Curiosity mobile game turns 18 year old Scot into a digital god

by Mark Tyson on 27 May 2013, 11:18

Tags: Kickstarter, PC

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qabwor

Add to My Vault: x

Peter Molyneux’s Curiosity app puzzle was unlocked at the weekend. Over the last six months Curiosity app users worked though 25 billion cubelets, in this collaborative musical destructive game, in a race to the centre and with the hope of a mysterious grand prize. The final cube was unlocked by 18-year-old Bryan Henderson from Edinburgh who only registered and started playing about an hour before he won. Now he will become a videogame god in Peter Molyneux’s upcoming Godus game.

Four million people downloaded and used the Curiosity app with the hope of a “life changing” prize. Yesterday Bryan Henderson decided to play the game for the first time and destroyed the final cubelet. “People are going to hate me for this,” Henderson told Wired in a phone interview, “but I only registered for the game earlier this morning, about an hour before I won the thing.” He is reportedly finding it hard to comprehend his success, yet 30,000 other people were playing Curiosity at the time of his breakthrough. In addition he didn’t even know he had won for nearly 10 minutes after clearing his game. When Wired asked Henderson about what kind of god he will be and if he will ever use his power selfishly he replied “I think now and again I’ll definitely take advantage of it”.

The reward

Now the teenager has been elevated to the status of a “digital god”, what does that mean? Peter Molyneux says Henderson will:

  • Decide on some of the rules and morals in the game
  • Have a “life changing” experience
  • Gain real-world wealth - every time people spend money on Godus, the winner will get a small piece of that pot

This new digital god will enjoy these benefits “from the start until the finish of his reign”. This wording makes me think his position is more like that of a king than a god. Also this ‘reign’ terminology suggests that Molyneux has contingency plans to have a new god competition as and when he sees fit.

In the video presentation above Peter Molyneux says that this real-person morals-based god idea came to him many years ago but it is only now, with the widely available internet and mobile connectivity available to people, that it could be implemented.

Kickstarter was used to help pay for the development of the Godus game which is said to be “an innovative reinvention of Populous”. Godus is expected to be completed and ready for gamers to download around September 2013.



HEXUS Forums :: 10 Comments

Login with Forum Account

Don't have an account? Register today!
He'd only downloaded and started playing and hour before.

So congrats to the lucky him, and commiserations to anyone who'd put in more than a few minutes of effort.

Luck is just that.
And how many other people online at the time had just signed up an hour before it finished? Good on the lad!
Congratz and all to the fella :clapping:, but a slightly underwhelming end to the contest IMO.

I thought they'd uncover something a bit more exciting (like maybe the source of P. Molyneux's boundless over-promising - & then we could turn it off :)).
Well the magnitude of his prize is directly related to the success (and how much freedom he has) of Godus.

For his sake lets hope its not a flop.
phil4
Well the magnitude of his prize is directly related to the success (and how much freedom he has) of Godus.

For his sake lets hope its not a flop.

If it's as good as Populous or Powermonger then it's got a good chance. Wondering if in-game purchases will be a big element or not though… :undecided