Last year, Humble Games, a publisher of independent games, underwent a reorganization that led to significant job losses. This restructuring impacted not just employees, but also the games the company was working on, such as Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus. This vibrant platformer, created by the small team at Squid Shock Studios and drawing inspiration from Japanese folklore, ultimately became the last game released by Humble Games’ internal publishing team.
As of November 2025, Squid Shock Games continues to develop Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus. They’ve just launched the free Tanuki Kabuki update, a significant addition to the game. This update includes new challenges after completing the main story, fresh gameplay features, and collectible items. A standout feature is the Kabuki-style Boss Rush mode, where players fight a series of bosses before a reactive audience. Players can also try the new Gauntlet Mode, a hand-picked set of challenges with adjustable difficulty levels.
Squid Shock Games faced challenges after Humble restructured, suddenly needing to take on tasks previously managed by their publisher. We talked with creative director Chris Stair about how the team overcame these hurdles, adjusted to the last-minute changes, and what they learned from the experience.
After launching our first game, ‘Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus,’ my team at Squid Shock and I were left feeling completely lost and abandoned. This was not only our company’s first release, but my first game project ever. We’d launched just five days before Humble restructured, and it was a huge blow. We were celebrating at Bit Summit in Kyoto, Japan, meeting developers we admired and enjoying an amazing launch party with a supportive community. Then, almost immediately, everything changed, and it felt like the rug had been pulled out from under us. Just thinking about it now still stresses me out.
Stair expressed his disappointment with the news regarding Humble Games, especially after hearing from former employees he’d collaborated with on the game’s marketing. More immediately, he realized the planned support from the publisher after launch had changed significantly. He felt the launch was negatively impacted, both practically and emotionally. “It consumed a lot of my energy worrying about what would happen next,” Stair explained. “Instead of focusing on growing the game during its crucial first weeks, we were just trying to stay afloat.”
After leaving Humble Games, Squid Shock suddenly had to handle everything themselves – from marketing and public relations to communicating with creators, tracking player feedback, coordinating quality assurance, and fixing translations. But the most challenging part by far was releasing updates for console versions of the game.
Stair explained that Humble Bundle acted as their go-between when dealing with console makers like Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft. When Humble reorganized, those important connections were weakened, making it impossible to release necessary updates. Stair said it was frustrating to see players report bugs and performance problems and be unable to fix them for months. He believes this seriously harmed their reputation, particularly on Xbox, where the game experienced significant crashes at launch.
Although Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus sold a decent number of copies, it didn’t perform as well as Squid Shock had hoped. According to Stair, they didn’t even reach the low sales figures they had initially predicted. While it’s impossible to say for sure, Stair believes the problems with the Humble platform negatively impacted their ability to improve the game over time.
It’s unfortunate that Squid Shock had a positive partnership with Humble before the publisher unexpectedly closed. According to Stair, despite some imperfections, Humble knew the industry well and offered crucial support during development – support the studio wouldn’t have received if they’d self-published. Stair emphasizes that publishers do much more than just release a game; a good publisher assists with quality assurance, translation, scheduling, adapting the game for different platforms, creating trailers, securing subscription deals, and many other vital tasks. All of these are essential for a game to succeed in today’s competitive market.
Squid Shock has partnered with Good Games Group, a new publishing company created by people who used to work at Humble. Fans can watch gameplay of their game, Bo: Path Of The Teal Lotus, during a Games Done Quick livestream this weekend.
Read More
- Where Winds Meet: March of the Dead Walkthrough
- Physical: Asia fans clap back at “rigging” accusations with Team Mongolia reveal
- Invincible Season 4 Confirmed to Include 3 Characters Stronger Than Mark Grayson
- Mark Wahlberg Battles a ‘Game of Thrones’ Star in Apple’s Explosive New Action Sequel
- T1 beat KT Rolster to claim third straight League of Legends World Championship
- Battlefield 6 devs admit they’ll “never win” against cheaters despite new anti-cheat system
- Is Steam down? Loading too long? An error occurred? Valve has some issues with the code right now
- ‘Hazbin Hotel’ Hints at Why Lilith Is In Heaven In Season 2 Episode 2
- Kai Cenat reveals what stopped world’s-first Twitch stream in space
- How Many Episodes Are in Hazbin Hotel Season 2 & When Do They Come Out?
2025-11-21 21:12