KO_OP & me

For context.

23 july 2012

my first day at KO_OP
one bedroom office, and three of us working. soon four, occasionally five.
i’m trying to get Red Rover to open a GUI window on my laptop. maybe i’m using OGRE.
the others are working on Skipping Stones. an engine called “Unity” seems promising.
time passes.

17 august 2026

“Hi Nick. Could you join us on Discord please?”
it’s a short call. maybe less than a minute. my answers are monosyllabic.
“You are going to be furloughed at the end of September.”
after i hang up, i spend a few minutes only breathing.
i knew this was coming. i voted for this. we all did.

yesterday

the public post goes out.
reading the words is difficult.
writing these words is difficult.
it is what it is.

18 august 2026

sadness this morning. intense, weary sadness.
that’s probably grief, and mourning, and melancholy.
the office is empty. i’m taking pictures. it’s a beautiful space, and the light is good.
it’s going to be a painful couple of days. and weeks. and months.

2010 - 2012

the Mount Royal Game Society is thriving.
the events are growing. indie games are so hot right now.
the first wednesday of every month is a blessing (rip royal phoenix). the energy is infectious.
Saleem is co-founding a video game company and wants me to join.
over too many drinks at Imadake, we decide to give it a go.
i quit my job at the Royal Victoria Hospital.
i’m going to make video games.
how hard can it be?

2 june 2026

our Monthly General Meeting. an item labelled “financials real talk” is ominously time-blocked for an hour.
it takes longer.
our runway is ending. it’s happened before, but not like this.
funding for smaller, riskier, platform-building ventures has dried up. the industry needs reliable ROI, at scale, and at speed.
over the years, we’ve bought about a dozen lottery tickets, on borrowed money, and they haven’t paid out.
we’re in trouble.

2020-202X

things are getting worse in the games industry. bad news is becoming routine. it feels cursed.
Warren Spector isn’t having fun anymore. i’m not sure i am, either.
God is Change. things are changing.
maybe KO_OP can change.
maybe i can change too.

22 july 2026

KO_OP’s executive committee comes back to membership with a proposal: we furlough half of the studio. to buy us time. it could be worse.
the remaining members will work on a few pitches to try to extend the runway. for just a little while longer. to get the funding back. to get us back.
i vote yes. most folks do. the motion passes.
whatever happens—to the furloughed, to the company—the most important thing, and the reason for KO_OP itself, is that we came to this decision, and to this moment, together. we were always together.
the meeting is adjourned.

a few memories, out of order

Pints at Casa del popolo.

YouTube parties. Launch parties. Watch parties.

IGDA Montréal. Cult MTL. POP Montreal.

Kung Fu Volleyball. Cat Hat. Fishjn’. Your Best Friend, Unfortunately. Please Don’t, Spacedog. FaceRift.

BioCube. Cartography. Magic Carpet. Pale Country.

Yerba Buena. San Francisco rooftops. San Francisco streets, and streetcars. Walks. Cabs. Food. Nights.

IGF. I had fun. Respect to winners Night School and Oxenfree. It hurts to see them go too.

PAX East. Driving through Montpelier, stopping for Mad Tacos. Renting TVs from Best Buy. Returning them at a Best Buy in a different city. 360 no scope.

The gnoggin tower. The gnoggin wall.

PAX West. Mostly cabs and sushi, if I’m being honest. Whispers that “people from Valve” are “somewhere around,” wandering the PNW, like spirits in Silent Hill.

E3. Yoshida doesn’t really “get” GNOG. That’s fine. We don’t either, some days.

Squatting at a games lab at Concordia. Squatting at a different games lab at Concordia, and then a third.

The Room. The Pokodome.

Saké Friday.

GNAH. Cease and desist. GNOG.

KO_LABs, Gardenarium, Orchids to Dusk.

Dépanneur Nocturne.

Dépanneur schnitzel sandwiches. Bulk Barn All Sorts. Soylent (I never).

Omnivore. Green Panther. Antep. Mandy’s. Aunja. Campo.

Chez Boris.

Four day work weeks. Becoming more productive.

Flat pay. We’re all in this together.

Sharing coworkers with Square Enix.

Sharing coworkers with the NFB, and Apple.

Sharing death threats with coworkers.

Jury duty.

Critical Hit. Sharing an office with Execution Labs. With HoloLabs. Kitfox. Lucid Tales. Musicians and artists.

Moving out of Ubisoft’s shadow. Literally. Paying in cash, and hoping to get out clean.

Parks. Green spaces all over this city. Softball, beers, Mölkky. A nice bike ride. Afternoons that became nights under a sodium-vapor glow.

The darkness follows the hook. Now’s your time to shine. Tube time.

Cats, cats, cats. Rats, rabbits, dogs. Some take the rainbow bridge. None are forgotten.

KO-OP, then KO_OP. Kooper, then ini.

Goodbye Volcano High. And all that.

Ceiling raccoon. Ceiling teens.

Cert fails, save issues. Expired tokens, invalid certificates. All-night build sessions. Sporadic crashes. Day one patches.

The pandemic. Quarantine. Work from home. Devkits, gear, overflowing. Network issues. Ronday. Tangle. Zoom. It’s literally on HeeBee. Webinars.

The general agreement that for most of us, despite the hardships, this is the best place we have ever worked. It goes unstated. Sometimes, it goes stated.

Everyone still striving, despite the hardships, to make it even better. For all of us.

I’m forgetting things. This is helping me remember.

realization 01

i am so, so proud to have worked on these projects. to have been part of these fourteen years.

realization 02

i am so, so lucky to have worked with these people. every one of my colleagues has taught me something. sometimes it was technical. more often, it was some kind of love.

continue…

Yeah dude. This is rough. I don’t know where it goes from here.

Rich get richer. Game workers unite, if we’re lucky.

But the train keeps rolling.

KO_OP is/was the best place I’ve ever worked. And now it’s… ?

I don’t know what’s next. All I can say is good luck out there. I love you.