Chucklefish Alleged of Employee Exploitation
Chucklefish, the development studio of the widely popular indie sandbox survival game Starbound have been faced with allegations of exploiting their employees during the game’s development.
The allegations started in late-August this year when Damon Reece who worked as a writer for Starbound which was also his first professional game dev credit. Damon Reece went to Twitter stating how he went on to work on the game for “hundreds of hours” and allegedly didn’t see any payment from Chucklefish for the work he did. Damon Reece also claimed that he wasn’t an isolated individual when it came to this and Chucklefish had allegedly done this to other employees as well.
Shortly after Damon’s tweet, a bunch of other people that worked on Starbound also came forward both getting behind Damon’s claims while also throwing their own hats in the ring.
Christine Crossley who was originally brought on to do concept art for Starbound got the job transitioned to doing the weekly/monthly wallpapers for the game. Christine echoed similar sentiments as Damon how they’d put in at least 100 hours of work and saw no compensation or pay from Chucklefish for the work that was done, but also claimed that they had observed employees in similar situations approach higher-ups of Chucklefish requesting for pay and they stated that the employees would be “screamed at.” There was a brief mention at the end of the thread of further “inappropriate behavior” from Chucklefish that wasn’t elaborated upon as well.
Clark Powell also went to Twitter who was approached by Chucklefish requesting for him to do audio and music for Starbound. According to Powell, he was on board with the idea however he decided against it after he was informed by the director of the game that the work he would be doing would be going unpaid. He had also allegedly stated that he told Powell none of the coders or artists would be paid either. Powell voiced disagreement with how none of the coders or artists would be paid and as corroborated by Christine when he voiced this he was allegedly lashed out at by the director saying how Powell was “entitled” and also, in the end, said how he would do the music himself thinking Powell would do a bad job if he was brought on. Powell also alleges shortly after this incident he had entered conversations with some of the workers and the workers had told him Chucklefish did promise some of them pay in the future (whether this pay was delivered isn’t revealed) and echoed Damon’s statements of how no incident was isolated.
What was also notable about Powell’s tweet is that game developer Toby Fox, the creator, and developer of Undertale, responded to the tweet stating how he did temporarily work with Chucklefish as he had composed an hour of music for them to use in the game, however, the music allegedly went and got scrapped by Chucklefish because Toby didn’t show in the IRC channel enough. Toby ended the tweet by saying that he believed a lot of the allegations that were coming out from people like Damon.
In addition to this, Rho Watson, who is credited as a graphical artist basically vouched for everything that Damon said and said that everything that he said was true and how it mirrored everything that she observed from Chucklefish.
In addition to these testimonies, several statements posted on some forum sites that date back to 2016 also recount similar stories of unpaid labor and how Chucklefish were advantageous of new, young and aspiring game developers wanting to get their foot in the door.
However, some more information that came out was with regards to some alleged crass comments that the CEO had stated, varying from employess recounting stories how the CEO would say in voice calls which team member they’d sleep with and would start to bully and harass people that wouldn’t answer.
In addition, Polygon interviewed a source that wished to remain anonymous that backed up claims of how these crass conversations would come up stating: “ Finn would start being inappropriate in the developer [IRC] channel, asking everyone for pictures, steering discussions about development into strange sexual tangents.”
Chucklefish issued a statement to ScreenRant about the allegations, here’s what they said:
“We’re aware and saddened by the current allegations against Chucklefish regarding Starbound’s early development. 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. It’s been almost a decade since Starbound’s development first began, and from then Chucklefish has grown considerably into an indie studio that has a strong emphasis on good working practices, providing a welcoming environment for all employees and freelancers. Our doors remain open to any related parties who wish to discuss their concerns with us directly. Reece acknowledged signing a contract, saying that contributors were required to do so if they wanted to work on the game, and that they were further enticed with the promise of possible employment at Chucklefish in the future. They also refuted part of the studio’s statement, saying that “deadlines were absolutely in place — if not formal, then definitely heavily implied.”
Now obviously, this story has very little in terms of evidence to accurately show if these claims are true or not, however, I feel that the number of employees coming forward is very telling of while not all, a lot of the claims that are being leveraged against Chucklefish, especially when there’s a loved, well respected and well-known indie developer such as Toby Fox coming forward and saying that he believes these claims based off of his interactions with Chucklefish. However, the statement that Chucklefish issued I think is also very telling for at least the claim about not paying their employees and how they were advantageous of their employees. Looking at their response, even though it doesn’t seem Chucklefish necessarily saw it that way, their words seem to greatly reflect that these claims are true. With regards to the weird sexual tangents Finn would go on, those are really just allegations with a couple of stories behind them and nothing too much more to back them up so I’ll treat those as such, however, it seems the unpaid labor and advantageous approach Chucklefish took towards young talent is undoubtedly true.
In their statement, Chucklefish comes off as almost evasive of addressing specifically what it is that they had done and seemingly and weakly try to hide behind an argument of “they signed a contract and the contract says they only get what they signed for.” What Chucklefish doesn’t address is that at this point they were dealing with developers as young as 16 years old. Are they going to have a great deal of knowledge about what it is they’re signing on for? It’s typically the younger types that are wanting to get their foot in the door that will leap at any chance to do so. I was a lot like that when I was entering an industry of work that I’m still glad to be doing to this day outside of this. You can dislike me for this, but I am fine with people getting employed for doing a one-off task or a short job without being paid as long as they are informed of this appropriately and the company approaching them of this work don’t prey upon their naivete to just get some free work labor from them. I would, of course, advise against doing work for free and I think if it’s a continual piece of work you’re expected to do then yes you should be paid, but if you want to do one or two pieces of work for free as an attempt to get your foot in the door and you’re an adult knowing what you’re signing up for, then I won’t be the one to stop you. It isn’t ideal but there are some benefits for you to reap.
Chucklefish have just been incredibly predatory in their approach, going to literal teenagers, not adults, and signing a working contract for unpaid work. Their conduct has been incredibly unprofessional as people are not entitled at all if they request payment, it shows they want to put bread on the table and if you’re wanting them to do work for you, of course, they would be asking for something in return, why would this not be a norm? I’d be maybe (and it’s a strong maybe) a little bit more understanding if Chucklefish were just starting up, they didn’t have much funding, and they went to their employees and said “we don’t have money right now, but if you persevere with us and if this game’s successful, we will pay you afterward.” Of course this does pose a risk as to if Starbound was or wasn’t successful due to it sometimes is hard to determine at this point, but at least it makes Chucklefish look much less malicious and showed some level of desire to pay them in this narrative then just outright saying that none of the contributors would be paid and they would be shouted at if they demanded payment. Of course, it still isn’t ideal as it’s a risky move entering into the team with unsecured payment, but again, that’s why you’d approach adults and give them a broad picture and outly everything to them so that they can make a logical decision.
Please be sure to treat your employees with the respect that they deserve if they’re working under you because them, you would cease to function and your products would just start to deteriorate.
