We are an independent interactive entertainment studio based in Dundee Scotland, that specialise in 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.

Formed in 2006 by Lol Scragg CEO, Darran Thomas CCO, and Bruce McNeish CTO, Cohort was born with the ambition of creating fun experiences along with having fun whilst we do it. While avoiding the many mistakes we had seen at previous companies we have a firm eye on where the games industry is moving. With continued success and a steady and measured expansion, the studio has grown to become the third largest developer in Scotland.

A key element of our business strategy is to be ‘Partners in Development’. Using a core team approach, we look to partner and collaborate with other companies and studios rather than staff up internally which increases overheads and depersonalises the culture; we take our working culture and quality of life seriously. Recent continued growth and multiple projects has led to us moving to brand new offices overlooking the River Tay in Dundee within the cities Digital Media Park, where we continue to use our proprietary technology to create high production value products.

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.