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

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founded by Dan Marshall in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. 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

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-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

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" model, with a minimum price. The sequel, '' Time Gentlemen, Please!'', 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

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

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

and GOG.com. In 2010, Zombie Cow Studios released '' Privates'', a

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game funded by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

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

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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

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

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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. 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.

Games

* '' Gibbage'' (2006) * '' Ben There, Dan That!'' (2008) * '' Time Gentlemen, Please!'' (2009) * '' Privates'' (2010) * '' Gun Monkeys'' (2013) * '' The Swindle'' (2015) * '' Behold the Kickmen'' (2017) * '' Lair of the Clockwork God'' (2020)

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