“We thought the opportunity was great,” says Texier. Lee advised the team to take inspiration from Qi Studios' PC title Rag Doll Kung Fu, a game which allowed the player to exploit the character's ragdoll physics to create clumsy, flailing-limbs combat. When it came to conceptualising that all-important debut title, it was angel investor Chris Lee - a Partner at Another Place who “has been involved from pretty much day one” - who made the crucial suggestion. With that decided, the biggest priority for the team was to get something out as quickly as possible in an attempt to get a handle on (and prove its commitment to) the vastly different landscape of free-to-play mobile development.Īnother Place's co-founders, from left to right: Jeremie Texier, Guillaume Portes, and John McCormack “We realised would be the best way for us to completely own a project from creation to publishing, so it was in December 2012 that we decided to focus completely on mobile,” says Texier.
This, however, was the exactly what they had parted ways with Lionhead to avoid. The original plan was to digitally distribute through Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Store, and the trio's Lionhead background made sure that there was no shortage of interest from publishers and platform holders. Jeremie TexierĮstablished just as PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were reaching the end of their lives, but with Xbox One and PlayStation 4 still yet to be revealed, 2012 was something of a no man's land for a newly-established studio. We realised mobile would be the best way for us to completely own a project from creation to publishing. This was the shared sentiment that birthed Another Place Productions in 2012, but the vision for what said project should be was altogether less clear. “We wanted to have a project that we owned from start to finish.” “Because it's such a big corporation, whatever it is you do, whatever role you have, you have very little control over what the game will end up being like from creation to being in the market,” he reflects. Frustrations shared, as it turns out, by his fellow co-founders. Texier remembers his time at Lionhead fondly, but recalls the frustrations that led to his pursuit of Another Place. While there, they worked under Peter Molyneux - primarily on the critically-acclaimed Fable series - and began a friendly working relationship that's spanned almost a decade.
It all started with Jeremie Texier, John McCormack, and Guillaume Portes, who first met at the Guildford-based Lionhead Studios. While by no means a juggernaut, Another Place has expanded comfortably from three co-founders to a lucky team of 13. There are various reasons for such a quick turnaround in office space, but the principal one is growth. Another Place Productions' current home - a modest studio in Southeast London - is its ninth since forming in 2012.
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