Banned iOS game morphs into Shakespeare kids game

GameTheNews and Auroch Digital, the developers behind Endgame: Syria, which gained notoriety earlier this year after Apple rejected it from the iOS App Store, released a new, Shakespeare-themed children's game called Hemmings' Play Company based on the banned game's engine.

Endgame: Syria used the Syrian civil war as its subject matter and found itself rejected from the App Store because it violated Apple's guidelines, which prohibit games that "solely target a specific race, culture, a real government or corporation, or any other real entity." After multiple rejections, Auroch Digital eventually released a modified version of the game called Endgame: Eurasia in the iOS App Store. Endgame: Syria is available through Google Play, which does not have an app approval process like Apple's.

Hemmings' Play Company, the new game based on the banned game's engine, is live online as part of a group of Shakespeare-related games at the Globe Playground area of the Shakespeare's Globe website. In Hemmings' Play Company, Players take on the role of a Hemmings, a bear leading a theater troupe of animals, who must earn enough money to rebuild a destroyed theater, an analog to London's Globe Theater where Shakespeare's theater company performed his many plays. The Globe burned down in 1613 after a fire sparked during a performance of Henry VIII. A smaller, modern version of the theater opened in 1997.

"These bold adaptations of our existing titles show how the dynamics of a game should not be confused with its subject matter," said publisher GameTheNews' Tomas Rawlings. "If the core functionally is robust and game play intuitive, they can become the canvass for a variety of great projects. That is just what we were able to show while working on the Globe Playground."

You can check out all of the games at the official website.