Candy Farts & Candy Scrolls for Candy Justice
It’s been a pretty rough month for King Games and their PR department in particular. After the company famously filed for a trademark on the word “candy” in both the United States and European Union, they started going after independent game developers who were seen as infringing on the King brand.
Many long-time members of the industry (and fans to boot) have been riled by these actions, with the International Game Developers Association calling King’s various lawsuits “overreaching” and “predatory.” Candy Crush Saga might be one of the most popular games of all time, but King is rapidly becoming less popular even than American banks.
It’s no surprise, then, that a bunch of hell-raising aspiring developers on itch.io–a site that provides simple tools for people to easily make stripped-down games–came up with the “Candy Jam.” A “jam” is a generic term for a group of developers who get together and create lots of games in a short span of time, all of which are created according to a particular theme. In this case, the theme was topical: “make a game involving candies” was the only rule. Developers were encouraged to “use the word ‘candy’ several times,” as well as the word “saga,” another word that gained King bad press when they pursued action against Stoic Games’ fantasy role-playing game The Banner Saga.
Games created during the Candy Jam included King of Candy Farts, in which players control a king who eats candies to propel himself towards the heavens (and sainthood), and Dental Defender, a pixelated tower defense game that tasks players to defend a collection of teeth. The jam has ended now, as has King’s claim to the word “candy” in the United States, but the games it spawned will live on forever.
You can head over to itch.io now to find a new candy-based game to occupy your time–even if you can’t play it on your phone or tablet. Which Candy Jam game is your favorite?