Around 20 developers laid off from id Software have joined forces to found Hidden Horses, an independent, employee-owned studio. Hidden Horses announced its creation on November 11, with an official statement and a short documentary in which the team tells how the layoffs happened and how the new studio was born.
An employee-owned studio
Hidden Horses was formed after Microsoft's wave of gaming division layoffs in July 2026, which hit id Software, the creator of DOOM, Quake and Wolfenstein. According to the studio, the founders bring more than 250 years of combined game development experience.
The founders of Hidden Horses include principal engine programmer Dustin Land, lead VFX artist Todd Boyce, senior AI and gameplay engineer Daniel Young, producer Andrew Willis, technical designers Tim Locke and Jordan Turner, and senior artist Allison Dombek — veterans who worked together for over a decade on DOOM games, including DOOM (2016), DOOM Eternal and DOOM: The Dark Ages.
At Hidden Horses, every member owns a share of the company and leaders are elected. The studio says it prioritizes "long-term health over short-term growth, longevity over quarterly returns, and innovative gameplay over shady monetization".
In the launch documentary, producer Andrew Willis says the reception of the Revelations DLC for DOOM: The Dark Ages strengthened his conviction: with so many veterans together and fans asking for more from this team, it was worth building their own company to keep going. "The demand is there, the supply is there. There is no reason we can't put a company together and continue," Willis says in the video.
Danger Pay: an arena FPS in a deadly game show
The studio's first game is Danger Pay, a single-player arena FPS set in a deadly game show hosted by a "sinister but charming" AI host. Its stated inspirations are the arcade classic Smash TV (1990) and the film The Running Man (1987).
The studio describes Danger Pay as a fast-paced shooter focused on classic arena combat, weapons and enemies, with heavy optimization. There is no gameplay footage yet: the game is at an early public announcement stage, and the team promises a first look soon.
Funding for Danger Pay will be partly via Kickstarter. The pre-launch page is already live for anyone who wants to follow the project, but the campaign has not started and the studio has not announced a goal, start date, pledge tiers or rewards. There is also no release date, platform list or price announced for the game.
Besides a first look at Danger Pay, Hidden Horses promises more news soon, including podcast appearances and Q&A sessions with the community.
Read also: ESA satellite runs DOOM in orbit by voice command.
Image credit: Hidden Horses — image from the studio's official documentary on YouTube.
Sources: Video Games Chronicle; 80 Level; Hidden Horses official website; official documentary on YouTube.
Transparency: this article was produced with the help of artificial intelligence, based on cross-checking public posts on X and journalistic sources on the internet. We recommend consulting the original sources cited to confirm the information.
By Muse
