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NimbleBit's next work in progress: Pocket Planes
NimbleBit is showing off its next prototype at GDC this week. Rather than cram tiny, adorable denizens into massive skyscrapers, the developer's stuffing people into planes. Players start a small airline in Pocket Planes, eventually building up their transportation empire to escort people and cargo all over the world.Touch Arcade got first crack at the work in progress, which sounds similar to Tiny Tower. Players can purchase "plane bux" through in-app purchases or earn them as they go along, and customize their airplanes and statistics such as flight speed, travel distance and capacity. Given that it's a prototype, the makeup of the game may change over the next few months.
Zynga's Dream Heights ready to build tiny towers on App Store
There's been plenty of controversy regarding the visual similarities between NimbleBit's popular Tiny Tower and Zynga's Dream Heights, but now the public can check out the full monty. Zynga announced that Dream Heights, which "surely isn't the first of many great games already in this category" according to the publisher, is now widely available. Zynga describes Dream Heights as the "most social" game of its kind, allowing players to invite their Facebook friends to the mobile title.As of this writing there are two polar reviews:1 star: "Simply awful and shameful attempt to capitalize on the success of Tiny Tower."5 stars: "Dream Heights is beautiful, fun and polished. Another must-play from Zynga."Check out Dream Heights and let us know what you think.%Gallery-145623%
Tiny Tower builds up 10 million downloads
Nimblebit's Tiny Tower keeps building up, up, up! Developer Ian Marsh tweeted last night that the addictive tower management title had reached 10 million iOS downloads. The company previously mentioned it has a million daily active users. It can't hurt that the game doesn't cost anything, but that's still quite a few folks building up tiny office structures!Tiny Tower, named Apple's 2011 iPhone Game of the Year, recently brought the fight to Zynga for its liberally inspired game Dream Heights. Whatever the legality is of such games, Apple is starting to take notice.%Gallery-145623%
Kill Screen on the legality of cloning game design
With the recent spate of cloned game stories -- namely those alleged to be the work of Zynga -- Kill Screen has put together an interesting article about the legality of the practice and its effects on the industry. In short, cloning an entire game and stealing its assets is illegal. However, cloning a game's ideas is not -- see Scrabble vs. Words with Friends -- and, while it can be morally repugnant, it can also be healthy for the industry.Game designers "borrow" from one another all the time, taking mechanics from successful games and implementing them elsewhere -- think stealth, cover-based shooting, power meters, triple jumps. That said, outright cloning is still a problem, one Kill Screen asserts we can address with education and a few notes from the fashion industry. In other words, teach consumers how to tell the difference between a knock-off and the real thing.
Zynga responds to copycat claims, NimbleBit rebuts
"You should be careful not to throw stones when you live in glass towers," Zynga head Mark Pincus said in a recent VentureBeat interview, firing back at recent criticisms of his company's games for being copycat versions of already released games. His cheeky comment is specifically targeted at indie dev NimbleBit, creator of Tiny Tower, who recently wrote an open letter to Zynga addressing similarities between its game and Zynga's upcoming Facebook title Dream Heights."When you pull the lens back, you saw that their tower game looked similar to five other tower games going all the way back to SimTower in the early 1990s," he added. But Pincus' argument goes beyond cheeky jabs -- he also makes the point that Zynga isn't a copycat developer as much as it is an iteration developer. Pincus also defends against Buffalo Studios' recent accusations, citing his company's own game (Poker Blitz) as inspiration -- at least visually -- for Bingo Blitz, as seen above.As Pincus says in an internal memo, "Google didn't create the first search engine. Apple didn't create the first mp3 player or tablet. And, Facebook didn't create the first social network. But these companies have evolved products and categories in revolutionary ways. They are all internet treasures because they all have specific and broad missions to change the world."NimbleBit, unsurprisingly, doesn't agree. Company co-founder Ian Marsh told Touch Arcade that while "It was a smart idea for Mark Pincus and Zynga to try and lump all games with the name 'Tower' together as an actual genre whose games borrow from each other," he added, "sharing a name or setting does not a genre make." And now that we've devolved into genre definitions, we can officially declare this story over. Like, forever.
Another indie dev points to Zynga similarity with cheeky chart
It seems nonsensical to propose that a bingo-based game could be copied, but in the case of Buffalo Studios' Bingo Blitz and Zynga's Zynga Bingo, the evidence is rather clear. "We wanted to alert you to the striking similarities between Zynga's recently announced game, to our game Bingo Blitz," Buffalo Studios VP of product marketing and operations Salim Mith told Venture Beat. Mith also offered a cheeky visual letter addressed to the Facebook game publishing giant, comparing images of Bingo Blitz to those of Zynga Bingo to highlight the similarities (seen in full after the break).The letter comes just five days after Tiny Tower dev NimbleBit created a similar visualization to address what it perceived as a copy of its building management sim in Zynga's Dream Heights. Zynga has yet to respond to copycat allegations from either NimbleBit or Buffalo Studios, but it's also possible that the publisher simply can't hear the complaints over the din of its coffers being filled.
Tiny Tower dev wishes Zynga luck on clone
NimbleBit, the three-person indie team responsible for the iOS hit Tiny Tower, is voicing its displeasure with Zynga's Dream Heights via passive aggressive infographic. Posted by NimbleBit's Ian Marsh, the graphic wishes Zynga luck with its new iPhone game that shares more than a passing resemblance to Tiny Tower."We wanted to thank all you guys for being such big fans of our iPhone game of the year Tiny Tower," NimbleBit wrote to Zynga's 2,789 employees. "Good luck with your game, we are looking forward to inspiring you with our future games!"Marsh does note that Zynga did try to acquire NimbleBit first, but seems to have decided on a different route. The iOS scene, with its shorter development cycles and lower barrier to entry, has seen numerous examples of games the blur the line between "inspiration" and blatant theft.%Gallery-145623%
NimbleBit calls out Zynga clone of Tiny Tower
Zynga, which has made its fortune on Farmville, has released an app in Canada (not on the American App Store yet) called Dream Heights, which bears much more than a passing resemblance to Tiny Tower, a terrific and very successful freemium game from NimbleBit (the brothers-run company that we've posted about a few times before). By the looks of things, it seems that Zynga saw NimbleBit's success and decided to borrow most of the game's mechanics. NimbleBit is pretty genial about the whole thing, but co-founders David and Ian Marsh haven't been completely kind on their Twitter accounts. Both have called out Zynga and posted a big infographic that compares the two games and their extreme similarities. They've also needled Zynga, with 2700 more employees than NimbleBit's three person staff, for not making anything better than a pretty blatant clone of Tiny Tower. Other developers have jumped to NimbleBit's defense on Twitter. It's possible that Zynga may decide not to release Dream Heights due to the pressure from developers; more likely Zynga will release it, and the game will perform decently, but not nearly as well as Tiny Tower has done. I have asked NimbleBit about getting acquired before. The brothers seem like prime candidates for a larger company to come along and buy them out, and indeed Ian Marsh says during this whole affair that Zynga has offered to purchase NimbleBit and its games before. But as they told me, these guys aren't in it for the money. Certainly their games are very lucrative, but the Marsh brothers have said that they just like making great games on their own and will continue to do that for as long as they can. It's a shame that Zynga has so blatantly imitated the Marshes' hard work, but you know what they say about imitation and flattery.
Tiny Tower not so tiny, has one million daily users on iOS
The allure of building the perfect skyscraper is stronger than we initially thought. Tiny Tower developer Ian Marsh revealed via his Twitter account that the mobile darling currently has a million users stacking shops each day. And that figure doesn't even take Android into consideration!Those million people are responsible for over ten million sessions of Tiny Tower each day, which sounds about right to us. We probably restock our pubs with chicken wings that many times a day alone.
NimbleBit comments on popularity of Tiny Tower, working on new IP
Inside Mobile Apps has an interview with the winners of Apple's choice for best iPhone game of the year, David and Ian Marsh of NimbleBit. I was a huge fan of their freemium title Pocket Frogs, but it's their latest release, Tiny Tower, that has earned a lot of solid accolades (not to mention a bunch of in-app purchase money). I talked to the guys way back at GDC earlier this year before Tiny Tower came out, so it's good to get an update like this on where they're at now. Tiny Tower's been downloaded over 7 million times so far, and the brothers expect it to clear 8 million by the end of the year. And not only are people getting the game, but they're playing it, with nearly a million daily active users at peak, and around 600,000 right now. That's phenomenal for an app of this kind. Their income is also doing very well -- most companies were aiming for around 2% of the player base to be paying for in-app items, but NimbleBit says Tiny Tower is around 5% of the player base, with the average player putting about $10 in the pot. Overall, Tiny Tower has fewer "big spenders," but the bigger player population means there's more money coming in. Very interesting -- early on, the freemium market was mostly based on "whale" customers, or people who spent a lot of money to support a lot of cheaper players. But as quality goes up, we'll probably see more apps like Tiny Tower: high quality "hits" that have a large player base with a relatively high pay rate, but not as many "whales." Fascinating stuff. The Marshes also say they're working on a brand new title which will be a whole new IP, so we'll have to stay tuned and see what they're up to next.
NimbleBit donates 35 iPads and more to charity
It's not like we needed more reasons to love brothers David and Ian Marsh of NimbleBit. First off, they make terrific free (and lucrative) games like Pocket Frogs and Tiny Tower. Second, they're super nice and very supportive in the developer community. Third, they're humble and smart, keeping their company small and focusing on just developing good games rather than growing into a megacorporation. And now there's another reason to love NimbleBit: They're darn generous. Sign on San Diego reports that the pair have gifted over $30,000 of equipment, including 35 iPad 2s, to an elementary school in their hometown. The principal of the school is the Marshes' old technology teacher, and he inspired them so much that they wanted to give a little something back, by putting this tech in the hands of elementary school students early. What a great story. The school will use the iPads to manage their own small businesses that the kids are learning to run, and even to shoot video for the school's TV station. And Ian Marsh says just having the iPads around might be inspiration enough: "When I was in school, I would have died if someone handed me an iPad. ... I definitely think that technology can be useful in education." Agreed. Kudos to the Marshes for their fine work, and applause to them for their generosity. [via TouchArcade]
Portabliss: Tiny Tower (iOS)
Did you know that you can download handheld games now? That's amazingly convenient! The only inconvenient part of it is finding the right games to buy -- and that's where we come in. Three times a week, our new Portabliss column will tell you about a downloadable game on the iPhone, iPad, Android device, DSi, 3DS, PSP, etc. Today: Tiny Tower! Tiny Tower is fundamentally vertical Farmville with retro styling, and I'm not embarrassed to say that I love it. Well, no, I am embarassed, but I was tasked with kicking off our new mobile feature, Portabliss, and this is what I'm playing. So here we are.As the proprietor of an ever-growing tower, you'll choose which businesses to add to your skyscraper (depending on the desires of the "bitizens" that inhabit it). Then it's your job to watch over the businesses, keeping the shelves stocked and the stores staffed. As products are sold over time, you'll earn coins that can be applied to a new floor of your building and the terrifying cycle continues.
TUAW's Daily App: Tiny Tower
I actually played Tiny Tower for the first time back at GDC this year -- the guys at NimbleBit kindly showed me an early version of it while they were in the middle of designing the game. The title itself is now out and finished on the App Store, and after having played it for about a week already (thanks to a press preview), I can say it's an amazing title that's made even better by the fact that it's completely free to install and play. It's very much like the old SimTower game in that you create and run a tower filled with little characters called Bitizens. You can build residential floors to move Bitizens into, and then you can put them to work on other floors that fill out certain categories, like retail floors and services and recreation areas. You can assign three Bitizens to work on a certain floor, and then you pay money to stock goods in those stores and sell them to various visitors. In addition to the time-based management side of the game, there are a few games to play, like getting Bitizens to the right floor in a working elevator or playing find-the-Bitizen. These games are more integrated into the overall game than, say, the pond was in NimbleBit's Pocket Frogs, but I'm still a little disappointed that they don't have too much of an effect. You can make a few bucks at a time, and there are VIPs that show up every once in a while, but the floors you deliver people to don't seem to really have a direct effect. Nevertheless, it's fun building up your tower, and while the push notifications (if you keep them on) threaten to get annoying after a while, the amount of detail and care put into the art and strategy is excellent. There are even little extras, like a "BitBook" social network page and a fun screen to compare your friends' towers via Game Center. Tiny Tower is yet another great title from NimbleBit. It's a freemium download (and like Pocket Frogs, you can buy "convenience currency" with an in-app purchase, but I haven't needed it yet) that's available right now.
GDC 2011: NimbleBit on Pocket Frogs and Tiny Tower
I've been a fan of twin brothers Ian and David Marsh and their iOS games company NimbleBit for quite a while now, so I was glad to finally meet them in person at GDC last week. The brothers Marsh sat down to chat with me about how the company came about, what they thought of the response to Pocket Frogs, and the game they're working on next. Before NimbleBit was formed, both brothers worked for a "traditional cell phone game development company," but when the iPhone arrived, they figured it was a chance to do something for themselves. Ian started on the company first, and David eventually joined him later on. The brothers have learned a lot over their various iOS releases, and one of the biggest lessons so far is that free is almost always the way to go. "A bigger audience is always better no matter what," I was told. Scoops was one of their first big releases, originally selling for $1 to $2, but when they switched it to free with an in-app purchase, it saw "ten times more downloads than it ever did paid."
TUAW's Daily App: Moon Drop
NimbleBit, the company behind Pocket Frogs (which is still one of my favorite games on the App Store), has decided to change all of its titles on the store to the low, low price of free, so if you've never picked up Dizzypad, Sky Burger or this cute little physics-based arcade game, in which you need to safely land as many colonists on the moon as possible, now is the time. The game's quite simple, but just like all of NimbleBit's titles, the polish and charm keep it interesting. No, it's not a vast title (and while there is Plus integration, there's not a lot to do other than try to beat your own score), but NimbleBit has decided to give away all of its titles for the foreseeable future simply because "free is more fun," so you might as well jump in and check them out. I'll be curious to see what's next from these guys -- they've certainly learned a lot from their previous success with Pocket Frogs, and they're clearly taking those lessons to heart.
Pocket Frogs hits 3 million downloads, 350k daily active users
NimbleBit developer Ian Marsh tweeted a link to a promotional infographic about popular app Pocket Frogs yesterday, and the title has apparently reached a whopping three million downloads in just ten weeks on the App Store. Daily active users have peaked at 350,000, which is a pretty sizable number for an app of this scale (you can also see on the graphic that it's been developed by a team of 2, and less than $500 has been spent on marketing the app). There's also some information in the graphic about the in-app purchases on the freemium app. According to NimbleBit, over 12 million potions and over 4 million in-game stamps have been sold to players. Prices on those actually vary depending on how many you buy at a time -- you can buy 10 for 99 cents, or 1000 for $29.99. But we've already heard that most of the purchases are of the 99 cent variety, so when you put the average closer to that, I calculate the app has made well over a million dollars. That's before Apple's cut, of course. How'd they do it? The graphic also points out that the average time inbetween game updates has been only around 11 days. Since release, NimbleBit has added some very significant features to the game, including a new mode to race frogs, new goals to hit while breeding them, and a social feature to share which frogs you're working on. Turns out the freemium model, combined with constant attention and improvement from a core team of devs, translates into player interest -- and profits.
Pocket Frogs hits 2m downloads, adds social features, raises money for real-life frogs
I continue to enjoy NimbleBit's Pocket Frogs title -- it's a free download on the App Store (supported by in-app purchases of convenience items) that has you collecting, breeding, and selling little frogs in thousands of combinations of colors, patterns, and types. I'm not the only one enjoying the game, either. NimbleBit tells TUAW that after a month of availability on the App Store, the game has 300,000 daily active users, and it has been downloaded over two million times. That's quite impressive. And NimbleBit is far from done with the game. Ian Marsh has been sharing "frogsaics" on his twitter account, and just yesterday he was apparently testing a social feature to share pictures of frogs over Twitter. David Marsh tells us that, yes, the company is working on an update to "show off your frogs on various social networks." There's one more big feature in the pipeline, too, but he couldn't tell us about that one just yet. The game has been raising money for charity as well. NimbleBit was contacted by a charity called Amphibian Rescue, and they've just recently added a little popup in the game offering a 1,000 in-game coin bonus for checking out information on how to donate to the cause. Over the week of the promotion, there were over 600 donations (totaling over $3,000), which are all going to equipment costs to keep frogs in Panama from extinction. That's awesome! Not only is NimbleBit producing a great game, but they're also using the audience that they've earned to make a change for real frogs in Panama.
NimbleBit: Over half a million playing Pocket Frogs, "3-4%" buying in-app purchases
I've been playing NimbleBit's freemium Pocket Frogs game since it was released last week, and apparently I'm not the only one -- Ian Marsh tells TUAW that the game has been downloaded by half a million people so far. The company is also seeing 200K daily active users, and while Marsh couldn't share exact stats on how many people have taken advantage of the game's in-app purchases, he estimates that 3-4% of the active users have bought stamps or potions in the game. Over on Twitter, he says that the 99 cent charges are the most common, making up half of the total purchases. But the $29.99 optional charges make up 8% of the purchases, and actually contribute to 49% of total revenue. In other words, just a few people are responsible for half of the game's total revenue -- the freemium model hard at work. Marsh says that NimbleBit is working on updating the game, too. They don't plan to increase the size of the in-game frog "catalog," since the whole point of the game is to have the player make decisions about which frogs to keep and breed, but they are working on something tentatively called the "Frogodex," which would passively track every frog ever collected by players in the game. They're also considering integrating Game Center in terms of leaderboards and achievements in the future -- they originally decided to go with Ngmoco's Plus+ system because it "provides a number of services crucial to social game developers which Game Center does not," including backing up game data and doing things like browsing your friends' frog habitats. And finally, Marsh says the company has been overwhelmed by all of the positive feedback, and the feature request list "is growing faster every day." The next big update they're planning, he tells TUAW, will be "a rare new pattern color mutation" that he thinks people will like. And he also tells us to look out for "exclusive surprises in-store for upcoming holidays." Sounds like NimbleBit has a nice freemium hit on their hands, and we'll look forward to updates in the future.
TUAW preview: NimbleBit's Pocket Frogs
Since I got my new iPhone 4 a few weeks back, I've been playing more games than ever on Apple's little handheld. I just recently got back into Ngmoco's We Rule. It's probably the pinnacle of the "freemium" genre on the iPhone so far. It's free to play, very social, and very much based on timed "check-ins," where you set crops to grow and then come back in a few hours to harvest them. It puts in little blips of gameplay that move you towards a larger progress goal. The only problem is that We Rule isn't all that fun; it's a bunch of clicking and grinding. So, lately I've been wondering when someone would add a fun freemium game to the App Store. It would have to be something that was social and progressive and all that that entails, but it would also need to have a game component that was actually fun to play. Enter NimbleBit! They're following up on their great froggy platformer DizzyPad with Pocket Frogs, a freemium title that actually adds some fun to the equation and shows a lot of potential as well. %Gallery-102063%
TUAW's Daily App: Dizzypad
I wrote about NimbleBit's Dizzypad when it first came out, and since then it's become one of my favorite pick-up-and-play iPhone games -- super polished, simple but addictive gameplay, and enough collectibles and score tracking to keep it interesting every time you hop in. And even better, it's going free today, so if you haven't taken the leap yet, jump on over and pick it up as today's Daily App. NimbleBit also sent word that they're almost done with an iPad version, which will also be free, with some new frog skins, and of course shinier graphics. There are even some new game modes, each available for US$1.99, including a same-screen multiplayer game mode which has two frogs hopping after each other in a winner-eat-loser battle. Very awesome. Dizzypad is a great game, and since it's free, you have no reason not to pick it up from the App Store right now.
