I Made a B-Game …
Back in March Christian Nutt of Gamasutra posed the question “Can The Industry Make a B-game?”
I think I’ve done just that with a little stupid ass title called Kube Killer. I initially created this game out of frustration. I was frustrated and angry over my mother’s death (hence this being one of the few violent games I’ve made) and I was also but to a much lesser degree frustrated over the apparent lack of logic within the App Store eco system.
My last post was about making easy games. I purposely created Kube Killer to be challenge-less and a time waster that would roll as many ads as possible on the business end. I was analyzing some of the popular games on the iPhone that my younger cousin was playing and they all had something in common, ZERO challenge but plenty of time consumption. When I released Kube Killer I put it out at $0.99 (no ads) at my wife’s request. In truth though the game was always supposed to be free. I thought people might play it and actually get caught up challenging each other to see who could in fact kill the most kubes which would be optimal for an ad based title. It was also created to be somewhat of a satirical poke at the App Store in general, dumb games getting attention they don’t deserve was part of the inspiration for Kube Killer.
At $0.99 the game was mostly ignored. It sold a few copies but never made any real impact. Fast forward to this past Friday when I changed the game to free. Somehow, the game started climbing the charts regardless of the terrible graphics, poor description, and even worse reviews. Nearly everything about this game signaled people to avoid it at all costs (the icon is even black like the plague) and yet in true App Store fashion the title started climbing the charts extending its figurative middle finger to logic the whole way.
As of right now the game has been downloaded nearly 10,000 times since Friday. Some of the players have even taken to competing for the most kills via the online leaderboards. The title is hovering in the Top 30 Adventure games and the Top 20 RPG games and with each iTunes update the rank climbs while the reviews get worse and yet people even started a thread to talk about this waste of time on Touch Arcade!
As I watched this all unfold I was initially ashamed. If any game was supposed to do well this weekend it was supposed to be my new title Ragduck Hunt which was logically created to appeal to the App Store crowd while actually being a pretty good game with solid production values. Kube Killer, the red headed step child of my portfolio though is now the most “popular” iPhone game I’ve made. This game is terrible both purposefully and accidentally (simultaneously) and for some reason people are downloading the crap out of it … stranger still some people are playing the crap out of it. I think that constitutes a legitimate B-game.