1.09: Hi! Dracula

1.09 has been submitted, a little late due to a crash...

"Hey Everyone, a little late today with the preview thread but today has been a really busy day. We needed to resubmit our Hi Dracula! update today, I'll talk about that toward the end of the post but for anyone who isn't sure about what the new update is about. Hi Dracula! is a homage to iDracula, the game that was sitting at the top spot while we were at #2. We really love the game and thought it would be fun to do something relavant and quick with this update.

Hi Dracula will have lots of cool stuff, if you tap the moon, a vampire bat will come out and bite a sleeping pygmy turning him into a vampire. the Vampire Pygmy will then throw all the other pygmies off the island until you boot him off or turn the scene to daylight. If the sun is in sunset position, he just gets worried and begs you not to put the sun up, if it goes to full daylight, he burns and then eventually turns to ash and explodes. We also added the eclipse this update, which will safe the vampire by shielding him from sunlight.

For the next update, here's a tease. We are going to do an old school pocket god update.

oh yea, about the resubmit. We found a bad crash bug in Sundays build, so I had to fix it today (thats why I was lurking). So Hi Dracula will probably be out a week from today. Maybe Monday night, Maybe Tuesday. We'll try and get back on track, but I think its safest for us to finish our updates and have them be ready to submit on Sunday night, but have Monday and Tuesday to test for crash bugs. I think Tuesday night will be our new submit date."

http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=6767

All your questions shall be answered

If you have a question, check the FAQ before asking it. The FAQ is below:


Q: How can I get all of the episodes?

A: An episode is actually an update to the previous game. For example, if you have episode 8, you will get everything from episode 7 and below. The episode title displayed at the start up is the name of the newly added feature.


Q: Do I need to buy new updates/episodes?

A: No, you do not. Once you purchase the game, all updates come free of charge.


Q: Where can I find a review for Pocket God?

A: When you click on the logo in iTunes, a customer rating will appear. Also, pocktgod.blogspot.com and twitter.com/pocketgod mentions each review that is known to us.


Q: Why doesn’t my icon in iTunes match the one on my iPod/iPhone?

A: The icon in iTunes is updated every week, with the one that was used in iTunes the prior week being shifted to the iPod. Theoretically, the iPod icon will be one behind the updates. We want to do a stellar job on the icon and don't want to rush in the process, or end up delaying the updates.


Q: Can I make a review for Pocket God?

A: Why, yes you can! When you do, send us a link and we will put it on the blog, along with the Twitter account.


Q: Pocket God slows down/crashes on my iPod, is there a problem?

A: Don’t panic! Pocket God uses a lot of animation, using a lot of memory in the process. Homebrews, like clippy, backgrounder, and springboard customization apps will cause the app to run out of memory. This also occurs for jailbroken phones as well. Some have reported success in safe mode, but people should stop these app from startup.


Q: I need Pocket god info! Where do I find it?

A: You can find all the Pocket God info you need at the following:

Pocketgod.blogspot.com

Twitter.com/pocketgod

Facebook.com/group.php?gid=61725594788

Youtube.com/boltcreative

And the Youtube videos keep coming!

More video love on youtube. This one features some of the new stuff. The weird thing is that, again, hair band Europe's song "the final countdown" is used. I'm not sure what the connection is, but thanks, Gazzy46!

Leo Laporte's App Pick of the Week; Other Podcasts

Leo Laporte, formerly of TechTV, recommended Pocket God as his App Pick of the Week in the podcast, MacBreak Weekly. Touch of Gaming Episode 22 reviewed Pocket God, saying "there is no reason for you not to buy it at 99 cents". Stay tuned for more podcasts and reviews as they come in.

Touch of Gaming: http://touchofgaming.com/
MacBreak Weekly: http://twit.tv/mbw130

New update!

Idle Hands is now available in the app store and we've just submitted "Hi, Dracula!" which should come out end of week or early next.

In case you haven't noticed with Idle Hands, there is a new menu that allows you to turn certain functions on and off. There were many complaints that the island was getting too crowded, or the gravity was annoying in certain situations, plus various other similar issues, so we wanted to install a menu system that turns things on and off and gives you way to access certain functions. This menu will eventually have categories and drill-down menus, but as yet there isn't enough to warrant that. Also you MIGHT notice, if you leave them alone, the islanders are now doing other things besides staring straight ahead. They might wave at you, they might look around in curiosity, or even get a little gassy. Dave also spent a while on the gravity situation. There were a LOT of complaints that the boulder (now a meteor) and coconut weren't affected, so he did a really cool job of fixing that. Try turning the island upside-down with the meteor, watch it drop off..turn it back right side up and it comes back!

And today marks week 2 in the number one spot! We can't believe we're still up there as our expectations have been more than exceeded! Thanks everybody for the fantastic word of mouth. I'm still playing catch up this week but will make an effort to read through all the most recent comments. We've definitely created a monster with the blog/facebook/youtube/flickr accounts and its a lot for us to keep up on. We really appreciate your participation! -A

Apple Approved Update But iTunes Not Updated

Hey guys, don't ask me why but there's a weird delay. Usually how it works is we receive notice that the update is approved and then we update our info and within the next couple hours the actual binary is in place for everyone.

I see we have a ton of emails and comments to field and will get to it later today. We did another late nighter getting an update together which has been submitted. Both Dave and I have other projects taking our time today but I will get to the comments tonight or tomorrow morning.

Also there are submissions for the fan art Flickr! Thank you! I will update that too later as well.

Fan Art!

Pocket God enthusiasts get artistic! These are really amazing! If you have an artistic impulse for Pocket God, definitely help us add to the gallery! Special thanks to Tom Fratelli, Tom Fagan, Masgroomes97, Palfince and JC Tapper!



Note: if I somehow miscredited, please let me know in the comments. Thanks!

P.S. There was a request for the high res icons 512x512. You can find them HERE.

P-P-P-Pocket God!

A fan wrote us a little song.

Click here

Defending the Coconuts!

Okay, so this is the video made me laugh very hard. Blurry, yes, but not only is Ryan K. completely maxing out on the craziness of pocket god, but he set it to an 80's hair band song, Europe's "the final count down"....this appeals to every level of awesome IMHO. Do us a HUGE favor. go to his youtube and give him props. Thanks Ryan K.!

ATTENTION! Another Delay

We submitted on Monday (as opposed to the usual Sunday), which in the past meant it came out on Friday, but it looks like it didn't get pushed through yet. I mean, I can see why Apple would make us a low priority. After all, we're only the number 1 app in the U.S. Store! For now anyway. Sorry everyone. I was really anxious for it to come out because we want to see how people feel about the menu system before we expand on it. By the way, there has been concern that the menu stays open. It does not. the triangle in the upper corner opens it and closes it.

Another feature that I keep forgetting to mention is that we're starting to include persistent preferences. All your settings (if you left it with the shark turned off and the storm clouds up) are remembered after you close Pocket God and open it the next time. We are setting it up for new features, like customization, so its just the beginning.

We're going to try to make sure this next update goes in on Sunday so we don't have two delays in a row. Look for "Idle Hands" on Monday and give us your thoughts! Don't forget everyone....every update is free, so if you buy it today you get all the subsequent updates. Here's a sneak preview of the new icon. If you see this in the iTunes App Store, the update has gone through. (Not on your iphone or ipod, that will change to the Shark icon).

Cool Review

Thanks for the awesome review, Dereck!

Bon Jovi and Pocket God

Pocket God in a blaze of glory!

1.08- Idle Hands

"Testing went a little longer this time so it went out Monday night instead of Sunday. This means that it will probably come out on Friday instead of Thursday.

So, this update was mainly a house cleaning update, we added a new menu that we will build on over time that allows you to disable any features that are getting in your way (sound, earthquake, boulder, etc). Over time, we will build each of the items into categoires so we can swap the boulder with some other island hazard, or swap the shark with something else like a sea monster. there has been some debate about the location of the button that opens the menu, so it would be great if you post your opinions when it comes out (like there is a chance that you won't ).

The other main update was to add gravity to all the other objects on the island, so the boulder, shark, and coconut all get affected by the tilt controls. and we fixed a bunch of the bugs that have been posted as well. btw, it really helps us when you find and post bugs for us, we keep a list of items and fix them whenever possible."



Check out what people are saying and what else Dave had to say at:
http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?p=115957#post115957

Iphone savior pleased by Pocket God

Check out the good review received from them:

www.iphonesavior.com

And the Pocket God T goes to...

Our "Get Your Face on the Book" contest is over!!

1st place- Christian Dos Reis Brandao- 30 referrals
2nd place- Aaren Smith- 23 referrals
3rd place- Clayne Scheidigger- 16 referrals
4th- Nicola van Koppenhagen- 5 referrals
5th- Calum Stewart- 4 referrals

Winners will be notified shortly!!

The Appera Congratulates Pocket God!

Very fun announcement at theAppera.com here:

CLICK HERE!

Add Another Review to the list...

http://www.touchmyapps.com/2009/03/02/pocket-god-in-review-a-very-good-source-of-laughter-especially-during-these-times/

A great review everyone should check out!

Holy cow! Pocket God #1 app on iTunes!

Who knew a bunch of hapless island creatures could kick so much butt? After stalling at number two for about week, somehow we hit number one in the U.S.. Again, who knows for how long, but we'll take it! To all the kids (and adult kids) who've been giving us feedback, suggestions, criticism, praise, thanks for helping our iPhone app! We're a little overhwelmed by the sheer volume of suggestions/wants/fixes but we're definitely listening! This next release, we're starting to gear Pocket God up to handle more features by adding a new user interface menu which will allow you to toggle on and off your god powers, plus we fixed some gravity issues. These seemed to be very important to a lot of people. Just for fun (and to give the artist something to do), we've also added new personality elements to the islanders. The screenshot above is a sneak preview and the release won't be out till late in the week. Going forward...Besides new god powers, in the works is a stat/point system so don't worry, Zach! Thanks again!