Dumb Ways to Die 4

**Dumb Ways to Die 4** is a mobile game and the fourth app game in the Dumb Ways to Die app series, released by PlaySide Studios on May 2nd, 2023. The app game is known for as a sequel to Dumb Ways to Die 3: World Tour and its gameplay is now similar to the original Dumb Ways to Die app and Dumb Ways to Die 2: The Games, the sequel to the original app.

## History and Release

In 2022, after the success of BEANS by Dumb Ways to Die, on February 11th, 2022, a teaser trailer for Dumb Ways to Die 4 was uploaded and premiered on the Dumb Ways to Die YouTube channel, saying that the team will be returning to the roots and creating a new game that's similar to both DWTD1 and DWTD2, according to the video's description. Due to this, the teaser had more than 350 thousand views. However, due to unknown reasons, on December 13th, 2022, the tenth anniversary video was uploaded, and the video announced the Dumb Ways to Die 4 game will be releasing in 2023 with a sneak peek of the gameplay along with Dumb Ways to Draw 2.

On March 23rd, 2023, the DWtD4 game was released as an early access game in the Philippines while the game itself is scheduled to be released in May with pre-orders, after the pre-order trailer for Dumb Ways to Die 4 has been premiered and uploaded on the Dumb Ways to Die YouTube channel on March 26th, 2023.

While the DWTD4 app is still in pre-orders, the inspirations from this game along with the ideas are in a 2D animated short series called Dumb Ways to Die Shorts, released in April 2023 with the first short featuring Numskull and Dumbbell, uploaded on April 23rd and April 24th. Finally on May 1st, 2023, the Dumb Ways to Die 4 app was released early and on the next day, a new official launch trailer was uploaded and premiered on the Dumb Ways to Die YouTube channel, featuring the beans doing their own Dumb Ways to Die TikTok trend and massively killing themselves, such as poking a grizzly bear with a stick (Hapless), tossing a nest of wasps (Doofus) with the help of Dimwit recording the video, and even setting fire to the head (Numpty). After their hard work and success, the phone explodes and was set on fire, with a giant 4 about to fall to the ground, causing the beans to run away, and even Hapless being crushed by the 4.

## Success

Dumb Ways to Die 4 had more than 100k downloads on the App Store and Google Play and having the updates whenever an event or a seasonal holiday comes. For example:

* The touch and interactions in the minigames were fixed on Version 10.1
* A Fourth of July update was added to the game with new minigames featuring Dummkopf, Lax and Mishap on Version 1.10 and a promo for the update to celebrate Independence Day.
* An American Summer update was added to the game with new minigames featuring Stupe, Dippy, Madcap and Dumbbell, including a few minigames from the game itself on Version 1.12.

## Inspiration

Dumb Ways to Die 4 was known for the Dumb Ways to Die Shorts series for the inspiration by the minigames including the Dumb Ways to Die franchise and media.

For example, in one of the first DWTD shorts was "Traffic Comes First, Stumble Crosses", a scene where Stumble not paying attention and getting ran over by a car was inspired by one of the minigames from DWtD4 where the player taps on the screen to make Stumble cross the road safely and not to get hit by a car.

Another example is two of the DWTD shorts featuring Dumbbell (Came In Like a Wrecking Ball), Zany and Stupa (Hand Grenades Aren't Used for Baseballs) bare similarities to two minigames from Dumb Ways to Die 4. One short, Came In Like a Wrecking Ball, featured Dumbbell being crushed by a wrecking ball that he was riding on it while trying to break a brick wall, and another short, Hand Grenades Aren't Used for Baseballs, featured Stupa being burnt after being blown up by a grenade are the same as the same minigames.

Another example is in another DWTD short, Hang-Gliding and Seagulls Aren't the Same featured Zany crashing to the ground with his hangglider was inspired by the minigame from DWTD4, Grievous Glide.

All the DWTD shorts are inspired by the Dumb Ways to Die 4 minigames, while the other DWTD shorts have ideas.

## Gameplay

The gameplay consisted of an empty scenery and the bean is Numpty, as equipped by default. The player has to earn coins by playing minigames and each unlocked bean will show up as the character in the life bar, if the player loses in a minigame, the bean will die in several ways, such as being shot in the head by an arrow, falling into a gravestone, and being crushed by a stone.

Every minigame gameplay is similar to the DWTD1 & DWTD2 gameplay. After losing all three lives, the player earns coins, the player can buy items for the environment and unlock beans in new locations.

## Promotion

The game is known for being in short videos as a promotion to Dumb Ways to Die 4, as seen in short message videos where each bean dies dumbly in one short. It was first seen in "My Parachute Won't Open" as a message at the end of the short video, where Numpty is seen holding a paraglider and Loopy falling to his demise due to him not having a parachute opened. Another one of the message videos, "Mountain Climbing" where Zany lets go of Dumbbell, much to Zany's amusement and to Dumbbell's fate.

## Trivia

* Dumb Ways to Die 4 is the first app game to be released in 2023, and to be announced in early and late 2022.
* The teaser trailer for the game first featured Stumble being hit by a wrench, followed by him being crushed by a giant four.
	+ In the official launch trailer, it remains the same thing, except that it only crushes Hapless while the other beans, Lax, Botch, and Klutz run away in terror.
* All voice clips from the DWTD4 game are reused in many DWTD Shorts.