Today, I’d like to bring to your attention an opinion that a lot of people seem to be harboring regarding mobile games. Recently, during my regular internet prowling, I came across a comment on Wired Magazine’s site. The comment was on their article describing how République managed to pull out a last-minute KickStarter victory. For those of you who don’t know, the project was stagnated for the majority of its month long campaign,  reaching the $500,000 goal at the last minute with only six hours to go. During the process, the developers decided to announce a PC/Mac version as well, hoping to attract more donors. Here’s what somebody had to say:

“Make a game for PC, then dumb it down for phones, tablets, and consoles. That’s how you get funding. Doing it the other way around means you’re starting out with an overly “stream-lined” (isn’t that the word we like to use?) product with the depth of a puddle.”

People seem to believe that a mobile game is just a watered-down, overly simple little oddity to mess with when you are bored somewhere. Personally, I believe differently, and so do Camouflaj and Logan (the two teams behind République). And, if you spend time around here on mobile, I would guess that you do too. Mobile games should not be “dumbed down” versions of console games. There is plenty of room for them to be spectacular and unique games in their own right, a prime example of this being Infinity Blade. We also have our Angry Birds, Doodle Jump, and Cut The Rope — all admittedly simply in design, but unique and fun to play nonetheless.

I am excited for République to the point of bursting. To me, it’s everything a mobile game could and should be, but for the most part isn’t. And that’s the sad part. Based on the current market, our quoted commentator could be right about the way mobile games are. But I really hope he’s wrong. I hope République will be a smashing success. I hope it will change the way people look at mobile games. I hope it will encourage other developers to go out on a limb and get away from the cutesy Apps that are dominating the market and make some more games with actual story and content. Consumers have the power to change the market, and their thoughts matter. What do you think?