If we were to say that “gotta catch ‘em all”, what game would you think about? Before 2018, we probably would have mentioned Pokemon, Digimon, Monster Ranger or Yokai Watch without hesitation. Because historically, Japan has always been a leader in monster taming games. But now that we have Temtem in our lives, a game that greatly improved the Game Freak formula, things are slightly different. Today we introduce you to Crema Games, the brilliant minds behind this refreshing MMO creature hunting title developed in Spain.
Crema Games was founded in 2012 by Guillermo Andrades and Enrique Paños to develop games for mobile platforms, but its activity had already started 3 years earlier. Their first release was Instant Buttons, a very simple app with funny sounds that was available for Android and iOS. According to Crema, it was downloaded more than 20 million times since its launch through May 2018.
Starting with the development of Spin It! (2013), a logical puzzle game, the team set out to offer fun gaming experiences. With that idea in mind, they spent a few years creating freemium games for casual gamers like Oh My Goat (2014), Ridiculous Marathon (2015) and Ridiculous Triathlon (2015). Oh My Goat: Zoo Rescue (2016), a Match 3 puzzle game in the style of Candy Crush Saga, was Crema’s last adventure as mobile game developers.
Right after that, they move completely to premium games to explore different concepts. In fact, they had a first contact in December 2015 through Ludum Dare 34. This edition of the famous game jam revolved around the idea of growing and using two-button controls. They created Mobsferatu, a platforming game where players lead an angry mob through the dangerous hallways of Nosferatu’s tower to get revenge on him.
Later, in December 2017, Crema Games submitted Drift Punk to Ludum Dare 40. This game set in a dystopian society invites players to use the protagonist’s bikecab to pick up resistance members and drive them to their destination. Since the topic of this edition was ‘the more you have, the worse it is’, the bikecab will keep growing as you bring more people to the extraction point, making the job more and more complicated.
The best era of Crema Games began at that time. In a 180-degree turn, they chose the roguelite FPS Immortal Redneck as their first foray into the PC and console markets. This game set in Egypt presents a redneck tourist who wakes up mummified after a strange accident in the pyramids of Giza. Players must lead him to discover the truth while facing the many dangers of this ancient place in a frantic adventure inspired by Rogue Legacy and Serious Sam, with randomly generated dungeons, a complete skill tree and a permadeath system.
Not even its turbulent landing on Steam, where it was showered with criticism for the roughness of the gunplay, prevented the game from garnering over 90% positive reviews. According to Guillermo Andrades, that day was pretty stressful since many creators complained about many aspects of the weapons – so they decided to fix it in their first big update, which was released a month later. Later, the game got a modest physical release with 2,000 copies produced by Limited Run Games.
But the most important thing about this development is that it was critical to the success of Temtem.
Hardcore Pokemon fans had been dreaming of an open-world multiplayer title for years, and only Crema decided to make that wish come true. Temtem is a fully online experience that goes beyond combat and creature exchange, as players can complete their journeys together and even create clans to fight each other. Some members of the studio were quite experienced with MMO, so this knowledge was critical to foresee the troubles they’d find along the way and what they’d need to solve them.
As in Game Freak’s famous game, Temtem trainers explore the Airborne Archipelago fighting creatures, capturing them and commanding them in double battles against other trainers. Also, the story goes through challenging powerful Dojo leaders across the different regions and fighting the threat of an evil organization that wants to rule the islands by force.
Each monster has a main element and learning which one is strong or weak against the others is key to victory. Mastering this is key to understanding combat, because Temtem throws randomness away to focus on skills. Also, there’s a complex nurturing system where overbreeding results in genetic degradations that affect your little friends and the stats of their descents.
Another interesting feature is the Nuzlocke challenge, which is born from a trend started by Pokemon streamers. It’s available in the game as a standalone mode, in which players are only allowed to catch the first Temtem they encounter on each route and these creatures become unavailable for the rest of the game if their HP reaches zero. If the entire team is defeated in combat, the game is over.
Last but not least, it is worth mentioning that Temtem allows the player to create a character with gender-neutral pronouns. These are very well integrated into dialogues with NPCs and, in general, there is a very respectful treatment of non-binary people.
Like many other indie games, Temtem had its own Kickstarter campaign. It gathered almost $574,000 from more than 11,700 fans around the world. In the studio’s own words, even if the campaign had not had an impacting result Temtem would have been released in one way or another, because Crema Games had enough resources to finance the development. Kickstarter was a social thermometer to measure the popularity of the game.
Temtem was launched on Steam Early Access in January 2020. One week after its release, it still sat at the top of the global top sellers on Steam. It sold over 500,000 units in its first month and, after eight months on PC, over 19 million Tems were tamed in-game. In December of the same year, it arrived exclusively on PS5 on Early Access as well. In 2021, it arrived on Xbox and Nintendo Switch.
The game was fully launched in 2022, and more than one million copies were sold by the end of 2023. In June this year, Crema stopped developing new content for the game to focus on their next projects – one of them is the recently released Temtem: Swarm.
But before moving onto the present day, there’s an extra title from the Temtem universe that deserves a brief mention – we’re talking about Temtem: Showdown, a combat-focused variant of the base game published by Humble Games. Crema Games took inspiration from Pokemon Stadium and the fan-made web-based battle simulator Pokemon Showdown. The game is free-to-play since June 2023, with the advantage that there are no microtransactions and therefore no pay-to-win mechanisms.
Unfortunately, it was received with much criticism and only 59% positive reviews on Steam. The reason is that players found it difficult to make good combat strategies without seeing basic info like Temtem stats and the enemies’ main element and abilities. Consequently, Temtem: Showdown is hardly accessible for someone who’s not familiar with the Temtem universe. Players asked for an update on the UI and the battle system until the servers were shut down in early 2024.
Today, Crema Games writes a new chapter in their history with the release of Temtem: Swarm, a bullet hell spin-off game inspired by Vampire Survivors. This new title has been co-developed with GGTech Studios (eWorlds), a small team of multiplayer-oriented developers based in Alicante (Spain). It combines the gameplay of classic survivor games with Temtem‘s strategy-based combat mechanics, featuring a co-op side that allows players to face the swarms with up to three friends.
Collaboration is key to find and capture more Tems, unlock mighty abilities and maximize the attack potential. In addition to smaller enemies, players will face powerful bosses that will test the robustness of each combat strategy.
The first complete gameplays and speedruns are yet to come. In the meantime, we can just wait and wonder… What holds the future for Crema Games?
Apparently, Temtem is on the right track to become a powerful transmedia brand. Last year, Crema Games announced that there’s an anime series on the way – it’s being developed by Somewhere Animation, a French label dedicated to 2D animation. It’ll be aimed at kids as an introduction to the Temtem universe.
The adaptation will consist of 26 chapters in which a motley crew of tamers will travel together, facing epic battles and strengthening their friendship. The stakes are high, as the American TV writer Josh Hamilton (Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, Bakugan) has joined the production as showrunner.
But there’s more – rumors say that Crema is even working on a tabletop game. Will it be a board one or a role-playing rulebook? Our only hint is in the original game, where a TTRPG game named Tunnels & Temtem, in reference to Dungeons & Dragons, is mentioned.
We hope 2025 will bring us more news on Crema Games’ next adventures!
Activity funded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport.
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