Roughly 20 former id Software developers have launched an employee-owned independent studio called Hidden Horses and revealed their debut shooter, Danger Pay. Announced on November 11, the move follows Microsoft's mass gaming layoffs earlier this year. Hidden Horses says every current team member serves as a co-founder in a democratically governed company.
Its roster includes former lead VFX artist Todd Boyce, producer Andrew Willis, senior AI and gameplay engineer Daniel Young, senior technical designer Jordan Turner, principal technical designer Tim Locke, and senior skybox artist Allison Dombek. Former id Tech programmers Dustin Land, Regan Carver, and Ian Malerich also joined. Co-founder and executive producer Andrew Willis said the studio wants developers to share in its success and have a commitment beyond just another job, and that a stake increases commitment.
Danger Pay is a single-player arena first-person shooter casting players inside a televised, ultraviolent game show. The studio cites the 1987 film The Running Man. Hidden Horses plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign to help fund development of the title. A pre-launch page is already live for notifications, though the studio has not yet confirmed a funding target, release window, or target platforms.
On its website, Hidden Horses stated that employee ownership lets the team prioritize long-term health over short-term growth. It also pledged to favor innovative gameplay over shady monetization. The studio's launch comes months after Microsoft's July 2026 layoffs struck id Software and several sister studios. GamesRadar noted that Hidden Horses' announcement video described the cuts bluntly, with developers saying the layoffs "really felt like an attack." Without access to proprietary id Tech tools, Hidden Horses will also need to establish its own engine pipeline.
