IGDA reacts to accusations of abuse at Trendy [UPDATE: Prez steps away from managing]

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has reacted to reports that Trendy Entertainment practiced abusive and sexist practices during the development of Dungeon Defenders and Dungeon Defenders II. Not surprisingly, the organization is disturbed by the reports.

According to executive director Kate Edwards, “While we have no direct knowledge of the situation if the media reports on the working conditions at Trendy Entertainment are accurate, the IGDA’s stance on this is very clear. We know, as has been well documented, that extensive overtime is not only ineffective from the point of view of productivity, but it is also destructive to employee morale. Studios engaging in excessive overtime injure the reputation of the entire game industry, preventing top talent from entering and remaining in game development, and harming the goodwill of other studios that work rigorously to ensure quality of life for their developers.”

Edwards also addressed the alleged sexism. “Further we believe that gender discrimination of any type has no place in the workplace and is completely unacceptable,” she pronounced, ”As with excessive overtime, creating an environment that is hostile or discriminatory against anyone whether via race, gender, sexual orientation or other means only further reduces morale and creates an atmosphere that can hinder the successful retention of talent and creation of games that appeal to a wide variety of players.

“The IGDA provides resources, education and information to individual developers and their employers who wish to create a better working environment for their employees. From our 2004 whitepaper to our Code of Ethics adopted in 2009 to our current work coordinating our resources with academics studying and working to help bring light and solutions to this issue, we continue to be extremely concerned about addressing these types of issues for the developer community. We believe that when everyone from management down is educated and aware of the impact poor quality of life and a lack of diversity provides, they will make the choices that are in everyone’s best interest.”

Trendy company president Jeremy Stieglitz, who has been accused of harrassing, bullying and making sexist remarks and overtones, has yet to respond to allegations.

[UPDATE: Kotaku is reporting that Stieglitz will no longer supervise staff on Dungeon Defenders II.

An employees said of the change, ”Things are currently changing since the release of this article and for the first time, I sat at work yesterday and did not feel the usual hopelessness. I would ask that the community try to not judge all of us on the actions of a few and to not completely abandon our game before it has been released. There are people with families here and people who really want to make a great game and it is looking like we may have a chance to do so now.”

Stay tuned.]