed for his abusive behavior toward employees, apparently snuck back into the industry and produced the newest Toejam & Earl game. This is truly disheartening.
In case you were unaware of this, here's a report from last year. https://www.polygon.com/2018/3/26/17165310/midboss-chief-taking-leave-following-harassment-allegations
Matt also appears to be running the Toejam and Earl account: "It's just me and a couple of people who hop on every once in a while." So you may want to block that account if you end up tweeting about him.
Game development shouldn't be a revolving door for abusive individuals.
Matt Conn is also listed as "Adviser" in the credits of SWERY's latest game, The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories. https://www.igdb.com/games/the-missing-jj-macfield-and-the-island-of-memories/credits
Also worth pointing out that his new handle is @ thedigi volution (no spaces in the actual handle), since I know a decent chunk of mutuals still follow him there.
Matt? Way more than four people have spoken out against you, regardless of what you write in your new book.
Also, let's be clear here: threatening legal action is absolutely a silencing tactic.
I have a disappointing update to this thread.
I've been contacted by someone to clarify the nature of Matt Conn's involvement with The Missing.
I've been contacted by someone to clarify the nature of Matt Conn's involvement with The Missing.
•Matt got involved with the project *after* his departure from MidBoss.
•The names in this credit box are a mix of the MidBoss employees that remain/supporters.
•SWERY is well aware of the things people have shared about Matt, but still supports him.
•The names in this credit box are a mix of the MidBoss employees that remain/supporters.
•SWERY is well aware of the things people have shared about Matt, but still supports him.
I wanted to give SWERY the benefit of the doubt, and assumed Matt Conn's involvement began before his actions were made public. Unfortunately, I now know this fan favorite developer willingly supports an abusive, manipulative individual.
As additional confirmation, I went through SWERY's previous tweets: this was posted as recently as October '18. For context, Matt Conn stepped down several months earlier in March.
Aside from SWERY's unfortunate support, others have also brought this tweet from a Toejam dev, Greg Johnson, to my attention.
Updating the thread again. It's come to my attention that at the beginning of the Matt Conn-produced Toejam and Earl, the Corptron logo appears. Corptron is Landon Podbielski's developer handle: he's known as the creator of Duck Game, which is getting a Switch release next month.
Landon's also listed in the credits for The Missing, as pointed out earlier in my thread. https://twitter.com/jbu3/status/1105251436504457216?s=19
It's unfortunate, but despite the number of former MidBoss employees who have spoken out against him, Matt Conn still has folks within the games industry who are willing to look the other way or collaborate.
I'll continue to update this thread whenever something new pops up. Even if it doesn't prevent Matt from producing future games, the folks affected by his actions are still here. And y'all deserve to know who's involved in the games you buy.
Further evidence for the Matt Conn/Landon Podbielski connection.
By now, it feels like it's firmly established that Matt Conn and SWERY are still pals/collaborators. Hoping this subject comes up the next time SWERY gets interviewed....
Matt Conn, of all people, seems eager to bring up the abusive actions of other visible gaming personalities, as if that doesn't also apply to him.
Did anyone see a thread from Matt? Caught wind that he was posting some shit, but I haven't been able to find what the contents were or what he actually said.
It isn't their first rodeo with Mixer, but seeing all those sponsors and a minor celebrity attached is pretty damn frustrating.
More of Matt being weird on a promotional account.
This shit is barely a centimeter away from turning exploitative and getting ugly
The Toejam and Earl live stream is happening today. In addition to Matt Conn, the stream involves Macaulay Culkin, Freddie Prinze Jr., Zack Pearlman, Boogie2988, and others. (Boogie shouldn't be that big of a surprise, since he routinely embarrasses himself online, but 
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Oh, hey, guess who showed up on the Toejam and Earl stream? Creepy pervert Nick Robinson! Guess birds of a feather flock together.
Real cool that abusive men in the gaming industry can just get together for live streams and parties with celebrities, even after they get outed as awful.
People risk their safety and their careers when they go public against men like this, but these men always have connections. They have people in their corner. And they'll just slither their way back in, first chance they get, thanks to these connections. It's so disheartening.
And here's Matt Conn himself, appearing on the stream next to Toejam creator Greg Johnson.
They aren't even hiding that this is Matt's soft relaunch of MidBoss: Matt just announced "Neighborhood Watch," a game MidBoss was teasing back in 2017.
I looked back at MidBoss's account and noticed they mentioned "another game in the works" over ten days ago. No definitive proof that the game in question is Neighborhood Watch, but given Matt reintroduced it during the Toejam and Earl stream, that seems likely.
Others have chimed in to let me know that Matt is likely starting the project over at HumaNature, and that MidBoss isn't involved in the development.
A few other group photos and public appearances months after Matt's MidBoss departure. All of these happened between September 2018 and March 2019. The Up at Noon stream with IGN happened in September 2018. (And yes, there's SWERY on the left in the second picture)
Other participants on the Toejam and Earl telethon from this week:
•Kenny Omega
•Cody Rhodes
•Joe Hendry
•Kenny Omega
•Cody Rhodes
•Joe Hendry
Apparently someone already pointed this out to Kenny and got a block for their trouble. https://twitter.com/yoshiseyeexam/status/1133570923376848896?s=19
More Matt with Duck Game creator/Toejam contributor Landon Podbielski.
I've been informed that the person to the left of Nick Robinson from my quote tweet is Chris Niosi, AKA Kirbopher, and that he also has a bad history. Though I'm less familiar with him. https://twitter.com/jbu3/status/1132745493115748352?s=19
More vague threats. Cool cool
One last set of images for the night RE: Matt Conn. This framing is why I started this thread in the first place. The people he hurt have had to do plenty of surviving themselves, and not once has he ever owned up to and apologized for these actions.
Here's Matt Conn hanging out with (and tagging himself?) Trending Gamer Boogie2988. I could go on about Boogie, but I trust you all already know his many shitty tweets.
(CW Matt Conn) goes on a long tangent about how he's grown as a person and weathered some social storm, caps it off with a "This one's for my haters." 
Speaking of abusers thriving in the games industry, Matt Conn is reportedly pitching projects at PAX Dev in Seattle. It's been over a year since his victims came forward. Clean your fucking house, y'all.
(CW Matt Conn) Like he never even tries to hide. He doesn't have to! He did horrific things and he just tweets out going to PAX. Because people let him into their spaces.
Update: I received a tip that Matt Conn was already on PAX's banlist, but he still managed to get a badge and sneak into PAX Dev anyway. He possibly got the badge from a third party reseller.
I've sent an email to PAX's safety team, asking if anyone there can confirm whether Matt Conn is on a ban list. If anyone here can help me get in touch with someone at PAX who has this info, I'd greatly appreciate it!
Not gonna call out anyone by name here, but please be cognizant that when you're quoting the Toejam and Earl Twitter account, you're quoting and boosting Matt Conn.
The latest Day of the Devs bundle features Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove, made in part by known abuser Matt Conn. Care to comment, @DoubleFine and @iam8bit?
For an event built around celebrating indies of all shapes and sizes, an event built around creating a community, I wouldn't have expected them to lift up the work of a man who made others' lives hell. Guess I was wrong.
