 | |
| Company type | Corporation |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | June 1, 2012 [1] |
| Founders | Saleem Dabbous Bronson Zgeb |
| Headquarters | , |
| Products | Gnog Goodbye Volcano High |
| Website | ko-opmode |
KO_OP is a Canadian game studio cooperative based in Montreal. It was founded in 2012.
Studio director Saleem Dabbous and programmer Bronson Zgeb founded KO_OP in 2012 to make "visually arresting avant-garde games". [2] The studio is run as a workers cooperative with equal salary and decision-making between co-owners. [3] [4] Dabbous and Zgeb used personal savings to launch the company and relied on work-for-hire to finance its own games. They struggled with inexperience in their over-scoped early projects, as they moved through a dozen prototypes and eventually cancelled two projects in full production. [2]
Gnog was nominated for Excellence in Visual Art at the 2016 Independent Games Festival [5] and released in 2017. [6] KO_OP also built "The Mirror of Spirits", an expansion for Lara Croft Go , in 2016. [7]
| Game | Platform(s) | Initial release date |
|---|---|---|
| GNOG | PlayStation 4 | May 2, 2017 |
| iOS | November 28, 2017 | |
| Microsoft Windows | July 17, 2018 | |
| macOS | ||
| Winding Worlds | Apple Arcade | May 15, 2020 |
| Depanneur Nocturne | Microsoft Windows | May 26, 2020 |
| Ridiculous Fishing EX | Apple Arcade | July 14, 2023 |
| Goodbye Volcano High [8] | PlayStation 5 | August 29, 2023 |
| PlayStation 4 | ||
| Microsoft Windows |
Tomb Raider, known as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider from 2001 to 2008, is a media franchise that originated with an action-adventure video game series created by British video game developer Core Design. The franchise is currently owned by CDE Entertainment; it was formerly owned by Eidos Interactive, then by Square Enix Europe after Square Enix's acquisition of Eidos in 2009 until Embracer Group purchased the intellectual property alongside Eidos in 2022. The franchise focuses on the fictional British archaeologist Lara Croft, who travels around the world searching for lost artefacts and infiltrating dangerous tombs and ruins. Gameplay generally focuses on exploration, solving puzzles, navigating hostile environments filled with traps, and fighting enemies. Additional media has been developed for the franchise in the form of film adaptations, comics and novels.
A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with employee responsibilities split between individual disciplines, such as programmers, designers, artists, etc. Most game development companies have video game publisher financial and usually marketing support. Self-funded developers are known as independent or indie developers and usually make indie games.
Lara Croft is a character and the main protagonist of the video game franchise Tomb Raider. She is presented as a highly intelligent and athletic British archaeologist who ventures into ancient tombs and hazardous ruins around the world. Created by a team at British developer Core Design that included Toby Gard, the character first appeared in the video game Tomb Raider in 1996.
Eidos Interactive Limited was a British video game publisher based in Wimbledon, London. Among its notable franchises were Championship Manager, Deus Ex, Hitman, Thief, and Tomb Raider. Domark was founded by Mark Strachan and Dominic Wheatley in 1984. In 1995, it was acquired by software company Eidos. Ian Livingstone, who held a stake in Domark, became executive chairman of Eidos and held various roles including creative director. Eidos took over U.S. Gold in 1996, which included developer Core Design, and merged its operations including Domark, which created publishing subsidiary Eidos Interactive. The company acquired Crystal Dynamics in 1998, and owned numerous other assets. In 2005, parent Eidos was taken over by games publisher SCi. The combined company, SCi Entertainment Group, which was briefly renamed Eidos, was itself taken over by Square Enix in 2009.
Toby Gard is an English video game character designer and consultant. He was part of the team that created fictional female British archaeologist Lara Croft. Lara Croft was awarded a Guinness World Record recognizing her as the "most successful human video game heroine".
Core Design Limited was a British video game developer based in Derby. Founded in May 1988 by former Gremlin Graphics employees, it originally bore the name Megabrite until rebranding as Core Design in October the same year. The company was acquired by umbrella company CentreGold in December 1994, which in turn was acquired by Eidos Interactive in April 1996. In May 2006, the Core Design personnel and assets were acquired by Rebellion Developments, and the company became Rebellion Derby, which was then shut down in March 2010.
SCi Entertainment Group plc was a British video game publisher based in London. The company was founded in 1988 by Jane Cavanagh and floated on the stock exchange in 1996. In May 2005, SCi acquired Eidos plc, the parent company of publisher Eidos Interactive, and merged their operations by June 2006. In December 2008, SCi was briefly renamed Eidos and was subsequently acquired by Square Enix in March 2009.
Tomb Raider is a 1996 action-adventure video game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive as the debut entry in the Tomb Raider media franchise. It was first released on the Sega Saturn, followed shortly by versions for MS-DOS and the PlayStation. Later releases came for Mac OS (1999), Pocket PC (2002), N-Gage (2003), iOS (2013) and Android (2015). The game follows archaeologist-adventurer Lara Croft, who is hired by businesswoman Jacqueline Natla to find an artefact called the Scion of Atlantis. Gameplay features Lara navigating levels split into multiple areas and room complexes while fighting enemies and solving puzzles to progress. An expansion pack subtitled Unfinished Business was released in 1997, containing new standalone levels.
Runic Games was an American computer game developer based in Seattle. It was formed by former Flagship Studios developers in August 2008. In 2009, the company released Torchlight, a single-player action role-playing game. It was acquired by Perfect World in May 2010. They released a sequel, Torchlight II, in 2012. It was at this time the developers revealed they were no longer pursuing plans to create an MMO in the Torchlight universe.
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is an action-adventure game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix's European branch for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Android and iOS. It is part of the Tomb Raider series, but unlike previous games, the game does not carry the Tomb Raider brand and has a heavy emphasis on cooperative gameplay. In multiplayer, players take the role as either Lara Croft or a 2,000-year-old Mayan warrior named Totec. They must work together in order to stop the evil spirit Xolotl and retrieve the Mirror of Smoke. A single-player campaign mode is available that does not include the non-playable character AI following or helping Lara.
Mediatonic Limited is a British video game developer based in London. The company was founded in September 2005 by Brunel University students Dave Bailey and Paul Croft, releasing their first game, Snowman Salvage in December that year. Initially a work-for-hire studio for Flash games, Mediatonic has developed original games for other platforms, including Murder by Numbers and Fall Guys. As of June 2020, Mediatonic employs 230 people in four studios and is part of Tonic Games Group, which is a subsidiary of Epic Games since March 2021.
Motion Twin is an independent video game development studio, that initially specialized in online video games and has most recently worked on roguelite games. Founded in 2001, the company is a worker cooperative enterprise based in Bordeaux, France.
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is an action-adventure game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix's European subsidiary for Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia and Nintendo Switch. It is the sequel to the 2010 video game Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, and the second installment in Lara Croft spin-off series of the Tomb Raider franchise. The video game was announced at E3 2014 on 9 June.
Tomb Raider is a 2018 action-adventure film directed by Roar Uthaug, with a screenplay by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Alastair Siddons, from a story by Evan Daugherty and Robertson-Dworet. An American and British co-production, it is based on the 2013 video game of the same name, with some elements of its sequel. It is a reboot, and is the third film in the Tomb Raider film series. The film stars Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, who embarks on a perilous journey to her father's last-known destination, hoping to solve the mystery of his disappearance. Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, and Kristin Scott Thomas appear in supporting roles.
Lara Croft Go is a puzzle video game developed by Square Enix Montreal and published by Square Enix. A spin-off of the Tomb Raider series. The player moves Lara Croft as a puzzle piece through a board game while avoiding obstacles and manipulating the environment. The developers distilled major series motifs, such as boulder-chases and reaction-based gameplay, to suit Lara Croft Go's time-independent gameplay. The game was developed as a spiritual successor to its 2014 Hitman Go, based on another Square Enix Europe franchise. It was released in August 2015 for Android, iOS, Windows, and Windows Phone devices. Versions for PlayStation 4 PlayStation Vita and Steam were released in December 2016.
Square Enix Montréal was a Canadian video game developer based in Montreal. It created the Go series of turn-based puzzle games for mobile devices based on former Eidos Interactive intellectual properties.
GNOG is a 2017 puzzle video game, developed by KO_OP and published by Double Fine Presents for PlayStation 4, iOS, Microsoft Windows, and macOS.
