A Game a Day

I'm not going to lie; I've wasted a fair portion of the last few days of my life on a game that closely approximates Candy Crush. I say "wasted" to save face with my serious gamer friends, but truth be told I have little shame at the 249 completed levels of Dragon Academy. I have local developers Team Chaos to thank for this.

Dragon Academy

They’ve been putting out almost a game a week for a few months now. Everything from semi-clones of popular games like Flappy Bird and Candy Crush to more cerebral affairs like its competitive take on crosswords and an Art Deco inspired puzzle game.

Team Chaos is the game design arm of parent company Chaotic Moon which brandishes terms like “experience design” and describes employees as “thinkers.” All in all, these guys will rebrand the shit out of whatever you’re selling. Team Chaos isn’t selling much since the majority of its game glut is free to play. Yes, that does mean many of these titles try to sell you upgrades and extra lives within their addictive apps, but it’s hard to fault a company for following a well worn path to profitability.

Flappy Stache

Here’s just a sampling of what they have to offer. First off is the aforementioned Dragon Academy, which should satiate anyone with an addiction to swapping and matching tiles. The same rules as Candy Crush apply: Want to play more than five times in a row? You’ll have to pay. Need one more move to finish that pesky level? You’ll have to pay. You decide whether you have the will power to not burn through those App Store gift cards. Don’t blame us when you go to the poorhouse 99 cents at a time.

If you missed the Flappy Bird boat before the game disappeared, Team Chaos has a good substitute with Flappy Stache. You control a mustache flying through an Austin-esque cityscape littered with clippers. Avoid them or be shorn.

Cats vs. Aliens

Cats vs. Aliens capitalizes on one of the great rivalries of all time. Use your feline mind rays to catapult beams of energy and stop the Space Invaders from landing on Earth. Did we say feline mind rays? Yes, yes we did.

The development team is making games so quickly their website can’t keep up. Follow them on twitter (@TeamChaos) for the latest releases. At the rate they’re going those latest releases won’t be the latest for very long. Since starting to write this they’ve announced Don’t Step on the Hot Lava (wonder what that one’s all about?) and I Dig It: Journey to the Core. We assume this team never sleeps.