tldr; Exposed a major flaw in PixelTails moderation system.
Instead of fixing it, they erased the evidence by tampering with my bug report, then banned me across all platforms to keep it from going public.


After calling out PixelTail’s moderation team for doing a poor job with player moderation, they rolled out a brand new web-appeal system just one week later.
thread | ((deleted comments archive))[web.archive.org]

I used this to appeal a permanent mute I'd received months earlier, but PixelTail couldn’t provide a single piece of evidence for the ban, claiming their moderation team had lost it.
That alone says everything about how professionally this system is run.

Instead of backing their decision with proof, they pivoted to claiming my ban was justified by 35+ unique reports in over a decade of playing Tower Unite, most tied to alleged exploits.

PixelTail claimed that in early 2024 I received 4 additional reports, framing it as part of a growing pattern, and that this trend of reports were for exploiting the leaderboards.
https://i.imgur.com/jTMIehm.png

The problem was, I wasn’t exploiting.


MacDGuy confirmed in a forum post that cheating scores remain an unresolved problem, and any users who cheat are permanently banned from the leaderboards and their scores wiped.
https://i.imgur.com/8DghpLV.png

But that's not how it works.
I received the very first leaderboard ban 4 years earlier in 2020, and I can tell you firsthand: Scores have never wiped.

What actually happens is sometime during the day your entry is temporarily removed from the leaderboards. Your score is still retained in their back end, but if you were play the game as normal you'd reappear naturally on the leaderboards as if you never had a ban to begin.

Leaderboard banned players would resurface and generate fresh reports for exploiting and ban evasion.
Those duplicate reports get recycled into your record, making it look like a pattern of abuse.
https://i.imgur.com/3bOCe4k.png

PixelTail didn't know about this problem - or chose to ignore it.
So I officially reported it.


During a Laser Tag weekend with an active leaderboard ban I played a single game which shot me from rank #999999 to rank #1 on the leaderboards - instantly overtaking legitimate players.

That one game triggered a handful of exploiting reports, the same 4 PixelTail later cited in my appeal.

I reported this flaw on PixelTail’s forums under a thread about another player reappearing on the leaderboards. I explained that leaderboard bans don’t work, showed before-and-after screenshots of my own banned account reappearing at rank #1 (unchanged since 2020)

My entire report on the issue was deleted by PixelTail staff, and the thread was locked.[forums.pixeltailgames.com]


I filed a new "bug report" with the same screenshots, offering to demonstrate to MacDGuy in-game how leaderboard bans fail, because it was technically a 5 year old coding error on their end.

He concluded that my report "discussed how to exploit the leaderboards", claiming my bug report broke their rules, and any evidence should be reported to the moderation team - exactly what I did.

Instead of addressing the coding error, MacDGuy edited my report, tampering with the evidence section by removing the attached screenshots to make it appear as if I never reported the issue to begin with.
https://i.imgur.com/73nTHSv.png

He then permanently banned me from the PixelTail Forums for Harassment.
https://i.imgur.com/VNvd1xk.png

It was undeniable proof that once I caught wind of the flaw, they stopped treating me like a bug reporter and started treating me like a threat to their optics.


After reporting the leaderboard ban loophole and receiving a PixelTail forum ban - I found out I was forum banned on Steam too - which entails uploading workshop maps, screenshots, artworks and replying under my own review.

MacDGuy even went as far as kicking me from the PixelTail Games Steam Group.

The strangest twist was when MacDGuy permanently banned me from their "Elevator" game forums before the demo was even released.
Pre-emptively banning me from a new, separate game just because I was banned from another's forums, seems like a massive overreach, and shows the lack of maturity held by MacDGuy.

Any avenue of participation in the Tower Unite community was shut down for simply reporting a moderation loophole.

Then came yet another wave of retaliation by MacDGuy.
Any player that typed “freebugc” in‑game received an automatic chat ban for, “Promoting Banned User.”
My name itself was being flagged by their chat system.
https://i.imgur.com/Yt6lhai.png

Players literally couldn't report it. The rule didn’t exist to be reported.
It wasn't until two months later that same unwritten rule became official, rebranded as “challenging PixelTail’s decisions.”

During the same period, a poster of my condo was included on someone's "community condo board" which was shared in their Discord, only to be removed by PixelTail for, quote, “Advertising a Banned User,” along with the claim that bugc had been removed from the game for, “creating an unsafe environment.”

None of which was true.
It was the developers attempt to permanently remove me from the game.

The user then received an immediate 7 day time-out ban seemingly for having referenced me.
https://testx-steam.c5game.com/id/Caleegi/recommended/394690/


I've now been permanently condo-banned for displaying "Transphobic artwork".
PixelTail wrote in my appeal that I have agreements with public figures who are associated with transphobic beliefs and comments which is a bannable offence.
This being posters of Donald Trump, Jordan Peterson and Charlie Kirk.
https://i.imgur.com/pDpDvDc.jpeg

Yet the developers have pushed a message that condos are user hosted and the rules are up to the host.
Developer Sketchman said, "If you truly feel the need to discuss politics with other users, you can still do so in your personal condos."
Considering I'm permanently chat banned, the only form of "political discussion" solely comes down to condo building.
https://i.imgur.com/2HeWWd2.png

Their contradictory rules turned a simple display of conservative political figures into a transphobic offense that warranted a permanent condo ban.


I reported core issues, appealed my bans and attempted to resolve conflicts - Instead of dialogue, MacDGuy personally blocked me in‑game, on Steam, and even his wife blocked me.

This is the highest-rated negative review on Tower Unite, yet no developer has responded to it publicly or contacted me privately. Not once.

Every attempt to handle this quietly was met with bans, blocks, and censorship.
At this point, I no longer want a developer responding publicly to this review; it should have been addressed privately long before it reached this stage.

Any attempt to “fix” it now would only reinforce the same pattern I called out from the start: moderation fueled by personal immaturity by the leading developer rather than professionalism, and a complete absence of accountability.

🍿 #freebugc