Tooth and Tail is a real-time strategy video game created and published by Pocketwatch Games, the same company that made Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine. The game was released in September 2017 for Windows, MacOS, Linux, and PlayStation 4.
The game takes place in a world where animal characters that look like humans live during a time when food is very scarce. This shortage causes different political groups to form, each with unique ideas about how to obtain food. Players can choose to play alone or with others, and the game supports gamepads as well as keyboards and mice. At the start of each match, players select six units from a group of twenty available units. The goal is to destroy the enemy’s resources by building structures and creating more units. Instead of seeing the entire battlefield from above, players control a commander.
The development of Tooth and Tail started after the team finished making Monaco. Before the game was named Tooth and Tail, it was called Armada and was first announced in March 2014. The goal was to create a real-time strategy game that did not require players to control every detail or perform many actions quickly. From the beginning, the game was designed to work well with both gamepads and keyboard-and-mouse setups. In August 2014, the game’s name was changed to Lead to Fire, and later to Tooth and Tail in August 2015. The name refers to the "tooth-to-tail ratio," a term used in military planning. The developers planned to release the game on Steam’s Early Access platform before its official launch, but this did not happen.
Tooth and Tail received positive reviews and won two awards in 2016: "Best Character Design" at Intel Level Up and shared the "Guest's Pick" award with Giant Cop at Media Indie Exchange. Some reviewers said the single-player mode was not as well-received as the multiplayer modes because the difficulty increased too quickly. The game was often compared to other works, such as the book series Redwall and the novella Animal Farm.
Plot
Tooth and Tail takes place in the 19th century in a world where animals that look and act like humans struggle with long-term food shortages. Many animals turned to eating other animals to survive. The group called the Civilized, led by Archimedes, created a lottery system to decide which animals would be eaten. This practice caused disagreement across the land. Commonfolk, who were not part of the Civilized, disliked being chosen for eating and also found food too expensive. The son of a rich merchant named Bellafide was selected to be eaten, but he refused and wanted to change the system to one that chose people based on their abilities. The Commonfolk, led by Hopper, also opposed the lottery and wanted to replace it with a voting system. To challenge the Civilized, Hopper and Bellafide worked together even though they had different goals.
The Civilized fought to keep their power and the current way of life. Although the revolution caused confusion among leaders, some military groups stayed organized. Quartermaster, the untrustworthy and practical leader of the late Tsarina’s secret police, took control of these military groups and supported the Civilized for a time.
Near the end of the story, pigs, who are dying because of the war, told four armies that they had given false information to the other three armies, tricking them into gathering in one place. As the armies fought each other and destroyed themselves, the pigs rebelled, revealing their plan to overthrow the Tsarina and seek revenge for being enslaved and eaten. A large group of pigs then attacked the last remaining army, defeating it and leaving the future of the commanders and other meat-eating animals unclear.
Gameplay
Tooth and Tail is a real-time strategy video game that can be played with gamepads or a keyboard and mouse. The game includes single-player and multiplayer modes. In single-player mode, players complete levels that get harder as they progress through the story. Each level has basic goals that must be completed, along with extra challenges that are optional. Multiplayer mode allows players to compete online in ranked or unranked matches or play locally with up to four players on split screens. Players can team up in groups of two or compete individually to be the last one standing.
Before a match starts, players choose a commander from one of four factions and select six units from a list of twenty available units. Fifteen of these units are offensive and grouped by strength and cost, while five are defensive. Once chosen, units cannot be changed during the match. After selecting units, players control their commander and build structures like farms to gather resources. Most structures must be built near gristmills, which stops players from building near enemies while exploring. Players can hide their commander to build structures at any time. Units are made at structures called warrens, but only if the player has enough food. Food is limited, so players must plan their attacks carefully. Structures called campfires serve both as places to build and as sources of food. To win, players must destroy the enemy’s gristmills and campfires. The map is randomly created each time, meaning players face different advantages and challenges in every match.
Development
Following the success of Pocketwatch Games' 2013 video game Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine, the development of Tooth and Tail was announced on March 11, 2014. The game was inspired by a design created by Andy Schatz, the founder of Pocketwatch Games, and his roommate Tom Wexler during college, called Dino Drop. Similar to the development of Monaco, many games with similar mechanics were tested during the early stages. Schatz shared details about Dino Drop with Jim Rossignol of Rock, Paper, Shotgun, describing it as "a split-screen strategy game with units that move on their own." Schatz and co-designer Andy Nguyen worked to refine this version of real-time strategy (RTS) during the final stages of Monaco’s development.
Originally named Armada—with a special design [ARMADA]—the game was promoted as an RTS game that avoided the need for detailed control and fast actions, a challenge Schatz linked to the StarCraft series. StarCraft and Command & Conquer were noted as influences on Tooth and Tail.
Armada was designed to attract players who usually avoided RTS games while still offering deep gameplay. The game was made compatible with controllers and gamepads, as Schatz mentioned there had been few RTS games that worked well with them. Schatz compared Armada to Monaco, saying, "I want to do for RTS what we did for the stealth genre in Monaco—limit the controls to make the game easy to learn without reducing its complexity." He shared this idea with about forty people at the Game Developers Conference, who responded positively. At this time, there were no set deadlines or specific details, such as the game’s title, theme, or style.
The game’s title was later changed to Lead to Fire—stylized as LEADtoFIRE—in August 2014. Throughout development, Pocketwatch Games shared updates on the streaming platform Twitch. This was described as a way to showcase progress and let fans test the game. Around this time, the game took inspiration from Blizzard Entertainment and Hearthstone, a card game where players build decks and compete. Schatz praised Blizzard for simplifying complex game mechanics for a wider audience, using Hearthstone as an example for card games and Heroes of the Storm for multiplayer online battle arenas. Schatz believed Tooth and Tail could simplify the StarCraft series in a similar way. At this stage, the game was planned to include about thirty units and structures, with players choosing six to eight of them per match. Polygon reported a tentative release date of "sometime in 2015."
In August 2015, the game received its official name: Tooth and Tail. The change was made because Lead to Fire was not well received, and developers felt the name was hard to pronounce. The title refers to the "tooth-to-tail ratio," a term used in military planning. The art style was revealed at the same time as the title, described as an updated version of 1990s pixel art. Schatz stated the game should look "utterly bad" until it becomes "amazing." After releasing official artwork, the development process became more public, and the team expected a late 2016 release, possibly using Steam’s Early Access platform.
Composer Austin Wintory, who also worked on Monaco, was hired to create the game’s soundtrack. Sound design was handled by PowerUp Audio, the team behind Crypt of the Necrodancer and Darkest Dungeon. The game’s characters speak a language based on Russian, created by PowerUp Audio’s Kevin Regamey. Schatz told Louis Brierley of Heavy Mag that the in-game language can be translated into English. In July 2017, the official release date of September 12 was announced for PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux. A game trailer was also released with the announcement. Since its release, the development team plans to continue adding new content to the game.
Reception
Before the release of Tooth and Tail, the game received a lot of media attention because the development process was shared publicly and early versions of the game were made available for testing. Many writers compared Tooth and Tail to the books Animal Farm and Redwall. Reviewers such as Adam Smith of Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Kyle LeClair of Hardcore Gamer, and Tom Marks of PC Gamer praised the game for changing the way real-time strategy games are designed. In March 2017, Marks said the single-player campaign was similar to "a short StarCraft campaign." The game’s art style was also praised before its release.
Tooth and Tail received mostly positive reviews from critics when it was released. According to the review website Metacritic, the game received "generally favorable reviews" on both PC and PS4. Critics, such as Eric Van Allen of Kotaku, praised the game for being easy for new players to learn while still offering challenges for experienced players. Because of this, IGN listed it as a "game you might have missed" in September 2017. Davide Pessach of Eurogamer Italy recommended the game to everyone because it offers many hours of fun. Patrick Hancock of Destructoid included Tooth and Tail on his personal Game of the Year (GOTY) list, saying he would recommend it to anyone, even those who dislike real-time strategy games. Polygon writer Charlie Hall compared the game to StarCraft and said "the initial learning curve right now is simply too steep for most players." Brendan Caldwell of Rock, Paper, Shotgun agreed, saying "a tough mission [can] come along and take a chunk out of your enjoyment."
The gameplay mechanics of multiplayer matches, such as the length of matches and the controls, were mostly praised. Hall wrote that while the single-player mode may not be balanced, the multiplayer mode is where the game shines. In Hancock’s GOTY list, he noted the game would have been on his list if it had been a single-player game with multiplayer as "a cherry on top." Hall said that because matches last about ten minutes, he found himself wanting to play "just one more [match]." He said the controls are good for newcomers but may discourage experienced strategy players because some units cannot be directly controlled.
The game’s art style, soundtrack, and audio received positive reactions from critics. Chloi Rad at IGN wrote that the combination of these elements created "an arcade-like strategy game experience like no other this year." Kotaku’s Alex Walker praised Pocketwatch Games for creating "truly, truly beautiful" artwork without spending "millions of dollars teams of artists." AusGamers’ Kosta Andreadis said the art was not the most impressive of 2017 but was subtle and pleasing in its presentation. He praised the animation for changing intensities based on the setting. Andreadis also said the audio added to the experience. Hancock noted similarities between the soundtracks of Monaco and Tooth and Tail, both composed by Austin Wintory. He said the main similarities were the fast-paced tracks during battle scenes and the use of slower tracks during calmer moments to create a "revolutionary feel." He concluded by praising the match between the soundtrack and the game’s theme.
Tooth and Tail won the award for "Best Character Design" at Intel Level Up 2016 and tied with Giant Cop for the 2016 Media Indie Exchange's Guest's Pick. It was also nominated for "Gamer's Voice (Multiplayer)" at the 2017 SXSW Gamer's Voice Awards. The game was nominated for "Best Strategy Game" three times: once at The Game Awards 2017, once at PC Gamer’s 2017 Game of the Year Awards, and once at IGN’s Best of 2017 Awards. PC Gamer included Tooth and Tail on the list of the best game music of 2017. The game was also nominated for the "Excellence in Narrative" award at the 2018 Independent Games Festival and for "2017 ASCAP Video Game Score of the Year" at the ASCAP Composers' Choice Awards.