Veterans of Fall Guys Launch New Game Studio Panic Stations

A team of seasoned developers from the popular game Fall Guys has founded a new game development studio called Panic Stations. This studio focuses on creating humorous, physics-based cooperative multiplayer games with the goal of releasing several titles each year. The founding members, including Steve Taylor, Dan Hoang, Joe Walsh, and Oliver Hindle, all held senior positions at Mediatonic, the studio behind Fall Guys, while fellow founder Paul Croft was a co-founder of Mediatonic. The studio's mission is to develop entertaining and lighthearted cooperative games that incorporate physics and humor, with plans to unveil their first game soon. The studio features a distinctive branding theme centered around pigeons, complete with an in-universe trailer and social media presence. According to Walsh, the studio's Design Director, the opportunity to reunite with former colleagues and create the most absurd games possible was too good to pass up. Croft expressed his enthusiasm for the online cooperative gaming space, which has evolved significantly over the past few years, and is excited to collaborate with old friends to build games that bring immediate joy to players and foster a sense of community. Following the massive success of Fall Guys, Mediatonic was acquired by Epic Games in 2021, but later experienced significant layoffs when Epic reduced its workforce in 2023. Panic Stations is the first new studio to be established under the Skeleton Crew initiative, which was announced by Croft earlier this month. This initiative aims to create a network of independent game development studios that share common values such as small teams, focus, creativity, and kindness, with the goal of empowering talented individuals to produce their best work. The founding teams of Skeleton Crew include Payload, Brightrock, and Mythwright, which have previously collaborated on PC game releases like TerraTech and Kaiju Cleanup. Currently, Panic Stations is recruiting for a limited number of positions in art, engineering, and level design.