From the Console to the Tablet: The Game Bakers Success Built on Compassion and Effort

Baking and developing video games have many similarities. It takes a lot of hard work and preparation to make the perfect creation.

In this case, the energy went into an underwater squid kingdom under attack from an evil black ooze.

Welcome to the Game Bakers world. An independent game studio headed by Audrey Leprince and Emeric Thoa, two industry veterans who both previously worked at “Ubisoft” and whose resumes include working on AAA console games like “Splinter cell,” “Ghost Recon” and “Rayman.”

They traded all the pizazz in to make Squids, a tactical RPG developed for mobile cell phone devices and tablets, as well as the PC and Mac.

It all started with the need for change. Sick and tired of the long production schedules in the console world, they wanted to make games their own way.

“At the moment you see all the energy and innovation and activities are in the mobile consoles. It was really tempting for me to try something different,” says Thoa. “It’s (been) super rewarding.”

The Game Bakers is a small game studio based in Paris and Montpellier France. They are dedicated to bringing high quality games to mobile devices. i.e. your cell phones and tablets. Working on mobile games with a smaller team allows The Game Bakers to fully visualize their concepts and ideas without much interference or resistance from company big wigs.

“A smaller team means you have less compromises to make; you can really go crazy with ideas and make it happen with out having to convince fifty people,” Thoa said.

Being a small studio gives the Bakers a level of accessibility to their fan base that is rarely seen with larger publishers. The Game Bakers will on a regular bases update their blog, chat with fans on their Facebook page and send tweets out to their followers.

“That’s something we wanted also, to be closer to everybody, the press and the player, and now we can.,” Thoa said.

Big video game companies like EA or Ubisoft rarely interact with their fan base.

Thoa says that’s not the case with TGB.

“We answer every single email we receive, we really want to be there for the fans,” he said.

This close interaction and attention to their fan base is what gives The Game Bakers a certain edge and advantage over other big game companies. The effort has reaped its benefits. Squids currently has over one million downloads and a perfect Five star fan rating on the app store. The game also just so happens to be rated the number one RPG on the app store in 65 countries.

With the success of “Squids” and a strong fan base, the Game Bakers released a follow up in late-June, “Squids Wild West,” which has garnered its share of positive reviews.

Their yeoman work ethic and courteous nature towards their fans aside, the Squids series is quite possibly the best series on the iPad today. Thoa sees this as a beginning and hopes more people will find their adventure a worthy one.

“Spread the word. We need that,” he said. “It’s true we have one million players, and I’m extremely happy about that, but we need the support of the community so we can make more (games).”