Mediatonic's Paul Croft Forms Skeleton Crew Studio Collective

Mediatonic co-founder Paul Croft, best known for helping create Fall Guys before the studio’s acquisition by Epic Games, has unveiled a new multi-studio venture called Skeleton Crew. Announced via LinkedIn, Croft described Skeleton Crew as “a new group of gaming companies” formed to “support creators, make games, and help teams thrive,” marking his first major return to the industry since stepping away from Mediatonic’s leadership in 2023.​

The Skeleton Crew Has Three Active Studios

The Skeleton Crew label already includes three active game developers. It has Payload Studios (TerraTech Worlds), Brightrock Games (Galacticare), and Mythwright Games (Kaiju Cleanup). The studios will operate semi-independently under Skeleton Crew while sharing publishing support and recruitment resources. Croft emphasized that the group’s mission centers on collaboration: “Things are moving quickly; we’re actively building new studios, hiring across the group, and looking for new partners,” he said in his announcement post.​

Each of the founding teams brings a unique legacy of player-driven projects. Payload’s TerraTech Worlds continues to evolve in Early Access as a modular sandbox survival game. Mythwright’s Kaiju Cleanup, due out next year, has been praised for its humor and meta-commentary on simulation design. Meanwhile, Brightrock retains its reputation for inventive management sims after Galacticare expanded its niche appeal among strategy audiences that like indie games.

In his statement, Croft noted that Skeleton Crew will also incubate fresh teams from scratch, an approach reminiscent of Mediatonic’s early 2010s strategy of nurturing small development units under shared infrastructure. The first of these new internal studios is expected to be announced in the next few weeks, potentially focusing on projects outside the Fall Guys-style multiplayer blueprint that defined Mediatonic’s breakout success.

Croft’s re-emergence underlines a thematic shift toward decentralized, creator-first development collectives, a model echoed by recent formations like ProbablyMonsters and Tiny Hydra. After years in AAA ownership environments, Croft’s move signals a return to grassroots creative leadership. By aligning established teams with independent values and cross-studio mentorship, Skeleton Crew seeks to balance entrepreneurial freedom with shared sustainability.

As Croft puts it, Skeleton Crew aims to “build games for the joy of making them”, a statement that echoes the spirit of Mediatonic's earliest days as a university startup. While its first new projects remain unannounced, the group's collaborative foundation suggests a future built on experimentation, independence, and the lessons learned from scaling one of the most successful modern game studios.