Former Elis Still Playing Games

By Michelle Kokot

Jim Langford ’94 and Jeremy Bargiel ’92, a pair of Illinois natives who met on the Yale football practice field almost 19 years ago, formed a friendship that would extend beyond Yale Bowl, the campus and the fraternity house on Lake Place.

Langford, a tight end originally from Chicago, Ill., and Bargiel, a center who arrived at Yale from Glen Ellyn, formed Lake Place Productions, LLC, a production company distributing game, medical and corporate applications through the iTunes Store for use on the iPhone and iPod touch.

Their first two game applications, Beat the Cooler (www.beatthecooler.com) and Hawaiian Games One, are now available at the iTunes Store. Beat the Cooler is a blend of high-tech graphics and traditional storytelling in a game for eager sports fans. Hawaiian Games One is the first in a series of 12 games showcasing the “majesty, mystery and beauty” of Hawaii. Both games consist of shaking, swiping and tilting your iPhone or iPod Touch in limitless combinations to acquire points, win prizes and unlock fun videos.

“Beat the Cooler rewards the game player for higher point totals and difficult beating combinations by providing an increasingly damaged, sarcastic, and ill-tempered response from the Cooler,” said Bargiel, the starting center on the 1991 Yale squad. “It is a means to take out your aggression when the day is not unfolding as planned, and you have a bit of fun in the process.”
These two Carm Cozza mentored Elis were successful before Lake Place Productions.

Langford, an award winning game designer and architect who had 21 catches and two TDs during an All-Ivy 1993 season, is the owner of Tribe Game Studios and Pacific Technology, LLC, based in Hawaii. He is the revolutionary developer of the Sales Rotor™, the first successful time-based tracking system for vacation ownership in sales galleries implemented worldwide.

“Quite simply, playing football at Yale prepared me to know who and when to trust in business. The exceptional thing I’ve found in business is that most of my working relationships involve fellow Elis,” said Langford, who lives and works in Kula, Hawaii. “Working with Jeremy is professionally as well as personally gratifying. It’s always a great feeling to be proud of a friend and their successes-- I am able to experience that luxury daily. Thank you for the great times and a special thanks to Carm Cozza and our mothers and fathers for not only the opportunity to become better men, but for the support in helping us follow our creative pursuits to success. Boola Boola from Kula.”

Bargiel, an Emmy nominated television writer who lives and works in Chicago, has worked on the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network for shows such as “Lizzie McGuire”, “Romeo!” and the “Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.”

“The four years I spent at Yale were the best of my life. The friends you make in class, on the football field, and perhaps on a little street behind Payne Whitney Gymnasium are the friendships that can last a lifetime,” said Bargiel. “Yale football brought out the best in me because it brings out the best in all of us: competition, camaraderie, and the spirit to succeed. Go Blue!”