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Screenshot from the iPhone game "Joe Danger": Did a father's emotional letter convince the developers to release a revamped version?
Photo: Hello Games
"Joe Danger" dashes fearlessly through hay bales on his motorbike, dodges saw blades and dives into shark tanks.
But two years ago, the action hero's stunt shows came to an end on the iPhone.
Since the introduction of iOS 11, it had become quiet in its comic desert.
The nine-year-old app no longer worked with newer iPhone operating systems.
The emotional letter from a father is said to have changed the mind of the British developers at Hello Games and moved them to an update.
"This letter broke our hearts and made us want to fix a few things," Hello Games founder Sean Murray wrote on Twitter.
Murray published the letter as a screenshot.
It therefore comes from the father of an eight-year-old boy who suffers from autism.
"As you may know, autistic children have to deal with many problems," writes the father.
Walking through a crowded room, sitting in a noisy restaurant, or sitting in class can be very stressful for his son Jack.
"Joe Danger is helping him make it," the letter says.
With Joe Danger through difficult situations
As a parent, it's hard for him to put into words how he feels when he sees "the sheer joy on Jack's face that Joe Danger gives him," the father writes. The game is one of the things that connect Jack and him. He thanks the game studio for “the countless hours of entertainment and joy that you have given my son and I”. That made him and Jack forget all the difficulties, therapy measures and visits to the doctor at least a little and "just let his son be a child".
A few rounds of "Joe Danger" on the iPhone was the reward for Jack when he had mastered difficult situations. When the game stopped working after an iOS update, that incentive was gone. Because changes are difficult for children with autism, switching to a different version didn't work, the father writes. "The App Store" suggested he contact the developers and Jack asked him to do it for him. So he wrote the letter.
He doesn't know how much time and effort it would take to get "Joe Danger" to work on new iOS versions, but "it would mean everything to at least one little boy".
And if that doesn't move the hearts of the developers, they should think of the good press they would get with it.
“You might not have realized that you were helping children with disabilities when you developed Joe Danger all those years ago.
But you do, and I'm grateful for that."
Programmed the first stunt shows in the shed
An update for the nine-year-old app was released on Wednesday, which now also runs on current iPhones with iOS 15.
The graphics have been polished, the edges smoothed out and the ProMotion technology of the new iPhones, with 120 frames per second, is also supported.
»Joe Danger« costs two euros.
Anyone who had already downloaded the game to an iPhone can download the update for free.
Sean Murray wrote on Twitter that it was her secret shame to have left her first game »Joe Danger« unloved with the success of »No Man's Sky«.
"As a game developer, it's so easy to underestimate the impact even the smallest games can have."
Hello Games made their breakthrough in 2010 with »Joe Danger« for the Playstation 3.
The stunt shows in cute comic graphics convinced critics despite the high level of difficulty.
The four developers had programmed the title in a shed at the time.
The iPhone version appeared three years later.
Bringing that title back to life was a hobby project, Murray writes.
It's sad that games are slowly rotting away and many are disappearing altogether.
"Hope this gives Joe the happy life he deserves."
Whether the letter was the sole trigger to update the game for iPhones is unclear.
Hello Games has not yet responded to a request as to whether the game would have been adapted without a letter.
