During the early afternoon of 26th May 2013, 18-year-old Scot Bryan Henderson tapped on Peter Molyneux’s Curiosity cube for the last time. He had won the game.
A tiny message appeared on the screen of his smartphone. It contained an email address for someone at 22Cans, the Guildford studio Molyneux had founded after leaving Microsoft and traditional game development behind.
Bryan, confused but intrigued, followed the instructions. Have I really won, he asked? An email appeared with a link to a video. In it Molyneux, dressed all in black and set against a virtual cube, delivers a message of congratulations.
The prize? In the months before Curiosity’s release, Molyneux had hyped it up, promising it would be “life-changing” for whoever discovered it. “Life-changing.” Quite the claim, and Molyneux’s video message repeats the words. But how? You will become a digital god, Molyneux proclaims in the video, of 22Cans’ next game, Godus. And, you will receive a cut of the money made by Godus from the start of your reign to its end.
“That, by any definition of the word, is life-changing,” Molyneux says.
18 months later, as Bryan approaches his 21st birthday, he has yet to become God of Gods, he has yet to receive the “riches” Molyneux promised him, and it’s looking increasingly likely he never will.
I have lunch with Bryan Henderson in The Southern pub on Edinburgh’s South Clerk Street. He cuts a thin, gangly figure, dressed in unremarkable smart casual garb. There’s nothing outlandish or particularly noticeable here. The January air is cutting, and Bryan should have wrapped up warmer, I think. He travelled by bus from his home on the other side of the city, near the airport. I suspect it took a while.
Bryan speaks slowly and in a soft Edinburgh accent. At first he lacks confidence, but as we get to know each other he soon warms up. Bryan reminds me of a young Andy Murray, if Andy Murray had studied computer art and design instead of tennis; so laid back I wonder what, if anything, might jolt him into excitement.