“Yep. How many different types?”

“Oh… um. I’ll get back to you!” *rubs hands together and imagines the possibilities*

Last year, Nickelodeon Addicting Games commissioned us to devise and develop an original game for their re-brand. This is how our initial ideas for the game turned from the above into…

… and then tried to make sure story never got in the way of game-play. I’m going to start talking about themes and character arcs in a bit. Before there’s any eye-rolling, I fully understand and endorse that writing in games is just a layer of polish. For all my fondness for interactive narratives, emergent storytelling etc etc, Edward and the Strange Invasion was always intended to be a fun experience of exploring from A to B to C and either dodging or combatting the occasional beastie en route.

Still, we had this fantastic opportunity to create an original story-world and it’s not like there aren’t already one or two games on the internet about generally moving around and fighting weird creatures. So how could we personalise this apocalypse?

In many ways, I think the majority of stories are ‘coming-of-age’ tales whether they mean to be or not: Protagonist wants something, faces challenges and obstacles and either changes or resists change in order to achieve or fail their goal.  In this case, once the concept of Edward had been sketched out, I had the vague notion of a boy with his head in the clouds of science fiction, waiting for some alien intervention to come and make his life better only to realise that he’d actually have to do it himself.

For one thing, this idea gave the game a more optimistic starting point – rather than the disappearance of everyone on Earth being a distressing inciting incident, it presents a degree of escapist wish-fulfilment for Edward (who, after all, only accidentally survived the apocalypse because he was hiding in an emergency bunker by choice so that he could read old science fiction paperbacks)

But, of course, poor Edward doesn’t have the town to himself for long. Not only are there a number of beasties gallumphing round town, but Edward is repeatedly instructed by the mysterious Doctor Zee and Agent X on missions of great importance. The idea that you first encounter these characters as potential imaginary friends or delusional symptoms (ie – that they are figments of Edward’s idealistic view of science fiction) quickly gives way to a bickering pair of characters who ultimately have bungled up their own intergalactic mission so are dumping it on Edward – now he has to get around town performing chores without the other town’s inhabitants getting in his way/eating him. Poor Edward!

This is where the idea of Victorian science fiction author E.T. Lunchcraft first appeared – ultimately a figure who had unintentionally taken the reality of the interstellar back-story and spun in it into fun escapist tales.  Adding books as collectibles around town not only gave us the opportunity to come up with some daft puns and references to our favourite classic science fiction stories, but the idea of going ‘off-mission’ in order to find an escapist book seemed thematically apt.

(also – I don’t think I ever told anyone this, but as well as being an obvious pun on H.P. Lovecraft, E.T the Extra-Terrestrial and…er… mid-day meals, to my mind E.T. Lunchcraft’s first name was also Edward, just to give them an extra connection)

Ultimately, a lot of the above was just all just sub-text that can all sound a bit poncey to talk about (not to mention largely irrelevant in game-play terms) but this game was commissioned as having a narrative with a definite end point and I wanted to make that ending feel as satisfying as possible. Once we’d gotten the arena of the game and put all our ideas for events, set-pieces, puzzles and battles into a structured list, the script began to take shape, but building up to… what?

*SPOILERS*

Edward battles a big boss. That’s definitely the end of the game-play. So what could an ending cut-scene add? How could it offer any sense of catharsis after a climactic final fight? This is why I think the petty conflict between Doctor Zee and Agent X along with Edward’s disappointment at their manipulation was so important. We always knew a number of players would skip through the dialogue to get to the good stuff, so to a degree there’s an element of Edward getting annoyed at his mentors in the dialogue too and generally being moderately miffed with the ‘reality’ of this sci-fi scenario.

Naturally, we tried to make sure that the dialogue didn’t actually interfere. As with any script, many lines were cut and we had to ensure that Zee and X were also useful in making sure the player always knew what they were meant to be doing. But there are about a dozen lines in the script that I would have fought to keep in had anyone asked me to change them. But no one ever did which hopefully meant that, on some level, we all knew those lines were key.

Our design team excelled themselves both in terms of quality and quantity of art assets and animations for this game and our developers worked around the clock to create vivid script engines, lighting effects and the action (flamethrowers!) that are the main draw and (in no uncertain terms) the main point of playing this game. There’s a good chance I overthought about all of this. But this is why I am pleased with how the final cut scene works with the game and hopefully doesn’t just feel tagged on by paying off the battles and story beats scattered throughout.

By the time you get there, we’ve already revealed everything were going to. There’s no extra twist. Just maybe the feeling that Edward has completed their mission. Not his. But… now he gets to shake off being told what to do and maybe triumphantly enjoy his own adventures on other worlds. After all, most games tell you what to do all the time – set you challenges then try and make it even more difficult for you. So if players took the time to complete our game, I hoped we could invigorate them with that same sense of triumph and freedom as Edward achieves, having undertaken a journey.

Game Over.

Well done, player one – the Universe is yours!

Edward and the Strange Invasion is free to play on Nickelodeon Addicting Games. We hope you like it!

I’ve now been at Team Cooper for a little over six months so wanted to take a moment to look back at my degree, a BSc Games Software Development from Sheffield Hallam University and how it prepared me for the exciting world of digital amusements.

Here at Team Cooper my job role covers a variety of activities across Flash, web technology and the games spectrum. So, while not an exact parallel to what I covered at university, I was reasonably prepared for what I was getting into when I stepped through the door.

Even though ActionScript 3 hadn’t been my main programming language while studying, that didn’t mean that I couldn’t apply the logical approaches to programming, development and investigating new technology that I had picked up over the past three years while dusting off the part of my brain that loved Flash. There are generic programming techniques and approaches that I picked up during my studies which were invaluable in getting to grips with any any technologies that were new to me. Technical know-how aside, the tutors also did a good job of drumming the importance of working as a member of a team and setting up assignments to emphasise cross-discipline team development, but it still took some quick adjusting to get on the same page as my co-workers. This is something I think any new starter will experience as there are a lot of aspects to working in a professional team that you can only learn while being a part of one. At Hallam, I was also provided opportunities to listen to talks set up by the university from veterans of the industry, providing useful insight and information on their experiences (and it was at one of these talks that I first encountered Team Cooper).

I think that if I was to go back and do it all again, knowing what I know now, there are a variety of things I could have done differently. As with all students, I could say I would have spent less time ‘socialising’ and more time working. I could have spent extra time working on, researching and including more unique ideas outside of what I was taught in my portfolio of work – I’d managed a fair few pieces but much of it still consisted of generic student assignments.

I know I was very lucky to be able to go straight from university into my ideal job. It has been strange going straight from full time education into full time employment, but it’s also a very exciting time to be working here at Team Cooper.

Hi, I have been fortunate enough to join Team Cooper as Digital Project Manager.  This is now my second week and I am enjoying working with such a creative and brilliant team of people. I have over 20 years experience in delivering a range of solutions, supporting and mentoring teams. I am  passionate about what I do and what makes working at Team Cooper so great is that I love games and love playing them…um, testing them.

I started my career in South Africa as an HR & Payroll Software Consultant where I implemented systems for over 50 clients. I then moved to the UK and worked as a Software Consultant implementing Enterprise Management Solutions. I was far too techie and used to spend many hours in cold server rooms. However this is where I found my talent and was called ‘the warm and fuzzy one’ as I could comfortably go into situations where clients were not happy and would help resolve end user issues.

The natural progression was to move into Digital Project Management which I did in 2000. I am a veteran having surfed through the various ups and downs of the different internet booms and crashes. I am hoping that I can use my various practical skills along with a mix of my mischievous character and of course my psychic powers to enrich the team as everything they do is awesome!

Angelique or Angel if you like.

Smiles,
Angel.

Having survived the Mayan apocalypse, we realised it’s about time we took on an extra digital designer to complement our existing in-house design talent.

We build digital amusements* for a range of international clients so we’re looking for someone who is digital through and through. You’ll have a wide range of experience designing interfaces for a variety of audiences and brands with UX considerations in mind.

We are not looking for a graphic designer who has done a bit of web, nor are we looking for a web coder who wants to focus on design. What we ideally need is a versatile, digital creative and while this is primarily a design based role, any illustration, 3D modelling or other digital audio/visual skills you have would come in very handy.

This is a mid-weight to senior role and the successful candidate will play a large part in influencing the future standard of digital design within the company. You’ll be involved throughout a variety of projects, from initial concepts for pitches right through to designing the look and feel of all manner of fun digital things such as Flash games, Facebook apps or HTML5 content for mobile devices.

You’ll get to work in a shiny office environment with a lovely scenic view including the bus station (We’re based in the Electric Works, part of Sheffield’s Digital Campus). You’ll also get to work with a team of nice people on interesting projects for organisations like the BBC, Nickelodeon, BSkyB and Topps with semi-flexible working hours**.

We have strong relationships with Game Republic, Yorkshire’s indie scene (GA-MA-YO, SHINDIG) and as a part of Sheffield’s flourishing digital community, this is an opportunity to play a big part in the continued growth of a small but dynamic digital amusements agency.

Does this sound like you?

• Excellent Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator design skills
• Good UX and interaction design skills
• Strong composition and typographic skills with excellent attention to detail
• Ability to work quickly and accurately to tight deadlines
• Self motivated, with a positive and pro-active attitude towards your work
• Have a portfolio demonstrating your best digital project / personal work to date
• Good written and verbal communication skills
• Loves games and the web

Possibly with a dash of the following?

• Experience creating UI for games aimed at young audiences
• 2D Animation skills (Using Flash)
• Character and/or Environment Illustration skills (Particularly in vector or pixel-art styles)
• 3D modelling (e.g. Blender)
• Motion graphics / Video for web
• Photography skills
• Basic coding skills (e.g. ActionScript / HTML)
• Music composition / Sound design
• A well thought out plan for surviving the upcoming Zombie Apocalypse

Salary is negotiable dependant on experience.

To apply, please email your CV with link to your portfolio and cover letter stating your salary expectations to Tim at: .

No agencies please!***

Closing date for applications is the 11^th February 2013.

We are unable to arrange international work visas.

*Digital amusements are games and other fun interactive digital things that we build to enable brands to engage with consumers. We don’t do websites.

**Generally we like everyone to be in the office at 9am for our daily stand-up meets, but if you want to do more hours on Tuesday so you can free up time on Wednesday afternoon to go to your offspring’s school play or work on your LARP costume, we are usually cool with that.

***The last time we posted a job advert, we wrote ‘no agencies please’ and then had an office sweep-stake to see how long it would be before an agency ignored our request and called us anyway. I won, but was it a wholesome win? No. It was not. So, to re-iterate: NO AGENCIES PLEASE! NO AGENCIES PLEASE! NO AGENCIES PLEASE! 

1. It can be any platform at all (console, browser, phone, board game etc)

2. It can be anything loosely termed a game or digital amusement (including ARGs, viral things or any fun applications)

3. It doesn’t have to have been released in 2012 (just as long as you played it this year)

These were just some of our favourite things…

Tim

I think the most memorable one is Kingdom Rush. I love the art, the audio and of course the game play. It’s certainly the one game I’ve played in the past year that I think “I really wish we made that!”. I’ve probably played more Rachet & Clank (Crack in Time is my favourite) and LEGO [Insert Franchise Here] games than anything else though as these are what I play at home with the kids.

That’s not one line is it?

Emma

Triple Town. They broke me, it’s the first (and still only) game I have made ‘in-game’ purchases in.

I loves it.

Russell

Kill Doctor Lucky. I’m a big fan of Cluedo and this game turns the concept on it’s head. You play as a would be murderer attempting to bump off old Doctor Lucky as he wanders around his stereotypical mansion. Sounds easy, but the twist is that you must commit the murder out of sight of any other player, and they can gang up to try and stop you.  The mechanic to stop you is a deck of ‘failure’ cards, each card describing a new and comical failure, turning the game into a Ladykillers-style parody of bungled murder. This is a really fun game to play in a group as tactics change with the numbers of people involved.

Adam (whose surname is ‘Clay’ by the way)

Clay Jam … and not just because it involves my name!! The main reason I like this game is the quirky sense of humour and the innovative graphic style (I’ve not seen anything else similar) But it’s also quite addictive. Basically, you are a ball of clay. You have to roll down a hill and make yourself gradually bigger by hitting clay monsters and absorbing more clay. Then the bigger you are the larger objects you can absorb.

Kyle

Torn between the great writing of The Walking Dead and tight mechanics of Hotline Miami. Every decision you make in The Walking Dead feels like it actually matters to your story whereas, even though Hotline Miami is surreal and strange, the gameplay provides a sense of logic even if it feels like you’re playing in a weird fever dream.

Simon

Jetpack Joyride. I was seriously addicted last month and would play it every time I had a spare minute. Probably because it was so easy to pick up and play without having to be immersed in a story but it still had progression and targets to achieve.

[NOTE - Simon also managed to get his fiancée addicted too]

Kieran

Dishonored – it’s a stealthy Steampunk assassins game with magic and a storyline affected by your actions.

What else could you want?

John

Although I only ended up watching one episode of BBC’s Hunted, I got really immersed in their viral site for Byzantium Security and their online tests to join ‘the 1% that matters’. With timely marketing to chime with the Occupy Movement’s anniversary and devised by cognitive psychologists and members of the Magic Circle, the tests/mind games utilised webcams, psychological profiling, your Facebook feed and frighteningly accurate results that engaged you far more than with your usual Byzantine corporation! You can’t play the tests any more but you can read about the campaign here.

A fair spread! If you want to know any more about the people above making the choices, we’ve also just updated our Meet the Team page. But we’d also like to know your games or digital amusements of the year too (same rules as above).

In the meantime, here’s wishing you all a playful 2013 from all of us at Team Cooper!

What’s in a name? Loads, it turns out. Flicking through the review list of a (nameless) games magazine recently, it struck me how generic the majority of game names can seem – especially without any accompanying graphics or even a recognisable brand font.

Once you’ve actually played a game, it’s hard to keep the style, tone and even characters from your mind the second your eyes read a game name. Even to the point where, personally, simple words like ‘Portal’ now entirely belong to the world of Aperture Science and GLaDOS or when a Halo has far more to do with the Masterchief than with angels and saints.

So what makes a good title?

As with a lot of wordy things, simplicity plays a big part. The working title for the mega successful Plants Vs. Zombies franchise was ‘Lawn of the Dead‘. In some ways, it’s a better title but, on the other hand, it also doesn’t describe the game play as well and also seems potentially more niche (and after Shaun of the Dead, it perhaps risked being Yawn of the Dead for that sort of pun. Hmmn… would Yawn of the Dead make a good game?)

As well as game play, I think the most powerful thing titles convey is tone. As much as I analyse titles like Silent Hill to be anagrams of ‘Instil Hell’, mostly it works as a title because it just *sounds* creepy. It seems like it’s really easy to over think names which is how we seem to end up with a great deal of very committee-conceived sounding [Insert Franchise Name]: Operation Shadow Revenge Evolution on our shelves. (The colon seems to be a tell-tale sign)

I started writing this post before we started developing a game of our own which we’re now mulling several titles for. I know it’s out there, but we’re just waiting for that final moment of inspiration and clarity that will tie everything together and seems so obvious now you think of it.

Mind you, I think lots of great games have terrible titles (again, no names!) And, vice versa, a good title doesn’t necessarily mean a good game. (Check out this great list of games that seem to satisfy neither category).

So, genuine question. What’s your favourite game name? And does it belong to your favourite game?

We’ve been growing steadily for the past few years and the time has come to bring someone on board who actually knows a thing or two about project management**. You’ll need to be exceptionally organised and will ideally have some prior experience in managing digital projects in a creative environment, most likely another agency.

This role sits at the heart of our company and is crucial to our future plans for growth. We expect the role to grow and evolve with the company but to begin with you’ll be responsible for liaising with clients, project producer(s) and the company directors to plan, schedule, resource and monitor our production activities (making sure of course that everything stays on track and on budget). I know, that sounds easy right? So secondary to this you’d also be expected to help out with a variety of other tasks as and when the need arises (we are a small company after all, and sometimes it’s all hands to the pumps!). So any prior experience of marketing, design, development, testing, or zombie apocalypse survival strategy would come in pretty handy here.

You’ll get to work in a shiny office environment with a lovely scenic view including the bus station (We’re based in the Electric Works, part of Sheffield’s Digital Campus). You’ll also get to work with a team of nice people on interesting projects for organisations like the BBC, Nickelodeon, BSkyB and Topps with semi-flexible working hours***.

We have strong relationships with Game Republic, Yorkshire’s indie scene (GA-MA-YO, SHINDIG) and as a part of Sheffield’s flourishing digital community, this is an opportunity to play a big part in the continued growth of a small but dynamic digital agency.

Your main duties:

• Maintaining strong relationships with existing clients
• Managing client expectations and approval of deliverables
• Brainstorming ideas with the team to meet client needs
• Planning, scheduling and monitoring of project builds
• Team management and supervision across projects
• Working daily with the production team to ensure tasks are completed on time and on budget (often to tight deadlines)
• Contracting external resources
• Reporting back to directors on project status
• Being awesome

Does this sound like you?

• 3-ish years experience as a Producer/Project Manager, preferably within the digital/media industries
• Excellent interpersonal and communications skills
• Proactive self-starter
• Multi-tasking problem solver
• Able to motivate others with your level 10 charisma or baked goods
• Highly organised with an obsession for detail and keeping production on track
• Able to provide concise and constructive feedback to colleagues
• Good understanding of casual/mobile/social games
• Flexible and able to apply different tools, methods and processes to projects as required
• A bit of a geek

Salary is negotiable dependant on experience, although if you’re a senior producer/project manager reading this, we probably can’t afford you (yet). So let’s say, up to £30k.

To apply, please email your CV and cover letter stating your salary expectations to Tim at: .

No agencies please!

Closing date for applications is the 3rd December 2012.

We are unable to arrange international work visas.

*Digital amusements are like, games and other fun interactive digital things that we build to enable brands to engage with consumers. We don’t do websites.

**Actually, you’ll need to know a lot more than a thing or two. Practical experience of project management methodologies like PRINCE2 and/or Agile would be good.

***Generally we like everyone to be in the office at 9am for our daily stand-up meets, but if you want to do more hours on Tuesday so you can free up time on Wednesday afternoon to go to your offspring’s school play or work on your Harry Potter fan-fiction novel, we are usually cool with that.

So, last week me and Tim went to the TIGA Games Industry Awards. We’d been nominated for 2 awards. Nurse Quest was nominated in the Action/Adventure category and Blockbusters in the Serious Games category. Sadly we didn’t win, we genuinely hadn’t expected to. In the grand scheme of things we’re new to the industry and getting a nomination was an unexpected joy. The big winner from the evening was The Chinese Room for Dear Esther which is a visually stunning, explorative narrative kind of an experience, a ghost story. It’s well worth a look if you haven’t seen it already.

After playing Mush pretty solidly for the past month or so on my phone I was quite exited to meet the Angry Mango team who are all lovely and full of brilliant ideas, I’m really interested to see what they come up with next. Sitting on a table next to some fine folks from Mediatonic meant I got to bore them endlessly of my love for their work.

Attending the event meant we got to meet and talk to a lot of really interesting people in the industry and hang out with our friends from State of Play and Games Britannia (um, and drink far too much wine… sorry everybody) And now (since the hangover lifted) I’m full of buzz and bounce, I’m hopeful for the future and challenged to take one of those shiny tigers home with us.

Hot off the digital press, direct to a computer screen somewhere near you are the final two games of HOOPLA!

Yes, you t0o can now live out your dreams of spinning TV stars round on plates until they vomit a lot with Plate Sick Spin! Don’t forget the genius that is Grabby Grab too, complete with the most vicious, demanding pram I’ve ever encountered.

It’s been an intense time for us all here and I’d like to give you a brief insider look at how we went about creating this carnival of chaos:

As Emma mentioned in our last post we got the fantastic chance to actually go down to the shoot for the series along with Aidan, our producer at the BBC. This is pretty rare for us, normally the shoots are all done and dusted by the time it comes to the online content, so we made the most of it. We got to soak up the atmosphere of the fairground down in Devon, seeing Dick and Dom in action. This proved invaluable to us, allowing us to capture the mood and find the right tone to bring to our games – as well as taking loads of reference photos in the format we prefer. What this meant in reality was very nicely asking all the cast if they wouldn’t posing for us and pulling a variety of silly expressions.

Our trip to Devon also meant we came away with three very definite new characters – The Pooh Brothers. What had been described in our pitch documents as vague ‘extra’ characters gained new life as the very odd fairground owners Johnny, Mike and their cousin Enoch. That was great for me as it meant more vomiting characters for Plate Sick Spin.

Then it was back to Sheffield to start production and create four games which harness the Hoopla! Our designers have done a great job recreating the slimy atmosphere of the show. It even involved Adam paying a visit to Sheffield’s own National Fairground Archive for research. Our development team meanwhile soldiered on as we each created demos of the four games, reviewing and tweaking as we went.

Then it was all hands on pump to get the first two games, including prize stall and leaderboards, ready for our first release. Now I’m very pleased to mention that now you can view Hoopla in the way we’ve always thought of it, all four games ready for frantic and slightly queasy fun!

It’s been a great time, one that’s seen us travel to such far flung locations as Devon to capture the dastardly duo and bring them to your computer screens.

What are you waiting for? Go and have a play, you can even play against your mates!

We are really very pleased, ecstatic in fact, to announce that we snagged a commission from Auntie. The Beeb. THE BBC! And not just any old bit of the BBC either, no, one of our favourite bits… CBBC! The day we found out there was much dancing and some drinking (of pints (of tea)). The project is for Dick and Dom’s newest incarnation on the channel, HOOPLA! A dark and murky carnival of weird games and mildly terrifying clowns. What’s not to love?

The Hoopla game is a series of mini games in which you get to torment Dick and Dom. You can either play to collect tokens which you can swap for astoundingly ‘good’ prizes or play against your mates in a shared keyboard mode. The games are a little bit odd and a little bit vile, but that’s  just how we like it. In the first two of the games available to play you get to either shoot at Dick and Dom via a ‘Bogie Blaster’ or fire ping pong balls at them and the pesky Clown Kids to protect your prizes.

I have, however, started to develop a slight aversion to clowns.

We have been quietly amused for months with the physics of snot. One of the games in the second batch (due out in the next few weeks) now has us focusing on the physical properties of vomit. All in a day’s work, we keep saying (whilst not quite being able to look each other in the eye). It has been a lot of fun though and getting to spend the weekend in Devon at Dingles Fairground Heritage Centre where the show was recorded and call that ‘work’ is currently a career highlight for me.

There will be more games going live soon so keep checking back here and on the CBBC site – although I’m sure you’ll hear me shouting from the roof tops once we’re all done!