TheRetroArcade
Veteran
Posts: 13,441
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
Hidden Horses, co-founded by "approximately 20" former id devs, is planning a Kickstarter campaign to help fund its first project.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
As part of its July 2026 wave of Xbox job cuts, Microsoft laid off a reported 136 developers from id Software, a studio whose name is synonymous with expertise in shooter design and engineering. Today, "approximately 20" of those former id developers announced the formation of Hidden Horses, an employee-owned game studio boasting "over 250 collective years" of game dev experience between its co-founders.
"This team has spent years building games together, and we realized that what made that experience special wasn't just the projects we worked on; it was the people we worked with," Hidden Horses engine programmer and co-founder Dustin Land said in a press release. "Hidden Horses is an opportunity to keep that team together, build something of our own, and create the kind of old school shooters that we think people want more of."
On its website, the studio says it was formed as a democratically governed, developer-owned company so it can prioritize "long-term health over short-term growth, longevity over quarterly returns, and innovative gameplay over shady monetization"—for the sake of its games, and the studio staff creating them.
"We're creating a studio where the developers share in its success and have a commitment to it beyond just another job," said co-founder and executive producer Andrew Willis, "I think that when people have a stake in something’s success, they are more committed to it.”
The studio is planning to launch a Kickstarter campaign to support the development of its first planned game: a singleplayer arena shooter called Danger Pay, in which players will participate in a televised ultraviolent game show inspired by works like The Running Man (the 1987 movie, not the 2025 one) and 1990's Smash TV—a game that, I've just now learned, got a novella adaptation in 1992. So. Now I get to have that knowledge bouncing around.
"We've had the privilege of spending our careers making games for incredible communities of players," said Johnmichael Quinlin, studio co-founder and tools programmer. "Now we have the chance to build something new together, and we're excited to invite those players along for the journey from the very beginning."
If you want to stay posted on what Hidden Horses is up to, you can follow the studio on its Bluesky account.
From the creators of Edge: A free weekly videogame industry newsletter, featuring in-depth news, expert analysis and exclusive interviews
2026 games: All the upcoming gamesBest PC games: Our all-time favoritesFree PC games: Freebie festBest FPS games: Finest gunplayBest RPGs: Grand adventuresBest co-op games: Better together
Lincoln has been writing about games for 12 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
As part of its July 2026 wave of Xbox job cuts, Microsoft laid off a reported 136 developers from id Software, a studio whose name is synonymous with expertise in shooter design and engineering. Today, "approximately 20" of those former id developers announced the formation of Hidden Horses, an employee-owned game studio boasting "over 250 collective years" of game dev experience between its co-founders.
"This team has spent years building games together, and we realized that what made that experience special wasn't just the projects we worked on; it was the people we worked with," Hidden Horses engine programmer and co-founder Dustin Land said in a press release. "Hidden Horses is an opportunity to keep that team together, build something of our own, and create the kind of old school shooters that we think people want more of."
On its website, the studio says it was formed as a democratically governed, developer-owned company so it can prioritize "long-term health over short-term growth, longevity over quarterly returns, and innovative gameplay over shady monetization"—for the sake of its games, and the studio staff creating them.
"We're creating a studio where the developers share in its success and have a commitment to it beyond just another job," said co-founder and executive producer Andrew Willis, "I think that when people have a stake in something’s success, they are more committed to it.”
The studio is planning to launch a Kickstarter campaign to support the development of its first planned game: a singleplayer arena shooter called Danger Pay, in which players will participate in a televised ultraviolent game show inspired by works like The Running Man (the 1987 movie, not the 2025 one) and 1990's Smash TV—a game that, I've just now learned, got a novella adaptation in 1992. So. Now I get to have that knowledge bouncing around.
"We've had the privilege of spending our careers making games for incredible communities of players," said Johnmichael Quinlin, studio co-founder and tools programmer. "Now we have the chance to build something new together, and we're excited to invite those players along for the journey from the very beginning."
If you want to stay posted on what Hidden Horses is up to, you can follow the studio on its Bluesky account.
From the creators of Edge: A free weekly videogame industry newsletter, featuring in-depth news, expert analysis and exclusive interviews
2026 games: All the upcoming gamesBest PC games: Our all-time favoritesFree PC games: Freebie festBest FPS games: Finest gunplayBest RPGs: Grand adventuresBest co-op games: Better together
Lincoln has been writing about games for 12 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?