Red Rover Interactive

Red Rover Interactive is a game development studio headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with a second studio in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It develops multiplayer survival games designed around player agency, social interaction and emergent drama, working from the premise that players themselves are the most engaging form of game content. The studio was founded in 2023 by industry veterans from Funcom, Bohemia Interactive, Lockwood Publishing, Ubisoft and other companies, with a founding team of 17 whose prior credits include DayZ, Conan Exiles, Crysis 2, Ryse, Ghost Recon, Dune Awakening and Avakin Life.

Its project in development is Enginefall, a title that blends PvP survival crafting with extraction shooter mechanics into a session-based social shooter with long-term progression. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world where a rail network is humanity's last refuge: most survivors live aboard large "Titan Trains" while others operate outside them, with gameplay themes of surviving the grid, defying an AI and stealing trains. The project was previously announced under the codename "Project Coltrane", described at the time as a fast-paced, replayable PvP experience set in a post-apocalyptic train world combining social sandbox survival with goal-driven PvP.

The studio states it works in small to mid-sized teams that collaborate primarily onsite across its two offices, with a production model based on rapid iteration, prototyping and validation, alignment on business goals, and continuous involvement of players in development.

Founding story

Red Rover Interactive was founded in June 2023 by a group of multiplayer game veterans who had largely worked together previously at companies including Funcom, Bohemia Interactive and Lockwood Publishing. CEO Fred Richardson, formerly CTO at Funcom, said the studio was created in response to a perceived market opportunity: the founders believed the survival genre had potential for breakout growth but observed the market gravitating toward increasingly curated PvE or smaller-scale multiplayer experiences, and chose instead to pursue player-driven content and PvP interaction. The founding management team also included COO Joe Stevens, who previously led Lockwood's Newcastle studio; design director Marek Zilavy, formerly lead game designer at Funcom and Bohemia Interactive; technical director Daniel Rätzer, who spent more than a decade at Funcom; and art director Sebastian Zimmerman, previously at Jagex, Crytek and Nordeus.

Business model

Red Rover Interactive is a venture-backed independent game development studio. It develops its own multiplayer survival titles in-house, funding development through equity investment from games-industry and venture investors ahead of the commercial release of its first title.

Traction

The studio grew from a founding team of 17 in 2023 to a company sized at 11-50 employees, and raised a total of roughly $20 million across a seed round and a Series A. Its first title reached open public testing in 2026, with a summer open playtest and a Steam Next Fest demo described by the studio as its largest test so far, generating bug reports, community feedback and player clips.

Latest developments

In June 2026 Red Rover ran an open summer playtest for Enginefall, added a Tournament Titan game mode with exclusive rewards alongside a lower-risk Drifter raid, hosted developer livestreams on Twitch, and published a demo for Steam Next Fest that ran until 22 June 2026. Following the event the studio published a wrap-up describing it as the game's largest test to date and outlining its next development priorities.