Shockr Studios

Shockr Studios (Stylized as SHOCKR Studios, or simply SHOCKR) is an American video game developer based in Manhattan, New York. It was founded in 2010 by Derrick Jones and James Barrie. SHOCKR owns three headquarters across America: SHOCKR Eastern (located in Manhattan), SHOCKR Western (located in Los Angeles), and SHOCKR Altitude (Located in Denver). They are planning to expand into Canada, as a fourth headquarters will be added by the end of 2020.

2008-2010: Pre-SHOCKR
SHOCKR was founded by former Disney Interactive Studios employees Derrick Jones and James Barrie. The two left Disney Interactive in 2008 due to their low salaries and lack of creative input in the games they were involved in.

Jones decided to start SHOCKR in 2010 after being involved in numerous failed projects the year before. Jones recruited James Barrie to get the studio off the ground, and Barrie accepted the offer.

Barrie and Jones hired six employees to work with them in their Manhattan Headquarters.

Cosmomerc (2010)
SHOCKR started development on their first game, Cosmomerc, in July of 2010. Cosmomerc is a game where the player is a contract killer (aka Koz) who is hired by some of the most important people in the universe to assassinate enemies while attempting to remain on the run. The game itself took around three months to develop. When asked about the development process, Derrick Jones stated that:

"Cosmomerc took a crap ton of time to develop. It was about three months of nonstop work. Around ten hours a day for ninety days, basically."

Cosmomerc was officially released on November 12, 2010 for Microsoft Windows. Cosmomerc was also released on Steam. Initially, the game received rave reviews from fans and SHOCKR gained a lot of revenue due to Cosmomerc's release. In March of 2011, the Xbox 360 and PS3 received ports of the game while another original SHOCKR game was under development.

Internet Simulator '11 (2011)
Due to the revenue SHOCKR received from Cosmomerc, the studio was able to hire a new bunch of employees to work at their headquarters in Manhattan. This bunch of employees became part of a development team known as Dev Force II (aka DF2). DF2 would be the developers of the next SHOCKR release, Internet Simulator '11.

Internet Simulator '11, also known as IS11, was SHOCKR's second official release. Codenamed WebNav11, the game follows an unnamed protagonist's journey to meet up with a friend they met on the fictitious internet chatroom WebSpeek. IS11 started development in February of 2011 and finished development in July of the same year. Finally, on 9/2/2011, the full game was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360. Like Cosmomerc, IS11 was received well by the general public and later received a PS3 port.

Free Time (2012)
In January of 2012, Dev Force I (the same team that developed Cosmomerc) announced they were in the process of developing a new game, codenamed Generic Hero. Free Time follows an unnamed protagonist who aims to cure cancer in his free time (while not having any medical experience). This was the first SHOCKR release to be released on a portable console (the Nintendo 3DS family). Free Time was developed from January-June of 2012 and released on August 1, 2012 for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PS3, and Nintendo 3DS. Free Time received mixed reviews. While it was praised for its minimalist design, the storyline was criticized for being a little cliche and inconsistent.

Small Scale Racers (2012)
Small Scale Racers is the fourth SHOCKR game and the second game to be developed by Dev Force II. The game, also known as SSR, is a racing game based on numerous Hot Wheels tracks and carpet road designs (see this image for a visual example of a carpet road design) from the developers' childhoods. SSR is a simple racing game with 20 total cars and multiple modes. The game was developed from March-October of 2012 and released on December 18, 2012 for Xbox 360, Wii U, PS3, and Microsoft Windows. SSR recieved rave reviews and was nominated for numerous awards, including Best Independent Game at the Spike VGAs in 2013. SSR became SHOCKR's highest-grossing game upon release, surpassing Cosmomerc.

End of Year Expansion (2012)
On Christmas Day of 2012, SHOCKR announced that they would be opening a new headquarters in Los Angeles, California. This HQ would open in February of 2013 and would be named SHOCKR Western. Due to this, SHOCKR's Manhattan HQ would be renamed SHOCKR Eastern. With this new HQ opening, two new development teams would be made- West Force 1 and West Force 2.