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GDC 2018: ‘Calamari Kid’ is an Arcade Diver with a Surprising Amount of Strategy from ‘Bean’s Quest’ Developer Kumobius

Some of my all-time favorite mobile games have come out of Australian developer Kumobius. Games like Bean’s Quest ($2.99), Bean Dreams ($2.99), Time Surfer ($0.99), and of course the mega hit Duet ($2.99). So of course I’m always thrilled to see what’s next from them. In an interesting twist, I’d actually seen their upcoming title Calamari Kid back at last year’s GDC when it was in just a very early state, and remember thinking to myself that it had a lot of potential. Fast forward to this year’s GDC and that potential is being realized to its fullest in the build that I was shown. You play as an adorable squid diving down a series of pre-designed levels, avoiding a host of underwater hazards as you try to make it to the pile of treasure sitting on the ocean floor. The control mechanics are really interesting, as your squid is always rotating counter clockwise but when you touch the screen he’ll rotate the other direction, so by using feathering taps you can get the squid to move straight down. This control method is super fun in practice and Calamai Kid hides a lot of strategy in its mechanics, as you’ll see on display in our hands-on video below. We should hopefully all get to experience this charming game in the next couple of months or so.