Joystiq

The best mobile games of GDC 2012

Mike Schramm — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 20:00:00 EST

We've picked out five of the most interesting new mobile titles seen at the Game Developers Conference this year. One of them is available now, and the others are coming soon, all from studios and developers of varying talents and reputations. Read on to see the cream of the crop from the mobile side of this year's GDC.

Continue reading The best mobile games of GDC 2012

The best mobile games of GDC 2012 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 14 Mar 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

NimbleBit's next work in progress: Pocket Planes

David Hinkle — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:15:00 EST

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.

NimbleBit's next work in progress: Pocket Planes originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Zynga's Dream Heights ready to build tiny towers on App Store

Alexander Sliwinski — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST

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: NimbleBit Letter to Zynga

Zynga's Dream Heights ready to build tiny towers on App Store originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Tiny Tower builds up 10 million downloads

Alexander Sliwinski — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST

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: NimbleBit Letter to Zynga

Tiny Tower builds up 10 million downloads originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Kill Screen on the legality of cloning game design

Richard Mitchell — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST

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.

Kill Screen on the legality of cloning game design originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Zynga responds to copycat claims, NimbleBit rebuts

Ben Gilbert — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:32:00 EST

"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.

Zynga responds to copycat claims, NimbleBit rebuts originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Another indie dev points to Zynga similarity with cheeky chart

Ben Gilbert — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:30:00 EST

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.

Continue reading Another indie dev points to Zynga similarity with cheeky chart

Another indie dev points to Zynga similarity with cheeky chart originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Tiny Tower dev wishes Zynga luck on clone

Alexander Sliwinski — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:50:00 EST

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: NimbleBit Letter to Zynga

Tiny Tower dev wishes Zynga luck on clone originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Tiny Tower not so tiny, has one million daily users on iOS

David Hinkle — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:30:00 EST

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.

Tiny Tower not so tiny, has one million daily users on iOS originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Portabliss: Tiny Tower (iOS)

Justin McElroy — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:25:00 EST

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.

Continue reading Portabliss: Tiny Tower (iOS)

Portabliss: Tiny Tower (iOS) originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments