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Those who’ve played Sea of Stars may have caught a cameo from Jirard ‘The Completionist’ Khalil, a YouTuber who makes videos about playing games to 100% completion. Khalil got a cameo in Sea of Stars due to teaming with developer Sabotage Studio to spread the word on their game through various charity streams. As of today, Khalil’s cameo in the game has been removed.

Over the last few weeks, there’s been a whirlwind of controversy surrounding Khalil and his charity efforts. While Khalil has become well known for charity streams, it only recently came to light that the roughly $600k in charity funds from fans never actually got donated. This was accrued over the course of several years, with many fans believing their donations had been sent off to the charity organization long ago.

Just a week back or so, Khalil donated the $600k from fans and also shared a video of his own explaining the situation. It appears there are still a number of question marks surrounding the whole fiasco, and even though the funds have now been distributed, countless fans still feel angered and upset that the money didn’t get to its ultimate destination until alarms were raised by other notable YouTubers.

This is still an ongoing story, but Khalil has certainly been facing backlash. The latest turn of events comes from Sabotage Studio, which has decided to remove Khalil’s cameo in Sea of Stars. Game director Thierry Boulanger shared a short message on the decision to remove Khalil from the game, and you can read it below.

A small patch will be going live on Steam and be submitted to consoles soon to replace the builder NPC in Mirth.

We arrived at this decision after carefully monitoring events over the past few weeks, and while it is not our place to pass judgment, we do make it a priority to maintain a positive and optimistic space that reflects the spirit of our intentions, be they creative or otherwise.

As always, we appreciate your support and trust you to respect our decision while keeping the tone of the conversation in line with the essence of what makes our games and our community what they are. Thank you.

[Thierry Boulanger, developer]

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Comments (11)

Most Upvoted

mightydarkzero

Worth mention, Jirard himself stated that he missed the deadline for the Kickstarter survey and subsequently reached out to Thierry personally to see if he can help him out.

Additionally, none of the tiers were given the opportunity to insert themselves as an NPC, with a specific exception made for the highest tier (which was apparently refunded in 2021 so shouldn't be Jirard anyway).

You could argue that he should instead be put in with whatever reward tier he backed at, but they technically don't owe him anything given that it was his responsibility to fill out his survey and design a crypt statue.

socar

3M ago

On one hand, its good that they just replaced the sprite so that the content is still there.

On the other hand this is bad because Jirad backed the game with the highest tier of 2000$. So to him if the devs remove him on what they offered and they don't give his money back, then the devs are just as bad as Jirad because they are running away from the truth of things. I recall Jontron was kicked out of Yooka-Laylee and I'm not sure if he backed the game or not but I respect the devs behind a Hat in Time to still keep him despite him building some controversy during his..no so good moments.

I'm not defending Jirad's actions but I'm defending the backing part of it. Kickstarter is a site that builds creative passion with the community in it. Damaging that community hurts the creativity image and this is really the concerning part that I'm worried about as someone who backs games at Kickstarter. Whoever backs the game are the ones who are helping make the game come to reality. Disrespecting those backers is only going to hurt creators in the long run and I'm sorry if this comes as I'm dumb or something to defend this part but again this is what I'm concerned with.

Edited 1 time

mightydarkzero

3M ago

@socar

Worth mention, Jirard himself stated that he missed the deadline for the Kickstarter survey and subsequently reached out to Thierry personally to see if he can help him out.

Additionally, none of the tiers were given the opportunity to insert themselves as an NPC, with a specific exception made for the highest tier (which was apparently refunded in 2021 so shouldn't be Jirard anyway).

You could argue that he should instead be put in with whatever reward tier he backed at, but they technically don't owe him anything given that it was his responsibility to fill out his survey and design a crypt statue.


Based on my experience, the survey only takes in when the development starts taking effect which usually happens after the developers receive the funds. True that he missed the deadline but he still backed the game.

This still concerns backers funding for projects though because it could lead to something like "hey you're a youtuber with a lot of subs and observing your stances, we are not mentioning your name in the credits." That's just bad.


totodile

3M ago

Sea of Stars removes fan from game following controversy.

Edited 1 time

bakfug

3M ago

@socar

I feel like that's a big jump from cameo they didn't need but added for fun being removed to removing someone's name from credits who gave us money because they said something bad. The Cameo was a frivolous extra they decided on completely outside what they offered on the Kickstarter. Correct me if I'm wrong, and I see someone above saying the same, the $2000 CAD goal was taken by an anonymous person who ultimately refunded it, and instead they reached out to the community to design the cryptwalker instead.

So literally nothing here has to do with Kickstarter so why bring it up? You're a "big name" online and don't want to be removed from a game you cameo in? Don't be a bad person and steal people's money then 🤷‍♀️.


nin2000

3M ago

Without a full investigation, this is very disturbing. Not to mention Jirard did eventually give the money back. The concerning thing about his removal from the game is that it is messing with video game history, the polar opposite of what Jirard have been trying to achieve. I’m disappointed in Sabotage, and will continue delaying my purchase of the game until a decent sale occurs.


socar

3M ago

@bakfug

According to Jirad he made the highest bid possible which judging from how much he earns for a living and how he spent nearly 4k buying every single 3ds and Wii U eshop games, I can't see how he can't be the highest bidder

Even if that isn't the case, he still backed
the game from Kickstarter and supported the game. And this is very concerning to
backers because devs then have to make
conditions inorder for people to back
games.


bakfug

3M ago

@socar

It's not a bid, though. You're investing in a game with specific tiered rewards that are picked at checkout. He may have been the highest backer, as I don't know nor care if he was, but no tier reward was to put yourself in the game, so no promise from Kickstarter has been broken here whatsoever.

Not sure why you are more concerned about a dude getting some kudos in a game solely because he has money and not something ever promised by Kickstarter and not the fact he admitted to charity fraud and only donated the money because he was caught.

Edited 1 time

bakfug

3M ago

@nin2000

I feel if you find it more concerning to take the side of someone admitting commiting charity fraud than the one removing themselves from the conversation by distancing themselves from the offender, especially when you're upset over a meaningless cameo, then you might have your priorities wrong in life.


socar

3M ago

@bakfug

In his video on sea of stars he claims that he's a backer. If they were putting him in the game as means of not adding him on any tier, that means they valued him as a backer of the game.

He said he talked to the developers if something can be worked out which is where the made him appear in the game.

The fact that he even helped promote the game in the indieland and even streamed himself to only see him appearing in the game is enough to show that he played a big part into hyping the game at the very least.

Kickstarter doesn't take any responsibility as it's a site that takes money when a project reaches its goal. The devs have to take that responsibility.

Edited 1 time

nin2000

3M ago

@bakfug

It’s about erasing video game history, by removing the reference of him, there will no longer be a warning to people 10 years from now, playing the game, about the charity fraud that occurred (and has since been rectified).