Saying Goodbye to Facebook

Hello, Community!

This is Jesse Lax, Creative Director for Kwaai Software. It's been awhile since we've had an announcement. I wanted to come here and speak personally to you because we have some very important news. For those of you who frequent our VDS App Page, some of this won't be new.

Due to various ongoing issues, we'll be leaving Facebook soon. We've created an Account Validation tool for you to use. This tool is important, and does two things. First it verifies to you your Player Name and Dark Mark. Second it offers a way to help us secure you and your account after we move by adding a valid email and password of your choosing. Please skip to the end of this announcement to find the link to it, or navigate the CSD knowledge base to find the "Your Account" section.

In the meantime, if you want to know why we're moving and get the lowdown on all things Kwaai and VDS, read on!

• 2025 was  a tough year for us.
While we were working on many new things for both VDS and VDR, on the company end a great many fires sprang up for us to put out. We know you saw some of this with event issues, banner/post tardiness, and a lack of Dev Announcements from us. It was as unusual for us as it was for you. But a lot of it was because:

• One of our developers has left Kwaai Software.
This was for personal reasons. And while we're certainly feeling that absence, since the beginning we've had amazing years working together. Wherever they end up, we'd like to wish them all the success and happiness they deserve. 

• Development Slowdowns.
Even developing a "small" game like VDS isn't easy work, even with three devs and volunteers. We're now down to only two developers (including myself) and a single volunteer behind the scenes. It's been causing us some major slowdown as we adjust to taking on new responsibilities, more work outside our native skill sets, and continue to put out the fires still sprouting up around us.

Yes, it's rough, but we're figuring it out. Please don't worry for us or the games. We just need your patience as we make our way through some of the turbulence. Soon we'll get everything back on track from things like:

• Facebook/Meta has not been good to us.
We think it's safe to say that Facebook is no longer the beloved social media platform it used to be. They have changed—and, in our opinion, not for the better. We've seen a lot of our community disappear just to get away from the platform. And, in the middle of last year, Facebook announced that all games like VDS (web-based games) will soon be deprecated ("banned") from their platform.

• Facebook/Meta continued to escalate things.
To worsen matters, nearly every other month through 2025 Facebook hit VDS with violations (none of them game or content-related). We remedied them all. Then they did something underhanded. They gave us a time-limited warning, with no indication as to when we were "warned", and then pulled the plug on us early anyway. This resulted in:

• We are no longer able to monetize VDS on Facebook. 

If you've tried to purchase anything with cash, you'll have found that all our buttons are inoperable. Facebook did this — they handled all of our payment transactions. This has put us in a precarious position, where our mobile game, Vampires Dark Rising, is the only thing generating revenue to keep VDS servers online. 

We're basically only able to pay the bills—and just barely. Right now we're working for free, and it's impacting our personal lives as much as it's impacting the game. I respect that you may have your own thoughts and opinions on Facebook, but I personally believe they just don't care about us or you. 

I also respect that you may have your opinions about us as devs. But if there's two things to know about us, it's that we've always cared... and:

• We are not giving up!

We believe in VDS. We've kept it alive through 16 years of heavy industry competition, the birth and adaptation of the mobile game industry, ever-changing technology, financial losses, naysayers, hater-bandwagons, bad economies, our own mistakes, a pandemic, a shrinking community, and much more "doom and gloom" behind the scenes than I care to reveal. But there's two very important reasons why we're still here through all this.

1) You. No matter what you think of us, we appreciate you and your love for this game. And 2) Our own passion for the Darkside. This game has been our baby since 2009 and we love it. We can't walk away. We won't walk away. VDS is as much family to us as it is to you. Which bring us to:

• Vampires the Darkside Will Soon Be Leaving Facebook.

We are planning to leave Facebook on Wednesday, February 4th.

This change will be permanent. VDS will soon exist in its own webspace, just like any other online website. We don't plan to be down any longer than vital updates in the past, and we have had numerous incredible people from the community helping us test to make sure the process goes smoothly.

Those tester who came to hang out (and did an amazing job testing), were also ambassadors for you. They showed us what your passion for this game is and how important it is to you that it's still here for you. That's not only beautiful in and of itself, it's also highly motivating. 

So rally with us. Let's get it out from under the bootheels of a uncaring, uncooperative, and unfriendly corporate monster, and save Vampires: The Darkside!

• VDS Account Validation.
When we disconnect from Facebook you'll be able to access us just like any other website. We'll have our own URL and you'll be able to bookmark us. However, for all of this time we've been connected to you through Facebook.

Facebook gives every person on their network an encrypted Facebook ID. It's a lot like your Dark Mark, but unreadable to humans. This ID tells our systems who you are so our systems can connect you to your account. When VDS leaves Facebook, we still need to be able to connect you so we're going to use the Facebook Login system. You've probably used this on other websites to sign in. If not, we'll provide you instructions on how to use it. It's easy.

 And to help make sure there's no mistakes we've created a new tool for you to use.

This Account Validation tool is a page that will verify to you your VDS Player Name and your Dark Mark. It will also offer you the ability to add a valid email and password. This will allow us to verify who you are and manually connect you to your account in the unlikely event there is any kind of issue. Follow the link below for detailed instructions and access to the tool.

Thank you, everyone! For your support, for your passion, for your patience, and for being with us. Once we're through the thick of this, we'll be back to business as usual—and ideally get caught up on everything that's running behind.

In the meantime, please pay attention to our Facebook App Page, where we'll provide live updates as things happen!

⌘ VDS Dev Team

Kwaai Software LLC