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Pocket Trains: Hands-On Video of NimbleBit's Newest Simulation Game

Posted by Carter Dotson on September 20th, 2013

NimbleBit is following up Pocket Planes with perhaps the next-best transportation option: trains. Yes, Pocket Trains is now a real thing coming very soon, and fans of NimbleBit's simulation games should be at home here with a refreshed take on the Pocket Planes formula when it releases on September 26th.

This is another simulation game, very similar to Pocket Planes in that players must tote cargo around the world. But instead of flying around, they travel along rail lines. Players start on one continent and must earn money by delivering cargo to various destinations, building new rail lines to more cities, trying to become the head honcho among the world's railroad tycoons. Oh, and there's a giant underwater rail that goes from Europe to the United States in the Nimbleverse, apparently.

The game has become somewhat simplified versus Pocket Planes in two key ways: one, because trains only travel on rails, the trains can only travel on paths, and only the rails that they have claimed, so a particularly-colored track can only travel on those colored tracks. It makes managing where everything needs to go much simpler. Secondly, there's no negative costs incurred through travel anymore, though trains do break down and need repairing with coins or parts from time to time.

New train acquisition has been changed as well, with new parts collected through crates that need to be opened by spending bux. The crates contain random parts, with rarer special crates providing rarer parts. This is the kind of system that some developers could make incredibly IAP-driven, but bux and crates appear commonly enough while playing that they actually feel like a part of the game rather than just a monetization tool.

The bitizens don't play as much of a role in Pocket Trains: they're mostly just set dressing, and there's no customization of the conductors, yet. Still, they provide a flavor that makes the game feel quite familiar. As well, there's plenty of goofy-looking cargo: why not transport giant platforms of balloons or a giant cola bottle?

But overall, it will be interesting to see how well the simplified take on Pocket Planes goes over: it does feel a bit less stressful while still having some strategy in how rail lines should be laid out. The world will see when the game releases on September 26th.

Pocket Trains Gets An Exciting New Trailer That's Totally Special

Posted by Andrew Stevens on September 11th, 2013

Love trains? Well, an exciting and must-see new trailer has released for the upcoming iOS game, Pocket Trains. It features the sexiest sounding horn you'll ever hear. Well, I guess I can't say that for sure, but the guy in the video sure got excited about it! Check out the special trailer below!

App Store Insiders: Ian Marsh, Co-Founder of NimbleBit

Posted by Jeff Scott on July 9th, 2013

Ian Marsh and his brother David are the founders of NimbleBit, creators of such iOS game classics as the 2011 Game of the Year Tiny Tower, Pocket Frogs, Pocket Planes, and a true App Store classic, Scoops. NimbleBit games have been downloaded over 70 million times with an amazing 5 million in-app purchases.

NimbleBit has been heralded as a great developer of "non-annoying" free to play games, games that make their players want to buy upgrades instead of annoying them into purchases. Many game developers should take note.

148Apps: How has the App Store changed your professional life?


Ian Marsh, NimbleBit: The App Store has had quite an impact on my professional life, allowing me to quit my day job and run our own independent studio with my brother Dave. Back in 2008 I coded up a quick little puzzle game called Hanoi to learn iPhone development. Soon after the App Store launched I was approved as a developer and I threw it up on the App Store in the hopes a few people would download it. After a few days it ended up at #1 free, and after quickly releasing a "plus" version for 99c the App Store began paying more than my day job. I gave my two weeks noticed and never looked back, probably the best professional decision I've ever made!

148Apps: If you have one single success within the App Store you'd like to highlight, what would it be?


Ian Marsh: Our shining star has definitely been Tiny Tower. It won iPhone Game of the Year from Apple in 2011 and has had more success than all our other games put together (and there have been a lot of them). It is commonly held as an example of "ethical" free to play game design, and even brought the spotlight of the industry on NimbleBit after it was cloned by Zynga. Having been our most successful brand we're hoping to continue to expand the Bitizen world moving forward and should have some exciting announcements later this year!

148Apps: What about one thing you have done that you think should have taken off, but never did?


Ian Marsh: One of the most fun things we've ever done on an iPad was the Battle mini-game in Dizzypad HD, our first iPad title. It is this great local multiplayer game where two people each control a frog that jumps from spinning lily pad to spinning lily pad, trying to eat the other frog. It actually ends up being a really intense twitch game that would have us screaming in the office for hours. Unfortunately it was launched soon after the first iPad and was hidden away behind an in-app purchase so it didn't have that wide of an audience. I'd love to resurrect it at some point, maybe for a different platform though, (would work great with controllers)!

148Apps: In the five years since launch, the App Store has gone through considerable changes. The number of users has skyrocketed along with downloads, prices for paid apps has stabilized way lower than many expected, free to play has dominated the top grossing charts. If, knowing what you know about the App Store now, you could go back and influence your path five years ago, what would you say?


Ian Marsh: If I could go back in time and talk to our past selves I think I would advise us to stop most new development after we had the success of Tiny Tower and really double down on building it into as big of a brand as we could. I think having recognizable brands and IP are going to be even more important going forward and I don't think we'll be creating any new ones that have the kind of appeal Tiny Tower does (I hope I'm wrong though)! I'd also try to convince ourselves to have switched to Unity3D development a few years before we did as self-publishing our previous games on Android would have been very valuable.

148Apps: What have you seen on the App Store, outside of apps you are associated with, that has surprised you most?


Ian Marsh: In the past year or two I've been surprised at the range of success small indies have had, we've watched Imangi's Temple Run come out of nowhere and take over the world while other indie's release quality games that fall completely flat. I don't think you're guaranteed any kind of success on the App Store these days, even with an incredible app.

148Apps: Any predictions for what the App Store will be like five years from now?


Ian Marsh: Given how much has changed in the last five years that seems like a hard thing to predict, but I expect the basics will remain the same. I don't see Apple restricting access to the App Store but I do expect there will be a number of new platforms we'll be developing for 5 years from now. I think each new platform will be another type of gold-rush but this time you'll have to compete with some very seasoned and skilled developers. I certainly don't expect things to get any less exciting in the next five years!

Thanks to Ian Marsh for his time. You can check out all of NimbleBit's games on the App Store.

Nimble Quest Review

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
By Carter Dotson on March 28th, 2013
Our rating: starstarstarstarhalfstar :: SNAKING AROUND
NimbleBit has another free-to-play winner on their hands, with a combination of Snake and RPG elements in the new Nimble Quest.
Read The Full Review »

Link: Pocket Planes Soars Onto Mac App Store, Offers iOS-saved Game Play

Posted by Rob LeFebvre on October 8th, 2012

The fantastic hit game, Pocket Planes, is now on the Mac App Store, and Nimblebit sent us some great news on the way it will interact with the iOS version.

Players will be able to manage their airline from the comfort of their Mac, and pickup right where they left off on their iOS device when they're on the go! The Mac version also introduces an exclusive plane model, the "X10 Mapple Pro" obtainable only on the Mac version.

In celebration of Pocket Planes coming to the Mac, as well as its recent arrival on Android, we've released the first in a series of "Pocket Planes Shorts." A collaboration with LoadingReadyRun, "Pocket Planes Shorts" as well as upcoming "Tiny Tower Shorts" will showcase the lighter side of living in the bitizen universe!


Pocket Planes Review

By Carter Dotson on June 19th, 2012
Pocket Planes is NimbleBit's latest free to play title that has players flying bitizens across the globe, and it's an extremely fun and addicting experience.
Read The Full Review »

Dream Heights Launched, Receives Many One Star Reviews

Posted by Brad Hilderbrand on February 17th, 2012

Dream Heights, the new freemium game from Zynga that looks an awful lot like Tiny Tower, has officially been launched on the US App Store. And, proving that gamers have long and vengeful memories, the title has promptly been slammed with a whole mess of One Star reviews. Choice morsels include "Blatant copy of Tiny Tower mechanics /w a Zynga art dept. skin. But I have to say, the way Zynga innovated with regards to being stingy with in app currency is nothing short of ground breaking," and "Wow, not a Tiny Tower ripoff. Not at all. Completely different in every way." As of right now the game has received 311 One Star ratings, but that number has been largely overwhelmed by the 1263 Five Star ratings it's also seen.

Zynga has been accused of shady business practices in the past, but this time around the community seems to be taking particular offense. Part of the controversy stems from the fact that Zynga attempted to buy out Tiny Tower developer Nimblebit at one point, but was refused. Thus, many are taking the launch of Dream Heights as a slap in the face to the smaller company. Still, it seems the rage has all but abated, and it appears Zynga may weather the fury of the Internet and come away largely unscathed. The game is currently averaging a Four Star overall review score, and the average iOS social gamer is probably largely unaware of the controversy. We'll wait a bit and see if there's any long-term effects, but for now it seems that Zynga's future (and stock price) remains mostly unaffected.

The Portable Podcast, Episode 91

Posted by Carter Dotson on June 28th, 2011

You know, we call it pixel art, but isn't all art displayed on a digital display pixel art?

On This Episode:

  • Carter speaks to Ben Hopkins of Kode80 about his new retro-inspired platformer, 1-Bit Ninja. They discuss the inspirations behind the game, and the 3D aspects of the game.
  • Carter speaks to Ian Marsh of NimbleBit about his company's new freemium game, Tiny Tower. They discuss what went into the game's freemium elements, and NimbleBit's philosophies about freemium games and trying to get people to pay for content in their games.

  • Who We Are:

  • Host: Carter Dotson
  • Guest: Ben Hopkins, Kode80
  • Guest: Ian Marsh, NimbleBit

  • Contact The Show: Email | Twitter

    Music:

  • "Beatnes7 (Theme to The Portable Podcast)" by The Eternal - Download on iTunes here:


  • "Nanocarp" by The Eternal

  • How to Listen:

  • Click Here to Subscribe in iTunes:
  • Click Here to Subscribe via RSS.

  • Listen on WRGT Radio every Friday at 4pm Central
  • Listen Here: [powerpress]
  • Apps Mentioned in this Episode:

    Tiny Tower Review

    + Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
    By Carter Dotson on June 23rd, 2011
    Our rating: starstarstarstarblankstar :: TOWERING
    Tiny Tower is a freemium tower-building game that involves building shops and apartments for pixelated residents who live and work in the tower.
    Read The Full Review »

    Pocket Frogs Review

    + Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
    By Chris Hall on September 15th, 2010
    Our rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar :: SLIGHTLY UNIQUE
    Pocket Frogs might be the first "freemium" game that lets you do something other than wait. Score 1 for NimbleBit.
    Read The Full Review »

    Friday Five for May 28th, 2010

    Posted by Jeff Scott on May 28th, 2010

    Bonnie is away this weekend, so I thought I'd jump in and present the weekly favorite five. We've got a mixed bag this week with everything from a triple-A game to a personal medical app.

    Splinter Cell: Conviction
    Another week, another blockbuster game comes to the iPhone and iPod Touch, this time from Gameloft. This week we have the iPhone port of Splinter Cell: Conviction. This game has a lot of the splashy effects of the console version including the text projected on the scenery that everyone is so impressed with, the mark and shoot, etc. And of course there is all of the stealthy goodness. Grab it now, but don't let anyone see you.

    Wired Magazine
    Get 'yer future of magazine publishing here. Fresh off the tubes. Wired magazine showed off their idea of the future of magazine publishing would be a few months ago and now they have delivered it. All 500 MB of it. There are embedded movies, connected links, and interactive illustrations. But at $4.99, it's crazy expensive. Digital should never be much more than print - and this is 6x the usual $10/year subscription cost of Wired. They need to do something about that, but the app itself is pretty great - I could get used to reading magazines like this. But, only if they are comparable in price.

    Cubed Rally Racer
    We got word about Cubed Rally Racer last week and we were impressed with the video. It looked like a fun casual racer. Well it has now been approved and it's as fun as we'd hoped. You race your boxy race car around various courses avoiding traps, hitting jumps, and collecting red gas cans. Check this one out.

    Web MD
    iPad loving hypochondriacs rejoice! WebMD has released a great iPad app providing lots of the functionality of their website, butmade it portable. The app includes features like symptom checker, drug database and pill identifier, and basic first aid information. A great app to have available at your fingertips.

    The Facility
    This mystery game was created as a project by students at Tufts University. The game has no, and needs no explanation except swipe or tap the sides to move between rooms. The game is a mystery and you have to solve it. Discover what happened at the facility. A bit spooky, very dark and mysterious, grab this game before they start to charge for it!

    Omium
    And since I can, I think I will throw in another app. A bonus to make up for the fact that you have to put up with me while Bonnie is away.

    Omium from Nimblebit is innovative in a few ways. For one, two players share the same screen, one defending and one attacking. While one player is directing the attack ships, another player is trying to stay alive by shooting them or avoiding them. While the game itself looks simple, the ideas behind and the possibilities for the future are not. It's a very fun, well made two player game for the iPad.

    Dizzypad

    iPhone App - Designed for iPhone, compatible with iPad
    By Arron Hirst on February 25th, 2010
    Our rating: starstarstarstarblankstar :: FUN
    Continuing Nimblebit's strong track record, Dizzypad is a one-tap platformer. Described by many as "Koi Pond meets Doodle Jump", this game requires a huge amount of timing and skill as you make that all important leap from floating lily pad to floating li
    Read The Full Review »

    Monday Morning App HQ

    Posted by Will on October 12th, 2009

    Random musings of the App Store

    Alchemize App Store Pricing Protest

    This weekend, in a protest against supposedly 3400 emails complaining about the $2.99 price of their app Alchemize, Schiau Studios raised the price to $39.99 for the weekend. Yes, it's a hilarious protest against whiners who complain about spending a few bucks, but Schiau is not entirely in the right. Alchemize was originally priced at $9.99 and then quickly lowered until it was only $.99 for a short time. I can't blame people for waiting for another sale. If Schiau truly wanted to protest App Store pricing, they would have come up with a fair price, stuck to it, and never changed it amid protests. By acknowledging the whiners, Schiau has granted them some legitimacy.

    PSP Minis

    Sometimes it's good to take a look at our beloved App Store's rival, the PSP Mini store. The store has launched and two of its biggest name games have already made an appearance on the iPhone (and for cheaper): Hero of Sparta and Fieldrunners. In addition, Chillingo and Mountain Sheep's Minigore is on the way. What do all of these games have in common? In my estimation, they're three of the most overrated games on the App Store. Hero of Sparta had good visuals for its time, but the dull one-button hack and slash affair has so many pre-rendered cinematic animations it's like watching a movie. Fieldrunners has a great art style and was admittedly one of the first open-path TD's on the App Store, but there's only a few enemy types and tower types, and it lacks the depth of the genre luminaries such as Sentinel 2 and Defender Chronicles. Minigore has nice aesthetics as well, but it's an average two-stick survival shooter with little depth, easily outclassed by games such as Alive 4 Ever. Sony, wake me up when you manage to get some good games.

    Nimblebit's Freebie Friday

    This Friday, Nimblebit lowered all their apps to free in celebration of their newly launched site App Classics! Even if you missed the deal, the apps are still worth buying; Nimblebit is the best in the business at creating fun, short, and addictive games such as Scoops and Textropolis. This move was interesting from a marketing standpoint, and certainly created buzz. In fact, Ian Marsh reported via Twitter that Saturday's sales were double normal and more than made up for Friday's losses.

    This week's upcoming app that looks frickin' awesome!

    This is the inaugural issue of this feature where I'll be showing off some upcoming games that look awesome (though I've been doing it unofficially for quite some time). This week, we have Jet Car Stunts, an awesome-looking racing game in the vein of Track Mania. The game is due to be submitted within the next week. Enjoy!


    This week's sign of the apocalypse

    A few weeks ago, Chris used this space to talk about how happy he was that Glu's awful Family Guy cash-in was doing poorly in the App Store. Well, times have changed, and apparently Stewie is enough to make a poor game reach #9 on Top Grossing Apps.

    App of the Week

    Soosiz

    Soosiz is without question the best platformer yet on the App Store. The game uses gravity-centered gameplay, like that of Gomi, but much more fast-paced, to turn a good platform adventure into something extraordinary. The level design is excellent, and the difficulty curve is just right. Controls are great as well. There's only a left arrow, a right arrow, and a jump button, but they are all perfectly responsive and work brilliantly in unison, making you almost forget you're playing on a touch screen.. The graphics are cartoony and playful, and the only big flaw of the game is the sometimes overly-childish music. Other than that though, Soosiz is a magnificent achievement is App Store platforming, and it's one of the most fun games I've played in a while, coming highly recommended.

    Ian Marsh Launches 'App Classics'

    Posted by Arron Hirst on October 6th, 2009
    iPhone App - Designed for iPhone, compatible with iPad
    Our rating: starstarstarstarhalfstar :: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED :: Read Review »

    Today I got the heads up on a new app-centric site which Nimblebit's Ian Marsh has debuted. It's called App Classics, and it's been dubbed "The iTunes App Store's Missing Hall of Fame". As I understand it, it's set to become the collection of App Store cream of the crop.

    The site itself is set out in a suave 'book-case' fashion, similar to the interface of Classics for iPhone. Using App Classics you can search any of the App Store's 20 individual app categories, returning the most popular applications for each of those categories based on sales and user ratings. Ian explained that each app is then given an award of either a gold, silver, or bronze medal depending on how established of a "classic" they are calculated to be by the site.

    In Ian's words:

    "App Classics searches the App Store to calculate the all-time most popular high quality apps available on iTunes for iPhone and iPod Touch. Behind the scenes, iTunes rating information is crunched, sifted, and percolated in a secret formula to find and grade the truly classic apps."

    Clicking an individual app icon from the front page provides a short insight into what each app looks like by providing a few screenshots, as well as displaying extracts of recent reviews, a short write up of the app's purpose, a video review and (of course) that all important ranking. Throughout the site you can also share each of your findings with the world, either via Facebook or Twitter.

    An interesting project I'm sure you'll agree. One I'm sure I'll be using and following. You can follow Ian (@Eeen) or App Classics on Twitter at @AppClassics for the latest.

    Sky Burger

    By Bonnie Eisenman on May 13th, 2009
    Sky Burger is a new and improved version of Scoops—but in my opinion, that's not saying much. The game isn't difficult enough to be fun or challenging, and assembling burgers is more of a chore than a diversion.
    Read The Full Review »