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Daily iPad App: Doodle Jump for iPad
Doodle Jump, created by Lima Sky, is one of the first indie success stories to emerge from the App Store. It's a simple tilt-based vertical jumper that has you navigating your Doodler up a series of platforms without falling. Doodle Jump has enjoyed great success as a time-waster and, after a long wait, the classic iPhone game has been ported to the iPad. So how does this tablet version compare to the original? The gameplay on the iPad is refreshingly similar to the iPhone. The tilt-play, familiar characters and scenes are all there. Gamecenter support is present, too. The biggest difference is in the iPad itself. The larger tablet device provides a wider playing field, but is unwieldy to hold and tilt for any period of time, especially since you have to play in portrait mode. There is no landscape. Eventually, you do get accustomed to the size, but I have to admit that I prefer the smaller size of the iPhone. Besides the size, there are two other differences between the iPhone and iPad game. First, the iPad includes an exclusive submarine level that's not present on the iPhone version. Second is the use of cheats. The common ones used on the iPhone do not work on the iPad, so there's no Easter bunny level. For fans of the game, Doodle Jump for the iPad is an excellent companion to the iPhone version. It's exactly what you expect - a version of Doodle Jump for the iPad. That's not bad as most of what you know and love is now available on the iPad without having to double the pixels of the iPhone version. Doodle Jump for the iPad is available for US$2.99.
Doodle Jump for iPad available now (Updated)
Doodle Jump, the wildly successful iPhone platforming game, is at last coming out with an iPad version. Doodle Jump for iPad should be launching on the App Store later today according to developer Lima Sky. The game features the same addictive jumping and shooting gameplay as the iPhone original, but optimized for the iPad's much larger screen. The playing field is a great deal wider than that on the iPhone, both horizontally and vertically, which in my testing has meant I've been able to achieve much higher scores than anything I've gotten on the iPhone version. It's a bit more awkward to tilt an iPad around than an iPhone, but it's still a lot of fun to play. I can tell what I'm going to be doing for the rest of today... Lima Sky hasn't given us any word on pricing for the iPad version yet, but we'll update this post with that information after the app goes live on the App Store later today. Update: Doodle Jump for iPad is available now for US$2.99.
Doodle Jump celebrates two years, 10m downloads, heading to Kinect
Doodle Jump was one of the first really big hits on the App Store, and two years after release, it's still rolling right along. Lima Sky has announced that the app just hit 10 million paid app downloads, and it's about to get featured in a Universal film as well. Angry Birds has gotten a lot of headlines lately, but Doodle Jump seems to share almost as much awareness among the massive iOS audience. Plus, Lima Sky is pushing the franchise forward -- an iPad app is still being created and set to be released soon, and the game is coming to Microsoft's Kinect system for the Xbox 360. There's no information on how that will work just yet, but presumably players will be able to use their body to control the little guy, perhaps by leaning left or right on camera to make their way up the various platforms. The iPhone app will get a multiplayer update as well. Doodle Jump is already quite popular, and in the short time frame that iOS has been around, it's already one of the classic apps. It'll be interesting to see how the property grows as developers push forward this year.
Lima Sky responds to trademark battle around the word 'Doodle'
This one's complicated but interesting. A few days back, it was revealed by the developer of an app called Doodle Monster that Doodle Jump creators Lima Sky (we've talked to founder Igor Pusenjak before) was trying to enforce trademark rights against any app on the store using the word "Doodle" in its name. That creator originally planned to step down and change the name, but the creator of another app called Doodle Hockey instead spoke out to say that Lima Sky had no business claiming the word "Doodle" itself, that there were pre-existing properties and trademarks on the word, and that "everyone with an app containing the word 'doodle' in the title needs to stand up to Lima Sky's threats." Now, Pusenjak himself has spoken out on the issue, and he says that he's retracting the original notice from the App Store. But he does hold his position on the word "Doodle," saying that "there was absolutely no rush to call a game 'Doodle Something' until Doodle Jump became famous. Then many developers began jumping on the bandwagon whether their game had any doodled elements in it or not. They were simply trading on the fame of Doodle Jump, for which Lima Sky has a trademark." Pusenjak admits that there is a trademark in the system before Lima Sky's, but says that the company's complaint on the App Store was designed to protect Doodle Jump against anyone else's attack. At any rate, legal action aside (and it doesn't appear as if there will be any), Pusenjak has agreed to step back from the restrictions, which even he agrees went too far, and says that he's simply trying to avoid customer confusion -- any developers creating games that might be confused with pre-existing IPs should simply have to change them, not remove games entirely. That seems to make sense, so hopefully that agreement will stand without further clashes.
Interview with Doodle Jump's Igor Pusenjak, part 2
In part one of our interview with Lima Sky's Igor Pusenjak, we talked about how his Doodle Jump game became so successful, and how other game designers might be able to replicate its success. In this part, however, we get a little more concrete -- Pusenjak discusses current and future updates to the game (there will be an underwater content pack out this summer), as well as the long-awaited iPad version and how it will be different from the iPhone game. Bad news: it won't be universal, so if you want to play it on the iPad, you'll have to buy it again. But Pusenjak explains why, and according to him, it'll be a very different experience anyway. Read on for part 2 of our interview.
GDC 2010: From rags to riches on the App Store
While we weren't able to stay the whole time (the life of a TUAW blogger at a covention is varied and hectic), the iPhone Game Developers' Luncheon at GDC 2010 was a pretty enlightening experience. After a little varied networking among guests, hosts PlayHaven, Cooley Godward Kronish (a law firm that specializes in startup companies), and MplayIt started up the panel discussion. The iPhone developers in attendance were Igor Pusenjak of Lima Sky (the creators of the very popular Doodle Jump) and Bryan Mitchell, a solo developer who created a game called Geared that's risen to the top of the App Store charts. The most interesting thing we learned at the luncheon (in among a lot of legal talk about forming corporations and copyright law) was where these two developers came from. Mitchell was a filmmaker who had to work construction "after film work dried up in Las Vegas," and decided to jump in on the app business to make extra money. His game only made a few bucks a day at first, but after spending a little on advertising, Apple featured his game in "What's Hot." After that, he was off to the races.
