Ex-Vigil devs uncredited in Darksiders 2

A number of former Vigil employees were uncredited for their work on Darksiders 2, a former UI designer on the project has claimed.

Taking to Twitter, Xander Davis hit out the studio for not recognising their work, and said he had been responsible for 99 per cent of the title’s User Inferface code but still failed to get a mention.

“Oh delightful. Just found out I’m not even credited on Darksiders 2 when the UI is 99 per cent from my direction and hard work, done in record time,” he said on Twitter.

“I led the revamp effort, created the pipeline, redesigned and rebuilt every screen, worked till 2AM every night, worked with leads every step.”

Davis admitted that this happened frequently in the industry, but claimed the original UI code for the title was such a mess that he felt his heavy workload meant he deserved to receive a mention.

"I was whisked to Austin and tasked to fix it, with months to ship. And I did," he said.

"My team worked as hard as we could. Then, we all lost our jobs. From what I’m hearing now from my former Vigil co-workers, MANY are left out of the credits apparently on Darksiders 2.

“I was let go a month after Warmerhammer 40k: Dark Millenium Online changed, they merged the other UI team, & Herb Ellwood swooped in & stole my job.

“After all my hard work. Herb Ellwood only had a contract with THQ. He used the team merging (which we needed to make ship) to secure a salary. Mine. Despite revamping 27 screens in 30 days, providing a new art direction, new layout and flow, starting from none.”

Vigial Games has denied the accusations however, stating Davis’ statements were misleading and untrue.

The developer’s GM David Adams that whilst it had been a primary concern of the company to include laid off staff in the credits, this did not include those who left voluntarily or were fired.

"What was most disheartening about the statements was how misleading they were, and how they fly in the face of how Vigil, culturally, feels about and treats our teams,” said Adams.

"While employment and privacy laws preclude us from discussing the circumstances surrounding the departure of any individual no longer with the company, we can confirm that the employee in question worked for us a total of 90 days, whereas Darksiders II was more than two and a half years in development."

He added: "To reiterate, Vigil’s primary concern while doing Darksiders II credits was that we credited team members that were affected by the recent downsizing. We were not focused on the issue of employees that voluntarily left or were fired from the company.

"We find it alarming that a former employee would personally attack and lie about other team members while falsely inflating his contribution to the game."