Opening screen |
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| URL | http://foddy.net/Athletics.html |
|---|---|
| Commercial? | No |
| Type of site | Flash game |
| Registration | None |
| Available language(s) | English |
| Owner | Bennett Foddy |
| Created by | Bennett Foddy |
| Launched | November 2008 [1] |
| Alexa rank | 51,958 (January 2012[update])[2] |
| Current status | Online |
QWOP is a ragdoll-based Flash game by Bennett Foddy. Players play as an athlete named "Qwop", who is participating in a 100-meter sprint event at the Olympic Games. Using only the Q, W, O and P keys, players must control the movement of the legs to make the character move forward.[3] When the player has successfully reached 50 meters they must jump a hurdle, and at 100 meters the player is encouraged to perform a long jump, although simply passing the finish line is sufficient to complete the game.
The game, ever since it was released, has been notorious for being difficult to master.[4] In early December 2010, the game had a viral popularity outbreak after video blogger Ray William Johnson reviewed[5] a YouTube video[6] that annotates the game, which has since become the subject of its own Internet meme.[7][8] Despite the criticism for the game's difficulty due to the controls,[4] the game helped Foddy's site reach 30 million hits, according to Wired Magazine.[9]
QWOP was originally created by Bennett Foddy and was released on his site (Foddy.net) in November 2008.[1] It was featured at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City on July 27, 2011 and was part of an event called “Arcade” hosted by the video game art and culture company Kill Screen.[10] After the success of the game, Foddy created another flash game called "GIRP", which was released on his site in 2011.[9]
An iPhone app of the game was also released during that time.[11][12] The App version follows the same gameplay as with the original version, but the controls differ. The player controls QWOP's legs and arms by moving his/her thumbs around in the diamonds on the screen.[13]