If you don’t know jmtb02 (aka John Cooney) by name, you at least know him by game. If you’ve played This is the Only Level, Hedgehog Launch, Obey! The Game, Achievement Unlocked, Exit Path, Four Second Frenzy, or any of his dozens and dozens of other games, you’re familiar with his work.

John has been making free Flash games since he was about 15. Now, he’s 23 and the Head of Game Development at Armor Games. John took some time to answer our questions on how his elephant games break the fourth wall, what inspired his newest game Exit Path, and what we should expect from him next.


The games of yours that contain elephants all seem to be connected by the common thread of being self-referential in some way. Obey! The Game really plays well with the idea of lying to the player, while This is the Only Level challenges the player with literally dozens of incredibly creative, bizarre metapuzzles.  Even Elephant Rave, while not exactly breaking the fourth wall, is definitely much weirder than most of your non-elephantine work. What, to you, characterizes the elephant games?
The elephant games at surface level are goofiness and satire.  But really the experience is about stepping back and seeing yourself playing the game.  So often we characterize ourselves as the character on the screen, but I really like that awkward space between player and character.  Whether that is through metagaming with This is the Only Level and Achievement Unlocked or through general insanity with Elephant Rave (the “what am I experiencing here” experience), the game involves you just as much as the elephant.
If that was way too philosophical I apologize, your hair looks nice today.
What was the inspiration for TITOL TOO? Were there a lot of ideas left over after you finished the initial game, or did they come to you later?
I was approached by a collegue in the Flash gaming scene, Tasselfoot, to create another game.  At the time I really had no intention of making a second one but he was so damn enthusiastic it was hard not to get excited about making the game, and I was convinced there was room for another.  We originally had about 40-50 stages planned that we whittled down slowly to another 30-stage romp.  And we had more polka music lined up so the project just had to go.  I don’t know if I have plans for another, but we’ll see.  These games are probably the most fun to make out of all the games I’ve made.
If you can, tell us a little about your upcoming game Exit-Path. Are there any games in particular that inspired you to enter the survival-racing-platforming genre?
Remember that movie First Knight with Richard Gere?  There’s this one scene where knights would run through a crazy obstacle course with swinging axes to try to get to the princess.  I was inspired by that, with a little bit of Mirror’s Edge and Portal to boot.  The game’s art direction is heavily influenced by those green international exit signs (a stick figure mid-run towards a door).  Being American I never saw them before a recent trip out of the country, I thought they were hilarious (we have big generic EXIT signs here, fairly boring).   I knew I had to make a game in the style.  It’s also my first dabble in multiplayer gaming, so it should be exciting!
It’s been over three years now since your last Four Second game. Any chance you’ll revisit the series?
I think about it sometimes.  I honestly do not know what I would do for a sequel, since I feel the need to evolve the series more than just another pack of levels.
Exit Path was released last week. Congratulations! How’s the launch going?
Really well actually!  The game community has been incredibly warm and receptive.  We’ve had over 300,000 multiplayer races since beta on May 14, 2010.
You did a series of closed and open betas leading up to the release of the game. What kind of helpful information did you get from those?
Serious stuff there.  For my first jaunt into multiplayer there was plenty to stumble over.  The big issue that emerged is the handling of users all trying to join games at the same time; we had to quickly sort people into rooms and make sure everyone was connecting properly.  We had limbo users stuck between joined and not joined, even between different rooms… splinched in Harry Potter terms.  Major kudos to everyone who showed up, we got a lot of interesting feedback.
Now that Exit Path is out, what’s next for you?
I’m working on a time-scrubbing emu game.  The use of the emu was put to a vote on my website, won against Llama at 56% majority.  And I’m also having attachment issues to Exit Path so I’ll probably revisit shortly to add more features and levels.

The games of yours that contain elephants all seem to be connected by the common thread of being self-referential in some way. Obey! The Game really plays well with the idea of lying to the player, while This is the Only Level challenges the player with literally dozens of incredibly creative, bizarre metapuzzles.  Even Elephant Rave, while not exactly breaking the fourth wall, is definitely much weirder than most of your non-elephantine work. What, to you, characterizes the elephant games?

The elephant games at surface level are goofiness and satire.  But really the experience is about stepping back and seeing yourself playing the game.  So often we characterize ourselves as the character on the screen, but I really like that awkward space between player and character.  Whether that is through metagaming with This is the Only Level and Achievement Unlocked or through general insanity with Elephant Rave (the “what am I experiencing here” experience), the game involves you just as much as the elephant.

If that was way too philosophical I apologize, your hair looks nice today.


obeyWhat was the inspiration for TITOL TOO? Were there a lot of ideas left over after you finished the initial game, or did they come to you later?

I was approached by a collegue in the Flash gaming scene, Tasselfoot, to create another game.  At the time I really had no intention of making a second one but he was so damn enthusiastic it was hard not to get excited about making the game, and I was convinced there was room for another.  We originally had about 40-50 stages planned that we whittled down slowly to another 30-stage romp.  And we had more polka music lined up so the project just had to go.  I don’t know if I have plans for another, but we’ll see.  These games are probably the most fun to make out of all the games I’ve made.


It’s been over three years now since your last Four Second game. Any chance you’ll revisit the series?

I think about it sometimes.  I honestly do not know what I would do for a sequel, since I feel the need to evolve the series more than just another pack of levels.


Exit Path was released a couple weeks ago. Congratulations! How’s the launch going?

Really well actually!  The game community has been incredibly warm and receptive.  We’ve had over 300,000 multiplayer races since beta on May 14, 2010.


exitTell us a little bit about the creation of Exit Path. Are there any games in particular that inspired you to enter the survival-racing-platforming genre?

Remember that movie First Knight with Richard Gere?  There’s this one scene where knights would run through a crazy obstacle course with swinging axes to try to get to the princess.  I was inspired by that, with a little bit of Mirror’s Edge and Portal to boot.  The game’s art direction is heavily influenced by those green international exit signs (a stick figure mid-run towards a door).  Being American, I never saw them before a recent trip out of the country. I thought they were hilarious (we have big generic EXIT signs here, fairly boring).   I knew I had to make a game in the style.  It’s also my first dabble in multiplayer gaming!


You did a series of closed and open betas leading up to the release of the game. What kind of helpful information did you get from those?

Serious stuff there.  For my first jaunt into multiplayer there was plenty to stumble over.  The big issue that emerged is the handling of users all trying to join games at the same time; we had to quickly sort people into rooms and make sure everyone was connecting properly.  We had limbo users stuck between joined and not joined, even between different rooms… splinched in Harry Potter terms.  Major kudos to everyone who showed up, we got a lot of interesting feedback.


Now that Exit Path is out, what’s next for you?

I’m working on a time-scrubbing emu game.  The use of the emu was put to a vote on my website, won against Llama at 56% majority.  And I’m also having attachment issues to Exit Path so I’ll probably revisit shortly to add more features and levels.


Thanks for your time, John!