What happens when a child has an idea and grownups support it? Often times, good things happen —which was exactly what ten-year-old Henry Maw had in mind when he was inspired to create MonkeyBerry for iPhone. A game that was clearly designed from one kid to another, MonkeyBerry is the brainchild of young Maw who was further inspired to help raise awareness of social responsibility and charitable giving by pledging 20% of sales profit from his app to charity.
MonkeyBerry is a simplistic little game featuring 60-second rounds and three different level scenes. As food falls from the sky, a hungry monkey tries to catch as many berries as he can, but he has to avoid the coconuts as these temporarily stun him and take away points. Falling bananas will make the monkey momentarily invincible if he can catch them. Players control the monkey by tapping on the left or right side of the screen. There are three levels, each featuring a different scene and the final level introduces molten lava balls that the monkey needs to jump to avoid. (Tap the monkey to make him jump).
Keeping in mind that even though MonkeyBerry was brought to life by professional developers, it was still thought up by a ten-year-old boy so it makes sense that though there’s nothing sophisticated about the game, it has a certain kid-friendly appeal. The varying difficulty levels also help make the game appealing to a wider age-range. Overall, it’s a cute game with the depth and design you’d expect from a kid and maybe even a touch more cleverness than some ideas born in a room full of grownups. The execution of the idea seems to have been well-managed by the developers, but the best part is knowing that it all came from the imagination of a kid – and a rather remarkable one at that.
In addition to thinking up his first ever iPhone app, Henry Maw also wanted to help raise awareness of the positive impact technology can have if other app developers get involved in charitable, non-profit and philanthropic causes. So he started a website, called Apps for Impact, as a place on the web to showcase other developers and their apps that give back in some way. The site is fairly new, but anyone interested in getting involved or keeping up with news on developers and apps that promote social awareness can visit www.appsforimpact.com or follow @apps4impact on Twitter. Henry plans to donate a portion of MonkeyBerry revenues to Table to Table, a food rescue program in his home state of New Jersey.
Want to know more about the young developer behind MonkeyBerry? Check out this interview on Fox Business. Want to play games, have fun and benefit charity? Download MonkeyBerry.
