So, this week was kind of a milestone for us, we released 10 updates in 10 weeks and our 11th update is in review right now. Its kind of funny that our new update is about hurricanes because that's exactly what it has felt like since we started in January. This was a fun one to work on for me, the last few have been fairly heavy on the art side, but this one was mainly a programming effects based update. We have wanted to do Hurricanes for a while but I've been a little concerned that I wouldnt have the time to do it justice, but once I got into it and created the initial algorithm for doing the whirlwind, everything just started falling in place and Sunday night it all just came together at the last minute like usual. I think you will like it, its pretty interactive and the pygmies look awesome when they are being whipped around in three dimensions. In other news, today I submitted our order for our figures. Here's a pic for those who havent seen it yet. We ordered 10 of them, 1 for each of us, and 8 to give away to big review sites at the Game Developers Conference next week. If people are interested, they cost $90 apiece and if I get enough orders I can have them do another run. I'll post pics of the final product when I get them. This also marks the beginning of the 3rd week at the top paid app position, we know that it can be a pretty steep decline once you start moving down so we are looking for ways to extend our time at #1. Mainly it involves finding big sites that can write reviews for us (our MacWorld and fox news reviews when live this week) but we are also looking for new ways of generating interest. I think Allans viral video should be done before we start working on the next update (it is awesome), and we should have our WallPaper Apple contest on our blog tomorrow. Hmmm, I wonder if we have a good prize for the contest. Something thats much better than a T shirt and a limited edition with only 10 in existence? Technology wise, everything was put into the hurricane effect but I did manage to create a cool tool that can take key framed animation from flash and dump it into our engine, we are now using it to animate the tree, where each palm branch and the trunk is its own bitmap and we just move, rotate, and scale the pieces instead of having a giant png for each frame. This will be a life saver for us, because keyframed animation is small, we can finally start animating bigger objects without it impacting us so much. A Might Wind! was posted on Monday night so it should be available Friday. The next update.... what can I say about it... I guess its a subject that appears in the New Testament quite a bit. It will also be a nice update and probably the closest to a mini game that we have built so far.
Thanks for the update. I always look forward to your weekly updates. As for the figurines, I'd be interested in seeing the final pics, and maybe ordering one. Look kind of nice sitting on my desk
Personally, I think you could really expand your interested user base by including more gameplay elements in to Pocket God. My girlfriend (not really a gamer) absolutely cannot get enough of Pocket God. On the other hand, someone like me, who was practically born with an Atari joystick in my hand gets bored pretty quick. I love the weekly updates, and how you seem to be working in parodies of popular games (Like this recent vampire update and iDracula) has been really amusing. At the end of the day, Pocket God is a great title for 99 cents, I just think you'd rope in a LOT more customers if you had some gameplay elements beyond flicking dudes in to a volcano. Even really basic first generation tamagotchi-like functions would probably go a long way in piquing the interest of new customers.
Thanks for the new topic! Dave, did you or Allan also "fix" the cloudy sky which looks tiled in the current version?
Hey Hodapp, thanks for the feedback, we are actually looking to move the game in the direction you are talking about. I was actually thinking of adding a combat mini game that is sort of like Patapon but we are just limited by time and improving our engine enough so it will support everything we need (dynamic text). I think the update after this next one will push us a little more in this direction but our original promise was to build this to the point where it has game play and we intend on getting there soon.
nice i look forward to this update on friday. still trying to figure out the new testament..not a bible person
First, I want to say I really enjoy Pocket God. But I feel compelled to stick my nose where it doesn't belong. You guys offer an ever-expanding experience for a mere dollar on the appstore. At this point in time, it is the #1 paid app, which is like saying it receives the most publicity of any other paid app out there (relatively speaking). My question is: are you guys still getting significant amounts of people buying the game each week? I would think that whoever wanted the game, would have it by now. If my assumptions are right, does this mean that frequent updates won't happen for much longer? I understand everything has a life cycle, but I'm just trying to get an idea. The reason I ask is that I'd hate to see this product end. It has seemingly endless possibilities for features that can only come to an end if they are no longer financially supported.
now uve got me thinking...back of car + new testament = pocketgod 1.11 back of a car..bumper..exhaust pipe..license plate.. LOL im not a car person either ill just let the smarter people figure it out
im am so freakin excited thnx Dave and Allan, btw dave are u should make each pygmie cost money every time u hit the + button, in the coming 3.0 software update JKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and i mean JKKKKS
Even really simple stuff like a rock, paper, scissors game, or a game where your islanders hide the coconut from you and you have to guess which one has it would really go a long way in adding things to do. Patapon-type stuff might be too ambitious. Your weekly update cycle seems to be working great, and if I were you I wouldn't do much to deviate from that especially with your existing users expecting such constant updates.
Games don't stay on the top selling charts by having a cool icon, they're there because people are buying them.
Well alot of people have a fish symbol on the back of their car for religious beliefs so my guess is that the next update will either be a flood or shark attacks or something along those lines
ohhhh rik555 u r very smart. even i know there is some sort of flood in the bible..and noahs ark or something...that means its probably the TSUNAMI!!!
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG, i can keep going OMG OMG OMG......etc............... THAT WOULD BE FREAKIN AWESOME i hope Dave gives it away like he did with Mighty wind