SQUIDS<\/em> 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<\/em>, 87% average on Metacritic), and was recently released on Wii U and 3DS in the form of SQUIDS Odyssey<\/em>, which compiles the first two SQUIDS<\/em> games with a new chapter and a lot of bonus content.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve already discussed the business and financial side of the game<\/a> in a previous article, and in another one, the fact that the game was developed \u00ab in the clouds \u00bb<\/a> with team members all over the world. Now that SQUIDS Odyssey<\/em> 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<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Like most ideas at The Game Bakers, SQUIDS<\/em> was born at the diner table. The Game Baker\u2019s 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\u2019re tasty!) After a few glasses of wine, we started having fun with the idea of a game called \u00ab Assassin\u2019s Squid \u00bb. It was a good pun but normally this wouldn\u2019t have been a conversation I\u2019d still be thinking about the next morning. This time, though, the idea stuck in my head for a reason I couldn\u2019t identify at the time.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t found the framework for them. I knew it would be a tactical game with \u201cteam management\u201d and at least one real time action challenge, like aiming.<\/p>\n

We often pitch Squids as \u00ab Final Fantasy Tactics meets Angry Birds \u00bb, because it\u2019s easier for people to understand, but the true initial references for Squids are Shining Force<\/a> and Cannon Fodder<\/a>: Shining Force for its great character design and T-RPG mechanics, and Cannon Fodder for the team-based tactical action.<\/p>\n

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I already knew how I wanted the game to work on a tactical standpoint, but I wasn\u2019t happy with controls like \u201ctap to move\u201d. 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\u2026 all these interactions are what make touch devices interesting. Buttons are great on a controller, but not on a screen.<\/p>\n

Therefore, with my tactical game in mind, I wasn\u2019t happy with my \u00ab tap to move \u00bb controls. That\u2019s why the Squid shape stuck in my mind: they have tentacles.<\/p>\n

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Pulling tentacles, aiming, throwing, managing strengths, bounces\u2026 Squids brought with them a whole world of game mechanics to add on to a rather niche genre, the T-RPG. With SQUIDS<\/em>, we were deliberately aiming for a casual game\u2014deeper 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.<\/p>\n

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

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• Characters:<\/strong> a group of heroes, with each with individual strengths & weaknesses, and a light RPG evolution.<\/li>\n
• Team based battles:<\/strong> 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.<\/li>\n
• Touch controls:<\/strong> a core action mechanic that\u2019s linked to the controls, one you can play over and over without getting bored.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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  Deep Dive into the helmet system<\/h3>\n

  SQUIDS<\/em> 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 \u00ab helmet system \u00bb, which ended up being a little different from what you could have expected.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

  Some of the classic features you can expect from a tactical RPG are equipment<\/strong> (weapons, armors, scrolls, etc.) and aesthetic customization<\/strong>. I wanted Squids to be casual-friendly\u2014not to scare players with a lot of menus and UI\u2014so I decided to merge these two features in one. Our Squids fight with their heads when you throw them at the enemies\u2014why not give them some helmets? The helmets were going to be the weapons as well as the accessories to customize your characters.<\/p>\n

  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\u2019s 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\u2014goodbye customization. A downside for us, the developer, is that we\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

  That would be a shame, because I love our little helmets. They\u2019re all interesting, they carry a lot of the game\u2019s identity, and I wanted players to be able to choose whatever helmet they wanted without losing the benefits of better stats.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

  That\u2019s why I came with the \u00ab transfer power \u00bb design idea. As soon as you got a new helmet, its bonus stats would transfer automatically to the Squid giving you the helmet\u2019s power, but also letting you enjoy the customization aspects as you liked. This way, we\u2019d go the Pokemon route: \u00ab catch\u2019em all \u00bb. 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\u2019t care about the wooden stick anymore once you have the diamond sword.<\/p>\n

  The design kinda worked, but we realized during the first playtest that there was a problem with the implementation: players didn\u2019t 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\u2019s empowerment so people thought helmets were only visual accessories.<\/p>\n

  To fix this, we added a completely unnecessary button: \u201cTransfer Power\u201d. When selecting a new helmet, you\u2019d be able to actively tap \u201cTransfer Power\u201d. You\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

  Between the initial idea of merging \u201cweapons and customization\u201d to the final helmet \u201ctransfer power\u201d design, seven months passed. Not all this time was focused on this part of the design, of course, but it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

  When SQUIDS<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

  Here is one of many quotes from players about this part of the system:<\/p>\n

  Player syntheticvoid \ufffc on TouchArcade\u2019s forums:<\/strong><\/em>
  \nYou 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<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

  Although it\u2019s not planned at the moment, I often think about designing a brand new SQUIDS<\/em> game. It would be a massive reboot, a more tactical and deeper game. But for sure I\u2019d keep the transfer power system.<\/p>\n

  Follow us @thegamebakers<\/a> \/ @EmericThoa<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n