Stress Level Zero

Stress Level Zero
Information
Type	Private company
Industry	Video games, Virtual Reality
Founded	2014
Founder	Brandon Laatsch, Alex Knoll
Headquarters	Los Angeles, California, United States
Notable Personnel	Brandon Laatsch (co-founder, director), Alex Knoll (co-founder, creative director)
Products	Hover Junkers, Duck Season, Boneworks, Bonelab
Website	https://www.stresslevelzero.com

Stress Level Zero is an American independent video game studio based in Los Angeles, California, that develops physics-driven Virtual Reality games. It was founded in 2014 by Brandon Laatsch and Alex Knoll, and is best known for the physics combat titles Boneworks (2019) and Bonelab (2022).

The studio's games are built around a proprietary physics framework, the Marrow engine, which simulates the player's full virtual body as a dynamic ragdoll and models the inertia of weapons and objects so that interaction is driven by physical simulation rather than scripted animation. Both Boneworks and Bonelab launched commercially well: Boneworks passed 100,000 players in its first week, and Bonelab grossed an estimated one million US dollars within an hour of release, which Meta described as the fastest start of any Meta Quest title to that point.

History

Background and founding

Co-founder Brandon Laatsch came to game development from filmmaking. He met Freddie Wong while studying at the University of Southern California, and the two built a large following making action and visual-effects videos on YouTube, founding the production company RocketJump in 2012. Laatsch and Wong parted ways in 2013, with Wong continuing in online video and Laatsch moving into game production. Laatsch and Alex Knoll, both from a film and visual-effects background, founded Stress Level Zero in 2014 to make virtual reality games. Knoll serves as the studio's creative director.

Hover Junkers and Duck Season

The studio's first title, Hover Junkers, was released for the HTC Vive on April 5, 2016, near the headset's launch. It was a multiplayer-only shooter in which players pilot small customizable hover ships and physically duck and lean behind scrap walls to take cover, an early example of room-scale VR combat that used the Vive's Lighthouse tracking. A single-player campaign was added after launch.

Stress Level Zero followed with Duck Season, released on September 14, 2017. Framed as a 1988 light-gun duck-hunting game played in a child's living room, it turned into a horror narrative as the in-game dog hunting companion crossed into the player's space. A flat-screen version, Duck Season PC, followed on June 17, 2019.

Boneworks

Boneworks was released on December 10, 2019, for Windows PC VR headsets including the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Valve Index. Built in Unity, it was the first showcase of the studio's Marrow physics engine: the player has a fully simulated virtual body, and weapons, tools, and environmental objects behave according to mass and momentum rather than fixed animations. The game reached the top of Steam's top-sellers list on release day and surpassed 100,000 players in its first week, which Road to VR estimated at roughly three million US dollars in gross revenue before platform fees and refunds. Reviews were mixed: it drew praise for its physics sandbox while critics noted motion-related discomfort and rough edges. It holds a Metacritic score of 72 out of 100.

Bonelab

The studio's next title, Bonelab, was first shown as "Project 4" at Oculus Connect 6 in September 2019 and formally revealed at the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase on April 20, 2022. It was released on September 29, 2022, for the Meta Quest 2 standalone headset and Windows PC VR. Bonelab extended the Marrow physics systems to standalone hardware and added an avatar-swapping mechanic that changes the player's height, strength, and abilities. Meta said the game grossed about one million US dollars within its first hour of release on the Quest store, making it the platform's fastest-selling title at that point. Like its predecessor it received mixed reviews, with a Metacritic score of 65 out of 100; reviewers credited its combat and physics while criticizing the campaign's pacing. The studio supported it after launch with patches that added mod-browser integration through mod.io.

Marrow engine

The Marrow engine (sometimes styled the Marrow Interaction Engine) is the proprietary physics framework Stress Level Zero builds on top of Unity. It originated during the development of Boneworks and contains the studio's physics solvers and interaction logic. The avatar is treated as a dynamic ragdoll subject to gravity, momentum, and collision, and held objects carry simulated inertia, which the studio uses to drive grabbing, climbing, melee, and gunplay through physical simulation. The engine carried over to Bonelab, and Stress Level Zero has continued developing a second-generation version, Marrow 2, for later releases and updates.

Funding

Stress Level Zero received investment from Transcend Fund, a venture firm focused on virtual and augmented reality, announced in July 2020. The studio has remained independent and privately held.

Games

Title	Release date	Platforms	Notes
Hover Junkers	April 5, 2016	HTC Vive	Multiplayer room-scale VR shooter; the studio's first title
Duck Season	September 14, 2017	PC VR	Horror narrative built around a 1988 light-gun game; Duck Season PC (flat-screen) followed on June 17, 2019
Boneworks	December 10, 2019	HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Valve Index (PC VR)	First game on the Marrow physics engine; 100,000+ players in week one
Bonelab	September 29, 2022	Meta Quest 2, Windows PC VR	Brought Marrow physics to standalone hardware; grossed about 1 million US dollars in its first hour

Current status

As of 2026 Stress Level Zero remains active. In January 2025 co-founder Brandon Laatsch confirmed that Boneworks was being ported to the Meta Quest 3 using the Marrow 2 engine, with the port adding inside-out body tracking, and that the studio had begun pre-production on its next game.