Smartphone game pokes fun at Quebec's secular charter
Toronto-based game developers at Extra! Extra! also made Rob Ford and Ikea Monkey games
From the people who brought you the Rob Ford Stay Mayor! and Ikea Monkey smartphone games, comes SECTACULAR Quebec!
The developers at Extra! Extra! Games in Toronto decided to poke fun at the Parti Québécois government's proposed secular charter. The game prompts players to “Take away Bonhomme’s source of happiness” and “Touch what Quebec doesn’t have the patience for…” — referring to the animated characters’ headgear.
And the goal of the game?
"The last level is the premier, and she has a pot on her head,” says the company’s creative director Barnabas Wornoff, referring to Pauline Marois’s participation in the casseroles demonstrations during the 2012 student protests.
“You have to tap the pot as many times as you can and swipe it off of her head and then you win,” Wornoff continues.
The game is available in both English and French.
Wornoff grew up in Quebec. He left Maniwaki, 135 kilometres north of Ottawa, in the fifth grade. His uncle translated the game into French for him.
Wornoff says the proposed secular charter touched a nerve for him. He says he wanted to make a game that added another component to the debate.
The Toronto-based app company specializes in “gaming the news” by taking comedic spins on current affairs.
According to its website, the company's Stay Mayor! game allows players to “dodge and weave media scrutiny and help the hapless Mayor get back to just doing his damn job for the great people of Toronto.”
The goal of the developers’ first game, Ikea Monkey, is to help the stylish but illegal monkey build a prison from pieces of Ikea’s Billy wall shelving unit.
The SECTACULAR Quebec! iPhone and Android apps are free downloads available in the iPhone app and Google Play stores.
