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Pocket Gamer Interviews Peter Molyneux on Godus, Kickstarter, and More

Posted by Ellis Spice on August 18th, 2014
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Our rating: starstarstarblankstarblankstar :: FLAWED CIVILIZATION BUILDING :: Read Review »

Pocket Gamer has released an interview with British industry veteran and 22Cans founder Peter Molyneux, asking him about Godus, the reception it has gotten, its 'free to play' model, and what's happened to Curiosity winner Bryan Henderson.

Within the interview, when asked about the negative reaction to the game within the comments of the Kickstarter, Mr. Molyneux said, "People will not pay for games on mobile," and later on also states that releasing a paid app would only get a tenth of the consumers and would be "like releasing a YouTube video that you have to pay for."

The role of Bryan Henderson, the game's 'God of Gods,' is also discussed, stating that he'll be the tie-breaker for votes on "commandments" - an example of which is if women within the game should stay at home and look after the family. As previously mentioned, Bryan will also get a share of the profits of the game whilst he acts as God of Gods, and other players will be able to overthrow him and become the new God of Gods.

Godus is available on the App Store now. The full interview, which also features news on a new addition to the PC version, the difference between the free-to-play models of Godus and the new Dungeon Keeper and why he has called the game "invest-to-play" in the past, can be found here.

Godus - Tips, Tricks, and Strategies for Being the Finest of Gods

Posted by Jennifer Allen on August 13th, 2014

Hello gods in training:
Curious to see what we thought of 22Cans' whacky-looking god sim? Check out our Godus review!

Enjoying the delights of Godus but could do with a helping hand? We're here to give you some simple tips and tricks to get you started and on your way to being a great God.


You Gotta Believe

  • There's going to be a lot of sculpting ahead of you, especially early on. Try to plan ahead. Belief fades fast and you don't want to run out midway through creating a flatter plain ready for developing on. Don't just clear land for the sake of it. Think it through before you begin.

  • The same goes for building structures. You want to keep people together for maximum efficiency and don't forget that early on, only nearby workers can get to work on building a new settlement. Later on, you'll be able to entice them further afield but you're quite restricted at the start.

  • Make sure there's room to place trees near the settlements. More belief is gained that way, which is always a good thing.

  • Remove rocks that are nearby such dwellings, as they'll decrease your belief gains.

  • Removing rocks, as well as surplus trees, is also handy because it provides you with some easy belief. Do it. Often.

  • Belief isn't used up if you're sculpting land from beneath the sea so if you're desperate for space and low on belief, drag out the beaches.

  • In other games, collecting all that belief would be irritatingly tedious, but Godus simplifies matters. You can just hold a finger down and drag it around to collect belief up en masse.

  • A similar process can be used to 'leash' followers but you want to use that ability sparingly as it uses up belief.



Rome Wasn't Built In A Day

  • Keep building and steadily expanding. The more followers the better as it'll unlock new cards and generally provide the whole point of the game. It's a slow process, but worth it.

  • Make room for farms and mines to be near settlements. You need plenty of both and clustering will soon be essential to your success.

  • Work towards the beacons scattered around the land. They're Godus's way of encouraging you to follow a certain path but they're pretty handy for unlocking new areas.

  • When you're worried about your followers' and their eating habits, cast Rain of Purity on Crop Fields. Wheat grows much quicker this way than waiting it out. It can make all the difference.

  • Unlock cards as quickly as possible but don't necessarily use them all. Some are more hassle than they're worth so be wise with what you upgrade via stickers.

  • Speaking of stickers, these can be gained through completing Journeys but also through discovering treasure chests littered around the world. Look out for differences in the land, such as a sparkly section, and start digging to retrieve anything from diamonds to stickers.


All in the Journey

  • Regualarly going on Journeys is essential to progression, as well as having more fun with Godus. Do so frequently.

  • When you first start a Journey, plan what you're going to do carefully. The time limits are often tight, especially when you're fighting with poor path-finding. Those followers really aren't very bright at all.

  • Don't bother sending more followers than you need to. It'll just be a waste if you fail the level.

  • Treat the followers like Lemmings. They're dimwitted and really need to be dealt with like mindless drones. Because that's exactly what they are.

  • Because of that, make sure you block paths to stop them from either going the wrong way or walking into danger. The Journeys are often simple enough. The tricky part is in keeping those followers safe from their own stupidity.

  • You'll be infuriated at times, either by your followers' inability to think or just the slow pace of the game. Be a kind God. Using negative God powers only tends to cause trouble in the long term and you want to keep your people happy through any means necessary.

  • Remember this is a marathon, not a sprint. It's going to take a while to get in your stride and truly see significant improvements. Accept it and enjoy.

Godus Review

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
By Jennifer Allen on August 13th, 2014
Our rating: starstarstarblankstarblankstar :: FLAWED CIVILIZATION BUILDING
Despite the hype, Godus is another freemium civilization building game. One that's incredibly slow to progress in.
Read The Full Review »

GDC 2014 - Godus to Launch in Select Territories Soon, Supports Cross-Platform Play

Posted by Rob Rich on March 24th, 2014

It's not exactly a secret that Peter Molyneux/22cans deity simulator, Godus is coming to iOS. However, we were able to learn about a few more specifics here at GDC.

Godus was really designed with mobile in mind from the beginning, and it shows when watching the game in motion. "My passion has been to reinvent a genre of games I stumbled upon back in the early 90s called Populous," said Peter Molyneux, "I wanted to reinvent the genre around this beautiful, wonderful, incredible device. What you've got here is a god game reinvented for this touch device, and reinvented for the audience."

What's more, the game will feature a sort of continuous form of multiplayer - kind of like an MMO. When you play, you're playing with however many other players/gods are on at that moment (possibly into the tens of millions), all at the same time. And all of their lands are connected as a part of one extremely large and continuous world filled with other islands and other gods.

This even carries over into the game's cross-platform functionality as changes made to your land on the iPad, iPhone, or PC will display in real time on any of the other platforms. "You're connected to thousands, even millions, of people," explained Molyneux, "We tried this out on this crazy app called Curiosity, and we connected together hundreds of thousands of people who simultaneously touched on the cube. Well now we're connecting millions of people together. We did a cube, and now we're doing this vast planet."

It's also been confirmed that Godus will be free to download for iOS, but no specifics have been given on its approach to monetization. The plan is to encourage players to want to spend money, but not force or require them to. "I love free to download. I never want to go back to having to pay money before having an idea if I'll like something," stated Molyneux. "What we have to do is get people to want to spend money, rather than need to spend money," he continued, "I'm inspired by the way that the supermarket, especially American supermarkets, tempt you to spend money. We call it 'Invest-to-Play'." Personally I'm rather curious to see how all of this will work in practice.

Godus will be soft-launching in select territories (New Zealand, The Philippines, Sweden, Ireland, and Denmark) within the next few weeks.

Curiosity Ends Soon - Down To The Last 50 Layers

Posted by Rob LeFebvre on May 2nd, 2013
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

What's inside the cube? That's the question thousands of people worldwide have been asking themselves since Curiosity released for iOS last November.

According to the development team at 22 Cans, we're all about to find out, as it's been tapped down now to the final 50 layers. What's in there?

We don't know, but we'll admit we're (sorry) curious. What do you think is in there?

Ever Curious About Curiosity: An Interview With 22Can's Jack Attridge

Posted by Jennifer Allen on November 26th, 2012
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Jack Attridge is an exceptionally busy man, along with the rest of the team at 22Cans. Not content with fixing the much publicised server issues with Curiosity, the team is working on a major update, recently teased by Peter Molyneux, mentioning the word "badger". That's not forgetting the plans afoot for the "reinvention" of the god game, courtesy of GODUS, 22can's latest Kickstarter fundraiser.

Fortunately, amongst all this, Jack has found the time to answer a few of our questions when it comes to all things to do with Curiosity and just how he feels about its progression.

"At first we were going to just allow players to tap the smaller 60 billion cubelets that make up the cube one by one. This was to see if the power of curiosity alone was enough motivation for people to carry on tapping with no other benefits," he explained. "Surprisingly, this worked and it's great seeing tons of tweets flying through of people hooked on this…we could have left it as pure as this but we felt that there was more that we could do with the cube."

Jack explained that the inclusion of features such as the potential for combos via rewarding players with more coins, the longer they chip away for has added to the appeal: "…some people out there have been going crazy about getting the highest chain in the world: currently the highest chain is up in the millions! "

As he points out, "…there is an urge in some people to tidy up all the left-over cubelets that are scattered around where people have come and gone, and so for those OCD-type players (there's a few of those on the team) we give coin bonuses for clearing the screen of cubelets." With such bonuses, it enables players to buy small upgrades thus feeling "powerful", while aiding them in their quest to "get to the center faster".

Along the way, Jack reckons that Curiosity can be considered as art. Echoing many of our thoughts here, "…I think it's a pretty ancient perspective to have if you feel that Video Games cannot be art."

"There [are] many wonderful things about Curiosity, the fact that people from all over the world can join together in working towards one goal…Each layer contains some mysterious image and it's really fascinating to see the world unwrapping it like a present before it is revealed in all its inspiring beauty…it's fascinating how each image or colour changes how players interpret the whole experience with some tweets saying one layer feels cold and and another motivating, and even thinking the audio has changed when it hasn't."

"I love that people have chiseled some phenomenal art into the cube that have surpassed my expectations and that literal art is being digested by people through their phones across the planet and then being shared across social networking sites and blogs. People have chipped marriage proposals into it as well as obituaries." As Jack describes it, "...the cube itself is a giant canvas that the entire world can share with no censorship or moderation."

Such feelings are what Jack hopes to be the main benefits for players. "I hope that people feel like they have been a part of something regardless of whether they have made that final tap…especially since it won't be able to be revisited by anyone else after this experience is over."

Having said that, he does suggest that it's not entirely for the sake of it: "…there is something that people tapping on the cube are doing, and are already involved in that they are unaware of. I can't say what that is yet, but in the future…that tapping will have counted for something."

Given that Curiosity is just part of the 22 experiments planned by the team, we asked Jack just what the eventual end goal will be, "The final game we make is something that Peter has been thinking about for 20 years. He considers it the defining game of his career and we are all very excited about creating that experience for the world. The dream is that this final game will be something that 100 million people will play everyday."

Jack's willing to acknowledge, however, that this is a "huge ambition". As he points out, Curiosity managed over 600,000 players in the space of 4 days but that's still a way off such a lofty number. "…by creating these experiments and analysing the tons of data that we get from them we are finding out exactly how we are going to construct a game that can change the world."

A game that can change the world? Suddenly, huge ambition sounds like an understatement. It'll be fascinating to see what 22Cans come up with next, and after GODUS.

If you're interested in contributing to GODUS's development, check out the Kickstarter page.