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MWSF 2010: A Look at Ngmoco’s GodFinger

The second game we saw from Ngmoco was GodFinger, their take on the God game genre with an iPhone twist.

In GodFinger, you are an all powerful deity who control the people and environment of a small planet. The planet environment is a side view cross section that you can navigate by swiping on the screen and pinch zooming in and out. When the game begins, you are given a very small planet with one inhabitant. As you demonstrate your powers to the inhabitants, they become followers and earn you gold and mana for their efforts.

As the god-figure in the world, you have the power to pick up inhabitants by the swipe of a finger and drop them off anywhere else. Other examples of powers include terraforming, causing rain, floods, sunshine and lighting. As you level up, you gain more powers. more followers and even a bigger planet.

GodFinger had a Pocket God meets Touch Pets feel to it, as you feel some responsibility for your inhabitants. The game remains persistent when you quit, so your followers can keep earning you money while you are away. However, neglect them too long, and they’ll grow tired and productivity will come to a halt.

Ngmoco continues to integrate the power of their Plus+ social network into their games, and for GodFinger that means you can assign your Plus+ friends to specific followers. There is a mutual benefit in that your Plus+ friend also earns a percentage of the gold that your follower earns for you. Gold can then be used to purchase various types of buildings for your followers. The game includes an array of Plus+ achievements including what I suspect will be the most popular: longest follower throw.

GodFinger follows the same free to download model as their other recent games, but allows users to accelerate their progress by purchasing “Awe" points with real money. These Awe points can then be used to get gold (which otherwise takes time to earn) or special power boosts that will make your followers work harder for faster. In the end, no purchases are required to unlock any items, it simply will accelerate your progress in the game.

The game is expected to released in the next few weeks.