Seven developers. Self-funded. Their own publisher. And the founding credentials of the studio — Halo 4, Halo 5, Battlefield — are precisely the kind of background that creates expectations that need to be either validated or contextualized by what the game actually is.
GRAVHOUNDS is a 4-player co-op action builder where teams of bio-engineered dog workers are inserted into hostile alien planets to extract resources, build operational infrastructure through pipeline networks, and escape before the alien creatures overrun the position. The Grav Beam is the core tool that defines every action: it can launch objects across the battlefield, repel incoming enemies, and position the turrets, generators, and fabricators that the base-building layer requires. It’s the physics manipulation system that Unreal Engine 5 enables at scale.
The Extraction-Builder Hybrid
The specific genre combination is what distinguishes GRAVHOUNDS from its co-op survival neighbors. Most extraction games (Mistfall Hunter, Hellforged, BORROW or ROB — all covered this month) define the extraction as the primary tension: you gather, you decide when to leave, you lose everything if you don’t. Most builder games (base construction, pipeline networks, production chains) define the base as the primary goal: you build toward sustainability; the building is the satisfaction.
GRAVHOUNDS makes the same decision. The longer you stay on a hostile planet gathering resources, the stronger the alien attacks become — and the pipeline network you’re building is both the infrastructure that makes sustained extraction viable and the target that incoming enemies will destroy if you stay too long. The base exists to enable the extraction; the extraction is why you’re building the base; the extraction forces the question of when both things stop being worth it.
The physical chaos that the Grav Beam introduces into this structure is the specific entertainment vector that Josh Holmes describes as the heart of co-op play: “When plans fall apart, and players improvise together to overcome unexpected chaos.” A bio-engineered dog worker firing a Grav Beam that accidentally launches a turret at a teammate instead of the incoming alien — the specific unpredictable outcomes of physics-based co-op in a hostile environment — is what the team is building around as content rather than designing around as a problem.
The AAA-to-Seven-Person Translation
Josh Holmes’s framing of why Octopus Panic exists is worth examining directly. “Getting back to the essence of game development — making games directly” is the standard small-studio founding narrative. What makes it more specific in this case is what Holmes and Sims left to get there: Holmes was Creative Director on Halo 4 and Studio Head for Halo 5‘s FPS development at 343 Industries; Sims worked at DICE on Battlefield. These are large-studio leadership positions, not mid-level development roles.
The specific knowledge that transfers from those contexts to a 7-person self-funded studio is worth identifying. Physics-based multiplayer interactions at scale — what makes them satisfying rather than chaotic, how you design encounters that feel both emergent and fair, what the player feedback loop needs to communicate during high-intensity co-op moments — this is Battlefield and Halo design territory. GRAVHOUNDS is applying that expertise to a 4-player co-op context where the same physical systems that made those games exciting are scaled down to the size a 7-person team can actually build and maintain.
Scott Sims specifically cited removing unnecessary processes and maintaining close relationships with players as the structural advantages of the small studio. For an extraction game that will depend heavily on community feedback during Early Access to calibrate the stay/leave risk-reward tension, this is the correct operating philosophy.
The Game Pass Day 1 Signal
Xbox Game Pass Day 1 support for a 7-person studio’s self-published debut is not a standard arrangement — it reflects Microsoft’s specific interest in the game and the founding team’s relationships built through years of Xbox platform work at 343 Industries. The Game Pass inclusion significantly expands the potential player pool beyond what the game’s marketing budget alone could reach, and for an extraction co-op game that specifically needs groups of players, the additional reach matters for the health of the multiplayer community at launch.
Who This Is For
Strong fit for: co-op extraction game players who want physics-based environmental manipulation as the primary tactical tool; Halo and Battlefield players who trust the founding team’s AAA multiplayer design credentials applied to indie-scale co-op; players who specifically want the chaotic improvisation dynamic that physics-based co-op in hostile environments generates; Xbox Game Pass subscribers who want a Day 1 co-op option; players interested in the specific AAA-to-indie translation story that Octopus Panic represents.
Cautious fit for: extraction game players who prefer cleaner, less chaotic physics for precise tactical execution; players who want confirmed Early Access content scope before November; anyone who needs post-launch reviews before purchasing.
Less ideal for: players who dislike extraction game stay/leave tension mechanics; anyone wanting solo play as the primary design target; players seeking narrative-driven content alongside the extraction action.
The Takeaway
GRAVHOUNDS is Octopus Panic’s debut — 7 people, self-funded, self-published, the founders of whom made some of the most successful co-op multiplayer experiences of the previous decade, now building their own version of what co-op physics action should feel like at a scale their team can actually sustain. The Grav Beam extraction builder with pipeline networks and increasingly aggressive alien defenders is the specific game they chose to make with that expertise.
November 2 Early Access. Xbox Game Pass Day 1. The Grav Beam is ready. The alien planet is hostile. The pipeline isn’t finished. And the question of how much longer to stay before all three of those things stop being individually manageable is exactly the question the game is designed around.
Information regarding ‘Gravehounds’
| item | detail |
|---|---|
| Developer | Octopus Panic (Seattle, USA, 7-person team – Co-founders Josh Holmes, Scott Sims) |
| Publisher | Octopus Panic (Self-published) |
| Genre | Cooperative Action Builder, Survival/Extraction, Physics-based Shooter |
| platform | PC (Steam, Windows Store), Xbox Series X |
| Release date | November 2, 2026 (Early Access) |
| personnel | 1-4 player co-op |
| etc | Xbox Game Pass support from launch day, based on Unreal Engine 5 |
| Homepage | Shortcut |
| Steam Pay | Shortcut |
