Fullbright co-founders Steve Gaynor accused of employee mistreatment

Fullbright co-founder Steve Gaynor, recognized for his work on Gone Residence and Tacoma, has stepped down from his position as inventive lead on Open Roads following a number of allegations relating to his remedy of Fullbright workers.

Growth on Open Roads, which was introduced in December 2020 and anticipated to star Keri Russell (The People) and Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart), is not on time. Fifteen workers left the studio since improvement on Open Roads started in 2019; round six workers members stay. Talking with Polygon, 12 former workers mentioned their departure was at the very least partly as a result of Gaynor’s conduct towards employees, particularly girls on the crew. Not less than 10 of the workers who left since Open Roads manufacturing started have been girls.

A number of former workers, who spoke with Polygon anonymously out of concern of retaliation, described the Fullbright work atmosphere as “controlling,” a spot wherein staffers felt undermined and demeaned by Gaynor. Due to Gaynor’s standing because the co-founder of a beloved indie darling, some former workers say they have been apprehensive about being blacklisted from the business — although some ended up leaving the business solely, anyway. These former workers mentioned they didn’t expertise or witness sexual harassment or specific sexism; as an alternative, they mentioned, the studio’s poisonous tradition hid behind the veneer of inclusivity, as girls have been allegedly repeatedly damaged down by microaggressions.

A Fullbright consultant confirmed to Polygon that Gaynor stepped down in March because of the “sample of ladies leaving” the corporate. “Steve stepped down in March 2021 after it grew to become clear that the steps that have been already being taken to enhance his interactions with the crew have been solely yielding non permanent outcomes,” the consultant mentioned. “Extra drastic motion was wanted for the well being of the crew.”

The consultant additionally famous that “Annapurna is conscious of the scenario at Fullbright and has been instrumental in serving to the Open Roads crew make modifications to its construction.” A consultant for Annapurna instructed Polygon it helps the Open Roads crew. Following the publication of this story, Gaynor issued an announcement to Polygon.

Hello all. I’ve an announcement to share about my position at Fullbright.

Earlier this yr, I stepped again from my position as inventive lead on Open Roads. My management model was hurtful to those that labored at Fullbright, and for that I actually apologize.

Stepping again has given me area and perspective to see how my position wants to vary and the way I must study and enhance as a part of a crew, together with working with an skilled administration advisor, and rethinking my relationship to the work at Fullbright.

I care deeply about Open Roads and the Fullbright crew. I’m unhappy to have stepped again from day-to-day improvement of Open Roads, however it’s been the proper factor to do. The Open Roads crew has my full religion and assist as they bring about the sport to completion.

Fulbright has at all times been a small unbiased studio. Simply 4 folks — three of which have been studio co-founders — created Gone Residence (2013), a BAFTA award-winning narrative sport that influenced the business. For the studio’s subsequent sport, Tacoma (2017), the variety of staffers elevated by greater than double. Following the success of those two video games, Fullbright continued to develop, taking up extra workers and contractors.

Within the improvement of Open Roads, Fullbright partnered with writer Annapurna Interactive, which supplied full funding and extra assist workers. The variety of core Fullbright workers remained beneath 20 at any given time. Former workers described the studio at the moment as close-knit and supportive of one another. They took satisfaction in creating video games that resonated with marginalized folks, like Gone Residence, a coming-of-age story a few teenage lesbian. However on the similar time, former workers say in addition they felt stifled by Gaynor’s “controlling” and “demeaning presence” — somebody who allegedly noticed Open Roads not because the crew’s sport, however as his sport. That Gaynor, himself, was Fullbright.

On Twitter, at the very least, Gaynor “was” Fullbright for fairly a while: He held the @Fullbright Twitter account as his private deal with for over a decade. When he stepped down from his place as inventive lead, sources mentioned he was required to vary his Twitter account to @SteveGaynorPDX. The @Fullbright account now serves as a placeholder, and the studio now makes use of @FullbrightGames for official updates. A Fullbright consultant confirmed to Polygon that “workers have been uncomfortable with the official Fullbright account doubling as Steve’s private Twitter account.”

Ladies in management positions instructed Polygon that they skilled fixed micromanagement that made it troublesome for them to do their jobs, having to get even the smallest particulars accredited by Gaynor. This was compounded, they mentioned, by Gaynor’s tendency to disparage and discredit the contributions of feminine staffers specifically, oftentimes on to management. Among the former feminine staffers mentioned they usually apprehensive about how Gaynor characterised them to different workers.

“That is going to sound like a joke, however I’m utterly severe: Working for him usually felt like working for a highschool imply woman,” one former worker in a management place instructed Polygon. “His go-to weapon was to snort at folks’s opinions and embarrass them in entrance of different folks.”

Six different former workers corroborated this characterization.

Staff instructed Polygon that that they had needed to report Gaynor’s conduct however had no precise course of to take action. The corporate had no devoted human useful resource workers, aside from the occasional third-party advisor. “There’s no infrastructure to escalate,” a former worker mentioned. A number of former workers mentioned they confronted Gaynor instantly whereas they have been nonetheless employed at Fullbright, telling him their considerations about how they imagine his conduct negatively impacted the workers.

One former worker mentioned she approached Gaynor after studying a GamesIndustry.biz report relating to Season developer Scavengers Studio. She instructed Polygon she noticed similarities between Scavenger Studio inventive director Simon Darveau and Gaynor. (Whereas the allegations relating to Darveau embody sexual harassment and groping, no claims of bodily conduct have been made towards Gaynor.) The previous worker mentioned she warned Gaynor {that a} comparable report may ultimately floor about him.

“[The team was] already in session coaching for communication for the crew as a result of [another former employee] quitting due to him,” she mentioned. “And I instructed him, I’ve these considerations. After I learn this text, I noticed plenty of parallels. Not one-to-one, however plenty of parallels.”

She mentioned she instructed Gaynor that she was struggling to decide to Open Roads as a result of she was apprehensive the sport could be canceled if an article got here out about him. “I did count on it to be an emotional dialogue,” she instructed Polygon. “I don’t suppose that’s one thing anybody ever needs to listen to.”

Gaynor instructed her that writer Annapurna got here to him to ask about Fullbright’s attrition drawback — notably, that girls have been leaving the corporate on what appeared like a month-to-month foundation. The following day, the worker who had approached Gaynor mentioned he despatched her with a hyperlink to a Wikipedia article on “availability heuristics.” On Wikipedia, availability heuristics is described as “a psychological shortcut that depends on instant examples that come to thoughts when evaluating a particular subject, idea, methodology or determination.”

“He despatched me the hyperlink […] to clarify to me that when there’s a shark assault on the information, folks begin to get extra scared that they could get attacked by a shark,” she mentioned. “So I wasn’t really legitimate in worrying that we may have an article about his conduct.” She reported this interplay to the advisor, who reportedly mentioned that Steve’s impression didn’t match his intent.

Picture: Fullbright

Staff discovered different methods to boost these considerations. A number of left nameless digital Put up-It notes on the corporate server as a part of a “crew constructing train” in late 2020, helmed by a third-party advisor to assist communication on the crew. “This dash marks the 4th lady to go away Fullbright within the final yr,” one worker wrote. “How will we guarantee we’re creating an atmosphere that leads to girls feeling revered. HR, accountability, coaching, one thing wants to vary. All of us have a component to play in making a secure working atmosphere, change doesn’t occur with out discomfort.”

Different workers used exit interviews to report the studio tradition that they mentioned Gaynor perpetuated. (Exit interviews have been performed as a sequence of questions despatched to departing workers, reviewed by division leads.) Not less than two workers reached out to Annapurna instantly. “My private expertise of getting Steve as my supervisor was a poisonous and unhealthy dynamic,” this former worker wrote in a correspondence to Annapurna that was reviewed by Polygon. “I can confidently say that I don’t need my profession to be related to him.”

One other worker, in a letter to Annapurna, described it as “the worst skilled expertise [she’d] had in video games.”

Photograph: Gabe Ginsberg/FilmMagic through Getty

Different former workers spoke about how they felt the conduct at Fullbright was harmful. Fullbright, with video games like Gone Residence and Tacoma that concentrate on feminine characters, tends to draw girls as potential workers. It’s a studio that’s perceived to be inclusive and pleasant to teams of people that have traditionally been marginalized. It’s a studio that amplifies these voices relatively than stifling them — at the very least in terms of its video games and the tales they inform. Folks may count on a poisonous tradition at triple-A studios, however not at a studio like Fullbright, former workers recalled. But these allegations have been reported constantly, and, due to it, the studio has misplaced a big portion of its workers through the years, they mentioned.

Following the mass exodus of Fullbright workers in 2020 and 2021, the leads remaining on the firm have been tasked with hiring new workers. Two sources instructed Polygon that they have been hesitant to rent the certified, proficient girls who utilized for the roles out of concern of how they’d be handled by Gaynor. Former workers had seen what they perceived as a sample of younger girls, early of their careers, being damaged down by their time beneath Gaynor at Fullbright. A number of sources instructed Polygon they feared that much more promising expertise could be pushed out of the business, just like the others.

Some former workers described themselves as “modified” following their time at Fullbright. Many have questioned their skills, describing their expertise with Gaynor as having been “gaslit,” and have sought out remedy to take care of the trauma related to improvement on Open Roads and firm tradition. Former workers in management described “intense guilt” in leaving the corporate, “leaving [the] crew to fend for themselves.”

“[We] have been consistently appearing as a buffer between Steve and the remainder of the crew simply so they might really get any kind of work finished with out being pulled into hours of conferences the place all the things was nitpicked to loss of life or finally reversed.”

With so few workers left at Fullbright, the state of Open Roads now seems to be challenged. In January, Gaynor instructed Polygon that Open Roads was anticipated out in 2021. A number of former workers instructed Polygon they imagine there’s no approach that can occur, noting that manufacturing timelines had been disrupted by convoluted decision-making processes and the fixed state of flux inside Fullbright’s workers. A Fullbright consultant instructed Polygon that the sport won’t be out in 2021.

Though Gaynor is not a inventive lead on Open Roads, he’s nonetheless engaged on the sport as a author. He presently has no day-to-day collaboration with the remainder of the crew. As an alternative, Annapurna Interactive is working as a mediator between the studio builders and Gaynor, as improvement continues with a fraction of the corporate. A number of former workers expressed concern that Gaynor was even working on this capability — that it was bizarre for a person to be writing a narrative a few mom and daughter, notably a person that has allegedly demeaned a number of feminine workers.

Regardless of the dangerous experiences that a number of former workers described to Polygon, many additionally mentioned they nonetheless felt passionate concerning the tales Fullbright has been in a position to inform when different main studios weren’t doing so. However they usually felt conflicted given the low morale on the studio and the impact it had on builders who labored on these video games.

“It turns my abdomen to suppose that he nonetheless will get to put in writing these video games about girls’s tales when that is how he treats them in actual life, with presumably no signal of stopping,” one former worker mentioned. “I need girls within the business and this studio to really feel valued. I need susceptible younger girls who’re new to the business to be supported, not preyed upon. I need girls to not should concern retaliation from a strong ‘auteur’ determine for talking up. I need girls to really feel secure right here. I need girls to know that this isn’t regular. Greater than something, I simply need him to cease. He shouldn’t be allowed to maintain getting away with this.”

Replace: This story has been up to date to incorporate an announcement from Steve Gaynor.