Are cupcake and coding skills mutually exclusive? That might actually be a relevant question in relation to the recent lawsuit Trendy Entertainment filed in Florida against Studio Wildcard, creator of the popular survival game ARK: Survival Evolved.
According to Susan Claire Stieglitz Browning, co-founder and former business manager for Studio Wildcard, a similar lawsuit was previously brought forward in New York but was dismissed. She tweeted a clip from that previous case in which attorneys appear to question her role within Wildcard, suggesting that she is not a software engineer because she was in the business of making cupcakes since she previously owned a bakery.
Earlier this week, we reported on the more recent Trendy lawsuit against Wildcard alleging that Browning’s husband, Jeremy Stieglitz, broke his non-compete clause by working with Wildcard on ARK:
Trendy has alleged that Jeremy Stieglitz, formerly the controversial creative director at Trendy, played a pivotal role in the development of ARK and in doing so violated his contractual agreements not to poach Trendy’s workers, misappropriate Trendy’s assets, or work for a competing games company.
According to Kotaku, Wildcard denied that Stieglitz was a major figure in the creation of the game; instead, he was merely a consultant now being hired on more permanently. The studio has filed a motion to dismiss the suit, claiming Trendy’s December 15, 2015, accusations are “irrelevant, immaterial, impertinent, and scandalous,” but Wildcard has not otherwise addressed the lawsuit and would not comment for the report.
In April, a Florida circuit court will hear Trendy’s motion for an injunction against Wildcard [which could halt development on ARK].
In context, Browning’s tweet appears to suggest that Trendy plans to argue Stieglitz must have been entangled with ARK because his wife was either incapable or just a facade for his involvement.
Now, we fully understand that cupcakes can’t code, but we have a sneaking suspicion that both coders and former business managers can indeed bake cupcakes. Also, girls play video games.
We’ll know more come April.
