Not what you were expecting!

On This Episode:

Who We Are:

Music:

“Beatnes7 (Theme to The Portable Podcast)” by The Eternal – Download on iTunes here:

How to Listen:

Apps Mentioned in this Episode:

$0.99

Pocket God

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2009-01-09 :: Category: Entertainment

$1.99

Pocket God: Journey To Uranus

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-12-16 :: Category: Games

$0.99

Pocket God Comics

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-08-02 :: Category: Books

FREE!

Pocket Frogs

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-09-15 :: Category: Games

$2.99

World of Goo

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-04-14 :: Category: Games

$4.99

World of Goo HD

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-12-16 :: Category: Games

$1.99

RAGE HD

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-11-18 :: Category: Games

World of Goo on iOS is about to come full circle. After initially being announced for the iPhone/iPod touch, then released for the iPad, is now finally coming back full circle, as 2D Boy has confirmed that the iPhone/iPod touch version has been submitted to the App Store. In an interesting twist, owners of the current HD version won’t have to pay again to get the iPhone/iPod touch version – the iPad version is getting updated to a universal app, so you can just re-download the game on your iPhone/iPod touch for no extra charge. It’s not immediately clear if the game will be just one universal app, or if there will be 2 separate apps: the iPhone/iPod touch version and a universal version that supports the iPad natively. If it’s the latter, it’s something that I have advocated before on The Portable Podcast – if developers want to charge separately for an iPad version, then making it universal would be the fairest choice, so that multiple iOS device owners don’t have to choose between an app that works on all their devices, or one optimized for their iPad. No matter the route 2D Boy takes, it’s one that is ultimately beneficial for consumers, and I applaud them for that. World of Goo for iPhone/iPod touch will support 3rd generation (iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 3G 32GB/64GB models) and up models, and will be on sale for $0.99 for 24 hours, before going up to $2.99.

$4.99

World of Goo HD

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-12-16 :: Category: Games

The developers of World of Goo recently posted a really in depth article that not only reveals its sales record for the first month, but also lays out an in depth overview of their experience with the App Store and the iOS platform. The game has sold an impressive 125,000 copies. That is quite an achievement considering it only sold 68,000 Wii copies and 97,000 PC copies during its best months on each of those platforms. This makes the iPad version of the multiplatform game the fastest selling version.

The article also presents some interesting facts about their pricing scheme, promotion campaign, and how they tailored their development process to better suit iPad gamers. Overall, the game received fairly high praises (check out our review here), but interestingly enough, a few low App Store scores complaining about difficulty prompted the developers to add a prominent level skip button. They also joke about adding in app purchases for the auto-completing of levels, but hopefully that stays a joke.

Not only is the information presented in the article entertaining, it is also educational for aspiring young app developers. 2D Boy even posted a myriad of charts and graphs to back-up their claims, and to provide readers with some visual examples of their progress. With such a great start for World of Goo, we can only hope 2D boy continues to share the love for the iOS platform.

PC and Wii gamers have been enjoying the goo flinging puzzler for quite a while, but World of Goo is still in its infancy on the iPad. The game features physics based construction puzzles and gorgeous 2D graphics. Its gameplay is also perfectly suited for the large touchscreen provided by the iPad. World of Goo oozes charm and deserves a look if you haven’t tried it yet.

via 2D Boy Official Blog

$4.99

World of Goo HD

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-12-16 :: Category: Games

I have longed for World of Goo for the iPhone and then the iPad for literally years now. Hard to believe it’s been that long. The model of the game has just seemed perfect for a touch interface. Having played through the game three times on three different platforms (Wii, PC, Mac), I just wanted more. My PC is packed up. It’s loaded down with so much anti-virus software it can hardly be used anymore. My Wii has, like most Wii consoles, an inch of dust on top of it. And my Mac, well when I sit down at my Mac I see I have 1,000 unanswered emails. Makes me feel too guilty to play World of Goo anymore. I want it on my new cool device of choice, the iPad!

Well that day has finally come. 2DBoy were kind enough to send us a final build of the World of Goo for the iPad. And I’m in heaven. I had to stop playing long enough to finish this preview, but after this is done, I’m right back to it.

World of Goo for the iPad is the full game that you know and love. But what about if you’ve been living under a rock. What is the game about? Well, it’s a physics based puzzle game. One where you build structures out of these interconnected goo balls.

You start out not really knowing what the story is. You are just presented with a silhouetted world, the World of Goo. On the first level of Chapter 1 you are presented with a simple structure and a few goo balls roaming around. Your task is to help these goo balls escape via a vacuum tube at the top of the screen. To do this, you need to build a structure by dragging these balls, making connecting points, and thereby building structures that the free roaming goo balls can travel on.

Sounds harder to understand than it really is. It’s pretty easy to get a handle on once you have played a couple levels. Take a look at the following video and it will all make sense.

Seems simple enough, right? The difficulty does ramp up considerably. And alone the multiple chapters and levels you’ll encounter new types of goo balls. Some float, some are rubbery. All produce new challenges.

For a little background on the game, take a look at this promo video produced by the filmmakers behind Indie Game: The Movie, an in production movie about indie game developers.

World of Goo has something so many games are missing, personality, finish. It’s a great game, and it’s great to finally have it on the iPad. World of Goo in all it’s gooey glory releases on December 16th for the iPad at $9.99.

World of Goo could be considered the poster child for the Indie game movement. The game caused a bit of a wave in the game industry at a time when copy protection was getting insane and prices even more insane. It was a fully formed, professionally developed game released for just $20 without any copy protection whatsoever – and it became a hit.

If you are unfamiliar with the game, it’s a physics builder / puzzle game where the goal is to use the cute bouncy Goo balls to build a structure to allow them to escape. It’s elegant, well designed, and very engrossing. So engrossing that I’ve now bought 4 different copies of World of Goo and played through it on 3 different platforms. Yeah, it’s that good.

But World of Goo is no spring chicken. It’s been around for a few years now, yet it seems as though the iPad is a perfect fir for it. Touch makes a perfect control mechanism to control the Goo balls and the platform is large enough now that not having World of Goo available just seemed wrong. As early as late last year, the developers of 2DBoy had told us they were working in it. We find out today that it’s finally been completed and submitted to Apple for approval. We should have it really soon now.

Take a look here at a couple of the first screen shots of the game from the 2DBoy blog.

We’ll let you know as soon as we know more.

[Source: 2DBoy Blog]