Monument Valley sales soar after Frank Underwood plays it in House of Cards

Indie app proved crucial to the plot of Episode 32

(Netflix)

In one of the more surprising Season 3 spoilers, President Underwood lies down on a chaise longue to play a little Monument Valley on his iPad.

The award-winning game isn't just a distraction for the President though, and ends up being crucial in the plot of the season, leading him to solicit the services of a writer who once reviewed it.

Because everyone secretly wants to be a power-crazed homicidal maniac like Frank, the game's inclusion led to thousands of downloads by fans, and saw it return to the Top 10 paid apps on iTunes and take the number three spot on the Google Play store paid games chart.

This wasn't a case of product placement, but the show's producers reaching out to developer Ustwo to ask if they could use the game after it was suggested in the writers' room.

"They called us up and they said, 'Can we use your game?' and we said 'Yes,'" lead designer Ken Wong said at GDC 2015.

Frank's taste in games has softened somewhat – back in season one he was often seeing loudly playing first person shooters.