Workers quit developer Skullgirls over Studio Head behavior

In June, two people showed up share their experiences with Mike “Mike Z” Zaimont, longtime fighting game player and lead developer behind Indie Darling Skullgirls, saying he made inappropriate sexual comments to them on several occasions. Lab Zero Games, the studio behind Skullgirls, has yet to respond to the allegations, prompting employees to take matters into their own hands.

“After weeks of trying to get things done with Mike Z, I decided to quit my job at Lab Zero Games,” art producer Brian “EU03” Jun wrote on Twitter yesterday afternoon. “I was shocked to read other companies’ tapes of talking about Mike Z putting others in extremely uncomfortable situations and exercising his position of power to demean and control employees. It was a clear pattern of systemic abuse and lack of empathy as he himself refused to take comments and showed no willingness to change.

The statement continues with an account of how the dynamics of Lab Zero Games played out behind the scenes after recent allegations against Zaimont. According to Jun, Lab Zero’s board of directors joined with the rest of the employees in asking Zaimont to step down as sole owner of the studio. Zaimont entered negotiations with the company, but after rejecting its “unrealistic and potentially illegal” demands, dissolved the board of directors and took full control of Lab Zero.

“While Mike Z thinks he can do what’s best for the business, he’s clearly in direct opposition to employee health,” continued Jun. “He clearly no longer wishes to negotiate with any sensitivity. To do what is best for my friends and colleagues, I am retiring from Lab Zero Games. “

Brandon Sheffield, director of Necrosoft Games, who wrote about the latest version of Lab Zero Games Indivisible, manifested itself shortly after June for share your own experiences working with Zaimont, who portrays the developer as an extremely difficult boss. Zaimont, Sheffield explained, was someone “on tiptoe” because of his bad attitude. The functionalities were “held hostage” depending on whether Zaimont wanted to work on them or not.

“This would only be done if you convince him, argue with him or pity him for enough days in a row that he reluctantly does the job, unfortunately, while complaining in your DMs,” Sheffield added. He eventually left the company around the time the earlier allegations began to come to the public.

Since these people came forward, several Lab Zero employees have apparently also left the company. Main artist Jessica Allen announced his own resignation in response to Jun’s statement without directly naming Zaimont, and artistic director Mariel Cartwright withdrew her affiliation with Lab Zero from his Twitter bio.

Update (8/24/20, 4:19 p.m. ET): Cartwright and fellow veteran artist Jonathan Kim have confirmed their departure from Lab Zero Games with separate statements.

“I tolerated the yearIt’s sexual comments about my body and my clothes, uncomfortable jokes, unwanted hugs, ”Cartwright wrote. “He once suggested that I masturbate when I told him I couldn’t sleep, and on another occasion he suggested that I ‘help’ him with his unmet sexual needs. I tried to tell him how uncomfortable I was in 2017, and in return he called me a hypocrite and blamed me for the way I dressed. He said he did not want training on sexual harassment. If I wanted to keep my job, I felt I just had to take care of it.

Lab Zero Games was once a promising studio filled with amazing artists and designers. While Zaimont may have been the audience, the driving force behind Skullgirls and Indivisibleeven he can’t make games on his own. The future of the studio and its games is currently on hold.Skullgirls was supposed to receive a long-awaited character next year before this latest wave of controversy – but whatever happens it will be without the help of the workers who can no longer handle a guy’s shit.

Zaimont did not respond to Kotakurequest for comment from.