Joe Danger relaunch on iOS prompted by the sweetest letter to the developer

Sean Murray’s best-known app is No Man’s Sky, but he’s also been busy working on a Joe Danger relaunch on iOS – all because of the sweetest letter he received …

He made the announcement on Twitter.

Joe Danger is relaunching on iOS today 🥳 […]

A secret shame of ours is that the success of No Man’s Sky left our first game Joe Danger unloved. Sadly since iOS culled older games it no longer worked on latest Apple devices 😭

This mail broke our hearts and made us want to set things right 💔

He then shared the letter.

Hello “Hello”,

My name is [redacted] I am a [redacted] from [redacted] and I am writing this letter on behalf of my son, Jack. Jack is 8 years old, is about the sweetest kid on the planet, and has been diagnosed with Autism.

As you probably know, children with autism deal with a great many struggles, chief among them are great difficulty with social interactions. However, one the of the things that has enabled Jack and to bond IS our shared love of video games, specifically Joe Danger.

Jack LOVES Joe. He loves everything about him. He has a collection of toy motorcycles that are his “Joe Dangers;” every motorcycle we see on the street is “Joe Danger”. One of the first things I hear l everyday when I walk in the door after a long day at work is “Come on, daddy, let’s go play Joe Danger!” Just being able to say that sentence is a MASSIVE deal for child with autism.

Joe Danger has allowed Jack to interact and have fun with friends and family alike, whether its racing against each other, Team Nasty, or just “unplugging” for a bit and getting some “Huge Air.” In short, playing with Joe has allowed Jack to experience “normal kid stuff.” As a parent, it’s hard to put into words the feeling get seeing the pure joy on Jack’s face Joe Danger brings, knowing the other struggles he experiences every day. But can assure you, the feeling is a good one.

Now is the part where ask for help. Not only has Joe Danger helped Jack with friends, but it has become an important coping mechanism for him.

The iPhone version of Joe Danger has become a reward for Jack getting through situations that those not on the spectrum take for granted. Sitting in a loud restaurant, walking into a crowded room, sitting through class work can all be significantly stressful, and am definitely that parent who says “Get through this and you can have the phone for a bit”, but I don’t care-it helps him. There have been times too innumerous to count where I know Jack is uneasy _with a given situation, because he will just look at me, and say “Then I get Joe Danger?.” Its his way of saying “this is going to suck for me for a bit, but know I can get through it.” And he does, and Joe Danger helps him do it.

The problem is that ever since iOS updated a while back, Joe Danger hasn’t worked with the new versions, and one isn’t even able to find it on the App Store anymore. As children with autism have difficulty with change, any other version just won’t do.

The App store, rather casually I must admit, suggests “contacting the developer” to update the app to get it to work, as if that were something that was done everyday. But Jack asked me to do it for him, so here I am. don’t even know if its even something that would be possible, or, if possible, how much time and effort would have to be put into getting Joe back up and running (and riding) with the new versions of iOS, but it would mean the world to at least one little boy. And if that doesn’t pull at your heart strings enough, think of all the positive press! If that doesn’t work, I’m sure there is SOME money to be made by getting Joe Danger back on the app store…I figured appealing to both sentiment and cynicism would effectively hedge my bets.

Anyway, if nothing else I want to thank you and the team for the endless hours of entertainment and joy that you have provided my son, and for all the times you’ve helped me and Jack be able to forget about the difficulties, therapy appointments, doctors visits, and all the rest for a bit and just let him “be a kid”. I can honestly say it has made a difference in his life. Helping children with disabilities may not be something that you realized you would be doing when you made Joe Danger all those years ago, but it something that you do, and am grateful for it.

Sincerely

Thanks to John Gruber for pointing to it.