You don’t hear much about game developers like the U.K.’s Dlala Studios: neither a AAA megalith nor a fashionable indie, but a smallish outfit that’s been chipping away at the coalface for years, making characterfully animated versions of other people’s properties. I suspect there are more of these studios out there than any of us realize, propping up bigger projects with their work-for-hire services in between trying to get their own games off the ground.
You might know Dlala from its 2020 take on Rare’s vintage beat-em-up Battletoads, or from its 2023 Mickey Mouse platformer, Disney Illusion Island. Now it’s time for the studio’s “one for me,” in the form of Murals, a combat-heavy isometric action-adventure that looks like Hades but is chasing something much simpler and more nostalgic: a linear cartoon romp full of wit and quirky charm.
I found Dlala in an appealingly scruffy workspace on a small industrial estate in the unremarkable commuter town of Witham in Essex, a 40-minute train ride from London. Founder and local boy Aj Grand-Scrutton (huge, chatty, barrel-chested, with the hair and beard of Gandalf) proudly gave a tour in his slides, apologizing for the absence of his dog and the number of monitors plugged into his PC (seven). He finished with the cinema projection room management had built in secret while the staff was working remotely during COVID.
For a studio like this, it’s all about keeping the lights on, but Grand-Scrutton is careful not to disown Battletoads and Illusion Island, which he says the studio was given a lot of freedom on, as mere work-for-hire. He considers both “true Dlala games.” Nevertheless, Murals is different. For one thing, Dlala will self-publish it. For another, it is entirely Dlala’s own creation, unless you count the classic fairy tales it is extremely loosely based on.
In Dlala’s offices, I played the first two chapters, or “murals,” of the game, based on Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel. The player controls The Hero, a sturdy, silent protagonist in baggy overalls who can inline-skate around for a lick of extra speed. The Hero has been transported into this twisted fairy-tale mural by The Creator, a self-aware meta-villain; in the process, The Hero’s sidekick Loaf, a chirpy and loquacious slice of bread, has been accidentally brought to life from a sketch in The Hero’s pocket.
Grand-Scrutton has a passion for 2D animation (he idolizes 16-bit titles like Cool Spot and Aladdin), and loves to write silly, surreal, pun-riddled scripts. The Hero picks up a sword called Slash Gordon and a medallion called Dragon Thee Dallion. Sleeping Beauty has turned from a soporific damsel into a haughty insomniac called Bri who needs to listen to heavy metal at full volume to sleep. Rapunzel is Harriet, tortured by her own hair, and attended by a surfer-dude prince called Kit who is blinded by “the foreboding weight of my previous self.” Grand-Scrutton is extremely proud to have obtained the services of dadaist British comedy legend Bob Mortimer to voice Magic Dave, a vendor of boons. (If you want to laugh until you can’t breathe anymore, search for clips of Mortimer’s appearances on the panel show Would I Lie to You?)
In other words, we’re in Whimsy Town. This will either appeal to you or it won’t, but there’s no doubt that Dlala is pouring all its personality into the game, as well as its distinctive art and animation style. Grand-Scrutton admits the studio is less sure of itself when it comes to combat, but says the team enjoyed the experience of making Battletoads and wanted to challenge themselves to make a combat-first game. You can tell: to begin with, fighting in Murals feels quite basic, but it quickly builds in confidence without betraying its simplicity. It’s frantic and fun.
The twisted fairy-tale skits that make up Murals have been invaded by The Distorted, a breed of paint-themed creatures. (As well as Dlala’s own Mickey game, Murals seems influenced by Warren Spector’s Epic Mickey.) The Hero has ranged attacks, melee combos, and area-of-effect blasts which are modified by equipment and Eeries, the roguelike-style modifiers sold by Magic Dave. There’s room to sculpt your own build here, and Dlala isn’t too concerned if it breaks the balance.
But by far the most important button is the dodge button. The Hero’s health pool is small, and Murals is much more about dodging attacks than stringing together fancy combos or executing perfect parry timing. It’s rhythmic and spatial, predicated on the attack patterns of each enemy type. Murals keeps layering these on: cannon things that launch splats at your location, blobs that breed mini blobs, large cattle things that charge. Just to reinforce the value of dodging, there’s a bonus for kill streaks without taking any damage.
I hope Murals works out for Dlala. The game’s combination of simple structure and strong personality aren’t as common as you might think. And while there might be more Dlalas out there than we realize, it’s probably also true that there are fewer of them every day.