Jimmy Fallon is known for inventing silly games to play with his guests on “The Tonight Show.” It’s part of the hot host’s comedic repertoire that keeps his show atop of the late-night ratings.
Now Fallon is trying his hand at developing games for the iPhone.
Fallon formed Sparklehorse, a game production company that debuted Thursday on the iTunes store with the game Tedzy, a colorful teddy bear on a quest for feathers to stuff his pillow and get a good night’s sleep.
Fallon isn’t the first celebrity to bring a game to iTunes. Last year, Ellen DeGeneres’s game, Heads Up! was Apple’s top paid app for 2014. Kim Kardashian created an interactive game for iPhones and Androids 2014 that raked in $43 million in the first three months..
There’s no telling how popular Tedzy will be, but one early indicator is that a video posted to YouTube on Wednesday featuring Fallon explaining the game had more than 100,000 views.
Gavin Purcell, Fallon’s partner in Sparklehorse, appeared on Product Hunt Thursday and said he and Fallon had the idea for Tedzy a long time ago and worked with a small team to make what they hope will be an addictive experience.
“We wanted this game to be simple but fun,” Purcell wrote. “I was of the opinion that mobile games had been getting a little too complicated and too fancied up with 3D and we wanted something that felt like those early iPhone game experiences.”
Tedzy has a colorful, arcade feel as the bear travels dream roads to collect feathers. Players have to get Tedzy to jump games, spin from road to road and collect power-ups. The download is free but there are in-app purchases.
The games work with most mobile Apple devices starting with the iPhone 5 and most iPads.
https://youtu.be/LPmWPv_0WN4
David Pierini is a former newspaper writer and long-time photographer. Considered a luddite by most of his friends, they did not believe him when he broke the news that he would be writing for a technology website. He is fascinated by human nature and would love to cultivate stories about the people driving the tech bus. Reach out to him at [email protected].
