SantaRama: Christmas Mania by Honey Tribe Studios is out now on iOS. A satirical and comical arcade game with an alternative Christmas message.
Salesman Santa has hypnotized the kids with his ads! Only you can save them! Tap them to distract them and set them free. Use the power of reading and the power of activities to save as many as you can. Don’t let Santa brainwash them with his slogans. But if something goes wrong and one falls into the ad… at least you’ll have a funny meme to share with your friends.
The developer Honey Tribe Studios has a history of using games to communicate a social or environmental message. Game Designer Shaz Yousaf is a firm believer that games can be a vehicle to explore real world issues while being fun and entertaining at the same time. The debut release from the indie developer in 2011, Honey Tribe: Colony Collapse, combined simple gameplay with real world information. The game explains the main reasons behind colony collapse disorder, the phenomenon that is wiping out honey bees worldwide and is, in part, due to human activity.
The charming art style of SantaRama is by artist Joshua Condison who also drew the stylized world for previous Honey Tribe Studios release McBank: The Puzzle of Money and Freedom, a puzzle game that explored the themes of hierarchy, control and greed.
The song used in SantaRama ‘Monetizing Children’ was originally made by Yousaf for the Molyjam
2013 game jam as part of his team’s entry with the satirical rougue-like of the same name.
With close to 100,000 downloads in total Honey Tribe Studios hope to continue exploring how games can be used to highlight real world issues in an entertaining way.
Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GniJRZyuIno