Payload Studios is a British independent game studio founded by Russ Clarke to develop the ultimate exploration sandbox game – TerraTech.

Studio history:

Payload Studios founder Russ Clarke left London’s Ideaworks mobile studio 2012 to go on his very own indie adventure, pulling in his experience from working on beloved franchises like Metal Gear, Call of Duty, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider and Fable.

TerraTech started development in late 2013 and progressed rapidly, launching on Steam’s Early Access platform in February 2015. Building upon a wealth of community feedback, it was fully released on Steam in August 2018, with console versions following soon afterwards on Playstation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

The team expanded at pace and is now based in London Farringdon, where Payload have also founded the Tentacle Zone, a co-working space and professional network for game industry professionals. The team’s hard work and dedication was recognised when Payload Studios won TIGA’s “Best Small Studio” Award in 2020.

In 2021 Tencent, a leading internet and technology company, invested a minority stake in Payload. This investment will support the growth of the team and development of future titles with Payload’s signature community-driven model.