Towards the end of the iPad 2 launch event in March, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs told the assembled journalists about his company's position at the intersection of "technology and the liberal arts". A multiplayer iPhone poetry game would seem to slot neatly into that vision, although phrases like "rub my magic member", "sniff my glorious exploding spraying monster" and "juicy monkey muscle" might not be quite what Jobs was thinking of.
That's the language awaiting anyone who downloads one of the more interesting iPhone games to be released in recent weeks: Prose With Bros. Developer Evil Laugh Games calls it the "first ever multiplayer competitive poetry game", available in free and paid versions. Released on 20 April, it is already picking up word-of-mouth buzz.
Poetry? Fridge poetry to be specific. Prose With Bros is based around the idea of stringing together virtual word-tiles into cogent sentences, and doing it better than opponents in the two-player online battles that form the basis for the game. Each player is given the same 50 words to construct their prose, and after submitting the results, other players vote on which is best over the course of the next 24 hours.
It's that crowdvoting aspect that makes Prose With Bros interesting. The first thing players see when firing up the game is a battle to vote on, and give virtual 'kudos' if a sentence is particularly clever – with the sentences being read out by the iPhone. Swiping down on the homescreen shows a player's battles that are currently being voted on, complete with a live score – shown as percentages of the vote.
The problem – although admittedly it's a selling point for a healthy portion of the game's current player base – is that the tone has quickly dived downwards. Why? Here's a list of the kind of words being offered up to players to wax lyrical with: stuff, spicy, love, kumquat, slap, body, beg, pants, poke, chubby, bratwursts, filthy, midgets, member, banana, spraying, fireman, juicy, meatballs, dangly.
It's fair to say the early Prose With Bros community has taken to the rearrangement task with gusto, and the voting is rewarding the ruder fare (yes, translation: poncey Guardian writer is grumpy because their carefully constructed fridge poetry is being trounced by barely-readable guff about chubby members).
The serious point is that currently, the game is sliding towards a much narrower gameplay focus - to be as rude as possible – which sells short the inventiveness behind the game itself. Evil Laugh Games is well aware of this, adding a section to its App Store listing warning that "Prose with Bros is not intended to be, but can quickly become, NSFW ... We're currently exploring ideas to add the option for users to be able to turn on a dirty-filter so that you don't see these sentences if you don't want to."
Prose With Bros has the makings of a cult hit rather than an Angry Birds-style chart juggernaut, but its appearance on the App Store shows there is still room for innovation – and yes, filthy spraying dangly bratwursts – in the apps world.
