Facepunch Studios

Facepunch Studios is an independent British video game developer and publisher based in Birmingham, England. Founded in June 2004 by Garry Newman and collaborators, the studio develops games and creation tools centered on player freedom, physics, modding and emergent multiplayer interactions. Its portfolio spans sandbox platforms, survival games and smaller experimental projects, with development, self-publishing and ongoing community support forming core parts of its work.

The company began during development of Facewound, a side-scrolling shooter prototype. Newman's experiments with a physics sandbox modification for Valve's Source engine subsequently became Garry's Mod, which launched commercially on Steam in November 2006. The game grew into a major community-driven sandbox platform, surpassing 20 million lifetime unit sales. Its success preceded the studio's formal incorporation in 2009.

Games and creation platforms

Rust entered Steam Early Access in December 2013 and received its full PC release in February 2018. Its multiplayer survival design emphasizes player interaction and base building, allowing encounters between players to shape the experience. The game surpassed 14 million sales and developed a substantial streaming audience. PlayStation and Xbox editions followed in 2021 through a development partnership with Double Eleven, which developed and supports the console versions.

Facepunch's broader catalogue includes Clatter, a turn-based multiplayer arena tactics game released in 2018, and Chippy, a twin-stick bullet-hell shooter released in 2019. These projects reflect the studio's use of internal prototyping to explore ideas alongside its larger games.

The studio also develops s&box, a game development and creation platform built on Valve's Source 2 engine with C# scripting. Presented as a spiritual successor to Garry's Mod, it extends Facepunch's focus on giving players and developers tools to create their own experiences. Across its work, the company combines game production with developer SDKs, modding tools, live operations and community content curation.