After fifteen consecutive weekly updates, the immensely popular iPhone app Pocket God, which took only one week to create, has shifted into new territory providing the bite size pygmy islanders with a brand new home in Episode 15. The new island environment has been something faithful followers of the game have been pushing for since the app launched back in early January.
The latest game play sets the pygmies up on a new island complete with an old fashioned outhouse featuring farting sounds. Extended waiting for the turd closet causes an implosion too dumb for words. But that's the kind of humor that makes Pocket God such a hoot. Users are now given the opportunity to name each pygmy and to follow their personal stats, two upgrades included in Episode 14 that fans of game have been anxiously awaiting. Switching back to the original island and torture traps is also part of this recent evolution.
"A New Home" is the first part of a planned trilogy of updates followed by "The Tyrannosaurus Strikes back!" and "Return of The Pygmy!" The Bolt Creative team have announced a one dollar price hike, taking Pocket God to $1.99 after the trilogy updates are launched. I asked Dave Castelnuovo, one half of the Bolt Creative's dynamic duo, what makes this trilogy special?
"This trilogy marks a milestone for what we wanted to achieve with Pocket God," Castelnuovo said, "Everything beyond this point is a bonus."
So what does that mean? Is Pocket God coming to it's final chapter? "We're still gonna support this thing like crazy especially because it's doing well," Dave candidly responded, "It would be insane for us to kill this and take the chance that a follow up is not as successful."
Carving out an almost permanent home in the App Store's Top Ten paid apps, Pocket God still gets downloaded 7,000 to 8,000 per day. Being singled out as one of Apple's All-Time Top paid apps since the App store eclipsed over one billion downloads in nine months, is only one milestone for Pocket God. The $.99 cent "little app that could", is quickly approaching the one million sales mark with over 850 thousand units sold. That adds up to roughly $252,450 for Apple and a sweet $589, 050 in pygmy dollars for the Bolt Creative team.
"We have a shot at passing Koi Pond as the number two most sold apps of all time," Dave Castelnuovo told iPhone Savior. "We found a new niche market with Pocket God, the edgy parent who sees our app and says; ha ha that's funny."
While it seems there's no end in site for Pocket God to cash in on the iPhone gold rush, there is one thing that's certain, the pygmies will not be wearing space suits or be found running around on some planet landscape any time soon. Space pygmies was an idea suggested to Bolt Creative by some of the game's earliest and most loyal followers.
"Expect a lot more stats and the world the pygmies live in to get a lot bigger," Castelnuovo said, referring to future updates, "I don't think they'll ever make it to outer space. We want to stay with our prehistoric theme."
That tested theme has spawned a lucrative franchise for two San Francisco developers unwittingly positioned to play an epic role in Apple's iPhone gaming history. Like Pocket God, the rest of the Bolt Creative success story is still being written.
One episode at a time.
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