Funding
Hidden Horses Reveals Danger Pay Ahead Of Planned Kickstarter
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A group of about 20 former id Software developers announced the formation of Hidden Horses on November 11, 2026. The independent, employee-owned studio also revealed its first game, the single-player shooter Danger Pay, and plans for a Kickstarter campaign to finance the business and the game’s development.
Hidden Horses says its founders bring more than 250 collective years of game-development experience and have collaborated for over a decade. Rather than pursue separate opportunities, they chose to retain the creative relationships and technical expertise developed while working together at id Software.
The formation follows layoffs announced at id Software on July 6, 2026. In the studio’s Foundation of Hidden Horses documentary, the team said the cuts affected 96 employees in Dallas County, Texas, and another 40 remote workers, totaling 136. They came one day before the launch of the Doom: The Dark Ages – Revelations DLC.
Former employees described learning in a brief group meeting that their roles were being eliminated. Their accounts also explain the logic of regrouping: the developers already trust one another, understand each other’s capabilities and have shipped games together, avoiding the need to establish those working relationships from scratch.
Shared Ownership and Creative Control
Hidden Horses is designed to give developers a meaningful ownership stake in the company. The studio intends to combine shared ownership and democratic governance with clear creative leadership, maintaining focused decision-making while giving developers a role in shaping the business throughout their careers. Its priorities include creative collaboration, technical craftsmanship and long-term sustainability.
“We believe the people who create games should have an ownership stake in what they build,” said Andrew Willis, co-founder and executive producer. “We’re creating a studio where the developers share in its success and have a commitment to it beyond just another job.”
Danger Pay and the Funding Plan
Danger Pay is planned as a single-player, first-person arena shooter set within a deadly game show. Hidden Horses cites the 1987 film The Running Man and arcade game Smash TV as influences, with the campaign description adding a sinister, deadly AI host and emphasizing high-octane action and gameplay-focused design.
The Kickstarter page lists the campaign as launching soon, so the studio remains in pre-launch rather than running an active funding round. Hidden Horses said proceeds would cover startup and development costs including licenses, hardware and healthcare; its target will be based on the first project’s timeline and associated costs, and reaching that goal would allow further development of Danger Pay to begin.
The funding plan gives the community around the developers’ earlier games a direct role in the studio’s independent future. If the target is reached, the same campaign would support both the company’s establishment and Danger Pay’s further development, while the ownership model gives the developers a direct stake in the results.
