First of all, we're very sorry about the headline. The opportunity to create a Sun pun was too much for us to ignore.
Some news from a company we've not heard a great deal from over the last few months. Cohort Studios, is celebrating the success of it's most recent release - Buzz Junior - Dino Den. It's the latest title in the hugely popular Buzz series - aimed at a younger audience.
The game is currently sitting in the PlayStation 2 Top Ten Chart, where it's so far spent a fairly comfortable five weeks.
We took the opportunity to speak to Lol Scragg, the man in charge at Cohort and over port and cigars, he generously agreed to answer a few questions...
SG: Tell us a bit about Buzz Jr: Dino Den
LS: Well Buzz Jr: Dino Den is the fourth title in the Buzz Jr series. After the original Jungle Party was followed by Robots and Monsters, along comes Dinos! The title is a collection of 35 mini-games aimed at a younger audience and utilising the Buzz controllers on Playstation 2. Mind you, it may well be aimed at a younger audience, but I have seen many an adult enjoying playing the game with their kids!
SG: Was this the first game from Cohort which was focused primarily on a younger audience?
LS: Essentially yes. We did develop the Go! Puzzle title for Playstation Network which is bright and colourful, but some of the puzzles there would test a professor, never mind younger gamers, so Dino Den was our first foray into games for the younger audience.
SG: This is the fourth title in the Buzz Jr series, how did you approach the game to make it stand out from the other titles?
LS: We looked long and hard at the other games which were all great fun, and tried to find areas where we could add new elements of gameplay. It is actually surprising how many game mechanics work with just one single big red button press! One mechanic that we introduced to the series was the use of team based games where two players can play against another two players.
SG: Did you enjoy working a title for such a high profile franchise?
LS: It was fantastic fun and we are very proud of Dino Den. The development harked back to the days of 4 week timescales for games. We had to develop 35 unique and separate mini-games from scratch so everything was very fast prototype, turnaround and polish.
SG: Did you learn anything new and fascinating about Dinosaurs during development?
LS: Only that thinking of 35 unique games for them to play is quite difficult!
SG: According to Sony's press release Buzz Jr: Dino Den is "Set in the prehistoric time of the dinosaurs, players find themselves in a land of volcanoes, geysers and festering mud pools." given this, did it help that you're based in Dundee?
LS: It is funny you should say that as we did take a few research trips to the Sidlaws to seek out volcanic activity. It also helps when Old Faithful is in Camperdown and as for those mud pools – we needed somewhere to chill out of course!
SG: How's the game doing in the charts?
LS: It is doing very well! It has been bobbing around near the top for a few weeks with only Guitar Hero and High School Musical in its way – I can live with that!
SG: Cohort have been fairly quiet over the last few months, what can we expect from you guys in rest of 2008?
LS: We try and shy away from the limelight and just get on with what we are good at. I can’t say much at the moment, but we are currently working on two new titles, one of which is on Playstation 3 which we are all excited about. As soon as we can talk about it, you will be the first to know!
SG: What do you believe is going to be the most significant new development in the games industry over the next 12 months?
LS: Atari and the TakeTwo/EA purchase will shake up a few people. I think we will see even more from Playstation 3, some great fun from Nintendo and an Xbox Blu-Ray drive Thinking locally, I believe we will see the continued success of Scottish games developers across the board and a further growing of the talent pool in Scotland. Finally, I hope that the Scottish Government start to recognise the benefits of a having such a vibrant development industry in Scotland in terms of both the money we bring to the Scottish economy, and also the talent we attract to the nation, and that they start considering assisting us in the same way as other digital media sectors!
SG: Tyrannosaurus Rex - fearsome predator or lowly scavenger?
LS: In Dino Den, he is cute and green. What more could you want?
