A start-up company called Tapulous has turned a simple game for the iPhone into an Internet-age mobile stage for musicians.
“Tap Tap Revenge,” a free game that challenges players to keep up with catchy tunes by tapping in the right spots on the phone’s screen, was available in Apple’s iPhone application store when it opened in July.
It quickly climbed the store’s charts. More than three million downloads later, Apple declared it the most popular free iPhone game of the year.
“We went to No. 1 in three days,” said Bart Decrem, co-founder and chief executive of Tapulous. “Within a week, artists reached out to have their music featured in the game.”
Many software companies have jumped on the iPhone bandwagon, seeing promise in the popularity of the phone and the demand for programs for sale or free download through the App Store. They include Smule, a startup that created a program that turns iPhones into flutes; and giant game publishers like Electronic Arts, which recently released a version of its classic “SimCity” game for the iPhone.
Tapulous, based in Palo Alto, California, was founded in January after Decrem, a Belgian software executive, and his business partner, Andrew Lacy, came across an iPhone game called “Tap Tap Revolution.” They sought out its creator, Nate True, and brought him on board as a developer. (A third co-founder, Mike Lee, was forced out in August after the men disagreed over the company’s direction.)
For Decrem, who earlier helped create a social Web browser called Flock, the low cost and fast pace of making software for the iPhone made it feasible to create a company that focused exclusively on the device.
“It took two years and north of $5 million to bring Flock to market,” he said. “In this case, the longest you spend building an iPhone application is three…