In 2019, Chucklefish were accused of exploiting around a dozen voluntary contributors during the development of Starbound, sometimes logging hundreds of hours with no compensation. Many of them were teenagers at the time and stated that they felt their inexperience was exploited by company director Finn Brice. Chucklefish stated that contributors were under no obligation to create content or put in any particular number of hours.[14][15]
References
^Chucklefish published Stardew Valley on all platforms and gradually returned the publishing rights back to ConcernedApe, starting with: Linux, macOS, Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox One in December 2018,[4] Nintendo Switch in October 2019,[5] iOS in December 2021,[6] and finally Android in March 2022.[7]