Naughty Dog vets push Big Red Button

The current game-industry landscape is a challenging environment for startup studios, and even more so for those looking to focus on their own original intellectual properties. Given that, it's a good thing for the recently incorporated Big Red Button Entertainment that the operation is in the hands of two veteran developers with a lengthy track record of success at Naughty Dog, the studio behind Uncharted, Jak and Daxter, and the original Crash Bandicoot.

Naughty Dog's former art director and concept artist Bob Rafei and senior designer and creative director E. Daniel Arey have taken the reins of Big Red Button, their latest collaboration. According to the studio's Web site, it has six original intellectual properties in concept development, and is striving to produce "games you want to watch and films you want to play." Big Red Button will also emphasize accessible games, stating that it intends to expand the gaming market's emotional appeal, as well as its age and gender demographics.

With the stated objective of creating "original character-based intellectual properties for cross-platform and cross-media development," Big Red Button is currently forming a staff of artists, designers, and animators, beginning with an executive programmer. The studio will have some form of profit sharing with its employees, and intends to model its company culture after United Artists, the film studio originally established with the goal of increasing actors' leverage in a nascent medium.