‘We’d rather be loved passionately by 10 people than be just appreciated by a hundred’ — why Cairn and Furi creators embrace uniqueness and polarizing design choices to create memorable games — Gaming

The Game Bakers' creative director says he wants people to "remember our games forever"
It means the team may take risky or polarizing decisions, but it's worth it to build a passionate audience
It's paid off with games like Cairn, which has achieved excellent reviews and award recognition, and is about to release its first DLC

It’s a joke, obviously, but given the catalog of titles released by The Game Bakers so far, part of me believes creative director Emeric Thoa when he tells me that “there’s a chance our next game is an MMO match-3 about friendship.”

It’s a testament to the team’s creativity and versatility that I could see something like this sitting alongside the frenetic boss rush Furi, charming co-op RPG Haven, and the captivating climbing adventure Cairn.

“We always make games with the goal of creating a very memorable experience. All our efforts, our ideas, our choices are made so that people will remember our games forever,” explains Thoa.

A nighttime shot of Marco climbing a rockface in the rain in the game Cairn. — (Image credit: The Game Bakers)

Cairn definitely stuck in the mind, as you took on a gruelling and demanding ascent up the enormous Mt. Kami with professional climber Aava. It may have mixed in some quiet moments of exploration and an engaging story, but it was almost exclusively about climbing a big mountain.

Thoa appreciates that, as with other The Game Bakers titles, taking this approach to follow and explore a single idea to its fullest in service of creating something impactful can be a big risk.

“This sometimes leads to polarizing design choices, but we’d rather be loved passionately by 10 people than be just appreciated by a hundred,” says Thoa.

Marco climbing a rockface as the sun sets over the mountain in the game Cairn. — (Image credit: The Game Bakers)

It’s paid off with the excellent reception to Cairn, including a four-star review from me. Thoa is also pleased that critics and players responded well to the game, with various high scores and award recognition.

“I should feel extremely happy and grateful, but the truth is that if the response had not been very positive, I would be broken right now. So, I feel not-so-broken, and that’s pretty good. I’m especially proud that people eventually appreciated the innovation and risk-taking in Cairn.”

So with that mindset in place, what is genuinely next for The Game Bakers? Well, there’s the first part of the On the Trail DLC for Cairn coming on October 29, which I went hands-on with at Gamescom. After that, Thoa doesn’t have too much to reveal: “It’s too soon to tell, and I’m not even sure myself.”

Whatever it is, I’m sure it’ll be fascinating.

Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.