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Pocket God set to release 40th (!) content update
Bolt Creative has announced that it's planning to release its 40th content update for the popular Pocket God app, which will feature a mechanic where players can collect idols and battle them against gods, with more idols and gods in future updates to come. The update also includes a "Mafia skin pack" for in-app purchase, which will cosmetically change some of the game's graphics to be Mafia-related. But what's in the pack isn't quite as amazing as the fact that it's number 40. Nowadays, free-to-play games and in-app purchases are almost commonplace, but back when Pocket God started a few years ago, that definitely wasn't the case. Pocket God and a number of other titles have really paved the way on this model, where gamers can download a game for free or cheap, and then enjoy a steady stream of content updates from the developers, along with solid in-app purchases. Bolt Creative has grown Pocket God up into quite the successful franchise, and there's no question that all of these regular content updates have helped the app get where it is today. Very impressive -- here's to even 40 more!
ngmoco launches its first non-iOS game: Pocket God for Android and Windows Phone 7
Game publisher ngmoco has risen to the top in the enormously crowded iOS development space going all the way back to its breakout hit Rolando two years ago, while Pocket God -- from developer Bolt Creative -- has had its own share of success. Well, users of phones that aren't iPhones have reason to celebrate today on news that ngmoco has released its first non-iOS game this week, working with Bolt to port Pocket God over to Android and Windows Phone 7. The Android version is available right now for 99 cents while the WP7 port should be available "soon," so get in any last fits of productivity while you still can. Follow the break for the press release.
The Pocket God Update Song, by Jonathan Mann
Pocket God is still rolling along. It was one of the first big original iPhone games out there, and more than any other title on the App Store, Bolt Creative has been able to both keep the app popular with constant updates and content additions, and even license the app elsewhere in the form of comics (and presumably other media, if they can swing it). Here's another example of that -- Bolt posted this video of Steve Jobs' favorite new singer songwriter Jonathan Mann (he of the extremely awkward iPhone Antenna song played at the Apple event a while back) singing a new tune about the game and its fans' constant requests for updates and new content. The song was commissioned to show off the new Dance Pack content, which lets your little islanders boogie down for 99 cents. It's cute. We've heard this from the Doodle Jump folks as well -- one of the best things that App Store developers can do for their apps is provide a string of content updates, as those both keep current fans interested, and do well to drive new purchases of the app. Of course, it sounds like Bolt is a little stressed out over all the requests, but the app is doing so well that they have to be happy with it.
iPhone game devs give us their thoughts on the iPad
With yesterday's announcement from Apple of its much hyped "latest creation" -- the iPad -- and the news that already existing iPhone applications (that means games too, folks) will be playable on the device, we started wondering how the developers of the world felt about this shiny new piece of gadgetry. So we asked a handful of our favorites -- Canabalt's Adam "Atomic" Saltsman, Pocket God's Dave Castelnuovo, and PopCap's Andrew Stein, just to namedrop a few -- to give us their reactions. "It's hard to say anything concrete without actually playing with the thing personally, but I'm optimistic about it continuing to open up video games to even more 'normal' people," Saltsman told us. "I'm hopeful that having a big multitouch space will help mediate the whole 'fat fingers on a tiny screen' problem." PopCap's Andrew Stein agreed, telling us "We'll certainly look at the unique capabilities of the iPad and work hard to utilize those in instances where they can make our games even more fun." Republic of Fun prez Mike Rasmussen sees things a bit differently, noting the opportunity in the upped horsepower of the device. "From a pure gaming perspective, I'm excited about the additional resolution and horsepower, and really interested to start understanding the 3D performance of the A4 [chip]." But even the most successful app developer on the market -- Pocket God creator Dave Castelnuovo -- seems a bit reticent of the iPad, telling us he sees "a lot of potential with the device," but his company is going to "wait to see what kind of acceptance the tablet will have" before moving forward with development. But that's not all! See the full reactions from a variety of iPhone game developers after the break. %Gallery-84102%
More App Store controversy from Pocket God
Last week the Baby Shaker app received a lot of negative attention and was subsequently pulled from the App Store. Deservedly so; that game was tasteless. This week, Elaine Howard of the International Pacific Women's Information Network called Bolt's popular Pocket God an "...arrogant slap in the face to our people," referring to Pacific Islanders. If you're unfamiliar, the object of Pocket God (it's really more of a toy than a game) is to torment and kill island-bound characters in a variety of ways. I've always thought of the characters as pre-historic "cave men," not belonging to any specific culture. However, if I were of Pacific Island descent and saw someone playing this game on the subway, it'd bother me.iPhone Saviour quotes Bolt representatives as saying "The fictional characters in Pocket God do not directly or indirectly represent any human nationality, race or cultural people ... Bolt Creative does not intend and has never intended to offend or marginalize any nationality, race or culture in any of its video games, including Pocket God." I believe that the game was in fact created without malicious intent. Perhaps a solution would be to use culturally neutral characters like astronauts or LOLcats (see above)? For more on Apple's questionable approval process (not to mention the tastes of some customers), check out this horrifying list of The Ultimate Tasteless iPhone Apps.
