After the massive Twitter trend initiated by Alamgir Khan to implore city government and particularly Chief Minister of Sindh to fix gutter and manholes round Karachi, some smart developers have launched a gaming app by the name of #FixIt – Game of Gutters.
The app might not be aesthetically pleasing, but have a rating of 4.9 on Google PlayStore and is being termed highly addictive by the players. The least amount of thought process has been put in creatives of the game. The display has an avator of Alamgir Khan and the developers have tried to produce a resemblance of Game of Gutters with the popular TV show Game of Thrones, using their iconic font yet failing miserably. The game follows a simple course, the malfunctioning gutters are to be tapped while the one with lids have to be avoided for a negative score. The developers have put up a disclaimer that the app has been developed as a gesture to appreciate the efforts of Alamgir Khan, and has no political agenda.
Over the time, a lot of games and apps have been developed to produce a lighter side to trending social issues. Dating back from the web game of Shoe Target of George W Bush, to local PlayStore apps such as Container Run for Imran Khan’s sit-in and Gullu for Gullu Butts misconduct in Lahore. A lot of developers are keeping a keen eye on social trends and cashing them through apps. However, the quality of apps and games produced in this regard is still questionable. Moreover, the use and popularity of such trend-specific apps fade out in a couple of months. However, if meticulous details are put into story boarding, UI and UX of such apps and timely upgrades are introduced, who knows these apps can make a greater impact?
