Why the Valheim devs casually spun up a new studio while working on 1.0

With Valheim 1.0 still in the works, spinning up a new studio feels like quite the choice, but that's what these Iron Gate devs have done.

My first thought when I saw Grip Jaw was 'what the hell?' I immediately recognized the studio's lineup of devs, which include current Valheim creative director Robin Eyre, producer Andreas Tomasson, and head of business development Emilia Oscarsson. How, I asked, are the trio somehow working on a brand new Lethal Company-inspired game, as a brand new developer collective, while simultaneously pushing towards the hit survival game's 1.0 launch? The pressure is already on: 2026 is the year that puts Valheim back on the map, although I'd argue it never left. What on earth is happening?! After previewing the team's latest endeavor (a chaotic co-op dungeon crawler called Begraved) with Eyre, Oscarsson, and Grip Jaw community manager Jade Mcintosh, I finally got to ask that burning question: "why a new studio?"

It's worth stating up front that Grip Jaw is a separate entity from Iron Gate, despite its obvious ties. The pair operate independently, with Valheim remaining the main focus. But the Grip Jaw journey began "a little over a year ago," Eyre recalls with a laugh. "Andreas and I decided 'hey, we really like Lethal Company,' and we just wanted to make something in our spare time. We've been working on Valheim for many, many years, and that's the only thing we do when we go to Iron Gate. Lethal Company was so fun, we wanted to put our own twist on it and tried to improve where we felt there [could be] improvements.

"Begraved is a very small-scale project, so it felt like 'oh, this is doable with two people.' Then we showed it to Emilia, and she got really interested and wanted to jump on-board as well, and we've been friends with Jade for so long, so it was like 'yeah, how about you come on board as well?' But why do this? Because it's fun."

Oscarsson agrees excitedly, "it's fun!," but takes a moment to contemplate. "Being an employee of a company tending to 'another person's game' in a sense always comes with restrictions, approvals and those kinds of things," she says. "You don't feel the complete freedom that you get from something that is made on your own, on your own time: basically you own it in every aspect. I think that's also a very important factor: it feels like creativity. When you do it for your own sake and it's something that you like and think is fun, it gives you the passion to go the extra mile."

Eyre nods in agreement. "There's a certain level of expectation when working on Valheim and the community, and specifically when you're working across platforms. There are a lot of limits on when you can push updates because it has to be crossplay and so on." Begraved, by contrast, offers a different level of flexibility: "'Can I just make this thing one evening and throw it into the mix?'" he muses, rhetorically. "That's one thing that doesn't have to go through approvals and stuff like that, which is pretty nice."

"It's not a triple-A environment at Iron Gate, is it?" Jade asks, receiving a resounding "NO!" from in both Eyre and Oscarsson. "But there's still something about having your own projects, even if you've got a lot of freedom in your day job," he continues, prompting some fierce head nodding.

As a spectator, however, I don't get the sense that there's any ill-will towards Valheim or its publisher, Coffee Stain, here - I'm assured that 100% of the duo's time is spent bringing 1.0 to life during the day. Instead, if Valheim is the big brother, Begraved is the plucky, mischievous little sibling that's simply here as a creative outlet, while also bringing some serious good vibes. I, for one, am okay with that.

Spinning up a new studio out of nowhere - no matter how small it seems - is an ambitious undertaking, however. While, on the surface, Begraved is a fun side project, having dragged both the Grip Jaw team and a group of pals around its dungeons, it's surprisingly complex. I ask about the positives and negatives of creating a brand new dev team and IP from scratch.

"We really wanted to push something for ourselves and just make something creatively, but also push our own little company on the side," Eyre says. "It started as a game, but in order to consolidate everything and have a good point of origin, [we decided] okay, maybe the next step is having a separate company on the side just producing this."

"It's also a practicality thing," Oscarsson continues. "We wanted to get the game out to people to play it, and to be able to have a Steam page you need to have a company. I think that [made it] more of a necessity as well." Eyre nods: "We didn't want to have our own bank accounts coupled to the Steam page. We wanted to have that as a separate entity so that we didn't get in trouble. It just felt like a natural thing, I guess.

"When it comes to how we can do this, it's because Iron Gate has allowed us to be able to do whatever. We own whatever we do in our spare time, so this isn't my first game project that I'm doing on my side, but rather this is the first that we're trying to push as a complete game. It's very fun and interesting to have this extra arm; we just like making games." Oscarsson echoes this, claiming that living in Sweden's "Silicon Valley of games" encourages that relentless passion. "People [here] just love to make games; the creativity and the urge to do so is extremely important."

It's understandable, however, that some Valheim fans may feel a little bit perturbed. In my interview with them back at Gamescom 2025, Eyre and Tomasson acknowledged that Iron Gate is "slow" when it comes to communication, and while we're aware that Valheim 1.0 is dropping this year, there's no official release date or window in sight. Despite being from a different studio, Begraved could easily be misconstrued as a needless distraction, especially at such a critical point in Valheim's lifecycle. I ask how the team has attempted to mitigate any ill feeling.

"If someone's just seen a quick tagline, 'Valheim devs' new game,' and we've probably used it a little bit when trying to get some reach, there could be worries that things aren't getting done as much on Valheim," Mcintosh says. "So we've made sure that from day one we've had good good explanations on our FAQs; we're trying to explain its completely different projects - Iron Gate, Coffee Stain; they've got nothing to do with this.

"We just want to make people aware that Valheim is special - it's special to me, I've made, like, 2,000 videos on it, I don't want to see anything go wrong with it!" While he notes that a "couple of comments have been made on Reddit and stuff," the vast majority of responses have been "really supportive and understanding. Yes, you can work on a game during the day for a company, and then go home and work on something on your own."

"A few people have come from Valheim and tried Begraved out," Eyre continues. "The support has been really nice in that way. Most people do understand that this isn't a Valheim competitor in any sense or way, and that's why it does work pretty well. It's a small-scope, fun game. And yes, we do have people coming in hating, but it's mostly the same people who hate on our Valheim socials anyway."

"They're wondering where the 1.0 update is," Mcintosh jokes. "Or why they haven't fixed inventory slots. I mean some of these are legit, I really want equipment slots added to Valheim, by the way." This is met with a knowing smile and a playful "calm down" from Eyre, to which Mcintosh responds "I'm sorry, I'll delete the rest of the posts from yesterday." I haven't deleted mine, though, insert eyeball emoji.

From both my time playing Begraved and chatting to its devs, it's clear that all of this is about one thing: fun. It's a commodity that feels like it's going out of style with videogames these days but, to borrow Fable creator Peter Molyneux's phrasing from a different interview, "it's okay to be happy." I think we're all finally starting to realize that. Begraved is a game that genuinely made me happy: joyfulness exudes from this team. So yes, forging a new studio ahead of the 1.0 launch of your gigantic survival game is absolutely wild, but if it makes you as happy as this chaotic trio, throw caution to the wind.