Doodle Jump is now an icon of iPhone gaming, but it almost died at launch after selling just 21 copies on its first day of release. How did developer Lima Sky get from there to Doodle Jump being a more famous app than anything not called Angry Birds? The answer is a strange mix of snack food, bubble wrap, blogger nagging, brotherly co-operation and sheer luck.
“What is Ubisoft?” I ask Siri. The only reason I ask that question is I have an package from Ubisoft on my desk. And I have no imagination.
“Would you like to do a websearch for ‘You Be Soft’,” replies Siri.
“Try talking in a proper Scottish accent,” says Tracey, Kotaku Australia’s Associate Editor. “Go full Scottish.”
I see this as a challenge. I must rise to it.
Mat Beyer was controversially removed from the show Masterchef for secretly hanging on to his iPhone during the contest, but speaking to PopSugar, Mat was keen to set a few things straight. He was not playing Angry Birds, apparently he hates Angry Birds. He’s all about Plants vs Zombies.
It’s the one iOS craze I’ve managed to avoid, so I must trust what I’m told about Doodle Jump: that it’s fun. And moreover, that it’s fun when playing two-player over Wi-Fi. But how could I ever possibly know?! [iTunes]
While You Were Sleeping was a well-received romantic comedy starring the luminous Sandra Bullock and the irrepressible Bill Pullman.
It’s also the name of a regular section here at Kotaku, where we round up all the best news coming in overnight, to save you trawling down the page for an excuse to not start work. Don’t say we’re not good to you!
The creators of Doodle Jump, the addictive platformer for the iPhone, believe their app is the first to break five million downloads from the iTunes store. That means they’ve taken in more than $US3 million.
