A recent report from multiple sources at Deck Nine Games have accused former Chief Creative Officer Zak Garriss of allegedly “love bombing” and other vague behaviors.

The report from IGN tells accounts from Deck Nine devs who allegedly experienced “toxicity” working on games such as Life is Strange: True Colors.

In particular, the accusations against Zak Garriss attempt to paint him as a man who exploited his position to get close to women he held a position of power over.

However, these accusations hardly seem to go any further than accusing him of having a bad “vibe” and none make mention of any actual harassment or wrongdoing.

One employee recounted her experience after Garriss offered to escort her to her vehicle saying:

“He would walk me to my car, I’d open the door, say goodbye, and he’d sort of linger… We’d keep talking, I’d sit down, and he’d linger again next to the open door. He never made a particularly overt move, it was always subtle enough. It felt like it was maybe always just a vibe that I was getting. I felt stupid, first of all, for ending up in that situation with him in the first place. But because he never clearly made a move, maybe I was just reading too much into the whole thing. It wasn’t until I explained it in great detail to others that someone clued me in.”

Others also accuse Garriss of hosting women at his home. Garriss replied saying that he met both men and women at his home, and repeated an explanation from Telltale Games that it wasn’t uncommon for home meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite allegedly bringing women back to his home on multiple occasions, none of the accusations in the IGN report go as far as to accuse him of any explicit misconduct, only saying that he would text women after hours about “personal topics”.

In response to this, Telltale Games who worked with Garriss, defended his character saying, “We can say that, during his time at Telltale, Zak was one of the most talented, balanced and inclusive game directors we have ever worked with, and that is evident in the games he has delivered.”

The alleged behavior of Zak Garriss is only one small part of the rumored “toxic iceberg” at Deck Nine, but it’s unique for its severe accusations.

The last Deck Nine title with Zak Garriss as director was Life is Strange: True Colors – check out our review here.