Curiosity - the new concept by Molyneux - Nerd Age

The mystery of Curiosity

Curiosity is something we all want to indulge. In the offices of 22 Cans in Guildford, U.K, 22 people are working on the first of 22 games. Headed by legendary Peter Molyneux, a lot is expected from them. But instead of making the kind of triple A titles Lionhead was known for, 22 Cans is making what they are calling “experiments.” Cheap, experimental, bite sized games. Their first experiment is Curiosity- What’s Inside the Cube. A game for iOS and Android, Curiosity is a simple, massively multiplayer game where you cannot interact with other players in any meaningful way, but you are all working towards one common goal.

Break boxes, one at a time and layer by layer to reach the mysterious center. What is in the middle will only be revealed to one person, whoever manages to break the final block. Molyneux assures us that what is inside will change someone’s life forever. What will be revealed? Lottery numbers? The location of the fountain of youth? Or is this just more Molyneux exaggeration and rhetoric?

 Hard claims to swallow about Curiosity

Molyneux’s penchant for the over dramatic has been well documented throughout his years working in the industry. Beginning with Black & White, but most famously with the Fable series, Molyneux’s robust promises for his games potential has earned him his fair share of criticism. Features that weren’t added until the subsequent

Fables began with hype and excitement over the first Fable. Multiplayer or getting married and having a family, for example, were cited by Molyneux but didn’t appear until the second game. Even Fable III disappointed fans by cutting Kinect functionality.

Even the exclusion of the smallest of features has plagued Molyneux. You can reason that Molyneux is an extremely passionate and ambitious man. Perhaps his own excitement over the potential of his product run away from him. Has he learned from his mistakes? Will Curiosity be any different? He has already made several bold claims, but it will take time to see those claims come to fruition.

Check out Curiosity’s launch trailer below. Whoever narrates it does a fantastic job. He could make cleaning gutters sound dramatic.

A week after the launch of Curiosity, the game had already been downloaded more the 2 million times. The game’s surprising popularity has given the game it’s own host of other issues. Primarily, the team has severely underestimated the interest surrounding Curiosity. At first, 22 Cans had only one server to attend to the game. Attempting to join was a luck of the draw.

After a few days, the team managed to make joining more reliable, adding 14 more servers, but crashing and reconnecting still plague the game. There are just too many people trying to reach the middle at once, and too soon. While thousands of people chisel away at the cube, servers are straining under the weight of new users, as well as keeping track of old users progress and coins.

When you make it into the actual game, you can select a part of the Cube you’d like to work on. The camera zooms into its surface and individual boxes become clear. Curiosity has distilled gameplay into its simplest mechanics. Tap at the boxes and collect coins. Tapping without missing a box or pausing grows combos. Clearing your screen gives bonuses. The game’s ambient music and weighty, satisfying sound effects keep you tapping. An excellent way to pass a few minutes while you wait for the kettle to boil.

You can to spend those coins (or actual money) to buy tools to facilitate breaking boxes more efficiently. The cream of the crop is a diamond pickaxe which costs an astounding 50,000 pounds. That’s right, for the price of a four bedroom house in Detroit, you can own the most expensive virtual pickaxe on the market. Purchasing or redeeming, however, requires the dreaded Facebook login.

Whether this actually keeps players from spending their coins, or will just result in a sudden upswing in fake Facebook accounts remains to be seen. Many players won’t mind this, but to those who refuse to link their account, or simply do not have one, it may end their time with Curiosity early.