Oh Wondrous day! All our games, Squids, Squids Wild West and Combo Crew are FREE today on the App Store, and Squids is also free on Google Play. Time to stretch some tentacles and punch a few faces. Possibly even punch with a tentacle.

Squids: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/squids/id467904350?mt=8

Squid Wild West: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/squids-wild-west/id522145076?mt=8

Combo Crew: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/combo-crew/id599516631?mt=8

Squids – Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thegamebakers.squids20HD&hl=en

SQUIDS was our first game as The Game Bakers, and since its initial release on iOS in 2011, it has lived a good life. It was ported to other platforms (Android and Windows Phone, PC, Mac), had a critically-acclaimed sequel (SQUIDS Wild West, 87% average on Metacritic), and was recently released on Wii U and 3DS in the form of SQUIDS Odyssey, which compiles the first two SQUIDS games with a new chapter and a lot of bonus content.

I’ve already discussed the business and financial side of the game in a previous article, and in another one, the fact that the game was developed « in the clouds » with team members all over the world. Now that SQUIDS Odyssey is generating new interest in the franchise, I want to delve into why and how we made some our design decisions, when we first conceived SQUIDS.

Like most ideas at The Game Bakers, SQUIDS was born at the diner table. The Game Baker’s co-founder Audrey Leprince and I were discussing our mutual passion for octopus, squid and calamari, and what incredible creatures they are. (Not only because they’re tasty!) After a few glasses of wine, we started having fun with the idea of a game called « Assassin’s Squid ». It was a good pun but normally this wouldn’t have been a conversation I’d still be thinking about the next morning. This time, though, the idea stuck in my head for a reason I couldn’t identify at the time.

I had been trying to come up with a new game idea for a while. I knew what game mechanics I wanted to have, but I hadn’t found the framework for them. I knew it would be a tactical game with “team management” and at least one real time action challenge, like aiming.

We often pitch Squids as « Final Fantasy Tactics meets Angry Birds », because it’s easier for people to understand, but the true initial references for Squids are Shining Force and Cannon Fodder: Shining Force for its great character design and T-RPG mechanics, and Cannon Fodder for the team-based tactical action.

I already knew how I wanted the game to work on a tactical standpoint, but I wasn’t happy with controls like “tap to move”. I wanted the game to work with a gamepad (I already had a console version in mind), but most of all, I wanted great touch controls. Touch devices require controls to be designed for them, with gestures in mind. With tactile devices you slide, you swipe, you pinch, you spread… all these interactions are what make touch devices interesting. Buttons are great on a controller, but not on a screen.

Therefore, with my tactical game in mind, I wasn’t happy with my « tap to move » controls. That’s why the Squid shape stuck in my mind: they have tentacles.

Pulling tentacles, aiming, throwing, managing strengths, bounces… Squids brought with them a whole world of game mechanics to add on to a rather niche genre, the T-RPG. With SQUIDS, we were deliberately aiming for a casual game—deeper than Doodle Jump, but not as complex as Final Fantasy Tactics. Linking the shape of the character to the controls is the greatest way to achieve accessibility, and it worked: even kids immediately understood how to play.

From there, I knew I had the pillars of the game (as you can see in this slide from the original creative overview presentation):

• Characters: a group of heroes, with each with individual strengths & weaknesses, and a light RPG evolution.
• Team based battles: choose your team and decide how to fight: spread out on the battlefield, or stay clustered together, or split up to help a character in danger. All the things that T-RPGs gamers love.
• Touch controls: a core action mechanic that’s linked to the controls, one you can play over and over without getting bored.

Deep Dive into the helmet system

SQUIDS is a game that looks simple on the surface, but it actually has a lot of features. An awful lot compared to the average iOS game. One of these features is the « helmet system », which ended up being a little different from what you could have expected.

Some of the classic features you can expect from a tactical RPG are equipment (weapons, armors, scrolls, etc.) and aesthetic customization. I wanted Squids to be casual-friendly—not to scare players with a lot of menus and UI—so I decided to merge these two features in one. Our Squids fight with their heads when you throw them at the enemies—why not give them some helmets? The helmets were going to be the weapons as well as the accessories to customize your characters.

The reflex design for this is to assign bonus stats to each helmet. The early ones would be weaker than the final, golden-legendary ones. That’s how it works in all RPGs: the wooden stick gives +1, the diamond sword +52. The downside from a customization standpoint is that even if the player prefers the look of the first helmet, they would still end up equipping the later one because it has better bonus stats—goodbye customization. A downside for us, the developer, is that we’d spend days to design, model, export sprites, fix sprites, and integrate the new helmet into the game, for only a few minutes of play before the player found a better helmet and dropped the first one forever.

That would be a shame, because I love our little helmets. They’re all interesting, they carry a lot of the game’s identity, and I wanted players to be able to choose whatever helmet they wanted without losing the benefits of better stats.

That’s why I came with the « transfer power » design idea. As soon as you got a new helmet, its bonus stats would transfer automatically to the Squid giving you the helmet’s power, but also letting you enjoy the customization aspects as you liked. This way, we’d go the Pokemon route: « catch’em all ». You were enticed to collect all helmets for empowerment and free to customize your Squid as you pleased, while in a classic RPG you don’t care about the wooden stick anymore once you have the diamond sword.

The design kinda worked, but we realized during the first playtest that there was a problem with the implementation: players didn’t realize that the helmets gave stats, and how much they gave. They would find the helmet, equip it, and the stats would transfer automatically. We skipped the crucial phase of visualizing the character’s empowerment so people thought helmets were only visual accessories.

To fix this, we added a completely unnecessary button: “Transfer Power”. When selecting a new helmet, you’d be able to actively tap “Transfer Power”. You’d see the bonus stats being transferred and your Squid would do a little victory dance. This changed how people perceived the helmets and was a more active way of getting the bonuses than a simple automated animation.

Between the initial idea of merging “weapons and customization” to the final helmet “transfer power” design, seven months passed. Not all this time was focused on this part of the design, of course, but it’s important to realize that a game is built from lots of little ideas that get crafted to parts of the UI, the controls, the animations, and the sounds. Time is key in the conception process. A game is the sum of its features growing over time, side by side but independently, like a tree growing its leaves.

When SQUIDS released, we found that players appreciated this original and unconventional way of handling weapons and customization. Some were immediately enthusiastic, while others mentioned that they found it weird at first, but loved it in the end.

Here is one of many quotes from players about this part of the system:

Player syntheticvoid  on TouchArcade’s forums:
You flick squids around, collect pearls, fight enemies, level up, equip, TRANSFER POWER FROM ITEMS TO YOUR CHARACTERS (friggin sweet mechanic!) – meaning once you buy an item, you can give it’s power to your character, then unequip it, and keep all the perks of that item… =oD

Although it’s not planned at the moment, I often think about designing a brand new SQUIDS game. It would be a massive reboot, a more tactical and deeper game. But for sure I’d keep the transfer power system.

Follow us @thegamebakers / @EmericThoa

« Here come new challengers »! Does that sound familiar? Well it’s no less than superstars Ryu, Chun Li, Ken and Blanka from the legendary Street Fighter 2 game that are joining the crew. Combo Crew is a tribute to the best fighting games of the 90s so we are extremely happy and proud to bring our favorite Street Fighter characters in the fight. The Capcom characters are available as in App purchases at 0.89€/0.99$. In addition to celebrate this launch the game is FREE on Apple App Store and 50% off on Google Play. We hope you like it! Full press release below and a video:   – – – – –

Street Fighters Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and Blanka brawl their way into Combo Crew.

Legendary fighters available as i.A.P. in The Game Bakers’ latest hit on iOS and Android.

MONTPELLIER, FRANCE – October 24, 2013 – The Game Bakers are ecstatic to deliver four fantastic new fighters in Combo Crew, through their collaboration with Capcom®. After Viewtiful Joe™, the new combatants are none other than Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and Blanka from Street Fighter™ fame. To celebrate these glorious additions into the game, a new version of Combo Crew has been wooshed onto the Apple App Store and Google Play. The popular and critically acclaimed Combo Crew is a tactile brawler in which you get to fight with your fingers, using a clever double-swipe mechanics to unleash a wide variety of combos. No virtual buttons. No virtual d-pad. The Capcom characters deliver a great extension of fighting styles and unique combos to the crew of fighters already available. The update also features major improvements to the gameplay mechanics; in particular the possibility to counter in the middle of a combo, and being attacked by multiple enemies at once, which overall results in an even more hectic rhythm of the action. The game has been available for 1.99$ (1.79€), but to celebrate the addition of the new heroes, it is temporarily free this week on the Apple App Store and discounted by 50% on Google Play, at US$ 0.99 (0.89€) since Google Play doesn’t offer the possibility to go temporarily free. Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Blanka and Joe are offered as in-app purchases for 0.99$ (0.89€) each. Action-packed trailer showing the Street Fighters strut their stuff in Combo Crew is available here: http://youtu.be/3wOVBbLuYhs “Combo Crew is a tribute to the best fighting games of the 90s” says Emeric Thoa, creative director at The Game Bakers. “So having our favorite Street Fighter characters in the game was like a dream. Also after adding in heroes from Squids, Another World and Viewtiful Joe, we had to finish with a big punch!.” About The Game Bakers The Game Bakers is an independent video game studio based in France. Founded and staffed by industry veterans whose credits include numerous AAA console games, The Game Bakers focuses on creative projects that combine traditional gaming values with the best of the touch generation. Their track record since going indie includes action-RPG SQUIDS, SQUIDS Wild West and brawler Combo Crew, critically acclaimed and widely popular on mobile platforms worldwide. Company web site: https://www.thegamebakers.com About Capcom Capcom is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment for game consoles, PCs, handheld and wireless devices. Founded in 1983, the company has created hundreds of games, including best-selling franchises Resident Evil™, Street Fighter™, Mega Man™ and Devil May Cry™. Capcom maintains operations in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Korea, with corporate headquarters located in Osaka, Japan. More information about Capcom can be found on the company web site, http://www.capcom.com or www.capcom-unity.com. Capcom, the Capcom logo, Resident Evil, Mega Man, Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Capcom Co., Ltd., in the U.S. or other countries. Street Fighter is a registered trademark of Capcom U.S.A., Inc. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. –//– ASSETS FOR MEDIA: Download the game: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/combo-crew/id599516631 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thegamebakers.combocrew Contact us for review copies. Screenshots: https://www.thegamebakers.com/vip Video: Street Fighter™ characters in-game: http://youtu.be/3wOVBbLuYhs Combo Crew Launch Trailer: http://youtu.be/LuW2fmz4S3Y   Social Media: Developer Web Site: https://www.thegamebakers.com Capcom Unity: http://www.capcom-unity.com YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheGameBakers Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ComboCrew Google+: http://gplus.to/GameBakers Twitter: @theGameBakers ; @Capcom_Unity ; #ComboCrew Tumblr: http://gamebakers.tumblr.com Contact Point: Audrey Leprince – audrey@thegamebakers.com

We are happy to announce update 1.2 to Combo Crew, with super hero Viewtiful Joe and Lester Knight from Out of this World (a.k.a Another World) courtesy of Eric Chahi as new playable heros!   – – – – – Capcom’s Viewtiful Joe character available in mobile brawler Combo Crew. Cult hero comes back with a punch in The Game Bakers’ latest hit on iOS and Android. MONTPELLIER, FRANCE – August 28, 2013 – Right on time for those of you who are packing up for PAX, The Game Bakers are proud to announce the addition of a brand new fighter in their recent mobile brawler hit Combo Crew, through a direct collaboration with Capcom. Joe, hero of the video game series Viewtiful Joe™, is readily available as in-app purchase for only 1.99 US$ (1.79 €) within the game Combo Crew on Google Play. The update will be live on the Apple App Store on August 29, while Amazon and Samsung Apps will be served in coming days. The entry price of Combo Crew has been temporarily dropped to 0.99 US$ (0.89 €) to celebrate this new cool challenger, and PAX too. The 50% discount will last until September 3. Henshin A Go Go Baby! For those not familiar with Joe, he first appeared on home video game consoles as the hero of Viewtiful Joe in 2003. The original garnered a lot of popularity resulting in sequels and versions on other consoles. As gamers and true fans of the original, The Game Bakers team are very happy to pay homage to this cult hero in Combo Crew today, courtesy of Capcom. Like all the other characters in Combo Crew, the new guest-star comes with his own palette of combo moves to unlock and collect while progressing through the arena levels of the 100% tactile brawler game. A short action-packed trailer showing Joe in Combo Crew is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVG_WUbhcZ8 “Capcom games had a huge impact on my generation and on me personally, as gamer and designer.” says Emeric Thoa, creative director at The Game Bakers. “If I’m perfectly candid about this, Viewtiful Joe is one of many games, along with God Hand, Final Fight or Street Fighter, that have influenced our direction. Many new-gen indie developers have their classics at heart; to get the chance to pay due tributes to a hero of your youth is a true bliss. We’re so grateful to Capcom for letting Joe fight along the Combo Crew cast.” Since good news should always be plural, there’s another cult gaming figure making a cameo in Combo Crew today. Mythical French game creator Eric Chahi granted us the fantastic opportunity to let you play with Lester Knight from 1991 indie classic “Another World” (a.k.a. “Out of this World” stateside). Lester comes as a free gift to the Combo Crew community. About The Game Bakers The Game Bakers is an independent video game studio based in Lyon and Montpellier, France. Founded and staffed by industry veterans whose credits include numerous AAA console games, The Game Bakers focuses on creative projects that combine traditional gaming values with the best of the touch generation. Their track record since going indie includes action-RPG SQUIDS, SQUIDS Wild West and brawler Combo Crew, critically acclaimed and widely popular on all iOS and Android App Stores worldwide. Company web site: https://www.thegamebakers.com About Capcom Capcom is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment for game consoles, PCs, handheld and wireless devices. Founded in 1983, the company has created hundreds of games, including best-selling franchises Resident Evil™, Street Fighter™, Mega Man™ and Devil May Cry™. Capcom maintains operations in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Korea, with corporate headquarters located in Osaka, Japan. More information about Capcom can be found on the company web site, www.capcom.com or www.capcom-unity.com. Capcom, the Capcom logo, Resident Evil, Mega Man, Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Capcom Co., Ltd., in the U.S. or other countries. Street Fighter is a registered trademark of Capcom U.S.A., Inc. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. –//– ASSETS FOR MEDIA: Screenshots: https://www.thegamebakers.com/vip Video: Joe in-game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVG_WUbhcZ8 Combo Crew Launch Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuW2fmz4S3Y Social Media: Developer Web Site: https://www.thegamebakers.com Capcom Unity: http://www.capcom-unity.com YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheGameBakers Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ComboCrew Google+: http://gplus.to/GameBakers Twitter: @theGameBakers ; @Capcom_Unity ; #ComboCrew ; #Joeisback Tumblr: http://gamebakers.tumblr.com

Squids Wild West is now 50% in Le Game mobile bundle to celebrate French games for the occasion of Gamescom 2013. Le Game Mobile Bundle features a selection of video games put together for the Gamescom 2013. You can download Squids Wild West at half its price directly on:

• The Appstore: https://itunes.apple.com/fr/app/squids-wild-west/id522145076
• The Google Play Store, HD version: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thegamebakers.squidsww_pHD
• The Google Play Store, regular version: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thegamebakers.squidsww_p

Squids Wild West is the newest game in the Squids serie

Here is the official announcement: Cologne, August 21, 2013 – Press release Discover French video games at exceptional prices with Le Game Bundles, a selection of downloadable video games that has been put together for Gamescom 2013. France is the partner country at Gamescom 2013, the European video game expo for professionals and consumers. « Le Game », which promotes the French video game industry on the international scene, is launching three bundled packages for the general public to discover what France has to offer. 15 games from 14 French companies will be showcased in this international video game expo for 10 days, at a discount. Consumers will be able to download three bundles of five different games between August 21-31. During this promotion, iOS and Android mobile platform users can try out Puddle (Neko Entertainment), Astérix Megabaffe (Bulkypix), Squids Wild West (The Game Bakers), Blade Lords (Playsoft), and Mothership Touch Battle (SillyCat Studio), at 50% off normal prices. There will also be two other bundles for PC and Mac. The first bundle for gamers comprises five games for €8.99, an 80% discount. This bundle has Blocks That Matter (Swing Swing Submarine), Red Johnson Chronicles 1 (Lexis Numérique), Stellar Impact (Tindalos Interactive), Shad’O (Okugi Studio), and Puddle (Neko Entertainment). The second bundle includes more accessible, casual games for €8.99, an 80% discount. This bundle has Tiny Token Empires Deluxe (Bip Media), Age of Enigma: The Secret of the 6th Ghost (Casual Box), FLY’N (Ankama), Dracula 4 (Koalabs), and BOxOn (Ludoid). All these promotions can be found on http://www.le-game.net for 10 days, starting from today. The PC bundles can be downloaded from Gamesplanet.com platform provided by Metaboli (www.metaboli.fr). Le Game Bundle–Casual: http://gamesplanet.com/produit.html?product_id=3979 Le Game Bundle–Hardcore: http://gamesplanet.com/produit.html?product_id=3980 The mobile bundle games can be downloaded directly from the App Store and Google Play. Puddle (Neko Entertainment) https://itunes.apple.com/fr/app/puddle/id662893908 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eneko.puddle.thd Astérix Megabaffe (Bulkypix) https://itunes.apple.com/fr/app/asterix-megabaffe/id657761961 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bulkypix.asterix Squids Wild West (The Game Bakers) https://itunes.apple.com/fr/app/squids-wild-west/id522145076 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thegamebakers.squidsww_pHD Blade Lords (Playsoft) https://itunes.apple.com/fr/app/blade-lords/id498957337 Mothership Touch Battle (SillyCat Studio) https://itunes.apple.com/fr/app/mothership-touch-battle/id636430860 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.SillyCatStudio.MothershipTB The French video game industry has been proving its creativity and ability to innovate for 40 years now. The 270 video game companies in France employ more than 5,000 people. Around 30 companies will be represented at the Le Game stands at Gamescom in Cologne between August 21-25th (Hall 4.2, Stands B022a-c, A021 and A023). About Le Game Le Game is a joint project between the Syndicat National du Jeu Vidéo (national video game syndicate), SELL, Ubifrance, AFII, and the regional associations and competitive clusters working to develop the video game industry in France. By pooling together resources, « Le Game, uncompromising creativity from France » aims to take concrete action to help French video game companies export their products. Le Game also helps to attract business to France in order to develop its video game industry. More informations : http://www.le-game.net Press contact: Julien Villedieu – Syndicat National du Jeu Vidéo (French Video game trade association) Passage du Cheval Blanc, 2 rue de la Roquette – 75011 Paris 0970 460 611 – dg@snjv.org  

Our first content update has just been released this Thursday 18th on iOS and Android.

The update includes new content that players have been asking for (a new chapter, skins for the characters, new leaderboards, cheesy endings for all fighters, Google + sign-in…) as well as support for new languages.

Thanks to you, we’re keeping up the good fight!

Combo Crew on the App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/app/combo-crew/id599516631
Combo Crew on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thegamebakers.combocrew
Combo Crew trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuW2fmz4S3Y

– – – –
Punchy update available, with new content and features you asked for!

– The final chapter: defeat Mr Boss for good!
– Skins to unlock for all characters!
– New leaderboards for Game Center, in King of the Tower mode.
– Possibility to check the world leaderboards for all rounds in King of the Tower.
– Possibility to login in with Google+ account.
– Localization in Japanese, Korean, Russian.
– Improved way to search and add friends.
– Possibility to cancel a rescue (for instance, when a lazy friend takes to long to play!).
– The CannonBall combo for Sammo is now a Guardbreaker! (yes, it’s about time ;-))
– The air attack takes priority over attack an enemy in the background (thanks Echoen!).
– Better feedback when finishing a round: you have to get the bronze medal to progress!
– Better feedback when losing crowns.
– Fixed the bug with scores over 2 billion (and many other bug fixes). Players, the competition is also now in King of the Tower with the world leaderboards!
– A new app icon!

We are proud to announce that Combo Crew, our mobile brawler game, is now available on the App Store and Google Play.

• App Store (iPhone / iPad / iPod touch): https://itunes.apple.com/app/combo-crew/id599516631
• Google Play (Android devices): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thegamebakers.combocrew

With Combo Crew we wanted to re-create the magic of the old-school brawler games we loved so much: Streets of Rage, Final Fight, Street Fighter,… but on mobile. So first we nailed down the controls so you could finally play a fighting game on a touch screen, with no virtual D-pad to mess up your moves. The touch controls are smooth, responsive, easy to learn: one-finger swipe to punch / kick, tap to counter, and two-finger swipes for special combos. Then we worked on re-creating the fun of playing co-op with your friend together on the sofa, commenting the action, and remembering it for days after! This is where the Draw Something-style asynchronous multiplayer kicked in. You can invite your friends to rescue you when you are KO, or rescue them, and of course compete in the leaderboards. And then we worked on the combat system for the gameplay depth, the arena-style levels in the tower for great sessions of gaming on the go, the unlockables and an “endless” mode to keep you coming

back for more. We also hope you will enjoy the parody and references to all the games that have inspired us! As always we are eagger to hear your feedback via the usual channels, and we are looking forward to playing with you in the game: you can invite us to compete or help, our email is in the game! Below the full press release.

– The Game Bakers

Combo Crew Launch trailer:

—-

The (Mobile) Fight Is On! Beat ’Em Up Combo Crew Now Available for iOS and Android

Modern old-school brawler from The Game Bakers has smooth touch controls, asynchronous multiplayer

MONTPELLIER, France – 23 mai 2013 – Independent developer The Game Bakers invite gamers worldwide to join the fight in Combo Crew, a high-energy beat ’em up just released for iPhone / iPad and Android. Starting today, the game can be downloaded for $1.99 (USD) from the App Store and Google Play. A brawler in the spirit of arcade-era fighting games like Street Fighter, Final Fight, and Streets of Rage, Combo Crew was designed especially for today’s mobile gamers. The touch controls are smooth and intuitive, so your fingers do all the fighting with no virtual D-pad to get in the way. Quick arena-style levels and a tower level structure make Combo Crew perfect for gamers on the go, while tons of unlockables and an “endless” mode keep the crew coming back for more. Trapped in an industrial tower by the maniacal Mr. Boss, the planet’s top heroes must fight their way to freedom one level at a time. In solo mode you face off against swarms of bad guys to master each character’s unique fighting style and special moves, unleash crazy combo streaks, and try for a high score to win the gold medal. In the co-op “Combo Crew mode” the fun kicks into high gear when friends team up to rescue and revive each other from KO. Best of all, this asynchronous multiplayer is cross-platform, so iOS and Android users can play together as part of the same crew. “With Combo Crew, we wanted to recreate the fun of playing a brawler co-op with a friend on the sofa, but adapt this to mobile gaming. So the Draw Something-style asynchronous multiplayer really made sense,” says Emeric Thoa, The Game Bakers’ creative director. “And if your friends aren’t around, no problem—we’ve included ourselves on the friend list. So if you’re in a pinch, you can request a rescue from The Game Bakers and one of the developers will help you out!” To purchase Combo Crew, visit these links:

• App Store (iPhone / iPad / iPod touch): https://itunes.apple.com/app/combo-crew/id599516631
• Google Play (Android devices): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thegamebakers.combocrew

Combo Crew was created by the developers of SQUIDS and SQUIDS Wild West, tactical RPGs that have been enjoyed by more than 1.5M players worldwide. Learn more about Combo Crew at facebook.com/ComboCrew and @TheGameBakers. About The Game Bakers The Game Bakers is an indie video game studio based in Lyon and Montpellier, France. Led by AAA developers Audrey Leprince and Emeric Thoa, who left their steady jobs at top-tier major publishers to take a risk making the games they love on modern platforms, the core members have worked on numerous console projects before and intend to blend their gathered experience, know-how, and expertise with the advantages of the agile development method and the freedom of a small team. The Game Bakers focus on creative projects that combine traditional gaming values with the best of the mobile experience. Their most recent delicacy, Combo Crew for iOS and Android, is the first mobile brawler with asynchronous cross-play multiplayer. Their turn-based action RPG series SQUIDS, available for iOS, Android, PC, and Mac, has been enjoyed by more than one and a half million players worldwide. SQUIDS has also been made into a comic book series and is coming to television next year. The Game Bakers make games like they cook food: with a lot of care, a lot of love, and because they’re French, a good bottle of wine. To learn more, visit the company’s website at https://www.thegamebakers.com.

We are very excited to announce our new game Combo Crew! It’s the first beat’em up for mobile to have touch controls and asynchronous multiplayer. Compete for the best combo streak and come to rescue your friend when he is KO! A first footage is better than a long speech, so have a look at the video here: The game will release this Spring on iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets, and players will be able to play together regardless of the device they are using. Keep in touch on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ComboCrew, Twitter @TheGameBakers, or on our website www.thegamebakers.com. More info coming soon! The Game Bakers PS: This is work in progress footage. Follow us for more info on the beta test! PS2: And check the full press release below. Here is the official announcement:

The Game Bakers’ Combo Crew Comes Out Swinging on iPhone, iPad, and Android this Spring

From the makers of SQUIDS: A modern, old-school brawler with platform agnostic co-op play

MONTPELLIER – March 6, 2013 – Mobile gamers, the fight is on! Indie developers The Game Bakers are revealing their next game: Combo Crew, a pocket-sized beat ’em up that combines innovative touch gameplay with good old-fashioned brawling. This action-packed game from the team behind the critically acclaimed SQUIDS and SQUIDS Wild West will release simultaneously for iOS and Android devices this Spring. In Combo Crew, a trio of heroes face off against hordes of enemies, fighting their way to the top of the tower where they’re being held hostage. When one hero falls, another can take over to climb the floors and advance the crew toward freedom. Inspired by the best of the arcade-era brawlers, Combo Crew puts a modern spin on classic beat ’em up gameplay with quick play sessions, solo and co-op game modes, a tower level structure, and an “endless” mode. And it’s the first mobile brawler with cross-platform, asynchronous gameplay, so friends can rescue and revive each other from KO no matter what device they’re using. “With Combo Crew, we wanted to bring back the spirit of the old console beat ’em ups—the ones you used to play on the couch with your buddies—in a way that makes sense on modern mobile platforms,” says Emeric Thoa, The Game Bakers’ creative director. “Games like Street Fighter and Final Fight require a D-pad controller, and that just doesn’t make sense for touch devices. So we challenged ourselves to make a brawler with really good, intuitive touch controls. And we’re pretty sure we’ve pulled it off!” Combo Crew’s intuitive interface combines highly responsive controls with exciting, tactile gameplay. Swipe to attack, tap to counter, and use a two-finger swipe to unleash combo streaks unique to your character’s martial arts skills. When your super combo meter is full, you can trigger special moves, racking up massive high scores in the process! See how it all works in the first gameplay video: http://youtu.be/-20DW6gTK6E. Upon its release, Combo Crew will be available for download from the App Store and Google Play. Leading up to launch day, more details will be revealed at http://www.facebook.com/ComboCrew and @TheGameBakers. About The Game Bakers The Game Bakers is an independent video game studio based in Lyon and Montpellier, France. Founded and staffed by industry veterans whose credits include numerous AAA console games, The Game Bakers focuses on creative projects that combine traditional gaming values with the best of the mobile experience. Their turn-based roleplaying series SQUIDS, available for iOS, Android, PC, and Mac, has been enjoyed by more than one and a half million players worldwide. SQUIDS has also been made into a comic book series and is coming soon to television. Their upcoming brawler Combo Crew will release for iOS and Android in Spring 2013. To learn more, visit the company’s website at https://www.thegamebakers.com

We are super happy to announce that our crew of cephalopod heroes is now moving onto TV. After the comic book available on the App Store, the partnership between the talented teams at Moonscoop and Frima will bring the Squids universe to another level. We are looking forward to exploring more of Squids’ unique characters and storyline, and provide our fans with a rich cross media experience! Below is the full press release.   – – – – –

Hit Mobile Game Squids Headed for Animated TV Series

Frima Studio and Moonscoop Announce Co-Production Partnership with The Game Bakers

New York City – February 8, 2013 – Today Frima Studio and Moonscoop announce a new partnership for the production of an animated children’s TV series based on Squids, the hit mobile game from The Game Bakers. The show will follow the exploits of four springy octopus adventurers as they travel between themed underwater kingdoms to hold the evil Baron and his infection at bay! “Ambitious projects like Squids allow us to showcase the talent of Frima’s artists and animators,” said Steve Couture, CEO of Frima Studio. “As an experienced mobile game developer ourselves, we’re well positioned to create a show worthy of this popular title with the world-renowned team at Moonscoop.” Released in October 2011 for iOS devices, Squids is a turn-based action RPG with over 1.5m players across iOS and Android. Squids and its sequel Squids Wild West feature a cast of memorable sea creatures and have been praised by gaming critics for their innovative gameplay and charming visual style. “With Squids among the first titles created for mobile gaming and now heading towards television and other screens, we’re pleased to offer a cutting edge transmedia experience for our fans,” said Audrey Leprince of The Game Bakers. “We’re confident that the Squids brand will shine on TV thanks to the highly capable teams at Frima and Moonscoop.” “With a wide range of expertise among the partners, the Squids’ content has the potential to reach consumers on screens of all sizes,” said Christophe Di Sabatino, CEO of Moonscoop. “We are eager to develop one of the first brands linking original content from mobile to television.” About Frima Studio Frima is Canada’s largest independently owned game developer. Since 2003, the company has been developing world-class media including virtual worlds, social and web based games, console titles and mobile apps. Their services also include the animation and special effects expertise of Frima FX as well as the concept art development of Volta. In addition to working with world-renowned clients such as Electronic Arts, Activision, Warner Brothers and Ubisoft, Frima develops successful, original IP titles such as Nun Attack, A Space Shooter for 2 Bucks! and Zombie Tycoon. With over 350 artists and programmers in-house, Frima produces high-caliber products that are as remarkably outstanding artistically as they are technically. For more information, please visit www.frimastudio.com. About Moonscoop Moonscoop is a leading worldwide kids production, distribution, brand management and entertainment company, focused on producing original projects and building brands with international appeal and longevity. With around four new series per year, the Moonscoop group gathers the best actors in the animation industry: Moonscoop (Paris) and Moonscoop LLC (Los Angeles), two world class animation studios: Antefilms Studio (France) and LuxAnimation (Luxembourg). Moonscoop Distribution is also heavily invested in launching internationally branded non-linear (VOD, SVOD, FVOD, EST) kids offerings on New Media platforms (IPTV, Web, Mobile, Connected TV). Its rights library combines many of the most successful programs and best-loved animated creations in the global television market and includes over 3000 half-hours of programming airing in more than 160 territories worldwide. Key brands include “Code Lyoko”, “Chloe’s Closet”, “Geronimo Stilton”, “Hero 108”, “Tara Duncan” and “Casper’s Scare School” which are licensed in markets around the world. Moonscoop‘s production slate currently includes new series as “Code Lyoko Evolution”, “Sabrina The Teenage Witch”, “Chloe’s Closet, Season II”, “Jungle Book, Season II” and “Ava Riko Teo, Season II”. Media Contact: Zach Fuller TriplePoint for Frima Studio zfuller@triplepointpr.com

The last time I had a second of free time was over the Christmas holidays and I used that free time to write a paper about our experience making SQUIDS and the realities of budget and profitability for an iPhone game. I wrote this post-mortem because when I started as an indie, I would have loved to have such information and I felt it was useful to share with other developers.

I was amazed by the attention it got and I was very pleased to read all the nice comments about the article. And for those who asked: no, it didn’t have a visible impact on SQUIDS’ sales, but it generated 24k unique visitors to our website in three days, which made the article more visible on Google and made the information more available to the industry, and that’s always a good thing.

There’s something else I would have loved to know more about before diving into indie game development: the tools and best practices for running a virtual indie game studio. By “virtual,” I mean a game development studio that doesn’t have an office. This is a situation shared by many indies: you start your project from home and don’t have the budget for renting an office, or maybe you’re a programmer and you have an artist buddy who lives in a different place. Lack of an office might have been a problem in 1995, but it shouldn’t prevent you from making games anymore. The problem nowadays is that there are so many ways to do it, the idea of running a virtual studio can be overwhelming.

One thing I love about indie development is that it’s not only about having people play our games, but also about developers freely exchanging ideas about our work and methods. So here is a bit of information about how we’ve tackled this issue at The Game Bakers, how we are organized, what tools we’re using at the moment, and how much this stuff costs us.

 

The Global Game Bakery

When I think of a “real” game studio, I think of a traditional office with an open space shared by the development team. I call The Game Bakers a “virtual studio” because we are spread out around the world. The team works together all day, but remotely from different cities, countries, and even different continents.

When I was working at Ubisoft, of course I was working in real offices, but I also had a lot of experience working remotely with other studios. Splinter Cell Double Agent was made by three teams spread across three continents; GRAW was made by four teams in the USA, France, and China.

When we started The Game Bakers, we wanted to make smaller games with a smaller team than we had been at Ubisoft, but we also wanted to create high quality games with good production values, like the console games we had worked on. One of the cornerstones of this ambition was to rely on a network of talented people whom we had worked with before on console games, but who were now spread out all across the world. (Even our initial members in France were not living close to each other.) Working with these talented people we already knew and liked would guarantee better efficiency, higher quality, smoother communication, and it would make our work more fun on a daily basis. To set up a structure that would work for day-to-day operations, we had to draw upon our past experiences with remote collaboration.

Here is our team for SQUIDS and SQUIDS Wild West. Roll over the pictures (or tap them on mobile) to see the team member’s info.

The core team is made up of six people spread out in six cities, in two different countries. The total team is 19 people, five countries, and almost as many workplaces as people on the team.

The core team, working full time on the games, includes:

• 2 programmers
• 1 technical manager / data manager
• 1 artist
• 1 game designer / level designer / producer
• 1 level design intern
• 1 studio manager (funding, legal, HR, marketing)

UI, story, audio, modeling, and PR were handled by part-time coworkers. Most of the team are freelance contractors. Working with contractors instead of employees is convenient in that it saves a bit of money for the studio, but it’s very uncertain as anyone could leave the team anytime. That’s a huge risk for a project where everyone is responsible of a key aspect of the game. One way to reduce this risk is to keep the projects short (shorter than a year). Being extra nice to them also doesn’t hurt. Managing trust is a much more important task in a virtual studio with distant contractors than in an office where everyone is an employee.

Even if you forget the part-time people and just consider the core players, this is pretty big for an indie team and a bit of work and effort is required to keep everyone moving in the same direction. The key word here is communication.

 

Communication tips and tools

When people ask me, “What’s the most important quality in a game designer?” they often expect me to answer “creativity” or “knowing games” or “understanding both the technical stuff and the art stuff.” But I actually think the most important quality is being able to communicate clearly and to fire up a team with your concept. Programmers are some of the hardest people to get excited about a concept, but if they get all fired up after asking the game designer a question—with shinning eyes and fingers itching to start typing some code—that’s how you know you have a good game designer.

Communicating your vision and having the energy to make it happen is already difficult when your team is all working from the same place, and it can become a huge challenge when you never see these people face to face.

 

Talk is cheap… but effective!

At Ubisoft, I had this great producer who told me once, “If your e-mail is longer than five lines, just pick up the phone and call. E-mails are for cowards, they create misunderstandings and take a long time to write. Just call. Do it!” I started to pay attention and realized that she was absolutely right.

It’s crucial to maintain human relationships with your remote coworkers. Voice chat allows that (in addition to saving time and being a more precise way to communicate). Within the team, we use Skype for instant messaging and conference calls, with a set of guidelines:

• We always turn Skype ON when working, so that everyone on the team can reach us.
• Every day, the whole team tries to have at least four hours of time that we’re all online, even if some of us have to deal with a six hour time difference (ex: Paris / Montreal).
• When text-chatting on Skype about a feature, if the discussion takes more than two minutes, we move to a call. Like e-mails, text-chatting can feel nicer and easier, but it’s really less productive.
• Video chat is nice sometimes, but really it isn’t necessary. Voice matters much more.
• As the producer and creative director, I try to talk to everyone on the core team at least once a day.
• To keep everyone updated, the whole core team has a “weekly meeting”, during which everyone explains what he or she did during the week.

This last point is very important. How much someone sees of the big picture can be vastly different from person to person, and there‘s no water cooler where you can catch up with the more “informed” members of a virtual studio. The weekly meeting lasts between 30 to 45 minutes, and everyone is updated and has the opportunity to ask questions.

Cost:
– Gmail account: Free + around $8/year for your own domain name
– Skype or Google Hangouts voice chats: Free

 

A video is worth a thousand pictures

Regarding game design documentation, I’m a big advocate of videos. If I were creating a game design scholarship program right now, I would trash MS Word and replace it with Final Cut and Photoshop. Sharing your vision for a game mechanic or a gameplay loop is way easier with a video. It gives the whole team a concrete direction… and the whole team actually watches it. Who wants to read a 10-page game design document? Not everyone on your team. But everyone wants to watch a one minute game concept video.

Here are examples of early game design documents I did for Squids.

• Keynote .pdf files with very little text, includes a generic overview of the features and VISUALS.

• A mock-up video made mainly with pictures borrowed from Google Images and assembled in After Effects. It’s ugly, it’s badly animated, but it gives an idea of the game. In the video you’ll also see how it evolved to become the much prettier game that SQUIDS is.

Cost:
– Sharing a video on the Internet: Free

Sharing this video to remote coworkers is super easy and free with YouTube or even password restricted on Vimeo, and is a good example of how much remote work has changed in the last 10 years.

Getting into details

Once I have shared my global vision of the project and I have a set of features in mind, I usually start on the “ugly” documentation, which is more project management actually.

• A feature list in Excel, prioritized, and a timeline and budget.

• A list of tickets (features specifications chunked) entered in Assembla, an online Cloud development tool that allows managing projects in an Agile kind of way.

Our use of Assembla is pretty basic. We define milestones that we split into 2-week sprints (a sort of “mini-milestone” with defined objectives and a working version). For each sprint I write a bunch of specs and break them down into tickets. We review them with the programmers at the beginning at a sprint and each ticket has a status: new, fixed, pending, closed. The usual stuff.

This works perfectly for the programmers, since their work is very systematic. For art production, we rely more on a simpler Excel task list and we try to check in on progress twice a week, in order to reprioritize and keep the project moving.

 

File sharing, versioning and source control

For all videos, documents, and art resources, we use Dropbox. For those who don’t know about Dropbox, it’s a great file hosting and sharing service that basically allows you to share a folder from your computer with others, and syncs it in the Cloud.

For most of the team we managed to increase the default free space (2Gigs) to around 4Gigs, which is enough so far, and for the art and design team we have pro accounts so that they can store bigger files like high-resolution PSDs.

Cost:
– Dropbox 100 Gigs account: $99/year
– Dropbox 2Gigs account: Free (and Dropbox offers a lot of ways to increase the free space).

The code is hosted on Assembla, and we use Git as a source control tool. It’s proven to be very efficient and reliable. One big advantage is that everyone has a repository with complete version history locally on his or her computer, which basically means that I don’t need to be connected to the Internet to commit some work, and most importantly, if I somehow screw up the server data there will always be someone with a clean version that we can restore. For a clumsy designer, it feels safer.
We use GitX on Mac to commit our changes, an open source version control system with a visual interface, but many other tools exist too.

Cost:
– Assembla “Single plan”: $19/month.
– GitX or Github: free.

For beginners, what all this means is that all the team can work at the same time, on the same project, and then merge everyone’s work together on a remote server instead of having to “send manually updated files” to the whole team.

 

Sharing versions of the game

Sharing builds is a universal need within the digital industry and it’s not really any easier or harder for virtual studios, but it is something we needed a solution for.

We have several ways to distribute a development build.

• TestFlight is a very convenient service that allows you to send an iOS or Android version to a list of recipients. It’s very easy to use, but it requires the users to subscribe and if you want to send an ad-hoc build on iOS you will need to add the user’s UDID to your list of devices.
• HockeyApp does more or less the same, but we also use it to get crash reports from our players.

Cost:
– HockeyApp: $25/month.
– TestFlight: Free

 

Workcamps, and getting drunk together

Finally, one of the best ways we’ve found to improve remote work is to stop being remote for a while. We call this a Workcamp, and the recipe is pretty simple.

Workcamp recipe, for a 6-8 person team

• Rent, or find someone to lend you, a big house with enough beds for everyone.
• Make sure the house has a peaceful, countryside location, or is close to the sea.
• Make sure it’s far away enough from anyone’s home that nobody can go home at the end of the day.
• Make sure you’ll be able to get a decent internet connection.
• Book the place for two weeks, preferably soon before a milestone deadline.
• Book plane and train tickets for everyone.
• Bring a lot of board games.
• According to your taste, bring a dedicated cook (like we did twice) or prepare to cook yourself (knowing that you’ll lose at least two hours of worktime a day). Or just warm up pizzas!
• Make sure you won’t run out of wine and beer.
• Repeat every 6 months.

The values of a Workcamp are numerous:

People get to work together for real, and that bonding will last and prove useful for the next six months of remote work.

It’s also extremely productive if done at the right time. Before an important milestone, work is usually well defined and everyone has a lot to do. We’ve found that in this setting, everyone is fine working 10 hours a day, with a nice lunch break and a little game time at night. For us, a two weeks workcamp is as productive as three weeks of normal work.

It’s simply the spirit. Sharing indie dev time, game time, and food and drink time with your team is always fun, but it’s especially cool when there’s something exceptional about it. The simple fact that the Workcamp breaks the routine makes it cool, and worth the financial investment.

Here is a short sample of our Workcamps:

Cost:
– Transportation: Depends on your team. For us, it’s around $1200.
– Housing: we managed to borrow a place a few times. We rented a great place once for $1500 for two weeks.
– Food: $300 (everyone chips in $10/day, and the studio pays for the rest. Basically, for the wine.)

We also have celebration parties when we ship a game. Here is the “baking / squid cooking workshop” we did after SQUIDS’ release:

 

The pros & cons in short

Here is a last bit of experience regarding virtual studios:

Pros:

• Simplified ability to hire worldwide talents
• Reduced office costs
• Schedule flexibility
• No travel time to the office
• More quiet than an open space

Every week, I find myself in a situation where I really appreciate working from home. For instance, going out to buy something at 11am is something I didn’t do for the 7 years in worked in a company office. Another example is the ability to focus on work for 4 hours without being interrupted. When I was at Ubisoft, I had someone coming to my desk asking for something every fifteen minutes. Lively for sure!

Cons:

• Requires an experienced core team, with very autonomous people
• Requires dedicated people (serious workers) with calm home offices
• Reduces productivity due to harder communication
• Although technical tasks are easy to manage remotely, art and game design tasks need even better communication
• Can’t get a beer with your buddies after work!

Even if the team works well together and everyone’s on board with the virtual studio organization, you will still miss some of the comfort of a real studio. Skype voice chat quality problems might occur, or simply feel the need to draw something on a whiteboard (game designers love white boards). Online white boards have not been a great solution so far.

At first glance it might seem like a virtual studio isn’t worth it, but the point about having a worldwide team alone makes virtual studios a growing necessity: today, making games is frontierless.

“Real studios” are great for many reasons, and sooner or later we might move to some sort of hybrid organization here at The Game Bakers. But so far, the virtual studio has allowed me and my team to follow our dream of creating our own studio, our own games, and own our IPs.

Alongside the “digital distribution,” a virtual studio organization is a major factor for why it’s now possible to make games with total creative freedom and earn a living from it. I hope sharing our methods will help some other indies who might otherwise have been scared off without even trying.

Any questions, feel free to contact me @EmericThoa and for update follow us @TheGameBakers.