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Pocket God

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Pocket God
File:Pocket God Icon.jpg
What's Your Story Morning Gory
Developer(s)Bolt Creative
Publisher(s)Bolt Creative
Platform(s)iPod Touch, iPhone
Genre(s)God game
Mode(s)Single-player

Pocket God is a game for the iPhone/iPod Touch developed by Bolt Creative. It was programmed by Dave Castelnuovo and it was designed by Allan Dye.[1] Pocket God, originally released on January 9, 2009, has been in the iTunes App Store's Top 100 Charts since its release .[2]

Gameplay

Pocket God is a God game, this means that the player takes the role of an omnipotent being who rules over an island and controls almost everything present. The primitive islanders, known as Pygmies, are subject to the player's god powers. These range from benevolent powers, such as giving the islanders a fishing rod, some are destructive, like summoning a hurricane, and some are simply entertaining, such as levitating the Pygmies. Built-in features of the iPod touch and iPhone OS are used, such as the accelerometer to simulate gravity and earthquakes. Most of these features can be toggled on the games menu bar. The "March of the Fire Ants" update also added a new feature known as OpenFeint where players can access chat rooms, leaderboards, and announcements during gameplay. It was ranked number one on iTunes for at least six months.

One of Pocket God's most notable features is the regular release of updates that introduce additional content. The episodes "A New Home", "Dead Pygmy Walking", and "The Pyg Chill" added additional islands to the game, which can be toggled from the menu bar. The Fun n' Games until A Pygmy Gets Hurt update added mini-games for consecutive coconut bounces, consecutive shark snaps, underwater skewer, pygmy bowling, and hurricane zaps. The Ooga Jump update added the first crossover minigame, Ooga Jump, which was followed by a Harbor Master crossover. In the Idle Hands 2: Caught With Your Pants Down update more idle features were added to the Pygmies when they are not in use. Also, Buddy Challenges were implemented with OpenFeint. In the Good Will Haunting update, a DLC store was added with changeable skins for the T-Rex. Other packs, such as the Halloween and Holiday themes, have since been added.

Episodes

Pocket God is frequently updated with new 'episodes', a themed update that adds new features to the Pocket God world, such as new islands, items, or minigames. As of February 12, 2010, 30 episodes have been released.

Episodes
Episode Number Version Number Release Episode title Features
1 1.0 01/09/09 Nowhere To Go, Nothin' To Do The first release of Pocket God. Abilities include flicking and levitating the Pygmies, as well as throwing them into the water.
2 1.1 01/14/09 Does this Megabyte Make My App Look Fat? Several updates to the game engine.
3 1.2 01/20/09 You Always Hurt the Ones You Lava Added a volcano which you can flick Pygmies into. After three hits, the volcano will erupt, dropping magma onto the island. The lava sets the Pygmies on fire, causing them to jump into the water and drown.
4 .13 01/29/09 Shake That App! Added gravity features allowing Pygmies to slide across the screen by tilting the device, and creation of an earthquake by shaking the device.
5 1.4 02/05/09 A Storm is Coming Added storm clouds and lightning which can electrocute the Pygmies.
6 1.5 02/14/09 And on the 7th Day, Rest! Added the Ability to change between day and night by dragging the sun or moon up and down.
7 1.6 02/20/09 Just Give Us 5 Minutes Added the ability to make the Pygmies dance by tapping the screen. Players unlocked it from gameplay for five minutes. The boulder was also added, which can crush Pygmies or bowl them off the island.
8 1.7 02/26/09 Jump the Shark Added a shark to the ocean, which will eat a Pygmy if it is dangled over the water. Players can also levitate a shark out of the water and drop on a Pygmy's head, or slap Pygmies off of the island.
9 1.8 03/06/09 Idle Hands Added top menu and more gravity functionality. Added more idle animations to the Pygmies.
10 1.9 03/15/09 Hi, Dracula! Introduced the vampire bat, which turns one sleeping Pygmy into a vampire. The vampire will knock all the other Pygmies off the island, but it is destroyed by sunlight. Also added an eclipse when the boulder is levitated in front of the sun.
11 1.10 03/24/09 A Mighty Wind Added the ability to create a hurricane by making circular motions on the screen during stormy weather. The hurricane whirls Pygmies and objects around the island and drops them in the ocean.
12 1.11 04/01/09 Something Fishy... Added a fishing rod, to let Pygmies catch and eat the new fish. Also added OpenFeint, an iPhone social network with chat rooms and leader-boards. (This was also the April Fool's Day release, which implied that the player had purchased the lite version, and must buy the full version for $4.99.)
13 1.12 04/08/09 March of the Fire Ants Added an anthill and magnifying glass to the island. Tapping the anthill and drawing a line from the anthill will draw out fire ants, which will consume a nearby Pygmy. The magnifying glass allows you to destroy ants and burn the Pygmies.
14 1.13 04/17/09 Say my Name! Added the ability to name individual Pygmies and their tribe. Also added stats to see how many times Pygmies were sacrificed and given gifts.
15 1.14 04/28/09 A New Home Added a new, larger, island that contained an outhouse, as well as a mysterious dinosaur egg. Pygmies who use the outhouse will stay indefinitely until the player knocks on the door; meanwhile, Pygmies who are forced to wait in line will eventually burst.
16 1.15 05/08/09 The Tyrannosaurus Strikes Back! Now, when a player drops the egg three times, a Tyrannosaurus Rex will appear and begin eating the Pygmies. Additionally, the Moai statue is changed to an octopus god statue, to avoid racial insensitivity, and a story about the island's background was introduced.
17 1.16 05/19/09 Return of the Pygmy Added a spear, which the player can give to the Pygmies to fight off the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Once the T-Rex's health bar is emptied, it will fall into the water. This update also added buttons for toggling T-Rex egg and outhouse functionality. Finally, an easter egg was added so that if players touch the octopus god statue three times in rapid succession, all Pygmies on the island are vaporized and the statue mumbles 'You know you like Pocket God'. A god statistic screen is revealed, but doesn't save user's changes due to a small glitch. The game is upgraded to iPhone OS 2.2.1
18 1.17 06/01/09 Surf's Up! Players can now generate a tsunami by pushing the water from side to side. This reveals a new underwater area, with a mysterious statue that protects ancient ruins. Tapping the statue will release a deadly spear that skewers the Pygmies. Players can push the water down to return to the previous island. The new god stat screen is fixed and allows users to change their god type and shows user their achievements. Due to complaints, the game is downgraded to 
iPhone OS 2.2
19 1.18 06/17/09 Fun n' Games Until A Pygmy Gets Hurt Pocket God now includes achievements that turn some Pocket God activities into mini-games. Achievements include: consecutive coconut bounces, consecutive shark snaps, underwater skewer, pygmy bowling and hurricane zaps. Also, a two-finger swipe is now needed to create a tsunami or change the weather. The change was intended to avoid players accidentally triggering the tsunami or changing the weather. This was also a cleanup update to correct many glitches and optimize animations.
20 1.19 07/03/09 Stop! My App Is On Fire! This update gives the pygmies wood to make a fire so they can cook fish and warm themselves. The wood drops from the sky, and Pygmies will carry it over to a bonfire. When all wood pieces are there, the player can hit it with lightning, setting it on fire. Now, the player can roast a fish over the fire (so the Pygmies can have some dinner). Roasting a fish for too long will burn it. Giving the burnt fish to a pygmy will make the pygmy choke and fall into the water. Players can also cook pygmies so that they turn rock-hard. A more complex background is added for the underwater area. The two-fingered sky and water movement controls are reverted to one finger controls after technical difficulties. Due to this being the 20th update, many thought Pocket God would cease updates.
21 1.20 07/09/09 Flipping the Bird The island has a new visitor, a flying Dodo bird. Poking the bird will make it drop bird bombs on the pygmies, which turns into a mini-game in which the player has to drop the most feces consecutively without missing. The dodo bird will go after caught fish, and will snatch up a Pygmy holding a fish. The bird can be cooked over the fire, and can be struck by lightning. A whirlpool ability and some fish animations are added to the underwater area. Achievements are now recorded in Feint.
22 1.21 07/24/09 Ooga Jump This update is a crossover with Doodle Jump. When a player drags a Pygmy over the cloud line and drops him, it will bounce off the cloud and be propelled up into the sky. In the sky, there are four types of clouds: a normal cloud which bounces the pygmy further into the air, a thundercloud which lights a pygmy on fire and shoots him even higher up, an ice cloud which freezes a pygmy and prevents him from jumping as high, and a fake cloud which disappears when you try to jump on it. If you fail to hit a cloud, the pygmy falls back down to the island and is squashed like a pancake. New achievements were also added in this
23 1.22 08/05/09 Bait Master This update is a cross over with Harbour Master and adds a new mini-game to the underwater scene. When the anchor is picked up and dropped, piranhas begin to enter the screen from the left and right to eat floating Pygmies. Players must guide each piranha by drawing a path. The goal is to keep them away from each other as they are led to their dinner, and then back off the screen. The more Piranhas are "served", the faster they arrive. Gameplay is similar to Flight Control, but players may move the Pygmy targets as well as the piranhas. This update also adds two improvements to Ooga Jump: players will no longer end up in a situation where there are no possible jumps, and the doodlers appear sooner and only one at a time.
24 1.23 08/19/09 Idle Hands 2: Caught With Your Pants Down This update adds more idle features to the Pygmies when they are not in use. Also they are implementing Buddy Challenges through Feint. The new idle features are as follows: The Pygmies' grass skirts falling down showing underpants, sneezing, a thought bubble with some kind of food in it (cooked fish, cooked bird, coconut, etc.), pulling their bones out of their hair and their hair falling down over their face, and beating their chest like Tarzan.[3] Due to some coding errors, this version of PocketiPhones running iPhone OS 2.1s and 2.2s, due to this problem Bolt Creative replaced the update with the previous update "Bait Master". The next update was later released as a combination of Ep. 24 and Ep. 25.[4]
25 1.24 09/02/09 Sharks with Frickin' Laser-beams Attached to their Heads This update added a chum bucket in the underwater area which players can use to attract a shark. The shark can shoot pygmies, using the accelerometer as an aiming device, Sharks will also eat Pygmies if they are holding a piece of chum. There is now an option to have the "Bait blaster" anchor or the chum bucket, and a button to go to the underwater area from the menu. The title is a reference to Austin Powers.[5]
26 1.25 09/17/09 Dead Pygmy Walking This update added a new location: the Pygmy Graveyard. On the island is a grave in which players can bury Pygmy alive. The ancient seal on the grave will cause the Pygmy to come back as a Zombie, which proceeds to eat the brains of the other Pygmies on the island (which turns them into Zombies as well). There are two new sacrifices, Brains Eaten and Buried Alive, and one new gift, Gift of Zombie dance. When you make the zombies dance, they do a dance based on "Thriller." If a player touches a zombie, it explodes into blue flakes of skin.
27 1.26 10/06/09 Good Will Haunting Good Will Haunting is the title for the second part of the Horror Trilogy of episodes. Ghosts are created when any Pygmy dies on the island. Players can direct the ghosts by dragging across the screen, and can make ghosts and Pygmies interact: The ghosts can possess a pygmy, scare it to death, pick up a Pygmy and carry it away, pull a Pygmy into the ghost dimension, or make a banshee scream that will burst the eardrums of the pygmies. To get rid of a ghost, players have to direct it into "the light", located at the top left of the screen. Also, players can now enjoy extras from new downloadable content. There were DLC features for the T-Rex, like new skins, tattoos, and hats. One of the skins can be see here.DLC(Downloadable Content) was added to help continue the funding for the app, instead of raising the price. As a result of DLC, Pocket God is now only compatible with 3.0 and higher firmware, so users still using 2.XX will be required to update their iDevice firmware before they can continue to use the app.
28 1.27 10/28/09 Barking Spider, Crouching Pygmy In the graveyard, a giant spider has been added. To attract the spider, a Pygmy must be placed in the web hanging from the tree, touched to summon a small spider to cocoon him, and touched again to burst the cocoon, revealing dozens of baby spiders. The giant "barking spider" then appears. Pygmies can be webbed and eaten by the spider, or put in the spiderweb where the mother spider puts the pygmy in a cocoon to be fed to the spider babies. Pygmies can also fight the spider with the spear, but a different strategy is needed than with the T-Rex. Halloween themes for the DLC was added for many items around the island, such as the volcano,the dodo bird, the meteor,and even the Doodler from Doodle Jump. The name "Barking Spider" is very literal in this case, since the the spider barks like a dog when it is about to eat a Pygmy and whines when it is hit with a spear.
29 1.28 12/04/09 The Pyg Chill Introduced a new ice island with an igloo. Players can cook fish in it, but the igloo can also fire pygmies out the top or sides. This update also included an ice monster, which is battled by flicking Pygmies at it. The ice monster can block attacks and throw snowballs. Additionally, there is now a brand new island selection screen which shows a map instead of a list. Another holiday skin pack was released as an add-on purchase, which includes different Christmas themed items.
30 1.29 1/26/10 Great Job, Ice Hole Players can pinch and stretch the sun to make the world hotter and cooler. When it’s cold, the pygmies turn into frozen statues that shatter when you touch them. When it's hot, they start sweating until eventually they explode. If the Pygmies are on the ice island when it gets hot they melt an Ice Hole. Pygmies can fish in the Ice Hole and catch a sword fish. If they try and eat it they will be killed. Players can also hold a Pygmy over the Ice Hole and a squid will come out of it to try and catch the Pygmy. Players then enter into a minigame likened to 'tug of war.' If players pull too hard the pygmies head will fall off and body taken into the ice hole by the squid. If you let go, the Squid just eats the Pygmy. There is also an Easter egg, if the player sticks a burnt pygmy from the dino island, an ice geyser will erupt, killing pygmies. 8 new dances were included as downloadable content.
31 1.30 3/15/10 What's the Story, Morning Gory? A brand new game called the Pain Drain, similar to Ooga Jump, but is underwater, will be added. Then there is a new mode that has stories in it. There is also an editor to make new Stories of your own. The editor will start with only a few animations you can use but then more will be added later.
32 1.31 Unknown TBA Unknown

Wallpaper Contest

Bolt Creative ran a contest to design the best Pocket God desktop wallpaper between March 19 and April 5, 2009.[6] They received around 300 entries and picked the top 5. The main prize was a limited edition islander figure with 4 runners up receiving T-shirts. Entries were posted on Pocket Gods Facebook site and on its Flickr site. Entries had to be 1680 x 1050 with a Pocket God theme and with a limit of 3 entries per person. Entries also had to include the logo and that Pocket God is for the iPhone and iPod Touch for 99 cents on iTunes, they also had to be saved in png format. The overall winner was Victor Villanueva with a poster depicting an islander as almost human with an iPhone in its hand playing pocket god. On March 19, 2009 the official Pocket God website announced that there will be a new Wallpaper contest. The rules are similar to the first one and the winner will get the first Pocket god toy.[7]

Idle Hands 2 Contest

On July 29, 2009, the official Pocket God website announced that there was going to be another clean-up update, but to make it more fun, more idle animations would be added. The website invited fans of Pocket God to come up with the next idle animations. Winners included: Brandon and Derek (A thought bubble with some kind of food in it), Sam Greenwood (Pygmies pull the bones out of their hair and it falls down over their face), and Adam Jaffe (Pygmies beat their chest like Tarzan). [8]

Twitter Your Picture Contest

The Twitter Yer Picture with Pocket God on Yer iPod Contest (more commonly known as the Twitter Yer Picture Contest) involved contestants taking pictures of themselves playing Pocket God in creative places. The three winners were "FernyTheBomb", "Dylan_Johnson" and "MalcomJudd". They each won a third generation 64GB iPod Touch.

Reception

Pocket God has received ratings that ranged from generally positive reviews to universal acclaim. iTune App Reviews gave the game 5 out of 5 stars.[9] AppStruck gave the game 5 out of 5 stars referring to the game as "endlessly amusing and is an easy way to completely lose track of time".[10] iPhone App Reviews gave the updated version of the game 4.8 out of 5[11] having given the original version 3.92 out of 5[12] Appvee gave the game 4 out of 5 after episode 11 was released, having originally given the game 1.8 out of 5.[13]

Controversy

The game was subject to controversy when some Pacific islanders and anthropologists protested to Apple Inc. claiming the game was racist.[14][15][16] The game's creators defended the game, saying "it depicts no specific race or nationality." Pocket God's programmer Dave Castelnuovo got in touch with one of the original Pacific Islanders and came up with some compromises: The islanders would be called Oogs instead of Pygmies, and the Moai statue would be replaced with a statue of an Octopus God.[17] On May 27, 2009, Dave Castelnuovo announced that the characters would no longer be called Oogs, as 'Pygmies' was a more suitable name, and didn't actually cause any friction between Pacific Islanders.[18]

In Other Apps

Doodle Jump

On May 22, 2009, a new version of Doodle Jump was released that allowed users to play as a Pygmy from Pocket God. To unlock the Pygmy, players must change the high score name to one of the characters from Pocket God: Ooga, Booga, Nooby, Dooby, Klik or Klak.[19] Also see Pocket God episode 22 Ooga Jump for the Pocket God version of the Doodle Jump crossover.

The Creeps!

On July 3, 2009, an update was released in the Super Squark Software game The Creeps! that allows Pocket God characters. To get the Pocket God Pygmies on "The Creeps!", a player must go to the Credits Page on the Main Page. [20]

Harbour Master

Imangi studios' Harbor Master episode 'Pocket God Attacks' allowed players to unlock swimming pygmies in place of the normal boats.[21] To unlock this, players must hold down the Harbour Master logo for at least 3 seconds [22] Also see Pocket God episode 23 for the Pocket God version of the crossover.

Sequels

According to the Pocket God Blog, the developers of Pocket God, have "about ten ideas for standalone Pocket God games". They also noted that even if sequels are developed, Pocket God will still receive updates, but at a slower rate. Also mentioned on the blog was that the developers were in talks to bring Pocket God to other platforms, such as Nintendo DS.

References

  1. ^ "bolt creative". bolt creative. Retrieved 2009-12-02.
  2. ^ Name. "app shopper bestsellers". Appshopper.com. Retrieved 2009-12-02.
  3. ^ 02:27 AM. "Dave's State of the island Idle Hands 2: Caught With Your Pants Down". Forums.toucharcade.com. Retrieved 2009-12-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ "Idle Hands 2: Caught With Your Pants Down update reverted". Pocketgod.blogspot.com. 2009-08-20. Retrieved 2009-12-02.
  5. ^ "Sharks with Frickin' Laser-beams Attached to their Heads Dave's State of the island". Forums.toucharcade.com. 2009-08-25. Retrieved 2009-12-02.
  6. ^ "Pocket God Contest". Pocketgod.blogspot.com. 2009-03-19. Retrieved 2009-12-02.
  7. ^ "Pocket Blog: Win a Limited Edition Islander Toy!". Pocketgod.blogspot.com. 2009-03-19. Retrieved 2009-12-02. {{cite web}}: line feed character in |title= at position 8 (help)
  8. ^ "Idle hands mini contest winners". Pocketgod.blogspot.com. 2009-08-12. Retrieved 2009-12-02.
  9. ^ March 2, 2009 (2009-03-02). "ituneappreviews review". Ituneappreviews.com. Retrieved 2009-12-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ "AppStruck Pocket God Review". Appstruck.com. 2009-06-14. Retrieved 2009-12-02.
  11. ^ Mar 16th, 2009 by Chris J.. (2009-03-16). "iphoneappreviews updated review". Iphoneappreviews.net. Retrieved 2009-12-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ Feb 8th, 2009 by Chris J.. (2009-02-08). "iphoneappreviews original review". Iphoneappreviews.net. Retrieved 2009-12-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ "appvee review". Appvee.com. Retrieved 2009-12-02.
  14. ^ Pocket God by Kerim on April 18th, 2009 (2009-04-18). "Savage Minds Criticism". Savageminds.org. Retrieved 2009-12-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ "nz herald criticism". Nzherald.co.nz. 2009-04-30. Retrieved 2009-12-02.
  16. ^ "iphonesavour criticism article". Iphonesavior.com. 2009-01-09. Retrieved 2009-12-02.
  17. ^ "The Dave Report Controversy". Forums.toucharcade.com. Retrieved 2009-12-02.
  18. ^ "The Dave Report Touch Arcade". Forums.toucharcade.com. 2009-05-27. Retrieved 2009-12-02.
  19. ^ "Pocket God In Doodle Jump". Pocketgod.blogspot.com. 2009-05-22. Retrieved 2009-12-02.
  20. ^ "Pocket God in The Creeps". Pocketgod.blogspot.com. 2009-06-15. Retrieved 2009-12-02.
  21. ^ posted by Abcmsaj on Saturday, August 8, 2009 at 3:54 am. (2009-08-08). "Harbour Master Pocket God crossover". Ipodtouchfans.com. Retrieved 2009-12-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  22. ^ "appadvice how to unlock pocket god on harbour master". Appadvice.com. Retrieved 2009-12-02.
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