Oftentimes when it comes the world of gaming, it is easy to focus on the misdeeds of the big corporations to such a degree that you forget about the actions of the smaller companies. The AAA industry may be the public face of gaming, but the indie devs are the industry's lifeblood, so it is important to ensure that the indie talent pool has as many safeguards as the professional fields. It is completely unacceptable, and harmful for all gaming, when developers find themselves in situations wherein they are used or taken advantage of, whether that is in a multimillion dollar studio (Konami) or a popular indie conglomerate (Chucklefish.)
If you've never heard of 'Chucklefish' before, then I wouldn't blame you. Chucklefish is a British game development company that was set up in 2011 and have worked on some fantastic indie titles throughout the years. Their first project; Starbound, is still one my favourite space exploration sims, even if it is a little aimless at times. They also worked on 2019's Wargroove, a delightful tactical strategy game that is an absolute must-play for Advance Wars fans, and they published two absolutely seminal indie gems; 'Risk of Rain' and 'Stardew Valley'.
So they aren't exactly nobodies when it comes to the world of gaming. Their notoriety has made it so that recent allegations that have been levied against them have rippled across the gaming media and is sure to continue onto the indie world. Perhaps this may affect the trusting relationship between independent developers and small studios going forward, who can tell at this point? All I can say for sure is that certain fandoms are looking at the studio in a whole new light after last week.
If you have been out-of-the-loop in this issue, let me bring you up to speed. Recently, young indie developers who previously worked on Starbound, came out to excuse the Chucklefish founder, Finn Brice, of exploiting them for free labour. Designer, Damon Reece, claimed that he put in hundreds of hours of work towards Starbound without being paid "a single cent". Another dev, FetalStar, shared a similar story. "In 2012 I was brought on to do concept art for Starbound, which turned into doing the weekly/monthly wallpapers. I also did the original concept art for the Floran and Hylotl races."
If what FetalStar claims is true, then that means her contribution to the project was not just supplementary work. (Not that such would make her any less entitled to recompense) The Floran and Hylotl are 2 of the six playable Starbound races, the concept she did on them must have helped shape major parts of the game. And was she paid for her efforts? "I put in at least a hundred hours of work, and didn't see any sort of compensation. I was really naive and too afraid to ask to be paid, because anyone who did would be screamed at." (So that's a no.) FetalStar also went onto claim that she witnessed a lot of "inappropriate behavior" but refused to go into details as "it happened to other people."
All this paints a pretty damning picture as to the working conditions at Chucklefish. Any workplace where the workers are too afraid to ask about pay for fear of being screamed at, or fired, is a place that must be hell to work at. I would know, I spent months working in equally as an uncomfortable environment, so I can attest to the sort of despair that builds in a situation like that. It is the kind of situation that can take you to some 'dark places', if you'll forgive the cliche.
Things are only worsened by the fact that the developers in question where still teenagers when they were working for Chucklefish, and so were far easier to push around and force to work. Folk put up with it for hope of being hired by the company, and some were, but the others were left with nothing to show for their time but bad memories. It reminds me of the story behind the abuse that the Treyarch's QA staff had to undergo during the development of Black Ops 4. Kotaku's Jason Schreier covered this in an expose that revealed the awful conditions that the team had to work under. They were paid, but only a pittance, and they were also teased with the possibility of a Treyarch placement in order to keep them complacent. These were grown men with industry experience that were being exploited, what hope did the teens who worked for Chucklefish have?
In their defence, Chucklefish have responded, albeit in a cold, corporate manner.“During this time both the core crew and community contributors were collaborating via a chat room and dedicated their time for free. Community contributors were under no obligation to create content, work to deadlines or put in any particular number of hours. Everyone was credited or remunerated as per their agreement." A response which feeds my general disdain for the whole idea of 'unpaid internships'. Although it does sound like the deal that the Starbound staff entered into was a lot more informal than that and a lot more exploitable.
This is an argument in which both sides could very well be right, and it still wouldn't make things acceptable at the end of the day (Or at least in my head.) Perhaps these former devs did offer their talent for free in order to get some valuable development experience, Finn Brice should have known to turn them down in favour of a contract or nothing. Choosing to devalue your workers or allowing them to work for free, opens up a uncomfortable relationship between talent and management. Conduct and other potential accusations aside, the power dynamic this granted Brice over these teenagers should have set off alarm bells in his head before he bought them on board.
For the time being, we have little idea where this discourse could end up going. Some more developers have come out to reveal that they were paid, after forcing a contract negotiation, (which is not a great look for Chucklefish.) Whilst the company itself has issued platitudes and seem to be waiting for the whole thing to blow over. It saddens me to think that a small studio who had a hand in so many fantastic games could stoop so low as to mistreat fellow artists, but it seems that this kind of abuse is becoming depressingly common in the modern world.
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