Steel Wool Studios, Inc., formally known as Steel Wool Games, Inc., is a video game development company that was founded on October 10, 2012, in Oakland, California, by Sequoia Blankenship, Andrew Dayton, Jonathan Hoffman, Joshua Qualtieri, and Jason Topolski.
Secret of the Mimic: Creature Designer & Fabricator
Marlena Abraham
RUIN: Senior Game Designer
Help Wanted 2: Lead Game Designer
Secret of the Mimic: Senior Game Designer
Alessandro Briglia
RUIN: Art Director
Help Wanted 2: Consulting Art Director
Secret of the Mimic: Art Director
Zachary "Zach" Cohn
RUIN: Quality Assurance Tester
Help Wanted 2: Quality Assurance Tester
Robin Crew
RUIN: Quality Assurance Tester
Help Wanted 2: Quality Assurance Tester
Kevin Douglas
RUIN: Environment Artist
Help Wanted 2: 3D Environment Artist
Secret of the Mimic: 3D Environment Artist
Hallie Erfourth
RUIN: Associate Technical Animator
Help Wanted 2: Associate Technical Animator
Secret of the Mimic: Technical Animator
Glenn Lattiere
RUIN: Lead UI Artist
Help Wanted 2: Lead UI Artist
Secret of the Mimic: Lead UI Artist
Cory Patton
RUIN: Game Designer
Help Wanted 2: Game Designer
Secret of the Mimic: Game Designer
Fran Pepe
RUIN: Quality Assurance Tester
Help Wanted 2: Quality Assurance Tester
Secret of the Mimic: QA Tester / 2D Artist
Julia Redden
RUIN: Associate Game Designer
Help Wanted 2: Associate Game Designer
Secret of the Mimic: Associate Game Designer
Leanna Russell
RUIN: Environment Artist
Help Wanted 2: 3D Environment Artist
Secret of the Mimic: 3D Environment Artist
Brian Salcedo
RUIN: VFX Artist
Help Wanted 2: Lead VFX Artist
Secret of the Mimic: Lead VFX Artist
David "Dave" Senita
RUIN: Principal Animator
Help Wanted 2: Principal Animator
AJ Smith
RUIN: Associate Producer
Chris Stuart
RUIN: Lead UX Designer
Help Wanted 2: Lead UX Designer
Secret of the Mimic: Lead UX Designer
Quest Washington
RUIN: Associate Game Designer
Help Wanted 2: Associate Game Designer
Secret of the Mimic: Associate Game Designer
Maes "MJ" Young
RUIN: Lead Producer
Help Wanted 2: Producer
Secret of the Mimic: Producer
Britney Anderson
RUIN: Human Resources Manager
Help Wanted 2: Human Resources Manager
Secret of the Mimic: HR Manager
Destinee Bailey
RUIN: Quality Assurance Tester
Secret of the Mimic: QA Tester / VFX Intern
William Bennett
RUIN: Associate Engineer
Help Wanted 2: Gameplay Engineer
Aspen Clark
RUIN: Senior Game Designer
Jim Davis
RUIN: Quality Assurance Lead
Secret of the Mimic: QA Lead
Jacob Hensley
RUIN: Engineer
Help Wanted 2: Senior Gameplay Engineer
Kevin Hunter
RUIN: Quality Assurance Tester
Help Wanted 2: Quality Assurance Tester
Secret of the Mimic: QA Tester / Engineering Intern
Trevor Lawrence
RUIN: Associate Engineer
Help Wanted 2: Gameplay Engineer
Secret of the Mimic: Gameplay Engineer
Ayesha Martin
RUIN: Office Manager/Executive Assistant
Help Wanted 2: Studio Manager
Secret of the Mimic: Studio Director
Marcy Mezei
RUIN: Lead Audio Designer
Help Wanted 2: Lead Audio Designer / Composer
Secret of the Mimic: Lead Audio Designer
Izayah-Patrick Phillips
RUIN: Quality Assurance Tester
Help Wanted 2: Quality Assurance Tester
Secret of the Mimic: QA Tester / Design Intern
Lucas "Luke" Przygocki
RUIN: Lead Engineer
Help Wanted 2: Lead Engineer
Ashley Siegal
RUIN: Social Media Manager
Help Wanted 2: Social Media Manager
Asa Spades Turner
RUIN: Engineer
Help Wanted 2: Gameplay Engineer
Secret of the Mimic: Gameplay Engineer
Paul Sullivan
RUIN: Producer
Help Wanted 2: Producer
Emma Wallace
RUIN: IT Manager
Sail Israel Aguilar
Secret of the Mimic: Game Designer
William Brooks
Secret of the Mimic: Gameplay Engineer
Forrest A. Blais
Secret of the Mimic: Associate Animator
Zachary Cohn
Secret of the Mimic: QA Tester
Shane Davis
Secret of the Mimic: QA Tester
Jonathan Gonzalez
Secret of the Mimic: Character Artist
Kym Gray
Secret of the Mimic: QA Tester / 2D Artist
Ignazio Quezada Herrera
Secret of the Mimic: Lead Lighting Artist
Stewart Johnson
Secret of the Mimic: Chief Technology Officer / Co-Founder
Hollie Kizer
Secret of the Mimic: Financial Manager
Chris Kromrey
Secret of the Mimic: Senior Technical Animator
Christian Love
Secret of the Mimic: QA Tester / Motion Capture Performer
Jessica O'Connell
Secret of the Mimic: Marketing / Community Manager
Luke Przygocki
Secret of the Mimic: Lead Engineer
Dave Senita
Secret of the Mimic: Animation Director / Lead Animator
Phillip M. Shaw
Secret of the Mimic: Senior Gameplay Engineer
Paul Stuart
Secret of the Mimic: Producer
Ryan Tompkins
Secret of the Mimic: QA Tester
Description[]
Steel Wool Studios, AKA Steel Wool Games is an independent studio of 20-ish superstars based in Oakland, CA. We create games. Sounds simple but it is a little more complex. We create games for entertainment as well as create games for enterprise projects. What does that mean? We use our game-making skills to both make games for fun but also to help in different areas such as Virtual Training and Virtual Therapy. Games are a universal language that has so many applications across the world and across different mediums. It is a common thread that binds us together and allows us to use our passion to help make others happy.
Fortified by veterans of Pixar, Midway, HTC, Intel, and Telltale Games who bring decades of experience in collaboration with an insanely talented crew of artists and engineers looking to help define the next decade of gaming. We’re so lucky to be able to work together and share a vision of what we want Steel Wool Studios to be.[1]
History[]
The founder of Steel Wool, Josh Qualtieri, who is a fan of NASA, wanted desperately to be involved in ongoing missions to explore the surface of Mars. He studied a degree in astrophysics for it, but the Martian exploration projects at NASA was then defunded. Without any other choice, he started working at Pixar, who needed smart mathematicians who could deal with complex computer algorithms. After helping to create several animated films, Josh and Pixar's technical director Andrew Dayton decided to try making a game. They created the team with three Pixar artists: Sequoia Blankenship, Jonathan Hoffman and Jason Topolski. They named themselves Steel Wool Games, and developed a cute mobile title called Flyhunter Origins. As a studio founded by Pixar creatives, they instantly drew attention from the gaming industry. The co-creator of Guitar Hero, Charles Huang discovered their newly formed studio early on and decided to help them.
Charles got a special invite to Valve for them, where they were given a behind-the-scene look at the company's work on the HTC Vive. They were blown away by the high level of immersion, and immediately pivoted out of the mobile games market, to instead focus on virtual reality. They changed their name to Steel Wool Studios, and successfully convinced HTC to provide them with funding and resources to create an original project for their new device by giving them an early demo for a VR game which later became Quar.
Josh, who is a Martian lover, created a realistic computer model for the Curiosity rover and put it into the VR world. Fascinated by how amazing it looks in VR, Steel Wool started making a VR game about exploring Mars, Mars Odyssey, to fulfill Josh's childhood dream.
Scott Cawthon later discovered Steel Wool's works, and he was very impressed. Eventually, Scott hired to studio to create a full VR remake of the original Five Nights at Freddy's game. Not long into development, though, they began to realize the problems with creating a direct translation of this relatively simple game, as VR was too immersive for Scott's original artwork and character models, and the flaws in designs and costumes could be easily spotted with greater visual fidelity. However, with the amazing animation skill of the team, they began to redesign a lot of art assets Scott had provided, adding additional hydraulics and machine parts.[2]
Windows, PlayStation VR2, PlayStation 5, Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest Pro, SteamVR, PICO Neo 3, PICO 4, PICO 4 Pro, PICO 4 Ultra, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S
Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch
June 13, 2025
In collaboration with Scottgames, LLC
Note: This section only lists the official Five Nights at Freddy's films/TV that Steel Wool Studios has produced and/or contributed to in some capacity.
Steel Wool Studios got its name when Sequoia Blankenship, one of the founders, drew a sheep inside a tank and exclaimed "Steel Wool." The team instantly fell in love with it.
