A group of former id Software developers have formed Hidden Horses, an independent employee-owned studio that is already laying the framework for a new "high-octane" single-player FPS.
Hidden Horses has broken cover months after Microsoft carved through the id Software team when announcing 3,200 layoffs across Xbox Game Studios. Those cuts arrived despite the studio being repeatedly praised for its work on the Doom franchise.
The nascent studio currently comprises 20 people with extensive experience working together at id Software, including former lead VFX artist Todd Boyce, principal engine programmer Dustin Land, senior AI and gameplay engineer Daniel Young, producer Andrew Willis, senior technical designer Jordan Turner, principal technical designer Tim Locke, and senior skybox artist Allison Dombek.
Instead of going their separate ways after id Software was gutted by Microsoft, the group have established a new studio on a bedrock of "experience, creative relationships, and technical expertise developed during over a decade of collaboration."
"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," said co-founder and engine programmer Dustin Land. "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."
The studio's debut project, Danger Pay, is billed as a classic arena-based FPS influenced by media like Smash TV and The Running Man. "The game will take place on a deadly game show run by a sinister but charming AI host. Our game will focus on classic FPS gameplay, awesome weapons, crazy enemies, and will be highly optimized," reads a teaser on the studio website.
Danger Pay will be funded, in part, via a Kickstarter campaign that is still being finalised.
"We do not look at this company as a 'get rich' investment vehicle"
As a worker-owned, independent entity, Hidden Horses employees will have a meaningful stake—and say—in the company's future. Speaking to Vertical Slice, studio co-founder Andrew Willis explained that structure means equity is divided among its workforce, not investors. It also means the team has democratic mechanisms in place to elect leaders, select projects, and steer the overall creative and financial direction of the business.
"Our structure is quite flat, and we elect leaders when needed. Financially, this means we are not subject to investor demands and the preservation of the company and the jobs it sustains is paramount over needless growth and our "capital" doesn't compete for returns with other potential investments, said Willis.
Willis feels democratic governance means project buy-in across the board, which he says is vitally important when crafting a creative work. "Heavy buy-in means you get the maximum effort from folks because its has their influence in the project's direction. It allows all ideas to be considered and means we don't miss out on any contributions from our employees just because they don't sit high up in some arbitrary hierarchy," he added.
Despite their time at id Software ending under the cloud of corporate-sanctioned layoffs, Willis said the Hidden Horses team learned valuable lessons during their tenure. There were also some cautionary tales.
"We've replicated some things, changed somethings, and added others [from our id Software days]," he said. "Overall, I think top-down hierarchy is something we all have bad experiences with—we also don't want to trend chase or make a game by focus group. We want to make the kinds of classic gameplay focused games that we would play ourselves. We think there is a market for that and our experiences with the gaming community in our past work history informs that."
It's still early days, but when looking to the future Willis explains that Hidden Horses will not be pursuing growth for growth's sake. The aim is to build a studio that lasts—a scarcity in the modern video game industry—by making products that deliver enough sales to sustain careers and nurture talent, not generate absurd returns for investors.
"We want to create a vehicle that allows us to make games for our livelihoods, not to make crazy profits and get 100x returns. While we will always try to make games that resonate with as many people as possible, as an employee-owned studio, we do not look at this company as a 'get rich' investment vehicle and more as a mechanism that sustains itself over the long-term," said Willis.
"We have fans that want this type of game and developers that want to make these types of games—we think that mutually beneficial relationship can blossom and provide value for everyone for a long time."
Chris is an award-winning reporter with over a decade of experience covering the video game industry. He was formerly news editor at Game Developer and is currently the founder and editor of this resplendent website.
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