Preview: Stop My App is On Fire

So, we have no idea when the next update is coming out. Apple's delays combined with the newest trend for the bigger publishers to drop their price, has sent us downward, but actually the sales seem to be hanging in there. So, since its taking so long, Dave asked me to post a couple sneak shots of the update to tie people over.

The big plus of the delays is that this next update is getting a lot more attention! Thanks everyone for your patience!

Four in the Ten

It has been a week of tragedies! Michael Jackson...Farrah Fawcett...Ed McMahon...now Pocket God leaves the iTunes TOP TEN! If one goes back in time (or at least checks out this blog's archive) they will see that we entered the top ten around Feb 22...which puts us at 4 solid months in the top ten. Okay, maybe we dropped out briefly at one point, but I think we did pretty good. Who knows...if Apple gets off their butt and approves our releases faster, we could go back up, but I don't think we can count on it. Furthermore, we did NOT win a Meffie :( Real Football or something like that won the game category. Besides, as many people have pointed out, Pocket God isn't really a game!

But to celebrate our big 4-10, I thought I'd post a video I sent to the Meffies. They asked for 30 seconds of game footage, and mentioned if we set it to music, they'd likely use it in their show. Not really sure if they did, but this is what I sent. (I didn't post it on YouTube due to the music licensing issue)....the song is by the Ting Tings, fresh off my iPod.

>> Watch Meffies Game Footage Video Here! <<

P.S. "Stop, My App is On Fire" (that has the bonfire) is still in review. the review process seems to be going over 2 weeks nowadays..so we're working on the next update "Flipping the Bird" and spending extra time on it.

The Creeps with Pocket God Easter Egg is Out!

Well, I jumped the gun before not realizing Apple's approval system was bogged down, but Russell just let us know that the Creeps with the PG Easter Egg is finally out. There are hints in the game how to activate it, so go update your Creeps (or buy it if you haven't) and track it down. If you want to give people hints in this comments, go ahead but be nice and let people find out over the next couple days. Good work Russell!

State of the Island: The Quest For Fire!

Dave reports in about the upcoming update "Stop! My App is On Fire!"....

>> Read Dave's Touch Arcade Post Here <<

Looks like we're drifting down again! For a millisecond I thought we might drift into number two again. Bur really, I can't even believe we're still in the top ten! Hopefully the next few updates keep sales coming. Its a secret, but we have a really great idea for the update after the one we're working on now. It is unfortunate timing our cleanup update landed right on the iPhone release, or it might have worked out differently. Can't complain though. Pocket God has sold over 1.1 million copies. I do predict that the Family Guy app will reach number one and stay there a while!

PG Glitch Guide Courtesy of Fuzzyryno30

I usually am loathe to call attention to glitches. But it does seem to be half the fun of each update. We fix some and introduce NEW ones. We try to catch them, but the combinations of actions gets more and more complicated. Its endless! Some of them are hilarious. The latest one Dave and I went over was the midget pygmy glitch.

But Fuzzyryno30 has done some really awesome work documenting them! If you go through his youtube account, he's documented tons that people have caught.

Check out his channel HERE.

Thanks Fuzzyryno30!

Oh, and sorry to cause all the comments about PocketGodBoy. Dave and I are easily amused...especially when a fan does an odd dance/rap in P/G's honor. We are all about freedom of expression, so I was just kidding with the "hater" comment in the last post. Hate all you want. That's what the internet is all about!

PopZara Talks to Dave

Dave is really in demand lately! Brittany Vincent at Popzara.com grills Dave. It contains some new info about how we might integrate some 3.0 functionality. We've recently discovered we can use some features without everyone upgrading to 3.0 firmware, which is good news. I know this will cause a bunch of panicky comments, so let me reiterate by quoting Dave:

"We also want to make it clear that we will not be abandoning users that are still using the old firmware. We will still support firmware 2.2 until over 95% of our user base has made the transition to 3.0."

The one question I thought was hilarious is that they ask what is on his iPhone/iPod besides Pocket God builds and unmentionables. Unmentionables? LOL. Recently, my phone broke and Dave lent me an iPod Touch and haven't found any unmentionables, but I'll look again before I return it! (Getting my new phone today)

>> Read Dave's interview at Popzara <<

And by the way...I just went to YouTube and saw some negative comments on Pocket God Boy...Don't be a hater because you aren't the god of Pocket God! :)

Shout Out to PocketGodBoy!

He IS Pocket God's God. God of Pocket God!

Fun 'n Games Until A Pygmy Gets Hurt is out!

About time! Thanks for everyone's patience. In this update, we will now track achievements. How many times can you bounce a coconut off the pygmies head before it hits the ground? How many Pygmies can you hit with lightning while maintaining a hurricane? There isn't anything in the way of new god powers or animals, but this was something we wanted to integrate so we also used this light update to address a bunch of glitches that have been reported.

Also you might notice it takes two fingers to move the ocean or sky. This was so you didn't accidentally trigger the tsunami when flicking pygmies into the volcano, or change the weather when generating a hurricane. But due to extensive belated feedback from the beta testers, is gonna change. Dave found a much better solution. Hopefully everyone can bear with us!

Due to the delay...we've already submitted the next update "Stop! My App is on Fire!" last night. More on that later.

Appmodo Talks To Dave

Another interview. In this one, Dave talks about the Apple Review Process which is on everyone's mind right now!

>> Read Appmodo Interview with Dave <<

As a lot of people are pointing out in the comments, the delay is due to the huge influx of apps submitted that are tested for 3.0. Ours is tested for 3.0 as well....but as Dave points out in the above interview, there seems to be a little favoritism going on in the app store....perhaps with apps specifically using 3.0 functionality.

And I also noticed in the comments there's a question what "dropping the kids off at the pool" means in the leaderboards. We gotta do something about having a testing leaderboard so we don't confuse people like that! But it does NOT have to do with the Tsunami folks. In fact...its considered a "gift" and it has to do with the second island.

In the mean time, Dave and I are working on a new update (Stop My App is On Fire has been ready for days)...and due to some vacation time coming up are trying to get ahead of the updates so we can still do regular updates during this time.

So, just to be clear. Our update "Fun 'n Games" is in the queue. Also in the Queue is the Creeps with the Pocket God easter egg! I guess I should have held off on the posting until it was actually approved!

The Pygmies Terrorize the World of the Creeps!

Our little Boneheads (oogmies?) seem to be getting around! Dave and I both are fans of the Creeps so we couldn't resist in agreeing to do another cross-promotion when Russell Bernau asked. This is a preview because I think the Russell is having the same trouble we are getting approved. It is an Easter Egg that you have to figure out how to trigger. We'll let you know when its released. Oh yeah, and its on sale for 99 cents!

Sophia and Aunt Kate (the Lazy Gator) submit their Pocket God Suggestion

This is GREAT!!!! Sophia and Kate, we'll take this in serious consideration! Sophia, is this an environmental commentary about cow methane pollution? Inquiring minds want to know.

Achievements Sneak Peak

Oh, and here are are a couple screen shots on the achievements. I'll remind everyone that our focus on this update was to clean up glitches and work on optimization, but just to satisfy the curious, here's what that means.



We'll wait to sneak peak the update after, Stop! My App is on Fire!

Dave interviewed on App Advice

I know I know. i have no idea what is taking so long but Apple is taking wayyyy too long to approve our last update! It must be WWDC consumed their time. We aren't able to submit the fire update until Fun 'n Games has gone through! I'm currently working on episode 21...so for everyone who thought we'd stop at 20, nope! This is the first time I'm working on graphics this far ahead (really thanks to delays at Apple) but I still feel ahead for the fist time in a while! Dave and I are also making headway on the next project, so dont' worry....we're still working hard!

Well, to keep the blog from stagnating, i thought I'd post an interview with Dave on appadvice.com.

>> Read the App Advice interview here <<

PG on Cold Hard Flash

Aaron Simpson, the premier flash animation blogger of Cold Hard Flash, mentioned us on his blog! He's blogged my Flash projects a bunch of times but I wasn't sure if he'd put an iPhone app, even though the art and animation is produced in Flash. He'd probably be interested to know, that his info is a little dated now. Dave has created a system that captures timeline animations and translates them to xml (rather than me entering them by hand)...which gave us the ability to animate large and complex items like the dinosaur or the tsunami using Flash!

>> Read the Cold Hard Flash post here <<

Thanks, Aaron!

P.S. There is some confusion about episodes....part of that is because the version number is one less than the episode (1.0 was episode one). In retrospect, we should have called the first release Episode ZERO. But the recent list Ep 18 - Surf's up Ep 19: Fun 'n Games Until A Pygmy Gets Hurt and Ep 20: Stop! My App is on Fire! (which is 1.17, 1.18, 1.19, confusing I know!)

Another Slow News Week

Still waiting for Fun 'N Games to be approved! We sent it in last Tuesday. Not sure what the hang up is. Maybe its because of the WWDC going on? Anyway. We've got Episode 20 ready when Episode 19 gets approved!

There are a few WWDC get-togethers tonight Dave and I are going to check out. Dave is part of a panel about Feint...and then there's an iPhone Launch Party. Not to mention Apple Europe party. You gotta love social events where everyone has their iPhone out twittering.

So, in the mean time, check out this cool video made by 5JUsername:

Macenstein.com Reviews the Pocket God Icon Series!

Dr. Macenstein (is that medical or PhD?) contacted me and wanted to know about the Pocket God icon art! Usually people only want to talk to DAVE about his CODING. Dave, Dave, Dave! I mean, can't anyone code an app that knows what to do when you go fishing in a hurricane and then get hit by a Tsunami while lava is raining down from a volcano? But I digress.

Anyway, he asked me (Allan) a bunch of questions and then put together this awesome review of the icons to date, plus the one I'm working on right now! I also started blah-blah-blah-ing about our system for creating the art assets.

>> Read the article here! <<

Go and leave a comment! I've noticed a bunch of "I downloaded it and I am not impressed" comments, so help us round that out.

Twitter Wars

Larry King, Puff Daddy, Ashton Kutcher and now DAVE CASTELNUOVO. Dave and our friend, James (Superbad24) of theAppera.com are competing to see who can get 1000 followers first. Okay, so its not quite the scale of Ashton! Anyway, Dave alone has the privilege of using the icon for the next release, so there's a reason right there! To keep things fair, here are both their twitters! You decide!

Dave's Twitter: www.twitter.com/davecazz

Appera Twitter: www.twitter.com/Superbad24

Oh, this is a bit off the subject, but I was checking out macenstein.com and they posted this slick app ad for WorldMate making fun of useless apps.



Do you think the lightning part was referring to us? I hope so!

The Dave Report

I went over to Dave's house yesterday to play video games with him. Were we slacking off? Not really..it was for research on our next project...but i'm still not telling what it is. We were trying to play a specific type of game, but we couldn't get any of his consoles (the ones where he owned the right type of game..he's got several)...had an issue. Battery was out on a controller on one, a disk went bad on the other, another console just decided to go kablooey. It was quite comical and Dave got as frazzled as I've ever seen him...the whole time I'm just playing with his dog and cats. In the end we decided it was all my fault because any electronic device I go near seems to go bad. I think he doesn't want me to come over to his house any more.

Anyway, what a bust! But we at least got some other work done, including deciding on designs for the new project and working out the next Pocket God update, which he hints at in his Touch Arcade Post.

>>Read Dave's Touch Arcade Post Here <<

By the way, we want to send a big shout out to APPMODO. They have been keeping up with the Pocket God updates on their fantastic site. Thanks guys!

(oh, and thanks Alex Winzenread for the cool animation!)

CNet reviews Pocket God

There are certain sites and publications that we've been waiting to get the attention of and Cnet was one of them...Read the writeup in their Crave blog.

"Fun 'n Games Until A Pygmy Gets Hurt" was submitted yesterday. I warn everyone, this update is a little light, but it includes a bunch of fixes to glitches and issues. But we're going to try to do a bigger update next! Dave should post something soon.

Jackie Button Released Today!

Finally, the Jackie Button is released! Jackie Martling used to be head-writer for the Howard Stern show and currently has a weekly show on Sirius. Dave and I are Howard Stern fans, so when Dave told me Jackie approached him to put his jokes on the app store in January, I told him to go for it! To give people an idea of the timing, this was when we first released Pocket God, and we hadn't even updated it for the first time yet so we had NO idea what was coming next. Who knew PG would take off? Or it would take so long to get the Jackie button approved by Apple? At the time we were just hoping to get a foothold in the app store!

From Dave's post on Touch Arcade:

"So, here's the deal about the Tuesday release. everyone knows that the appstore is all about which list you are on. We are going to be doing a ton of promotion on Tuesday to attempt a big blockbuster launch of the application. If you are a fan of Pocket God and want to help us out, a fan of the Howard Stern Show and want to see why they rip on the Joke Master, or just a fan of some awesome jokes, help us out by spreading the word and helping us to sell 1000 of these things on Tuesday."

>> Read the rest of his post here <<
or
>> Click here for the iTunes page! <<

You can also see what you're info by visiting Jackie's Jokeland. Thanks for all the support everyone!

Surf's Up is Out

Hey guys! At long last, the Tsunami is at the island! Well, we couldn't just have a big wave sweep over the island and call it a day, so we decided to create a new underwater area with some mysterious ruins at the bottom. Included is a stone statue that protects the area..Just tap it to find out how! What is it protecting? Hmmmmm...

Thanks for your patience! Again, the next update is more or less completed (I think we have a few tweaks to make after testing it a bit)...and will be submitted sometime tomorrow if all goes well.

Slow News Day: Fan Art Time!

Hey...so, no the update has not been approved yet. We actually thought it would come out last week because they sent us a note asking us to change something in our description...which usually means that's the only thing keeping it from being approved. But unfortunately, no! We have the following update in beta testing right now. The update after Surf's Up is a cleanup update (fixing bugs and continuing to optimize) so its a bit light on new features...but will include "Achievements" which is kind of fun...its called "Fun n' Games until A Pygmy Gets Hurt"....I know, its a little awkward, but they can't all be gems!

With nothing new to report, I fel compelled to post some fan art & comics that's been sitting on my hard drive! Enjoy!

by King of the Penguins


by Ryan Stanley


by SaintsAlive


by Joey Barr


by Pocket Kyle