Snowden Run 3D

Last updated
Snowden Run 3D
Developer(s) Michele Rocco Smeets
Publisher(s) MTS Freestyle
Platform(s) Android, PC, Mac
ReleaseJuly 2013
Genre(s) Endless runner
Mode(s) Single player

Snowden Run 3D is an endless runner video game created by Belgian computer programmer Michele Rocco Smeets. [1] The program was released in July 2013 for Android operating systems, PC, and Mac computers. [2] The game is very loosely based on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. [3]

Contents

Gameplay

Snowden Run 3D plays as a free-to-play endless runner. [1] Played in a behind the back, third person viewpoint, [4] "Snowden" automatically runs forward, and the player must direct Snowden through the levels with swiping motions using a touch screen, to avoid obstacles and collect certain items. [5] Specifically, the player is to direct Snowden into USB sticks and laptops in order to collect "sensitive information", while trying to avoid "Agent Jake", who chases after Snowden with the intent of imprisoning him. [5] The player at times also has the option to call "Uncle Putin" on a cell phone, who will drop a hydrogen bomb on the location, which helps clear a path and further the distance between Snowden and Agent Jake. [5]

The game contains three different randomly generated levels; NSA Headquarters, Hong Kong and Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport. [2] The levels play out infinitely, with no way to win or finish. Upon inevitably being captured, Snowden is captured and sent to Guantanamo Bay, where the game ends. [5]

The game's soundtrack features music from Peruvian born American rapper and social activist Immortal Technique. [2]

Development

The game was developed by programmer Michele Rocco Smeets, who states that the game took only 30 hours of development time. [2] Smeets had noted how many spinoffs of Temple Run existed on the Google Play and iOS App Store, and was inspired to attempt to create one of his own. [2] In early planning stages, at one point, he imagined the game as being more in the vein of a traditional platform game, such as Super Mario Bros. , but eventually felt that the constant running of an endless runner was more appropriate and symbolic of the nature of Edward Snowden and the NSA. [2] The game was originally intended as a Ludum Dare entry, an accelerated video game development contest. [6] Smeets states that the game is meant to be a neutral and unbiased parody of Edward Snowden's involvement in the Global surveillance disclosures of 2013, and was not made out of any political motivation or affiliation. [6]

A version of the game for iOS has been announced, but has not been released or given a release date. [5]

Reception

Reception for the game was generally mixed. GameZone criticized the game for being difficult and buggy, but overall advocated at least giving the game a try as "amusing way to pass time", and compared it favorably to Hudson Soft's Adventure Island video game from the 1980s. [7] Kotaku was less enthusiastic, referring to the game as "pretty awful". [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>Chips Challenge</i> 1989 video game

Chip's Challenge is a top-down tile-based puzzle video game originally published in 1989 by Epyx as a launch title for the Atari Lynx. It was later ported to several other systems and was included in the Windows 3.1 bundle Microsoft Entertainment Pack 4 (1992), and the Windows version of the Best of Microsoft Entertainment Pack (1995), where it found a much larger audience.

<i>Lode Runner</i> 1983 video game

Lode Runner is a 2D puzzle-platform game, developed by Doug Smith and published by Broderbund in 1983. Its gameplay mechanics are similar to Space Panic from 1980. The player controls a character who must collect all the gold pieces in a level and get to the end while being chased by a number of enemies. It is one of the first games to include a level editor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green Hill Zone</span> First level in Sonic the Hedgehog

Green Hill Zone is the first level of the platform game Sonic the Hedgehog, which released for the Sega Genesis in 1991. The level is grassy and lush, with environmental features such as palm trees, vertical loops and cliffs, and is the home of numerous forest animals. Like the game's other levels, Green Hill Zone comprises three acts; in the third, Sonic fights antagonist Doctor Eggman before moving to the second level, Marble Zone. It was constructed by level designer Hirokazu Yasuhara with its musical theme by Masato Nakamura.

<i>Fez</i> (video game) 2012 video game

Fez is a 2012 indie puzzle-platform game developed by Polytron Corporation and published by Trapdoor. The player-character Gomez receives a fez that reveals his two-dimensional (2D) world to be one of four sides of a three-dimensional (3D) world. The player rotates between these four 2D views to realign platforms and solve puzzles. The objective is to collect cubes and cube fragments to restore order to the universe.

<i>Cut the Rope</i> Video game franchise

Cut the Rope is a franchise of physics-based puzzle video games developed and published by ZeptoLab. It consists of the original game Cut the Rope (2010) published by Chillingo, Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift (2010), Cut the Rope: Experiments (2011), Cut the Rope: Time Travel (2013), Cut the Rope 2, My Om Nom, Cut the Rope: Magic (2015), Cut the Rope Remastered (2021), Cut the Rope Daily (2023), and Cut the Rope 3 (2023).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epic Citadel</span> 2010 tech demo

Epic Citadel is a tech demo developed by Epic Games to demonstrate the Unreal Engine 3 running on Apple iOS, within Adobe Flash Player Stage3D and using HTML5 WebGL technologies. It was also released for Android on January 29, 2013.

<i>Temple Run</i> 2011 3D endless runner video game

Temple Run is an endless runner video game developed and published by Imangi Studios. The player controls an explorer who has obtained an ancient relic and runs from demonic monkey-like creatures chasing him. The game was initially released for iOS devices on August 3, 2011, and later ported to Android systems and Windows Phone 8.

<i>Temple Run 2</i> 2013 endless runner video game

Temple Run 2 is an endless runner video game developed and published by Imangi Studios. A sequel to Temple Run, the game was produced, designed and programmed by husband and wife team Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova, with art by Kiril Tchangov. It was released on the App Store on January 16, 2013, on Google Play on January 24, and on Windows Phone 8 on December 20. In November 2020 Imangi Studios released Temple Run 2 for the web on Poki.

<i>Sonic Dash</i> 2013 video game

Sonic Dash is a 2013 endless runner mobile game developed by Hardlight and published by Japanese game studio Sega. It is Hardlight's second Sonic the Hedgehog game, the first being 2012's Sonic Jump. The game was released in March 2013 for iOS, November 2013 for Android, and December 2014 for Windows Phone and Windows, along with an arcade release in November 2015 as Sonic Dash Extreme. It was initially released as a paid application, but was made free-to-play a month after its iOS release.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Snowden</span> American whistleblower and former NSA contractor (born 1983)

Edward Joseph Snowden is an American-Russian former NSA intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs. He became a naturalized Russian citizen in 2022.

<i>Temple Run</i> (series) Endless runner video game series

Temple Run is a video game franchise of 3D endless running video games developed and published by Imangi Studios. The primary theme of the series is an explorer chased from a group of demon monkeys, however, the characters and theme vary between spin-offs. The game was initially released for iOS devices on August 4, 2011, and later ported to Android systems and Windows Phone 8. The series consists of eight titles and has received commercial success with multiple entries surpassing 1 million downloads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010s global surveillance disclosures</span> Disclosures of NSA and related global espionage

During the 2010s, international media reports revealed new operational details about the Anglophone cryptographic agencies' global surveillance of both foreign and domestic nationals. The reports mostly relate to top secret documents leaked by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The documents consist of intelligence files relating to the U.S. and other Five Eyes countries. In June 2013, the first of Snowden's documents were published, with further selected documents released to various news outlets through the year.

<i>Chucky: Slash & Dash</i> 2013 video game

Chucky: Slash & Dash is a 2013 endless runner video game by American developer Slimstown Studios and published by Universal Studios. The game was originally slated to be released for both iOS and Android devices on November 1 2013, but was ultimately released only for iOS.

<i>One Epic Game</i> 2011 video game

One Epic Game is an endless runner video game developed and published by Czech company Grip Games. The game was released in July and August 2011 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, and PlayStation Vita as a PlayStation mini, with iOS and Android receiving ports the following year.

Action Button Entertainment is a video game development studio consisting of Tim Rogers, Brent Porter, Michael Kerwin, and Nicholas Wasilewski that has produced five games: Ziggurat (2012), TNNS (2013), Ten by Eight (2013), Tuffy the Corgi (2014), and Videoball (2016). The group convened in 2010 as Rogers worked on Ziggurat based on an idea he had while playing Angry Birds that he could not complete on his own. Porter joined Action Button after responding to a call for artists Rogers made via Twitter, and Kerwin joined based on a connection he had with Rogers from producing a mockup of a game concept Rogers outlined in his Kotaku column.

<i>Tony Hawks Shred Session</i> 2014 video game

Tony Hawk's Shred Session is a cancelled endless runner sports video game developed by Big Bit and published by Activision. A free-to-play game for iOS and Android mobile phones, it was to be the first game in the Tony Hawk's franchise created specifically for the platform.

<i>Spider-Man Unlimited</i> (video game) 2014 endless runner video game

Spider-Man Unlimited was an endless runner game developed and published by Gameloft. It was based on the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man. The player controls the title character and his alternate versions during his fight against the members of the Sinister Six and their multiverse counterparts. The game's main mode features definitive goals in contrast to the traditional aim of running as far as possible. The game was also known for having regular, special, time-limited, community events.

<i>Pac-Man 256</i> 2015 video game

Pac-Man 256 is an endless runner video game developed by Hipster Whale and 3 Sprockets and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game is part of the Pac-Man series and is inspired by the original Pac-Man game's infamous Level 256 glitch, as well as Hipster Whale's own game Crossy Road, which previously featured a Pac-Man mode. The game was originally released as a free-to-play title for iOS and Android on August 20, 2015. In June 21, 2016, Bandai Namco Studios Vancouver released a version of the game for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, featuring additional features like multiplayer for up to 4 players, a new power-up, and no longer having to wait a certain amount of time to get power-ups, and instead having to eat a number of Pac-Dots.

<i>Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!</i> 2021 video game

Crash Bandicoot: On the Run! was a mobile endless runner game developed and published by King, that was initially soft launched in Malaysia in 2020 and was released worldwide in 2021. The game showcased the Crash Bandicoot series' characters and fictional universe in the context of a runner game. Players controlled Crash or his sister Coco, running through levels and defeating enemies using weaponry crafted from collectible ingredients. Players could use cosmetic skins to increase their amount of gathered resources and could engage in asynchronous multiplayer gameplay by competing for survival in procedurally generated levels. Several updates were installed throughout 2021, often in the form of new levels, bosses, and cosmetic skins.

Endless runner or infinite runner is a subgenre of platform game in which the player character runs for an infinite amount of time while avoiding obstacles. The player's objective is to reach a high score by surviving for as long as possible. The method by which the game level or environment appears to continuously spawn before the player is an example of procedural generation. The genre exploded on mobile platforms following the success of Doodle Jump, Canabalt, and Temple Run being other popular examples. Its popularity is attributed to its simple gameplay that works well on touchscreen devices.

References

  1. 1 2 Bogos, Steven (30 July 2013). "Help Edward Snowden Escape The NSA in Snowden Run". Escapist. Archived from the original on 27 February 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Blum, Jeremy (30 July 2013). "First it was Snowden, the movie - now you can play the video game". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  3. ↑ "Un nuevo videojuego ayuda a Edward Snowden a robar información". CNN Mexico. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  4. ↑ "GamePolitics News | GamePolitics".
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Sundby, Alex (2 August 2013). "Edward Snowden cast as hero in smartphone video game "Snowden Run 3D"". CBS News. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 Schrier, Jason (29 July 2013). "There's An Edward Snowden Game, And Yes, It's A Runner". Kotaku. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  7. ↑ GameZone Review
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.