Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Update Submitted! Finally!


Thanks everyone for weighing in, but Dave and I ultimately decided to push through Story Mode. Knowing GDC (Game Developer's Conference) was coming up, we gave ourselves a deadline of Monday night to get it together. We buckled down a couple weeks ago to get everything done, including the weekends. We were up all night on Monday putting the finishing touches on it. I believe Dave submitted at 5 AM and then had to go to a GDC round table on Tuesday at 11. I saw him later that day and he didn't look too good.

I can relate because of our schedule the last 4 weeks, I can't seem to shake this cold/cough I've had. Ugh. Anyway, its IN! Woohoo!

So the next update titled "What's the Story, Morning Gory?" (okay, the cute titles are getting hard to come up with!) will include quite a bit of new stuff to play with. The story mode is simple right now but quite fun. I admit I pushed the story mode. I was getting concerned that some people were opening Pocket God and totally lost. I felt we needed a story mode to set up the game and hint at functionality and thought it might be a fun extension to allow users to make their own stories. Dave was concerned that it be as entertaining and funny as functional. We tossed the idea around last summer but decided to put it off. As I read more and more comments on the internet from people who opened Pocket God, didn't understand and then gave up, we brought the idea back and boy, it was a LOT more trouble than we thought, but I hope people like it and it becomes a way for less patient people to "get" pocket god. And it will be fun for the fans of Pocket God to see the Pygmies talking, and even make up your OWN stories. YouTube anyone? We have ideas of future enhancements for story mode and I'm sure people will let us know what they would like once they play with it.

Dave came up with the idea for the Pain Drain I think is one of our most addicting minigames thus far! We also have been meaning to give the underwater area its own music loop, so we commissioned the same guy who did the Ice Island loop, Chris Tin, to make a new underwater loop.

Oh...almost forgot. After grumblings from people on twitter, we decided to make the Story Mode editor FREE (and not DLC)...and instead we created an "Alien World" custom pack (much like the Halloween and Holiday packs). This way, we hope people will be encouraged to make stories and spread the word!

Dave will describe them in more detail in his Touch Arcade Post.

So people have been noticing that the updates are coming much further apart. We have a dilemma. We have several projects in the background that need attention, and that includes the TOP SECRET project. Don't ask, its a secret! But we still have updates planned for Pocket God, they will be a bit more sporadic, but bigger. Remember when an update just included the ability to hit a pygmy with lightning? We don't really feel comfortable adding something so simple any more, so these updates take more time. We're at a point where we have to either hire people (which takes a lot of time in itself) or partner with another company to handle these projects. And that's part of what we're working on too. And yes, THAT takes time. So thanks for everyone's patience. The 31st iteration of PG is coming! How many 99 cent apps have done that? :)


(Oh, and we did a new printing of the PG figure. That's Dave's dining table above!....we are also working on getting a new Pygmy toy, stay tuned on that)

5 comments:

  1. Hey guys, glad to see your awake! LOL.

    I'm glad to see you guys are still hard at work doing all these complex updates. I know I'm appreciative of the fact that you guys stay up longer to try to get them done. Remember when people would nag that they weren't getting the weekly updates? Lmfao.

    In all seriousness, someone a while back mentioned that you guys should come out with a pocket god game. I say go for it. It would be an excellent game for the nintendo wii, and playstation 3. For the wii it would be good because of the functionality with the remote, and the ps3 because of the dualshock tech in the controller. Imagine the possibilities with the hurricane and ooga jump! Lol.

    If you guys come out with those Pygmy toys, I would like to purchase one. With your autographs maybe as well? Up in the air. But keep up the good work, and I hope t contnueto see more good work from you guys in the future! ^_^
    P.S. I bought the Jackie button quite a while back. Whatever happened with that project? You guys were going to add more it. Probably because of pocket god. Lol. Thanks for reading guys!

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  2. Sounds awesome! Can't wait!

    I sympathize with you about all of the people who "don't get it..." usually those people don't bother to read the whole description and get annoyed when it isn't hwta they think it is.

    How do I get one of those figures? It'd make a great addition to my desk!

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  3. But I miss the kinda simple pocket god! lightning seemed really cool when it came out, and then now.... minigame after minigame, ugh. wheres the god powers?!?!?!?! In my opinion, i would rather have a small update with a new godly power to unleash on the island of Ogg. But i do have to admit that the minigames are cool, why not alternate! make one update god powers and the next spend a little more time on it and make a minigame. But beside my never-ending rant, Pocket God is my FAVORITE app on my iPod! You guys will never cease to amaze me!

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  4. I agree. Alot of people I know REALLY wish you would add gods powers. I really can't wait for the update and I am really glad the story part will be free(though I would have payed for it anyway.)

    P.s. I have been waiting for an underwater track for a while now:)
    -Zapzip2013

    P.s.s. Alot of people I know and I are okay with the update times as long as the updates are free.

    Oh pocket god, I am starting to ramble.

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  5. Oh, sorry for the double post but I have an idea. It involves expanding the god types. It's pretty simple and I'm sure someone has mentioned it before but it would be really cool. Okay, well here it is. Each different god type has a different "epic power" that you double tap anywhere to use it. An example would be if you were a fire god, the pygmies would all catch on fire. Octopus could make tentacles reach up and grab all the pygmies. A water god would make a great typhoon that killed them all whilst being a lightning god would make lightning come out of the sky to strike every pygmie on the island. I know this would be an awesome update so could you toss it around abit and Maybe make an update of it.

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