Former id Software developers establish worker-owned, independent studio Hidden Horses

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.