applause

HIP HIP HUZZAH

When Toronto natives Superbrothers, Jim Guthrie & Capybara Games came together to craft the game now known as Sword & Sworcery, we truly had no idea where the project would take us. As the experience began to take shape we got pretty excited about it - after all, we were making something tuned to our particular tastes & interests - but we had no clear idea what would happen when it was finally released on the App Store. We simply had to trust that amongst the millions of iPad, iPhone and iPod touch owners, there would be some percentage of people who loved music, art & videogames as much as we did. We held onto that trust for well over a year as we worked towards completion, which finally came ‘around the vernal equinox’ in March 2011.

Since its release on the App Store two months ago the Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP App has sold over 200,000 copies, priced at $4.99 / $2.99. Boom.

And while it is an immensely positive thing seeing this degree of financial success after only 2 months, it’s the critical reception & the audience response that has really blown us away. As we post this, the game sits at an 87 Metacritic rating, which in itself is a special thing for an iOS app. More significantly, the audience has spoken - they have been lighting up the App Store with user reviews, with over 3000 five star reviews worldwide. We have even seen thoughtful, positive coverage from outlets like Time, MSNBC, The Times of London, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, ABC News and CNN... and significantly, this exposure generally took the angle of covering Sword & Sworcery not as a ‘tech trend’ but as a cultural artifact. Even Mashable helped spread the word with a discussion of Sword & Sworcery’s creative integration of Twitter (which has seen an estimated 200,000+ tweets sporting the games’ proprietary hashtag #sworcery).

Meanwhile, Jim Guthrie’s extraordinary musical score has attracted admirers from across the world. The companion record, Jim Guthrie’s Sword & Sworcery LP: The Ballad of the Space Babies, has seen strong sales through iTunes, Bandcamp and even on limited edition 180g vinyl, where the first pressing of 1000 records sold out just a few days after the initial release. In fact, Jim will be adding a selection of these songs to his live repertoire for the upcoming Sword & Sworcery ‘RockShowCase’ at TIFF Bell Lightbox on June 30th in downtown Toronto.

The iOS platform combined with the App Store provide a space where motivated creators can bring original visions to market without the numerous hindrances seen on other platforms. In the span of only a couple months the Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP App has proven the critical and financial viability of artist-driven, experimental videogame projects on the iOS platform. 

To everyone out there who took the time to explore this project and help us spread the word: we are so very glad you dug it & we are immensely grateful for your support. Also: the summer solstice is June 21st... I wonder what will happen?

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