The only way to win this game is to lose.
A new iPhone game puts you in control of the Continental Army as it fights the Battle of Brooklyn — the first major skirmish of the Revolutionary War, which saw the British storm the Narrows and kick Gen. Washington to the curb.
But even in a digital fantasy world, there is no way your rag-tag band of troops can defeat the superior Redcoat forces, and as in the real battle, the only way to claim victory is to high-tail it out of Brooklyn while keeping Washington alive to fight another day, said the creator.
“You cannot win the battle,” said Mark Hurst, founder of management consulting company Creative Good, which will launch the game “Brooklyn 1776” in the iTunes story for .99 cdnts on Thursday. “The odds are always stacked against the Americans.”
“Brooklyn 1776” is less “Call of Duty” with muskets and tricorne hats and more of a strategy game like “Civilization” or Risk.
Players move regiments — as well as leaders William Alexander, John Sullivan, Israel Putnam, and the Commander in Chief himself — like chess pieces around an 18th-century map of Brooklyn to evade and attack an endless onslaught of British soldiers and Hessian mercenaries.
The idea is to put players in Washington’s pantaloons as he plotted the withdrawal, said the game’s designer.
“We imagined giving you the challenge to decide where to fight and where to retreat,” said Max Kolbowski-Frampton, who created the game design, art, and sound effects. “We wanted players to arrive at Washington’s decisions on their own through playing.”
Creative Good had never built an app before, but Hurst said the idea came to him after reading historian and former Brooklyn Heights resident David McCullough’s book about the early days of the war “1776.” He was so inspired that he put a team together to make it happen and the rest is, as they say, history.
“I was reading ‘1776’ and learning about all the battles of the revolution and I thought, ‘This would make a great concept for a game,’ ” said Hurst. “We’re a New York company, so the Battle of Brooklyn seemed like a natural choice.”
