Dave's State of the Island

Even I was eagerly awaiting Dave's postmortem on the update. He talks about the new features/games, our mutual burn-out, and a bunch of the technical upgrades he had to to implement....

"We used to have a series of 6 1024x1024 texture atlases that contained all the graphics from the game, all mixed together in no particular order. I reorganized it so we have 4 main 1024x1024 atlases, 2 compressed, 2 16bit. Then assigned each island its own 512x512 atlas which I swap out when we load a new location. At first I wasn't sure how noticeable the load would be but it turns out that it only takes about a tenth of a second on a slow device to load it into memory."

What is he talking about? A whole lotta headache!

>> Check out Dave's in-depth post HERE <<

Dave probably wouldn't approve, but I want to point out how much ass-busting he did to make this next update happen. We were up against a wall and he had to tear things apart and reprogram a bunch of stuff to make this update happen in time. So, for all the people that want to pit us against other apps they happen to like, 29 versions in, with tons of intertwining interactivity, I don't know anyone else who could have pulled this off. Thanks Dave!

LOL

So we hope everyone had a great thanksgiving. We've taken a couple days off to recuperate, but Dave's State of the Island should be coming, as will the icon preview. So I went back to youtube and found these and cracked up. I swear we haven't put anybody up to this.

By Vdogamez


By GongMoviesProduction


Thanks guys, the videos are hilarious!

P.S. The cool illustration above is by Tehauin from Deviant Art, go check out his page!

P.P.S. I am sorry I didn't warn people about some strong language in the video below! We don't condone bad language! Okay, actually we might sometimes, but hey kids, bad language is bad!

Coming up for air from the Pyg Chill

Where did we go???? Ugh. Sorry guys. Sometimes we all need a break. So I took a little break from the blog. We have been racing against the clock (and working 12-15 hour days) to make sure we got this next update in to be on time for the Christmas rush. Between now and the 25th, there will be hundreds of updates and new apps flooding into the app store and we caught wind that it might take 4 weeks for an update.

The first thing that needed to happen was Dave had to redo the graphics engine to be able to handle more art. The iphone has a limit to how much graphics can be loaded into memory at once, so he had to create a smart-loading solution. This is WAY complicated when you have a crazy app like pocket god with all these intertwining functions. But he did it in record time. Then when that was out of the way, we actually had to change our plan a little. We decided to make a mega-update rather than try to fit two updates in before christmas. So, we created a new ice island, created a new giant monster, a new structure for the pygmies to hang out, a new map function AND of course we created a purchasable Christmas-based custom pack which is a lot like the halloween pack, but wintery and holiday-ee. Let's just say, its the start of a cold, yet cheerful, winter for the pygmies. And regarding the monster game, it has a whole new game-play. We submitted it yesterday and should be in the approval queue.

Dave will go into more detail in his update, but we appreciate everyone's patience. I am a little frustrated that I don't have anything else major to announce, like I thought I would, by now. But we are getting close to lining up new projects....this time around we have to sign contracts, etc. before we can really say its a "Go".

I just went on to youtube and found this hilarious video by Vdominus and I think it speaks for itself. And, just to be clear, this video doesn't necessarily express the opinion of Bolt Creative...NECESSARILY :) thanks Vdominus!



Also, the illustration above was provided by
Dylan Johnson <-- Click here to check out more!.

Overdue! Twitter Yer Picture Contest Entries

Okay, let's move on to something less touchy and more interesting! In our scramble to stay on top of the increasingly complex world of PG, I never got a chance to upload all the contest entries to Flickr. For some reason my computer doesn't like the uploading mechanism, but tonight I took a crack at it and it seems it got all the way through the list!

I was also hesitant because I just know it is going to create controversy and criticism, but then again, why should this be any different than anything else?

I tried to eliminate duplicates, or overly dark photos, but probably missed some offending ones. The list may evolve as we deem some to be redundant or hard to make out. It is also possible that Flickr didn't upload some. It's a little touchy.

To remind everyone, the objective was to send a creative photo of the person with Pocket God on their iPod (or iPhone). The winners were FernyTheBomb, Dylan Johnson and MalcomJudd (see their entries here) Some were good, some were great, some were downright WEIRD, and many others had us scratching our heads. Dave and I whittled down our favorites and focused on the favorites we had in common. There were some I felt really bad eliminating because I liked them so much, but we couldn't give EVERYONE the prize!

There....hopefully that helps everyone see we didn't take the contest lightly! So, thanks to everyone for sending....some people put a huge amount of effort into their photos. Check 'em out. They're awesome!



Or CLICK HERE to view them on the site.

P.S. About the last post....Yes we know Pee-Devil was a juvenile joke (and was a vague reference to P-Diddy, but sillier). We were only kidding.

P.P.S. Later this weekend, I'll drop some info about our next update!

Krapps Calls Out P-Devil!

Okay, so we're finally breaking the silence. We kept our mouths shut for a while, because we didn't want to create MORE buzz about the subject. But it seems that its too late for that. In the background, many ipod/iphone fans and pocket god fans alike, took notice of Pocket Devil Pee-Devil. For better or worse, it rocketed to the top of the rankings. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but we didn't really think it needed to be rewarded. It took us about 10 or so updates with an untested idea for PG to achieve the ranking they got on their first release. Why? Well, with all the really awesome games released lately, we don't think it was because it stood out for the right reasons. And Krapps doesn't think so either! Check out their article here:

>> Read Krapps article here <<

To add to their sentiments, we are most worried that people will take notice. Take an idea, change it a little but keep it close enough to create controversy, and watch the money roll in from the confused iTunes users. I don't think anybody likes THAT idea. Thanks Krapps!

P.S. The great cartoon above was provided by TheMagicalMidget.

P.P.S. Dave wrote me after reading this post and suggests that everyone start calling it Pee-Devil. This way, any mention won't exactly be positive publicity! haha

Slow News Week...what's going on?

Hey guys, sorry about the blackout. The last few weeks has been filled with distractions, but I thought I'd post an update as to what is going on.

Dave and I have been working on the newest update, but there are some things in the background that is taking up a lot of our time. However, Dave has made a bunch of progress updating the game engine to handle more graphics....We've maxed out the graphic memory of the iphone/ipod. To keep it simple. As it is, all the functionality is loaded in at once. If it exceeds 25-30 MB, you are risking crashing. In fact, I think maybe some devices are already experiencing this. When you play other games, do you notice that between levels, you see a loading screen? That is why. You can't load everything into memory at once. So we have to make some major adjustments to the game in addition to the update. Then we find out that there may only be time for ONE MORE update before Christmas, due to the avalanche of new apps and updates coming in at the end of the year.

So what is our solution? Well, we've decided to rearrange our plan a little and move a heftier update to the front so we have a new fun addition to PG for Christmas. We're sticking with the title "Pyg Chill" but it was ORIGINALLY going to be a somewhat light update, with a new area and a few god powers. Instead, we are also adding a new challenge which we think will be badass.

Among the other things happening in the background, we have been inundated with inquiries and opinions about a certain app in the app store. We really are loathe to blog too much about it, because its the controversy that's really caused the buzz. Instead, I think I will post this great video by Trevor of AppAdvice, going over EVERY feature of Pocket God! Thanks App Advice!


Oh, and the pic above his by Henry Wallis. Not sure if I've ever posted it before, but I thought we needed a funny graphic!

Dave and Allan join Touch Arcade's Podcast!

Hey! We joined Arn, Blake and Eli at Touch Arcade for their new Podcast (#3). We loved being included, it was a lot of fun, although its a little frustrating for ME to realize how in articulate I am and how, at one point, I laugh WAYYYYY too loud.There's nothing like hearing your voice recorded. Dave, by comparison, has a better radio voice. But it was fun. They gave us 10 bucks each to buy 6 games to review, Skull Pogo, Flickitty, Earth Dragon, Taxi Fight, Ignite and Doom (although, for some reason I missed this app). Plus we talk a bit about Pocket God. But thanks to the guys at Touch Arcade. Its a really great series, so check ours out and the first couple as well..

Download the Podcast HERE


Go check out the iTunes page here...Be sure to comment and give them a great rating!


Or comment on Touch Arcade.

Thanks guys!