When it comes to gaming, it’s always about the console gamers and the Xbox vs PlayStation wars, or the strictly PC Master Race gamers, even the casual mobile games and Facebook gamers — the most annoying of the lot. But nobody talks about Twitter gaming. I mean, how could you game on the online social networking service that “enables users to send and read short 140-character messages called tweets”?
But occasionally, something like Leon’s Cool Game comes along. It’s a short and goofy adventure game which is fully laid out in the Twitterverse. Started by pixel artist Leon Chang, this Twitter game is a choose-your-adventure type and uses a whole bunch of Twitter accounts to make the game flow. Each account represents a move and players are given a few handles (as choices) to choose from.
a. @leonstreasure
b. @leonscoolcat
c. @leonscooltoilet pic.twitter.com/9cXqHcyA2W— good luck! (@leonscoolgame) September 9, 2015
Because it’s not lengthy, it makes you want to repeat the game a couple of times after you die, exhausting your options and exploring your choices. Dying is actually fun in Leon’s Cool Game, so you don’t really mind. Take the first run as a short intro to Twitter gaming: the game has cats, swords, toilet hygiene and monster battles — it’s perfect.
Leon’s Cool Game combines what gamers like in games — choices and options — and it combines old school graphics on the real-time mega social media platform that is Twitter. It’s a clever testament to the way different technologies can converge these days, and how that can transform simple game experiences into something better than the sum of their parts. You’re playing a game, yes that’s true, but it’s over the same platform you use to make commentary on a fight in the bus or how much you hate Mondays. Surreal.
GAME OVER
CONTINUE ?@leonscoolgame pic.twitter.com/3WP3YrQu9T
— rip you died (@leonscoolsword) September 10, 2015
According to IOL, Leon’s Cool Game took a month of occasional work for Leon to make all the art for the game (yup, he made all the graphics). He mentioned that the most complex part was figuring out how to create all the Twitter accounts to link with each other.
Leon added, “I couldn’t find any way to actually contact them ahead of time so I just went ahead and made the accounts and hoped they wouldn’t get suspended.” He then resorted to a burner app to create all of the phone numbers needed to register the game’s accounts, since each different account required a different phone number. “Twitter is not a great platform for a video game,” he said.
Take note, future game developers.
