The Game Bakers is an upstart French studio founded by Audrey Leprince and Emeric Thoa, both of whom cut their teeth in the industry working at Ubisoft, notably on titles in the military-themed Tom Clancy's series such as EndWar and Splinter Cell: Double Agent. Yet the studio's first project is Squids, a colorful hand-drawn iOS game that finds you pulling the titular beasts by their tentacles and flinging them across the battlefield at armored aggressors. Surprise! But despite the unexpected juxtaposition between their previous work and current project, it's clear that the developers trying to bring their experience working on heftier, more traditional games to the App Store.
I caught up with the team at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in Seattle this weekend, and according to Leprince, they were attracted to the iPhone and App Store by the quality and accessibility of the games, but found themselves hoping for a bit more depth from some of the headline titles. Squids is their response, as its vibrant cartoon-like style fits in well with the top casual offerings on the iPhone and iPad, yet it includes deeper layers of customization and strategy that reward dedicated play and tactical thinking.
At its core, Squids finds you flinging a team of four of the gooey cephalopods around various underwater locations, with the goals in each mission ranging from eliminating all enemies to rescuing an ally or finding your way to the other side of the map. The turn-based strategic approach gives you an opportunity to man each fighter before giving the enemy a chance to retaliate, and it repeats until one side loses the fight. Flinging is as simple as grabbing each squid's tentacles and aiming it in the intended direction, and each offers special abilities -- like healing powers for allies, or a multi-punch attack triggered by tapping multiple times after launching. Across the 20-or-so initial included levels (more will come down the line), you'll also encounter fresh faces that are recruited into the squad, letting you pick and choose which four fighters you want for any given challenge. Plus, you'll level up the squids over time and learn new abilities, which will help with the greater challenge and tackling a boss battle found later in the game.
I played a few minutes of the iPad version and found the flinging mechanic pretty easy to grasp, and at times it makes the game almost feel a bit like marbles, as you'll knock foes off of the sides of the map in some cases. The glossy, hand-drawn aesthetic really pops off the screen, and the promise of building out a team of customizable squid warriors should hold a bit more longterm appeal than some of the more prominent quick-hit offerings on the App Store. Squids is expected to launch first on iPhone in October at a target price of $2.99, while an enhanced iPad version -- with a tabletop-style local multiplayer mode -- should follow shortly thereafter, alongside a Mac release.
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