Thanks to Apple and a group of talented video game designers, Saskatoon can claim bragging rights to being one of Canada’s most buzzworthy mobile gaming companies.
Noodlecake Studios is a small indie game studio proudly based in Saskatchewan’s biggest city since 2011. Apple recently recognized the company as one of Canada’s top game makers in the newly minted “made in Canada” section of the App Store.
“To be profiled by a company like Apple as one of the top makers in Canada, the first one, is you know pretty humbling and we’re very excited to see where it can lead, because you never know,” said Ryan Holowaty, Noodlecake’s vice president of business.
The company acknowledges that it’s based in an unlikely city. On its website, Noodlecake describes Saskatoon as “a.k.a. the middle of nowhere Canada” and pokes fun at the fact it chose to plant roots in a “big patch of barren land in the middle of the country” over Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver.
But its headquarters hasn’t held Noodlecake back. The studio started in its founder’s kitchen and had early success with games like Stickman Golf. The app has since had several sequels, was named one of the best apps of 2013 and has been translated into more than 10 languages.
In six years, Noodlecake has designed hundreds of mobile games for both Android and Apple devices. The company now employs 15 game developers and also makes third-party video games comes to life.
In a roundabout way, Noodlecake has become an ambassador of sorts for Saskatchewan.
“If we go to San Francisco to a conference and people ask where we’re from and we say Saskatchewan, and people are like, ‘Where is that?’ They have no idea where it is,” said CEO Jordan Schidlowsky.
“I don’t think many people know that stuff like this is happening in Saskatoon or Saskatchewan, so it is cool to shed light on the tech industry.”
With files from CTV Saskatoon
