In August, several employees of Lab Zero Games, the developer of "Skullgirls," resigned from the studio after an internal investigation uncovered an alleged pattern of inappropriate behavior by lead designer Mike Zaimont, who had taken control of the company. Shortly thereafter, Zaimont fired all remaining employees. Today, some of the studio's former members announced that they have launched a "cooperative, independent game studio" called Future Club. [CEO and producer Francesca Eskenazi said, "We wanted to start over with an employee-owned corporate structure and give everyone a say in the future of the organization. Future Club is an employee-owned, collaborative game development studio founded on the belief that a strong team is greater than the sum of its parts. We pride ourselves on our strength as a team, valuing open and honest communication with our peers, partners, and players."

The studio currently consists of 15 developers, and while no projects have been announced yet, the studio states that it is "currently developing a new IP."

"We chose the name Future Club because we love classic games and are heavily influenced by them, but we also want to think about the future," said senior animator Jonathan Kim. 2D hand-drawn animation has a long future ahead of it, and we want to create games that inspire children and adults in the same way that our favorite games of the past inspired us. Like the games that have inspired us, our goal is to create engaging, beautiful games that will be remembered long after their time."

Future Club is also working proactively to avoid the kind of trouble that ultimately brought down Lab Zero: along with the co-op structure, it has established a conflict resolution system up front so that employees can raise and address issues as they arise.

"When you're in the early stages of a company, as we were with 'Lab Zero,' it's very easy to think, 'Everyone gets along, everyone is excited about this new venture, there will be no problems, no need to worry,'" said Creative Director Marielle Kinuko Cartwright told Kotaku.

"But problems do happen, and you have to know how to deal with them. We have learned that it is too late to think about the conflict resolution process after a conflict has already occurred. It's really, really important to think about solutions while we are still getting along, and hopefully we can come up with a plan that will allow us to work together for years to come."