Size Five Games (formerly Zombie Cow Studios) is a British

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

founded by Dan Marshall in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. Dan Marshall's previous games, ''Gibbage'' and ''Cruxade'' were retroactively brought under the Zombie Cow banner upon its founding.

History

Their first new release was a

donationware Donationware is a licensing model that supplies fully operational unrestricted software to the user and requests an optional donation be paid to the programmer or a third-party beneficiary (usually a non-profit). The amount of the donation may also ...

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...

called ''Ben There, Dan That!'', released in 2008. It was widely praised by the adventure game community and downloaded 50,000 times but brought in only "a couple of hundred quid" due to its donation model. Marshall self-funded the game's development, telling the BBC in 2010 "What I do keeps me fed and warm. I'm not sure I get to lead the most extravagant lifestyle, or how my earnings compare to people working in the mainstream games industry." Marshall later said of the game "I didn't think people would really pay money for it ... I think that was a bit naive, in retrospect. It's well worth a couple of quid, and I do regret not charging for it initially. You can always move the price down, you can't really move it up." A 2011 updated edition of the game, which added a soundtrack and other features, was sold on a "

pay what you want Pay what you want (or PWYW, also referred to as value-for-value model) is a pricing strategy where buyers pay their desired amount for a given commodity. This amount can sometimes include zero. A minimum (floor) price may be set, and/or a suggeste ...

" model, with a minimum price. The sequel, ''

Time Gentlemen, Please! ''Time Gentlemen, Please!'' is a 1952 British comedy film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Eddie Byrne, Jane Barrett and Raymond Lovell. It was produced by Group 3 Films with funding from the NFFC and distributed by ABPC. It was shot at ...

'', was released in 2009 to positive reviews. ''

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'' called it "point-and-click adventuring done right for a change." It holds a

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

score of 84%. Both ''Ben There, Dan That!'' and ''Time Gentlemen, Please!'' were later made available for purchase on

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

and

GOG.com GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games) is a digital distribution platform for video games and films. It is operated by GOG sp. z o.o., a wholly owned subsidiary of CD Projekt based in Warsaw, Poland. GOG.com delivers DRM-free video games through it ...

. In 2010, Zombie Cow Studios released ''Privates'', a

sex education Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual acti ...

game funded by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

and intended to match the "personal, social, and health education" guidelines of the

National Curriculum A national curriculum is a common programme of study in schools that is designed to ensure nationwide uniformity of content and standards in education. It is usually legislated by the national government, possibly in consultation with Federated stat ...

The

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version was cancelled when Microsoft confirmed that the game contravened the Xbox Live guidelines on sexual content of games, but the company released the

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

version for free download from Channel 4's website. The game won a

BAFTA award The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cere ...

in the "Learning - Secondary" category. In May 2011, Zombie Cow Studios changed their name to Size Five Games. In 2013, Size Five Games released ''Gun Monkeys'', a "procedurally-generated, physics-based, 1-on-1 online platform shooter" featuring the voice of English actor and comedian,

Kevin Eldon Kevin Eldon (born 2 October 1959) is an English actor and comedian. He featured in British comedy television shows of the 1990s including ''Fist of Fun'', '' This Morning with Richard Not Judy'', '' Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge' ...

. In 2015, the studio released '' The Swindle'', a stealth roguelike. In 2017, they released '' Behold the Kickmen'', a parodic football game. In 2020, the studio released '' Lair of the Clockwork God'', the third game in the Ben and Dan series.

References

{{Size Five Games British companies established in 2008 Video game companies established in 2008 Video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game development companies