Debut shooter from Octopus Panic, founded by DICE/343 Industries veterans, announced at Gamescom Opening Night Live
Seattle, WA, USA – August 25, 2026 – Independent developer and publisher Octopus Panic today announced GRAVOUNDS, a new 1-4 player co-op action builder coming to Early Access on PC and Xbox Series X|S on November 2, 2026, and available day one with Xbox Game Pass.
The announcement trailer revealed at Opening Night Live showcases the game’s chaotic, physics-driven mayhem, tasking players with dropping into hostile planets as a pack, building defensive fortifications, and extracting with valuable resources before becoming alien chow.
See the GRAVHOUNDS announcement trailer here:
GRAVHOUNDS is playable this week at Gamescom on the Xbox booth in Hall 7. See more of GRAVHOUNDS this week on the Xbox @ Gamescom livestream starting at 3pm CEST on Wednesday, August 26.
About GRAVHOUNDS
GRAVHOUNDS is a frantic 1-4 player co-op action builder where players drop into hostile planets as a pack of bio-engineered canine workers built for dangerous planetary operations. To survive the closing swarm and secure their haul, players must bend gravity to their will, improvise under fire, and successfully extract before they are overwhelmed.
Every mission is a risk-reward balancing act with deploying turrets, generators, and complex pipeline networks across treacherous alien terrain. The longer a pack decides to stay and push for high-value materials, the deadlier and more aggressive the alien swarm becomes.
GRAVHOUNDS features:
- 1-4 Player Co-Op – Intense alone, chaotic with a crew. Combine each Gravhound’s unique strengths and improvise to beat back the swarm. Go lone wolf to expand the operation or stick with the pack to stand your ground.
- Bend Gravity to Your Will – Use the powerful Grav Beam to fling objects across the battlefield or send enemies flying. Disclaimer: transporting volatile materials may result in unforeseen loss of Gravhounds.
- Build to Survive – Deploy turrets, generators, and fabricators to expand your operation. Extend pipelines across hostile terrain to power your base, move critical resources, and keep your eventual escape route alive.
- No Two Shifts Play the Same – Unlock powerful new abilities and upgrades mid-shift. Stack bonuses and reshape your loadout to adapt to a swarm that grows deadlier by the second – but so do you.
- Move Fast, Die Last – High-speed mobility allows players to boost in any direction, hover, and reposition under heavy fire to race to a teammate’s aid or make a last-second dash for materials.
- High-Risk Extraction – Seek out treacherous planets for the best materials. Stay longer and push harder to increase your rewards, but beware: every extra second escalates the swarm, turning each shift into a high-stakes bet on what your pack can handle.
GRAVHOUNDS is developed by Octopus Panic, founded by veterans of 343 Industries and DICE, with development led by Halo 4 Creative Director and former Halo Studios Head, Josh Holmes.
“GRAVHOUNDS started with a simple idea: a crew of blue-collar dogs stranded on the far side of the galaxy, still expected to show up for work,” said Josh Holmes, co-founder of Octopus Panic. “For us, the best co-op moments are when things unexpectedly go off the rails, and somehow you still pull it off together.”
“We founded Octopus Panic with the desire to get back to the heart of development and spend our time making games again,” said Scott Sims, co-founder of Octopus Panic. “With a team of seven full-time developers, we’re all hands-on with every part of development, can iterate quickly without overhead, and, most importantly, stay close to the players. Being self-funded and self-published gives us the freedom to build GRAVHOUNDS the way we believe it should be built. We’re incredibly excited to finally get the game into players’ hands, hear what they have to say, and work alongside the community to make the game even better throughout Early Access.”
Players can now wishlist GRAVHOUNDS on Steam (and Windows Store) and keep up to date with the latest development updates on GRAVHOUNDS.com.
About Octopus Panic
Octopus Panic is a small independent game studio that creates games with enough freedom for players to surprise us. Its close-knit team of industry veterans builds cooperative adventures around experimentation, improvisation, and memorable stories shared between players. Its first game, GRAVHOUNDS, is a 1-4 player co-op action-builder about blue collar dogs stranded on the far side of the galaxy.
