Make It Rain: The Love of Money

Background

Make It Rain: The Love of Money is a 2014 incremental mobile game from the American indie studio Space Inch LLC. Within its first week on Apple’s operating system, it became the top downloaded game in the iTunes Store, racking up 2 million downloads. Players earn virtual currency through methods like insider trading, subprime mortgages, and bribing politicians. The creators describe the game as a satire of society’s fixation on wealth.

It is available on Apple iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. The concept was originally inspired by an earlier game titled Make Money Rain. As an incremental game, Make It Rain has no final objective; instead, players endlessly pursue more money, reinforcing themes of greed and corruption. Currency can be earned in-game or bought through in-app purchases.

Space Inch’s chairman, Josh Segall, a criminal lawyer, noted that the option to bribe the FBI is the most popular paid purchase, which he found disturbing. The company spent $10,000 on development and $1,000 on marketing, and it earns about $50,000 daily from ads and purchases. Space Inch also published Inch Disco Bees and Say The Same Thing. Andy Ross, guitarist for the band OK Go, serves as the lead developer at Space Inch.