KO_OP 2019 Year in Review
Hey everyone! I’m Saleem Dabbous — studio director over at KO_OP. I’m in charge of production, business, communications, and generally making sure we’re able to make the games we want to make. I also write up our yearly reviews, you can check out last year’s over here: 2018 KO_OP Year in Review.
Welcome to our 2019 Year in Review, a super interesting and exciting year for us. 2019 had goodbyes and hellos as our team changed and grew, we announced a new game as part of Apple Arcade, and we’ve taken the steps to change the legal foundation of our studio. In a lot of ways, 2019 felt like the year we Grew Up™️ as a studio.
Before we dig into it, if this is your first time hearing about us — KO_OP is a game studio made up of 11 people + friends and collaborators. Essentially KO_OP is structured as a worker’s cooperative, which means that the full time employees are also the owners of the studio. While we’ve been operating as owners, in the legal sense this hasn’t been the case in our current structure, so we’re legally transitioning so it can be true!
KO_OP is:
Samuel Boucher
Omar Dabbous
Saleem Dabbous (that’s me)
Kate Gray
GP Lackey
Kyle McKernan
Hope Erin Phillips
Nick Rudzicz
Lucie Viatge
Hazel Fraticelli
Graeme Lennon
Q1 2019 — A Fresh Year
At the start of the year our co-founder Bronson Zgeb let us know that he’d be leaving the studio in a few months. We were of course incredibly sad to lose Bronson, but it made sense for what he wanted to do and the next chapter for his career and family. I’m really really really proud of the work Bronson and I have been able to do together in the 7 years we collaborated, and all of the work we’ve been able to support others in creating.
This year we welcome Hazel and Graeme to our team, bringing some much needed programming and game design experience respectively. You’ll see their work on our next release, which brings us to…
Winding Worlds and Apple Arcade
In March, Apple announced Apple Arcade, and hey — would you look at that? Our logo is right up there at an Apple keynote!
While we were originally planning on launching this year, we needed a bit more time to put the finishing touches on our next game. We want it to be something really special and we hope you love it. Here’s a look at one of our key art pieces made by Kyle McKernan.
There will be more to share about Winding Worlds soon, very soon! But for now we leave you with our main character Willow who wishes you all a very festive holiday.
Q2 2019
#TeamFang⚰️ #TeamPilgrim🏜 & #TeamWillow🌀
With Winding Worlds (#TeamWillow🌀) announced and underway, that left the other half of the studio to their own devices. KO_OP has always been a studio with lots of different artists and personalities and we’re never a one game team. Unfortunately we can’t talk about all our projects before they’re announced so in the mean time we’ve given each team their own name. #TeamPilgrim 🏜 was underway after we cancelled last year’s Beans of America project, but it’s currently on hold as that team has been helping wrap up on Winding Worlds. The rest of the studio has been working on #TeamFang⚰️ which we think is going to be ready by 2021. We are so so so excited about the game and can’t wait to hopefully reveal what we’ve been up to at some point in the coming year. Our header image (much like 2018’s Year in Review) is once again a tiny tease of what #TeamFang⚰️ has been working on!
Q3 2019
Co-op structure to legal transition
In our 2018 roundup we mentioned that we wanted to start the process to legally transition our studio structure from being a company with a co-op structure to a legal co-op protected under Quebec law. It’s taken a lot more time than we expected but we’ve been able to take the steps necessary to actually legally transition.
While we’ve been operating in co-op mode for a long time, legally there was nothing protecting and enshrining the studio’s structure outside of our bylaws. We’re really excited by this and the amount of work and thought that has gone into growing up our studio to a formal workers co-op under the law and we plan to share our bylaws and learnings on our website. We’re expecting to complete the transition in the first half of 2020!
This transition has had the effect of making us feel like we’re growing up as a studio. We’re going from folks who’ve had vague or simple policies to a team creating a brand new set of guidelines, policies, values, and mission statements. We also realized that when we bring new people on board, we’re actually onboarding them with over 7 years of history (!) and that’s not something to take lightly. We want this place to be somewhere people want to stick around, and feel invested, and that means learning how to properly operate as a company with policies in place that prioritize people and their health. As fun as it was, the bedroom days are behind us, and it’s for the best.
Q4 2019
GNOG — The Flip Sides
In 2017 we released a game called GNOG, so what’s it doing in our yearly roundup for 2019?? Well Marskye decided to resurrect a bunch of cancelled or cut pieces of music from the game, and rewrote them into fully fleshed out songs in the style of the GNOG OST. He calls it the GNOG Flip Sides and it honestly is the closest thing to a GNOG 2 you can get. It’s a bit chiller and moodier than the original GNOG OST and is really great to kick back to in the darker winter months.
Check it out here: Bandcamp
Original OST: Bandcamp
2020
2019 was a year where we couldn’t be very public about our projects which was really hard on us in some ways. That said, it’s going to make for a VERY exciting 2020 when we can finally reveal a ton of stuff and behind the scene looks at all of our work. Looking forward to the new year and decade, a lot of who we are, and who we will become as a studio making games can be traced back to the decisions and practices we put in place in 2019. As a director, this is an incredibly exciting feeling, knowing the hard work that we’re doing today, is going to be felt for the years to come. But really, this about sums it up:
One last shoutout: you, dear reader! Our community means the world to us and we’re so grateful to have you. Last year we opened up a discord, and everyone has been so lovely and kind. We encourage you to join it if you haven’t already. Check it out here.
With that our Year in Review comes to an end. As usual we leave you with a little look at some art our team members have published. This year has a lot less than last year since we are under a lot more of a time pressure, but we hope you enjoy.
See you in 2020!
Art from 2019
These are some of our favourite works and projects (chosen by each artist) from the past year
Hope Erin Phillips (#TeamFang⚰️)
Omar Dabbous (#TeamFang⚰️, #TeamWillow🌀)
Hope Erin Phillips (#TeamFang⚰️) & Kate Gray (TeamFang⚰️, #TeamWillow🌀)
Hope and Kate put together a workshop for Gamerella 2019 about using Ink to make easily make branching narrative games for folks with no game-making background. They’re going to be giving the workshop at KO_OP and making a web version next year.
Kate Gray (TeamFang⚰️, #TeamWillow🌀)
G.P. Lackey (#TeamWillow🌀, #TeamPilgrim🏜)
Lucie Viatge (#TeamFang⚰️)
Kyle McKernan (#TeamFang⚰️, #TeamWillow🌀)
Samuel Boucher (#TeamWillow🌀)
