2 introduced "Arcade League": a single-player challenge mode using the structure of arcade Mode. In arcade league, players compete against AI bots to earn trophies and unlock additional arcade mode content, such as playable characters. Challenge mode Challenge mode, available in all games of the series, consists of sets of single-player minigame challenges. The challenges, often with an imposed time limit, span a broad variety of gameplay styles, such as defending against zombies, collecting bananas as a monkey, racing robot cats, and smashing windows with a brick. Rewards, such as additional characters and weapons for arcade mode, are granted to players upon successful completion of challenges. MapMaker Each game in the series included "MapMaker": a grid-based level editor in which players could create their own custom content. The first game in the series only allowed creation of multiplayer arcade mode maps, whereas TimeSplitters 2 allowed players to also create single-player story levels with objectives. The third game added the ability to create maps which take place outdoors, whereas previous games had only allowed the creation of indoor maps. The online component added to Future Perfect meant players were able to upload and rate MapMaker creations for online sharing. Development TimeSplitters and TimeSplitters 2 (1999–2002) The TimeSplitters games were developed by Free Radical Design, a development company based in the Midlands, UK. Free Radical was founded in 1999 by five people, all of whom had previously worked for Rare on the Nintendo 64 first-person shooters GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark for a year and a half of development, but before its release: directors David Doak and Steve Ellis set up the company, and were then followed by director Karl Hilton, soundtrack composer Graeme Norgate, and Lee Ray. As a result of this shared development team, gameplay similarities, and occasionally overlapping settings (such as a Russian dam, as featured in TimeSplitters 2), the TimeSplitters franchise is often compared to these predecessors, and considered to be their "spiritual successor." Free Radical made an agreement with Eidos Interactive in February 1999 to "work for roughly three years on a novel FPS". Although it was not the first game worked on by the team–the first being an FPS with the working title of Redemption: what would later become Second Sight– TimeSplitters began development after the company received approval to obtain a PlayStation 2 devkit, which were difficult to obtain and decided to focus on creating