Cohort are an independent digital entertainment studio, that specialise in interactive experiences that appeal to a wide audience and that are accessible for players of different skill levels. As a studio we have specific expertise in developing for PlayStation 3, PSP, PlayStation Network, PlayStation 2 and PC platforms, and are actively looking at mobile. We have an instinctive understanding of the young/family audiences as well as more traditional core markets.

Formed in 2006, Cohort was born with the ambition of creating fun experiences along with having fun whilst we do it. We were nominated for Best New Studio at the Develop awards after our first year, and were the first Gaming company in Scotland recognised as an Investor In People by IIP Scotland. With continued success and a steady and measured expansion, the studio grew to become the third largest developer in Scotland. We were early adopters of the Playstation Move and were trusted by Sony to develop The Shoot a Playstation Move launch title, as well as expanding their successful Buzz Jr franchise.

Adapting to the huge changes and opportunities in the games industry, we are now looking at self publishing as a focus having successfully released our first 2 titles Me Monstar: Hear me Roar! and Cohort Chess available as minis on the PSN store in North America and Europe. Cohort Studios are also available for collaborations, contract and consultancy work.

Using a core team approach, we look to partner and collaborate with other talent and studios rather than staff up internally which increases overheads and depersonalises the culture; we take our working culture and quality of life seriously.

Our You Can Play philosophy informs and drives our design processes and development methodologies. We create experiences that are ‘easy’ to enjoy but complex to master, and look to interface and communicate with the player in unique ways with the emphasis on accessibility. An inclusive approach that appeals to wide audiences and players of different abilities by providing layers and depth. You Can Play also gives us a team-centric approach to development and encourages individual ownership in our projects. It also motivates and fosters a culture of creative collaboration where everyone is treated as a valued and creative individual and vision holder.

CREATE details the companies core values that define how we work day to day as a team and how we interact with each other, clients and consumers. These values help communicate the company direction to everyone who works at Cohort such that everyone is aligned to the same vision and bound as a team. CREATE is broken into the following categories and covers topics such as the following:

• Culture – an individual can make a difference, we’re all creative
• Respect – trust, honesty and positivity
• Environment – creating at the speed of thought, technology serves the vision
• Audience – player experience focused, pick your battles
• Team – collaboration, no egos, partnerships
• Expectations – quality and professionalism

With the increasing complexity and power of modern hardware we believe in harnessing the most advanced technologies available by bringing together cutting edge middleware solutions. That said; we identified early on that if we wanted the flexibility of choice we would need a core technology to manage middleware integration; Praetorian Tech™ was born.

At its heart Praetorian Tech™ is a cross platform highly modular architecture for adapting a wide variety of interfaces to a common standard allowing rapid integration with a central scene representation. Praetorian Tech™ features a flexible render engine that allows us to define our own rendering styles whether that’s deferred shading with lit transparencies or realtime ambient occlusion.

Cohort also sports a cross platform 2D engine that currently supports PS3, PSP and PC, with iOS and Android soon to be added.