A Philly dev made a more inclusive version of Heads Up!

The idea behind It’s Lit!, a Philly-made charades game for Android, was born at a holiday party where developer Stanley Griggs and some friends gave Heads Up! a try.

“Someone had the idea to play another well know charades app [a.k.a. Heads Up!] but when we went to play we found ourselves skipping card after card as some of the content was unrelatable,” Griggs said. “It just doesn’t cover a broad swath of cultures and subcultures.”

So Griggs got to work and whipped up a beta version of the game. The app bills itself as a game “infused with culture you know,” and features custom decks focused on themes like Philly, hip-hop and ’90s sitcoms.

The developer, whose journey into tech we covered here, said the app was also a test for his dev skills. “It’s a double outcome project,” the developer said. “Should it not become commercially successful or the next 10 million download behemoth app it would be a shipped project in my portfolio to help advance my career.”

We had a chance to give It’s Lit! an early test run during Philly Tech Week:

Stanley Griggs @ST215 and his new game It's Lit (à la Heads Up but more Philly style) Play it at The Yard #ptw17 pic.twitter.com/hHMZpw1dnb

— Technical.ly Philly (@TechnicallyPHL) April 28, 2017

(Full disclosure: this reporter totally nailed a round of the custom “Philly Tech” deck built by Griggs at our #PTW17 Signature Event.)

There has barely been any downloads so far but Griggs plans to do some “guerilla marketing” via social media. Long term, he said he’d be thrilled to go global and let It’s Lit! reach other cultures. The “build your own deck” capability, as well as the iOS version of the app are both under development.