High in their office block, Cohort Studios looks out across the heart of Dundee. Their development team has worked on some of Sony's top titles since the east-coast company was formed in 2006, including the PS3 launch title, Motorstorm and the Burnout franchise. Moreover, they have designed and developed two games for Sony's popular Buzz! Junior series on the PS2. CEO Lol Scragg explains why Cohort is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the Scottish gaming industry.
An ambitious company must have an ambitious man at the top. If you could create the ultimate game, personal to you with no restrictions, what would it be?
Lol Scragg (LS) - My dream would be to produce a next-gen version of Colony Wars, one of the products I produced many years ago. I have worked on many different games since, but Colony Wars is still close to my heart due to the great story, game and team (who interestingly, have all gone on to bigger and better things). So, a large expansive space game, with added trading and all online. Special appearance by Shatner to ham up the voice-overs and just because I want to meet the great man at some point!
Nice! so what can we expect from Cohort in 2009?
LS - Quite a lot, starting with a product in January and other products throughout the year. Unfortunately, we can't go into details but I am sure that they will raise a few eyebrows when people see what we've been up to.
We are also looking to potentially self-publish some of our titles in 2009. We feel there's a new market opening up which we are calling 'Casual+', for gamers who have played end enjoyed the traditional casual output from the likes of Popcap and BigFish, and may want to take the next step into gaming. This is an area we are keenly interested in.
Is this all part of Cohort reacting to the changing market? How will this effect what you take into account when developing a game?
LS - A lot of the recent data I have seen has showed that it is the older, 30+ gamers that are making the majority of the changes! However, no matter what changes are happening in the market, each game has its essential core market, whether this is 7-12 years olds, traditional 14+ boys, or the 30+ female market, and we have to tailor our titles accordingly.
We have found ourselves creating titles that are very much within the 'family orientated' area with our work on the Buzz! Jr titles, as well as our currently in-development projects. This means we not only have to consider what content we put into our titles, but also whether the core gameplay mechanics are suitable for that particular market segment.
How do you see the Scottish development community changing in the next decade, and how does Cohort want to change with it?
LS - I firmly believe we are up at the top with such [Scottish] companies as Rockstar, RealTime, Denki, 4J, Tag, Dynamo.... The list goes on and on. Unfortunately, I don't think we are very good at actually telling people how good we are, and if we are going to expand gaming within our region, we have to attract new companies to the area.
I'm sure that somewhere down the line a large publisher or developer will set up a large studio here which, alongside the numbers at Rockstar and RealTime, will bring critical mass to the region for games development. It can only be a good thing—we have the majority of the pieces already in place such as a constant local stream into the talent pool via the regional academic institutions—and the desire to succeed.
The Buzz! Jr games have shown that the Buzz! buzzers are far more dexterous than first thought. What other ingenious plans have you got up your sleeves to make use of them?
LS - I wish I could tell you... but I can't. However, as you mention, the Buzzers are a really interesting peripheral and the restriction on the numbers of buttons available has led to some really interesting and innovative game ideas.
Boo! Okay, but the future looks bright?
LS - We will be doing some interesting R&D on future gaming technologies which look years into the future. Hopefully we will have something to talk about in 2009! All in all, 2009 is looking like being an even better year for us than 2008—which is great, given that this year we expanded our company, moved premises and released two great games!
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