Hi everyone, and welcome to a special edition of the blog.
Today’s post won’t touch on any Dandelion Void content. For those just interested in the game, don't worry: today’s post is an extra entry in between our normal two week devlog schedule, so this blog isn’t taking the place of a normal game-focused devlog. Please look forward to more exciting updates on the game next week!
For those interested in how our industry works, and how our experience as game workers has shaped us, this post is for you!
The News of the Day
In light of yesterday's layoffs at Bethesda, Obsidian, and Id, subsidiaries of Microsoft, we’d like to start by sharing a link to the Game Worker Hardship Fund. This fund is for game workers in the US and Canada who have been impacted by record layoffs and other hardships in the games industry since January 2024. We at Manzanita Interactive contribute to this fund every month as dues-paying members of United Videogame Workers-CWA.
If you’re a concerned player and you’d like to make your voice heard, we humbly request you upvote and boost this post on Microsoft’s official feedback portal. Top posts on this portal make it to XBOX CEO Asha Sharma’s desk.
If you’d like to help more, please stay tuned into our union’s social media for further updates. Another good starting point would be to to read and share A Player’s Guide to Supporting the Labor Movement in Games.
At moments like this, it feels like the power game industry bosses have over us is like an inevitable force of nature with no alternative in sight. But there are alternatives, and we’d like to share our story to illustrate this point.
Flying the Co-op
Our game director Brian Ostrander recently spoke at the Game Worker’s Conference on a panel about worker-owned cooperatives, or “co-ops.” You can find the talk as part of this stream, at timestamp 04.59.20. But what’s a co-op?
A traditional company is divided between the owners of the business, and the workers the firm employs. With scant exception, the owners get to make all decisions: what products are made, what hours the employees work, how much the employees are paid, whether new employees should be hired or existing ones should be fired, etc.
This puts the typical worker at the mercy of the typical boss. Most owners will try to pay themselves as much as possible, and their employees as little as they can get away with. They can fire you whenever they like even if the company is profitable. You might have some basic protections from labor law, or more robust rights through a union contract. Your boss might be a kind person and offer more benefits than they’re required to. But the default is that all decisions which could affect you are made by somebody else.
By contrast, ownership of a worker cooperative is shared between most or all of the workers. Important business decisions are made democratically, either by direct vote or the actions of elected officers. When a co-op does well, everybody gets to share the benefit. If and when the company struggles, everybody pitches in to right the ship. Day-to-day creative decisions are often still made by a game director, but that person is accountable to the wider group.
Co-ops are rare in the games industry, but in recent years our ranks have been growing – for example, Brian was joined on the GWC panel by representatives from Soft Chaos, Rocket Adrift, and Pixel Pushers Union 512.
Why a co-op?
Before Dandelion Void, the founding members of Manzanita Interactive were rank-and-file employees at different companies in the video game industry. After witnessing many of the biggest problems in the games industry – layoffs, crunch, loss of credits, and harassment to name a few – we realized that we deserved better
Most of us met each other as members of the movement to unionize the game industry, through an organization called Game Workers of Southern California. Dara and Robin helped unionize the indie company they were working at, and eventually bargained our country’s first-ever union contract for game developers. Roland and Brian helped cofound the United Videogame Workers-CWA, an all-inclusive direct-join union spanning across all roles in the industry.
In 2023 Brian was hit by the beginning of the wave of video game layoffs. In between job applications he started a side project called Dandelion Void, and in 2025 he launched a Steam page with modest expectations. After an ensuing flood of wishlists, though, it became clear that it was meant to be more than just a side project. But he couldn't make the game alone.
There were a lot of unknowns at this time, but after all Brian had gone through he knew for sure that he had no interest in becoming somebody's boss. It didn't take long to decide that the studio making Dandelion Void should be a co-op.
Balancing fairness and efficiency
In a parody of a worker-owned cooperative, you might imagine a dysfunctional mob of conflict-averse developers who vote on the color of each pixel. In reality, worker-owned co-ops have access to the best of both worlds between fairness-oriented democracy and efficiency-oriented delegation.
A common model, and one we use at Manzanita Interactive, is that decisions about game production are made more hierarchically, while decisions about the company are made democratically. Let’s break it down:
Decisions about game production:
Dandelion Void has a specifically appointed game director, Brian Ostrander. He doesn’t make every decision, but he is responsible for maintaining the overall vision
Since we’re small, the team plans most game features in collaborative brainstorming sessions. Individual contributors are empowered to suggest and directly implement new features. Brian is responsible for providing direction to make sure that everything contributes to the overall vision
As a small group that is able to reach consensus, Brian rarely has to play his “final say” card. If Manzanita Interactive were to grow larger, the role of the game director would likely become more pronounced in order to maintain a single game vision amongst a larger group of individuals
Decisions about company matters:
When it comes to choices like company policies, how much individuals are paid, which organizations the cooperative partners with, how future profits are divided, and other bread-and-butter workplace matters, these decisions are made together by the worker-owners
In most cases we shoot for unanimous consensus on these decisions, which is often achievable as a group of just 4 co-owners. More contentious decisions might be put up for a formal vote, which for most matters requires a 66% supermajority
The execution of specialized company duties are handled by elected officers – at the moment, a treasurer and a secretary. They are able to make low-level decisions directly, but always remain accountable to the entire group
The reason for the split is simple. Game decisions need to be made efficiently and with a clear artistic vision. Democratic input is highly valued, but consensus isn’t always necessary or achievable. But when it comes to choices that affect your livelihood, the most important thing is that every voice is heard and the final decision benefits the collective. Efficiency is still important in company decisions, but never at the cost of losing our agency over our livelihoods.
Co-op nitty-gritty and FAQ
Because worker-owned cooperatives are still uncommon in our industry, we’re used to fielding questions and concerns about the day-to-day realities of the model. Here are some of the most common ones:
How do game co-ops benefit players?
A characteristic of many non-cooperative game studios is a need for maximum growth at all times, even if it’s not sustainable. In the past several years we’ve seen scores of beloved game studios closed by their parent companies, even when they were profitable – because they weren’t profitable enough. From an investor or parent company’s perspective, they would rather see one studio produce 100x returns and the other 9 shutter, rather than simply overseeing 10 sustainable studios. This hunger for infinite growth also leads to exploitative business models and corner-cutting production measures like AI slop which degrade the players’ game experience.
By contrast, worker-owned cooperatives are more likely to prioritize sustainability in their business model. A cooperative is much more likely to be happy with the proposition of simply selling enough of one game to continue developing and improving it, or move on to make a new game when the time is right. This focus on sustainability leads to more reasonable business models and a less aggressive impulse to cancel games.
Why not just form a normal studio and be nice to your employees?
Something we often hear from owners of non-cooperative businesses is, “I support the model, but it’s not needed for us. We already provide [xyz benefit] to our workers.” This reflects a simplistic understanding of the problems in the games industry: that there are too many bad bosses, and we need to replace them with good bosses.
To this we would say: would you be happy living under the rule of an all powerful king, as long as the king is a nice guy? Of course not! Let’s break down what it means to be a good boss:
“A bad boss”:
Pays workers minimum wage or even illegal rates of pay
Incompliant with labor law
Mean or disrespectful to workers
Makes all decisions about the company, often capriciously and without explaining their reasoning
“A baseline boss”:
Pays workers industry standard wages
Compliant with all legal regulations
Professional demeanor with workers
Makes all decisions about the company, and communicates these decisions promptly
“A good boss”:
Pays workers at or above industry standard wages
Provides services like healthcare even when not legally required to
Interpersonally kind to workers
Makes all decisions about the company, but often asks workers for their opinion beforehand
One thing you’ll notice is that the bad boss and the good boss are defined by their deviance from the baseline boss. If you’re worse than average to your workers you’re a bad boss, and if you’re better than average you’re a good boss. But who defines the baseline? What if the baseline is insufficient?
A good boss might offer healthcare, even when not required to. But what kind of healthcare? Does the healthcare meet the individual needs of the workers? Just because your situation is better than average, it doesn’t mean that the situation is good or fair.
In a way, the “good boss” arrangement isn’t even fair to the good boss. If I had to make every decision about a friend’s life – where they live, what career they pursue, who they date, and whether they start a family – I would certainly try to make the most benevolent choices possible. But a lot of my guesses would be wrong; my friend would suffer considerably, and I wouldn’t be having much fun either. I don’t necessarily envy bosses who are in the position of having to guess which decision will be most fair to the majority of people at their company.
Wouldn’t the truly fair thing be to make that choice democratically?
Are there any exceptions to all workers being owners?
In our definition of a worker owned co-op above, we specified that most or all of the workers must be co-owners. Let's talk about the exceptions in the “most” case:
New hires:
In the majority of co-ops, you don’t become a co-owner immediately upon your hire. Instead you enter what is called a “member-candidacy phase,” a period of anywhere between 6 months and 3 years during which the co-op members evaluate whether you are a good fit to become a long-term co-owner. During this period, member-candidates have a more traditional employee-employer relationship to the cooperative.
This period exists because it would be impractical for every new employee to immediately become a co-owner of the company. As much as we want to make the correct hiring decisions and give every newbie a chance to succeed, sometimes a new hire just isn’t the right fit. The candidacy period allows this evaluation to occur before they are entrusted with the responsibility of being a co-owner.
Short-term contractors and service providers
In a case where a specialized employee is only needed for a shorter time than the duration of the candidacy period, they might not ever have a path towards membership. Some examples might include an accountant who only works for the company during tax season, or a specialist consultant who only works for a few weeks. In these cases, it is impractical for such a transient relationship to result in co-ownership.
Abuse of exceptions
It is important to be upfront that both of these exceptions can be abused; a business with 3 co-owners and dozens of contractors might try to call themselves a cooperative, but if the majority of working hours are performed by non-owners then it’s not an appropriate label.
It is up to co-op founders to ensure that these exceptions are only employed for legitimate purposes. Cooperative bylaws should regulate the cases in which non-member labor is used, and co-owners must carry themselves in a day-to-day manner that is compatible with cooperative principles.
How do co-ops get funding?
Co-ops can receive funding by many of the same avenues any business would, with some caveats.
Member capital contributions (personal savings, family money, etc.) are used by many co-ops to cover their startup costs
Outside investors can be pursued by offering preferred non-voting stock with targeted annual dividend payments. It’s important that the stock sold in this way remain non-voting, to ensure operation of the co-op remains controlled by worker-owners
Royalty-based publishing agreements are compatible with the co-op model since no equity in the company is given away. This is especially relevant for co-ops in the games industry
What’s the difference between a worker co-op and co-ops like REI or my local grocery store?
One of the reasons we stress the term “worker co-op” is because on its own, a co-op can refer to a few different types of organizations:
Worker co-ops are businesses owned and run by the workers they employ, as described in this article
Consumer co-ops are businesses collectively owned by the customers who patronize them, like the sporting goods store REI or many local grocery stores
Producer co-ops are organizations collectively owned by a number of smaller businesses, most common in agriculture. Sunkist, for example, is a cooperative co-owned by owners of orange farms
Other types include housing co-ops, utilities co-ops, credit unions, and more
It’s important to note that while there are benefits to each of these cooperative models, consumer and producer co-ops don’t necessarily treat their workers any better than a normal business does. For example, REI workers recently held a boycott against their employer in protest of the company’s sabotage of union negotiations.
If co-ops are so great, why aren’t there more of them?
Two main reasons:
Money: Any new business requires access to startup capital before they become self-sustaining. Since the goal of a cooperative is to distribute funds equitably among its members, many investors see them as providing lower returns. Founders who are independently wealthy will usually want to own their company in whole.
Inertia: When your company structure is irregular, everything is a little bit more difficult. There are many good resources on starting up cooperatives, but it’s hard to find them all in a central place. There might not be clean legal avenues for you to formally incorporate as a cooperative in your locality. Service providers like lawyers, accountants, payroll software, and health insurance providers might make assumptions that are incompatible with your model.
Both of these are reasons why it’s so important for all of us to build and contribute to an ecosystem of cooperatives and cooperative-oriented funding and business services. The more we can build up momentum, the easier it will be for our model to take root
What is the relationship between co-ops and unions?
All of us come from union organizing backgrounds, and founding Manzanita Interactive is a continuation of this work. The common element between a worker-owned cooperative and a labor union is that both are structures that empower worker democracy within their workplace. Both provide huge benefits to workers and the overall community.
The main advantage of a labor union is that it allows workers to gain say over a job that they’re already working at, and gives them more access to the profits that they’re already creating. Every worker deserves the fruits of their labor: why should they have to start an entirely new business when they’re already creating value? The disadvantage of a labor union compared to a cooperative is that even with a strong union contract in place, there are usually a subset of decisions that the company owners still get to make unilaterally.
The advantage of a worker-owned cooperative is that they maximize fairness by removing the concept of a boss entirely, allowing workers the most direct control over their circumstances. The main disadvantage is that founding a co-op combines all of the challenges of designing a fair system, with all of the challenges of founding a successful business. This means that you need a strong product, a customer base, and access to startup capital and/or family money. The combination of these factors that allowed us to found Manzanita Interactive can be considered a “lightning strike” moment, which the average co-op founder can’t plan to replicate. For this reason, being part of a worker-owned cooperative is dramatically less accessible than being a union member.
For the foreseeable future there will be an urgent need for both types of organization, and it’s up to participants in each movement to collaborate towards our shared vision of fairness, worker power, and community benefit.
Motion to adjourn the meeting?
Whew! Today’s post covered quite a lot of ground.
To be frank, it’s been a strange year for each of us at Manzanita Interactive. Dandelion Void finding a welcoming audience has been a career-defining opportunity for us. During this extraordinarily fortunate moment in our lives, we’ve also been watching our colleagues laid off in the hundreds and thousands, including some of our closest friends.
As you might expect, there’s quite a bit of survivor’s guilt going around the (virtual) halls of Manz-Int. Our hope is that by pioneering and promoting the worker-owned cooperative model, we can begin planting the seeds of a fairer, more stable industry. But we are also clear-eyed that the games industry is not one new co-op away from having all its problems fixed. It is up to all of us to fight for the industry that we as workers, and players, want to see.
On your way out, please consider upvoting the Microsoft feedback post.
We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s special feature; next week we’ll be returning to previewing more information on Dandelion Void. In the meantime, as always, everybody please take care and have a great week.
– Robin and the Manzanita Interactive team