Laid-off Id Software devs form employee-owned studio Hidden Horses

Twenty-one former Id Software employees have banded together to form an employee-owned studio called Hidden Horses. The group aims to provide their staff with a vested interest in the studio's success. Co-founder and executive producer Andrew Willis explained, "We're creating a studio where the developers share in its success and have a commitment to it beyond just another job."

Hidden Horses plans to utilize this ownership structure to empower individual developers while maintaining the focused decision-making necessary to create ambitious games.

The studio is currently launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund its first project, the single-player FPS Danger Pay. The initial fundraising goal will cover the costs associated with starting a business and financing game development, including licenses, hardware, and healthcare. Founding member Regan Carver expressed his excitement about the venture, saying, "We're taking the two kinds of risk that I was holding before - can we succeed and does the company care about me? Now, we know we all care about each other, and we just have to succeed."

In July, approximately 136 Id Software employees faced layoffs. Despite these setbacks, the company assured that it still possesses the necessary team to build the games and technology for which they are known. The current team size is comparable to what they had when developing Doom (2016). Id Software maintains its flat studio structure where everyone is a maker and intends to remain true to this philosophy in the future.

The company is committed to supporting its team members, including those affected by the layoffs, as they continue to build the great games and technology that have defined the company for the past 35 years.