iPhone games (also Ipod Tooch/iPad games too)

Interestingly as I approach 100 floors I now am able to feel both ashamed of my mistakes and frustrated at the impudence of fate just as I were playing a real game with failure and consequences and shit. This weekend I accidentally built TWO recreational floors in a row, causing demand for that class to drop, and on top of that motherfuckin' Tiny Tower God gave me a goddamn theatre and a planetarium, which FUCK YOU only one guy has a dream job at the theater so the rest are seasonal stiffs who stock at the normal rate. Slowing down my revenue means it takes forever to build new floors so recovering from this tactical error is going to take all week. SHIT.

Also this game proves, perversely, the value of collective bargaining. If my 180 wage slave population individually approached me for free rent, I'd happily oblige, since rent is now a piddle proportion of my daily profit. If they struck for a larger slice of the pie that currently accrues I, as the "benevolent" overlord of this arcology that exists strictly as a vehicle for my amusement and outlet for my various latent mental disorders, I'd be well fucked. Firing my dream jobbers would be excruciating. If there's anything to learn from Tiny Tower, it's that scabs should be a terrifying prospect for any capitalist - thankfully, Tiny is a right-to-work state, like all game development studios and other "creative" workplaces.

important post

hah!

tombot u are a giant in the field of video game criticism imho

still remember this after all these years:

I realized this morning that FFT/FFTA should really just be renamed "Final Fantasy: Human Resources Management," I mean I'm only a few hours in and I already feel like I should be putting together Training And Orientation For New Hires packets or some shit. "Take him down the hall, get his badge made up, issue him a White Staff, Leather Garb and send him on a Level 1 Dispatch." WHY IS IT FUN?

-- TOMBOT (bes...), February 25th, 2005.

Short version: this is actually a game that teaches the player that the instrumental variable in any enterprise is the productivity of your workforce, and the role of the management must be to optimize that while hoping that circumstances will make it easy to do so. There's no "making lemonade," there's just sucking it up and waiting for a slow spell to pass. And trying not to make basic executive fuckups like overinvesting in a saturated market. AAAARGH.

i'm glad that people can find value in tiny towers. personally i blame it for the great seasonal depression of spring '12

saved up to buy the wizard in slayin and am terrible at controlling him. with sword dude i can get through maybe three bosses before its all over.

meanwhile i finally got two more heros on nimble numble but i think that sucked out the rest of my motivation to play because the next will be a bear to get to.

Also thank goodness there's no feature where the cute little people show up late three times in a row because of recidivist partying tendencies stemming from a rough patch with their lover, or have to move back to Wyoming for family disasters, or get diagnosed with rare wtf.

I had a spree on nimble quest this weekend, I got the demon and the forest freak and everybody has 2 stars and it is devastating. Until I get to graveyard 2 and shit gets completely out of hand - but that's how the depths felt, and the castle before that, so I know I can overcome once I get over the fact that all the other levels are totally boring now. Oops.

how did you get everyone to two stars? loading up on gems?

Yup. Half grinding for Xp to cut the price, half grinding for cash to pay up. Also trying out some diff "techniques" to see if there's better or worse ways to snake for MAXIMUM CARNAGE. My tip is to roam the edges until money or easy pickings draw you into the center; once in the open, weave back and forth so your trailers can all get more shots off and at least a few folks are always "insulated" from shots

Rats and bats are the worst imho

come to think of it the two weeks or so i played tiny towers was a xmas season ramp-up to a breakup and i might as well blame it for that

good tips. i tend to just wander randomly exposed in the middle chasing enemies. have my crew up to level one, but nobody even close to level two. not sure the gameplay engages me enough to push through that far. i mean i suppose if i was better at it the grind wouldn't be as arduous but...

ha a friend of mine got really into tiny tower after i mentioned off-handedly that i'd seen it on this thread. here are excerpts from his emails over the few days that followed

Subject: 	Tiny Tower - Reflections from the 23rd floor
	Date: 	6 April 2013 18:35:40 CEST

What astonishes me is how few flaws (not floors!) there are. I only have two tiny niggles (not towers!). Firstly, that you can't see the stock levels of items in the shop when restocking a third. So, I might be restocking my purses in Women's Fashion, suddenly a Big Spender appears in the lobby, if my lobby is full I need to decide between sending her to Women's Fashion to buy dresses, or sending her to The Soda Brewery to buy up those kegs, but I can't see the amounts due to re-stocking! This is one error I would lobby the designers to change (not in the lobby of course!).

Secondly, I think the cost of specifying what floor you want is prohibitive. Yes, I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND THERE SHOULD BE A FEE. Hey, why not make it up to thirty Tower Bux! But over 75 Bux to get a Fortune Teller instead of a Doctor's Office?! Come ON!!!!!

I love the feeling of going to bed with a really nicely stocked and balanced tower, safe in the knowledge that I will awake to over 20,000 fresh Bux and a great deal of re-stocking to be done! (My tip is to set your alarm for 3 hours before you want to get up, start re-stocking then, and when you wake up in three hours time it's the best of both worlds. Or should I say the best of both towers!)

Subject: 	Tiny Tower - Reflections from the 29th Floor
	Date: 	8 April 2013 15:43:30 CEST

I stand on the roof. Below me, the ache and grind, the chatter and clank of workman, till and lift, hum into silence. The wind catches me. Such wind up here. Wind that blasts and cackles at those who reach this high. I fear to look up, nor can I, the crick in my neck, brought on by days of slaving, restricts me so.

The wind. Again the wind. What winds disturb the leaf and matter from this floor? What dregs of street-level life can be brought to mind by such a wind.

Subject: 	Tiny Tower - Reflections from the 39th Floor
	Date: 	11 April 2013 22:29:42 CEST

It's funny really, they still ask me "Will you help find A. Fernandez? A box of chinchillas has arrived for him" or "An old friend of Amy Newman is looking for her, will you help?". Of course I will! I always have! Initially it was simply for the bux. Trust me, when you've only got a Smoothie Shop and a Giggsy's, you need those Goddamn bux! But now, with The BBQ Place just finished, I do it more to help out my Bitizens. It's nice to check in with them from time to time, maybe give their place a new coat of paint while I'm at it.

The crick in my neck has almost fully recovered. The best advice i can give to avoid future problems is to mix up the positions from which you Tower. So, half an hour sat hunched is fine, trust me! But only as long as you shift things up with an hour on your front, a pillow under your chest. Then try lying on your back, with the phone held right in front of your eyes, say for ten minutes, or until your fingers go cold. Then I'd suggest going back to the hunch, or maybe even sitting bolt upright, like an army major, phone out in direct line with your eyes. After this you can revert to position one.

Subject: 	Tiny Tower - Reflections From The Ground
	Date: 	13 April 2013 19:13:34 CEST

This may come as a huge shock to all those friends, tourists and Bitizens themselves, who had come to view this iconic building as part of their everyday life. But I'm afraid the commitment to building had come to effect my health. My neck and back ache, my eyesight has actually worsened over the past two days, and I have not been looking after myself mentally and physically.

I would like to say, for the record, that building those 42 floors was one of the most exciting, challenging experiences of my life. I will miss the hurly burly, the hustle and bustle, the coin and bux of the daily grind.

But now it's time to take on a new challenge, a little game I like to call life!...

Sorry...That should read Temple Run 2...a little game I like to call Temple Run 2

ur friend should do game reviews

haha wow that is great
and tom's description/analysis too
both also help explain why i find that game so alienating and pointless.

but will play tetris and dream pixels and etc forever

I just got a trophy for playing 125,000 cards in Fairway Solitaire. I have a problem.

i don't wanna know how long it took you to get it because i feel a similar trophy might be coming my way soon. worst part being that i keep getting fed up wiith this game yet return to it all the time because i need my damn 3 stars & cps for achieving the challenges

newish iPad mini owner, really enjoying Zen Pinball's Star Wars: Episode V table. Size/aspect works. Couldn't really see playing it on a phone.

get Pinball Arcade

Props to Dan for "ICE CUBE'S 401K" barbershop
Oh and btw I make like $400 in the time it takes me to peruse your truly tiny tower

Also I noticed your elevator upgrade. See you again after 499 bux. I promise it's worth it though for real. The lightspeed is no shit

Yours truly,

Him of the 102 floors and no stoppin' me
Chief of telling fake people to work harder
No cheating, no IAPing, just being boring, Tiny tower, LLC

Oh yeah has anybody tried this art game with the princess trapped in the tower? "Hope?"

i was hoping it was a response to sarkeesian's thing, looks like more of the same but boringer

Ok cause I know what that all means

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6p5AZp7r_Q

I was inordinately proud of "ICE CUBE'S 401K"

also inordinately proud of "CARPENTIER" which is just a stupid pun on the baroque composer Charpentier (which is "Carpenter" in French so I didn't even need to pun it)

Really into Solforge

Omfg tiny tower updated. Shit. I only had like 100 more floors before I could go back to reading books, being a dad, paying attention on con calls, etc.

yeah you can watch ads now to get sweet sweet bux

You guys

There's are other virtual worlds out there

You don't have to watch the ads to get the sweet bux

btw i made behind the back endless summer thread some time ago but i guess there's not that much to talk about: The Behind-The-Back Endless Runner Poll

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/29/game-dev-tycoon-creator-punishes-pirates-with-in-game-bankruptcy/

This story irks me. Congrats to these guys for ripping off Game Dev Story, charging eight bucks for it, and then finding a way to make the whole thing about themselves. The fact that they cracked their own game makes it hard to sympathize with them. Granted, I've never stolen a game and pay for iOS titles all the time, so maybe it's not about people like me, but this shit is kinda blowing up. It's a good troll job I guess.

Dude, Little Inferno is an awesome game. Takes about 3-hours to play, ending is great, sense of humor is appropriately demented.

Those game dev tycoon guys are totally the college freshmen of life
Old news is always news to someone

I seem to have hit the wall in nimble quest.
Otoh I now have an aquarium staffed by people dressed as fancy waiters
The fun never ends

i knocked down my stupid tiny tower at 50 floors, what a terrible game

I am obsessed with getting to 100 floors in Tiny Tower. Currently at 54 (technically 55 but top floor isn't done yet)

Tombot I'm gonna have the light speed elevator by end of next week, I think

yeah it was such a terrible game i played it for a month

I have noticed your unseemly accrual of bux Dan
Lightspeed was the only logical explanation - aim high but be forewarned, after that, it is all paint, cosplay and HAVING ALL OF THE FLOORS AND ALL OF THE STARS and well mostly having nothing better to do while commuting or waiting on meetings to begin/ end

Tombot > Tim Rogers

a stale piece of dry corn bread > Tim Rogers

I have fantastic hair

Holy shitballs @ the lightspeed elevator

Played The Last Express off a rec in another thread, goddamn is it good! Possibly the best gaming experience I've had on my iPhone. Cheers, ILX!

anyone played reiner knizia's ra & tiger&euphrates? the price of both of those dropped to less than a buck on the app store so i'm thinking of getting one or both.

T&E is my favorite of the two but both would be worth getting. The AI isn't too difficult to beat but it's still fun. There's also online and pass and play, I haven't tried online though. Maybe I can convince someone to get it to play with me since it's on sale. I see Le Havre is also a dollar, I think I'm going to get it.

i posted about this on the board game geek thread and yeah noticed le havre is cheap too. i've never played any of these, i think i'll get all three, it's only a buck after all. is there any way to track how much you've spent on the app store btw? cos i feel that my constant "it's only a buck after all" might add up to a quite a bit.

Expecting big things from The Last Express, have had to clear 3gb of space just to get it to download.