Former id Software Developers Form Hidden Horses and Launch Danger Pay on Kickstarter

More than 20 developers laid off from id Software have formed a new studio, Hidden Horses, and they are asking players to help fund its first game.

The studio is employee-owned, which means the people who work there hold the company. According to Video Games Chronicle, Hidden Horses plans to make a first-person shooter, a game played through the eyes of the main character.

The first project is Danger Pay. It is a first-person shooter set in a deadly gameshow, and it takes inspiration from two well-known pieces of entertainment. The first is The Running Man, the 1987 film about a televised death game. The second is Smash TV, a 1990 arcade shooter in which players fight through rooms of enemies.

To pay for development, Hidden Horses has launched a Kickstarter campaign. Kickstarter is a crowdfunding site where backers pledge money to a project before it is finished, and they can receive rewards if it goes ahead. The campaign details, including its funding goal, are on the Kickstarter page.

Two members of the team have been named. Andrew Willis is a producer, the person who keeps a project's schedule and budget on track. Todd Boyce is a technical artist, who works between the art and the code so that characters and environments look right when the game runs.

Studios formed by laid-off staff are not new in the games industry, but each one starts with a small group making hard choices about a first project. Hidden Horses has chosen a shooter with a clear premise and a funding route that puts the project in front of players early. Anyone who wants to follow the work can find the campaign on Kickstarter.