Gaggle Studios

What is Gaggle Studios?
Gaggle Studios Inc. is a privately held Canadian game development and publishing company founded in April 2020 in Toronto, Ontario. The company is best known for Goose Goose Duck, a free-to-play social deduction game that reached 800,000 concurrent players across PC and mobile in January 2023. The company employs approximately 18 people and raised $2 million in seed funding from Makers Fund in 2021.

Is Gaggle Studios publicly traded?
No, Gaggle Studios is not publicly traded. The company is privately held and owned by its four founders: Shawn Fischtein, Simon Chu, Christopher Gloyd, and Ben Gallego. Makers Fund holds a minority stake from the April 2021 seed funding round. No IPO plans have been announced.

Who founded Gaggle Studios?
Gaggle Studios was founded in April 2020 by Shawn Fischtein (CEO), Simon Chu (CTO), Christopher Gloyd (Director of Operations), and Ben Gallego (Art Director). Fischtein and Chu had prior experience building startups in mobile app development and location-based interactive entertainment. The four founders launched the company during the COVID-19 pandemic to create social games with integrated voice and video chat.

Where is Gaggle Studios based?
Gaggle Studios is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The company also maintains an office in Irvine, California, in the United States. The company's workforce of approximately 18 people is distributed across five countries: Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Argentina. This distributed model allows the studio to hire talent without geographic restrictions.

How many brands does Gaggle Studios own?
Gaggle Studios owns one flagship game title, Goose Goose Duck, and operates a platform at gaggle.fun hosting several social games and escape room experiences. The company's portfolio is concentrated on a single game rather than diversified across multiple titles. The 2026 Chinese licensing deal expands the Goose Goose Duck IP rather than adding a new product line.

Who owns Gaggle Studios?
Gaggle Studios is owned by its four founders: Shawn Fischtein, Simon Chu, Christopher Gloyd, and Ben Gallego. The founders retain controlling ownership. Makers Fund, a venture capital firm focused on the games industry, holds a minority stake from the April 2021 seed funding round. No other external investors have been disclosed.

What is the Goose Goose Duck Chinese licensing deal?
In 2026, Gaggle Studios licensed the Goose Goose Duck IP to Kingsoft World Games for a Chinese mainland mobile version, co-published with Huya, a Chinese live-streaming platform. The licensed version launched open beta testing in January 2026 and surpassed 10 million new user sign-ups within six days. The financial terms of the licensing agreement have not been publicly disclosed.

Gaggle Studios was founded in April 2020 by four individuals: Shawn Fischtein, Simon Chu, Christopher Gloyd, and Ben Gallego. The founding team came together during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when social distancing measures made in-person gatherings impossible. Fischtein and Chu had prior experience building successful startups, ranging from mobile app development to location-based interactive entertainment. They identified a gap in the video game market for frictionless, integrated voice and video-chat gaming that could replicate real-life social experiences in a digital environment.

The company began developing Goose Goose Duck shortly after founding. The concept emerged from the team's internal experience playing Among Us, during which they identified mechanics they wanted to improve. Rather than modding an existing game, they decided to build their own social deduction game with built-in proximity voice chat and additional role variety. The team pitched the concept to Makers Fund, which was simultaneously approaching them with a similar idea for a social deduction game.

In April 2021, Gaggle Studios closed a $2 million seed funding round from Makers Fund. The funding was announced simultaneously with the launch of Goose Goose Duck on Steam Early Access on April 29, 2021. Michael Cheung, Partner at Makers Fund, stated that the investment was driven by the opportunity in hangout-style gaming amid widespread changes in social behavior. The funding was allocated to growing the development team and improving the content creation pipeline.

Goose Goose Duck launched on Steam Early Access on April 29, 2021, with a full early access launch on October 3, 2021. The game initially attracted a small player base. Western streamers picked it up briefly in early 2022, driving concurrent player counts to around 20,000 on Steam, but the surge was temporary.

The company's trajectory changed dramatically in November 2022 when Kim Tae-hyung, a member of the K-pop group BTS known as V, streamed the game on WeVerse. The 11-minute stream triggered a sustained viral wave, primarily driven by Chinese players accessing the game through Steam's unofficial availability in China. By January 2023, Goose Goose Duck reached 700,000 concurrent players on Steam and 800,000 across PC and mobile combined.

Fischtein's background in consumer behavior analysis in the Chinese market informed the studio's understanding of why the game resonated there. The social deduction genre, typified by games like Werewolf, was highly popular in China but under-served in video game form. The studio released new maps and roles to capitalize on the surge, including a duck role with remote elimination abilities.

Following the viral peak, player counts declined substantially through 2024 and 2025. The game's concurrent Steam player count settled into the range of 5,000 to 10,000 by 2026. The decline reflected the typical lifecycle of games that experience streamer-driven viral spikes without a sustained content ecosystem.

In 2026, Gaggle Studios licensed the Goose Goose Duck IP to Kingsoft World Games for a Chinese mainland mobile version, co-published with Huya, a Chinese live-streaming platform. The licensed mobile version launched open beta testing in January 2026 and surpassed 10 million new user sign-ups within six days. Peak concurrent users on the Chinese mobile version reached the 700,000 to 1,000,000 range. The Chinese version includes localized content such as Chinese voice chat shortcuts, new game modes, and a themed variety show called "Goose Awards."

As of August 2026, Gaggle Studios continues to develop and update Goose Goose Duck on Steam and mobile platforms. The most recent update, version 4.10, added two new roles: Swordsman Duck and Magpie. The company has not announced new game titles beyond Goose Goose Duck and the gaggle.fun platform offerings.

Gaggle Studios has not published a sustainability report or third-party environmental certification. As a small digital game studio distributing exclusively through digital channels, the company does not have the physical manufacturing footprint associated with physical products. The company operates with a distributed remote workforce, reducing commuting and office energy consumption.

In terms of ethical practices, Gaggle Studios has been noted for its player-friendly monetization approach. Goose Goose Duck does not use loot boxes, which have been subject to regulatory scrutiny in several countries for resembling gambling mechanics. Cosmetic items are sold as fixed bundles rather than randomized rewards. The game does not display ads on any platform, which is unusual for a free-to-play mobile game.

The game's voice chat feature, while central to its appeal, has raised concerns about unmoderated voice interactions between minors and adults in public lobbies. Gaggle Studios has not published formal community safety audit data or detailed moderation policies for voice chat content. This concern is common to social deduction games with voice features but is particularly relevant given Goose Goose Duck's large mobile player base, which skews younger.

The company maintains an active community engagement program through Discord, social media, and regular content updates. Gaggle Studios has not been involved in documented labor disputes or environmental controversies.