It was easy to pick up but had a very high skill ceiling, like the classic 80s arcade games of yore. Combining simple, unambiguous touch-screen swipes with tilting let players control the game with one hand. So what is it about Temple Run that made it such a generation-defining game? One of the biggest contributors was how it naturally harnessed the unique controls of the iPhone in a time when developers were really struggling to take advantage of them. Very few games have managed that kind of longevity. It’s rare that either the first game or its sequel isn’t in the Top 100 games for the week, even a decade after its release. Despite that, Temple Run still manages to capture new players. Probably the most successful was Kiloo’s Subway Surfers (Opens in a new window), but the App Store is chock-full of functionally identical games. Plenty of other developers jumped on the basic gameplay. That’s extremely rarified air for a video game, and Imangi was basically set for life. By 2014, combined downloads of Temple Run and Temple Run 2 were over a billion. Thankfully, the project went smoothly and Temple Run 2 launched successfully in January 2013, getting 6 million downloads in its first day and 20 million in just four days. To make a second game that could be extensible and look good on newer platforms, they had to start from scratch. They didn’t want to mess with success too much, but the in-house engine that the first game was built on was showing its age. The next year they partnered with Disney to put out a version of Temple Run skinned to promote Pixar’s new Brave, and the company also started working on a full-fledged sequel. Instead, it gave players of all levels the ability to experience content whether earned or paid for. It didn’t remove any skill from the gameplay. Players could pick up coins to buy power-ups for their next run as they played, but if they didn’t want to they could just spend a little real money for the same effect. Imangi’s relaxed money-spending system didn’t hurt. By the end of the year, Temple Run had racked up over 20 million downloads and more than quadrupled its monthly revenue from when it was a paid app. The combination of addictive gameplay and a groundswell of new iPhone purchases paid off. Instead of an up-front cost, the game would be solely monetized by in-app purchases. So the team made a bold decision: go free. Priced at 99 cents, as was the custom of the day, it was a moderate success, landing in the top 50 paid charts pretty quickly with good reviews, but just as quickly, sales faltered in less than a month. It wasn’t long before they had something they felt good about. First, they added the ability to rotate 90 degrees with a swipe to the right or left, followed by tilting the phone to change lanes. This angle had been used successfully in the Crash Bandicoot series, and lent itself well to the iPhone’s vertical screen format. Their take dispensed with the side-scrolling view, instead opting for a 3D three-quarter view perspective with the camera behind the protagonist. They used the engine from their last game, an underperforming twin stick shooter called Max Adventure, to iterate on an endless runner. The husband-and-wife team (with help from a contract artist) had experimented with some other concepts since striking out in 2008, but wanted to work on something quick. One of those studios was North Carolina-based Imangi. Imitators followed, including Adult Swim’s popular Robot Unicorn Attack, but they didn’t cross over into broader pop culture. With simple one-button controls and a stylish monochrome presentation, it was a huge hit. That honor is disputed, but most gaming historians tag Adam Atomic’s seminal 2009 Flash game Canabalt as the modern originator of the genre, which features a protagonist traversing an infinite landscape of obstacles to dodge, with the goal being the longest distance. It’s important to get out there right at the beginning that Temple Run wasn’t the first endless runner. How to Set Up Two-Factor Authentication.How to Record the Screen on Your Windows PC or Mac.How to Convert YouTube Videos to MP3 Files.How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill.How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad.How to Block Robotexts and Spam Messages.
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