GDC 2010: No More Giggles

By: Derek Yu

On: March 19th, 2010

A week after Tommy Refenes (Super Meat Boy) declared the Apple App Store to be the Tiger Electronics handheld of this generation (part of the Indie Game Maker Rant session), Apple has removed his zit-popping game Zits & Giggles from the App Store. As an experiment, Tommy raised the price tier every time someone bought Zits & Giggles, with people eventually buying the game for $300. He concluded that the iPhone audience was not primarily gamers and that games like Street Fighter, Assassin’s Creed, and Mega Man, which play poorly on the iPhone (like games ported to the Tiger Electronic Handheld), are nothing more than a way to sell a brand.

Apple has not responded, so it’s unclear whether they are retaliating against Tommy’s rant or his price-raising experiment. Or both.

Posted in Community, Developers, IGF / GDC, Mobile / Handheld | Tags: TommyRefenes

Gutter

I like the cut of that guy’s gib.
http://waxingerratic.wordpress.com ECM

He’s pretty much exactly right, and I do quite enjoy his meta-game (yea, I’m sick of the phrase, too, but it fits) of raising the price every time it was purchased since he was kinda playing the people buying it.
http://adamatomic.com Adam Atomic

i don’t know much but I do know this: tommy just wants his family back.
Dodger

Interesting experiment, but I’m curious, did they pull his game because he kept incrementally raising the price OR was it because of his rant about iPhone customers not being gamers?

I have no data on the subject, but I’d have to agree, most iPhone owners aren’t gamers… they’re mostly just trendy assholes (like The Offspring once said). Or are just technophiliacs who can’t live without buying the newest technology available, the kind of people that buy things not for their usefulness but for their look or how they think people will look at and perceive them for owning this gadgetry (again, because they’re pretentious assholes). I don’t think that about all of the iPhone customers, just the majority. Not that there aren’t inventive and fun ideas and games for the iPhone, I just think the customer base is filled with half-wits.

Still, when exactly was his game pulled? Was it before or after the rant? Obviously you can’t bite the hand that feeds you but I think Tommy will survive quite well (with Super Meat Boy and future developments) even without the appstore.
Phasma Felis

I don’t own an iPhone. It looks fun and useful, but it’s too pricey for me, and fuck their closed ecosystem. It sucks that Tommy’s game got pulled, too.

That said. I am so sick of this wanky self-important “theyâ€™re mostly just trendy assholes/the customer base is filled with half-wits” bullshit, over pretty much any technology item the speaker doesn’t want. Xbox owners say it about PS3 fans, PS3 says it about Xbox, they both say it about the Wii, PC and Linux and Mac users all say it to each other. Get over yourself. People are allowed to have different needs and tastes than you. They are not faking it just to be trendy.
Dodger

You wrote that just to be trendy! ;-P
http://www.klikscene.com/ Radix

Phasma Felis: I really don’t think that was the point here.
C.A. Sinclair

Yeah, he’s right. The iPhone isn’t primarily a gaming platform and most of the games people play are “casual” type stuff that’s good for five minute sessions on the bus. I don’t really see what’s so bad about that though.

Also, calling people “not gamers” in a derogatory manner is on the level of the Gamespot forums.
C.A. Sinclair

Can someone delete my earlier comment as well as this? I just realized I made myself look like an idiot.
Let me say it

Yeah let’s use tigsource to make publicity for this guy, because he’s a friend of a friend.

@Casinclair: don’t worry, you always look like an idiot.
Paul

For whichever reason they pulled it (and his experiment was incredibly distasteful), this only serves to further showcase the problems and dangers of Apple’s grip over the store. God forbid a world where all software is vetted and monitored.
Derek

10: Oh yeah, I forgot that rule of the internet that if you mention someone who someone knows in real life you are “circle-jerking”.

Well, you know what, it feels good and it helps maintain a healthy prostate! When you make some friends you should try it out.
Garbled

It’s hard to find his experiment distasteful when he’s “preying” on the rich and foolish.
AGuy

Yeah, but they could’ve misread the prices : Although I guess that’s unlikely, or else the prices would not have gone up, they would’ve just stayed at their original volume
Tommunism

Just so everyone knows…you can return apps on the appstore. Most haven’t. Also the price was listed at $349.99 or whatever. The store doesn’t round up. Now, to further perpetuate my scam, everyone send me $400 for no reason.
Noyb

Do we know that everyone who bought the game at the inflated price did so intentionally? Maybe some kid did it as a laugh, and sent a desperate email complaining to Apple once his parents found out? Or another customer bought it, misreading the price as 100-fold cheaper?

Regardless, the lack of communication between Apple and the developer is absolutely terrible. The sad part is that this experiment will probably result in Apple making the App Store even more restrictive, with moderation for expensive games, or possibly an XBLIG-style cap on how expensive an app can be.
Noyb

Hmm… did the app description still read that it cost “a friggin dollar” when it was pulled? They might have been able to use that discrepancy to pull it on a technicality.
AGuy

*else the sales would not have gone up
Jay

Apple, despite what their 1984 tv ad would have you believe, loves to censor. Anyone else remember this 2005 gem?
Seamus

Dick move from both parties.

Tommy’s right though. The iPhone/pad/touch is bad news for gaming on many levels.
Dodger

I like the idea behind the experiment, but I’d like to know why exactly the game was pulled. Was it the rant or the inflation?

Also, Apple and Microsoft are both already very restrictive in their markets. They didn’t create a particular app (and you did) then they want control of it – same old story, however they already have markets cornered so gouging isn’t really necessary for any business to be healthy, they’re just taking advantage of the situation. If either company can monopolize (which they have) then they will, and will continue to do so. It’s good business for them, and some people see monopolies and capitalism as smart and not entirely unethical, but I’m not so sure.

I like the little experiment Tommy did though. I don’t know what initially made him want to do it and what does it really say about the iPhone consumer base? I don’t know, but it’s still damn interesting. If only we could find out why people would keep buying it as the price went up and what demographic do they fall into?

It would be nice to see more experiments like this, that don’t involve scamming. Clearly, everyone who paid for the app saw what the price was and they weren’t forced to buy it, so what’s the motivation?
Anarkex

Steve Jobs said one day that the iPhone is a legitimate handheld gaming system despite having no buttons or games. I still don’t know how he got people to run with that.
Snow

This is a response to the post and to all the comments:
>.< What's it going to be??? Do you like or hate iPhones/iPods? One week, one sees praise for the platform, the next week, everyone's shitting on it. Who cares what the opinion of one indie developer is. To each his own. If it hadn't been for the personal computer - many many indies would not have existed. At first the computer wasn't meant to be a gaming machine either, it was meant just as a tool to improve daily life. The iPhone too is a tool, but is gaming capable. And what's so bad about casual gaming? If I made and sold a game that was only played for 10 minutes by a businessman waiting for a taxi... is that bad? I've played games for the last 28 years. Everything from Atari 2600 and table top arcades to the present xbox and visually dazzling FPS's on my gaming rig. I've played all kinds of games. Little 10 minute time-wasting casual games are absolutely no threat to any other type of game PERIOD! Personally I enjoy them. Sometimes I get tired of constantly rebuilding my sentries in TF2. Sometimes I sit back and amuse myself for a few minutes with the likes of Doodle Jump or some little GameMaker project I found online. As a newbie developer myself, I'm very excited about this platform, because I WANT TO MAKE CASUAL GAMES. It all comes down to "having fun". If it's fun, it's worth it. As for commercial AAA giants selling downgraded content on the iPhone... well what do you think? Who the hell wouldn't want Mega Man in their pocket!? Ok, so the controls suck or the graphics/sound are shitty. It's still FREAKING MEGA MAN! I can always go home, fire up my little MAMECube and play the most graphically and colour-perfect Mega Man 2 you could ever see on an HDTV. (Yes I play roms and yes I do own an actual NES and actual MM2 cart) But, perhaps I'm on my daily commute and just need a bit of Mega Man fix.. don't have my gba or ds with me, but, I got it on my iPhone. Also, to finish off with the downgraded AAA titles... again why would they NOT be on the best selling list!? They're versions of top-rated games sold to millions of gamers. The marketing is already DONE. The super-versions of each game has already been out so long that the majority of gamers and non-gamers alike know about them. - Casual non-gamer business stiff, looking through the list of games for some new ones to waste time with.. sees a familiar title... "Oh, hmm, I've heard of Modern Warfare. I think I saw an ad for it on TV or something or a write up about it in the entertainment section of the newspaper. I think it was quite good. Shit! It's only $10! Well, I'll download it and try it out."
Snow

Whoops sorry. Mean’t to make the “frustrated” emoticon, but now I learned how to post a block quote. :D
culvet

The idea that it is impossible to have a good game on the Iphone or that the Iphone is “dangerous” to gaming is absurd. It can be a fantastic platform for casual and puzzle games. Nowhere else will you find multi-touch touch screens. This means that games like Eliss are impossible to do anywhere but the Iphone. Heck, the Gamma IV one-button gaming competition shows that you can make a fun game that only uses one single button.

The app store, however, is a completly different story.
paul eres

it’s a pity they took that off, i had hoped to see how high it would go ($1000? $5000?). apple hates art games, it seems.
judgespear

not really an artgame, more like a joke just to see how well it’d actually sell
Garbled

Art, joke, joke, art… sometimes they are one.
Oddball

His experiment doesn’t really show anything if he hasn’t surveyed the people who payed for the game. Everyone is merely making assumptions about who has bought the game and why, and in the end we don’t get any real answers.
Bob

The real answer lies inside each and everyone one of us… if you only stop and listen.
JWK5

His experiment proves that if you don’t give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to intelligence you can make a lot of money from them. I once saw on Ebay a guy selling his toenail clippings, which I think got him like $5 in the end, yet another guy was selling a date with himself *for free* and couldn’t get a single taker.
http://blearekingdoms.wordpress.com/ SunnyKatt

Ugh, I hate apple. They are such totalitarian dictators, removing anything at all that they feel threatened by.
bateleur

My guess would be that Apple received a complaint from one of the users who paid a crazy amount for the game.
Kinten

I fail to see the point of this.
To me it just feels like stating the obvious.
Super anon

People won’t donate five bucks to a starving freeware developer because they’re not “getting anything in return”, but they will gladly spend hundreds of dollars on shovelware for their trendy handheld device.

This shit really depresses me :(
Seamus

I don’t think the iPhone is ‘dangerous’ for gaming, but I really detest the closed system that Apple has created. Microsoft got burned to hell and back for having the sort of monopoly that Apple does.

@ Culvet – The only reason multitouch interfaces are not seen on other systems is because Apple went to great lengths to patent the technology. Which is really a bit like when Atari tried to patent the platform game, except Apple actually succeeded.
chrknudsen

Huh? Apple doesn’t have a monopoly on multi-touch screens. You can buy plenty of netbooks with multi-touch screens. Or do you mean on smart phones?
Rhodesy

It’s a lot easier for an start up, indie developer to make something a small “casual game” for platforms like the IPhone… over spend months and months making a larger game which may flop.

I like the app store, but I don’t like the control Apple have over developers.
Seamus

@ chrknudsen – I believe the patent covers small-form portable electronic devices or something similar. Eitherway I know they’re trying to sue the pants off HTC for including multitouch on some of their handsets.
Sean

I halfway agree with what this guy is saying. I think his experiment was kinda funny, too, but I can totally see how Apple wouldn’t like it. If left to continue, it would be the go-to evidence for the statement “most iphone owners are rich tasteless tools who buy things for no reason.” Yeah, I can see how that wouldn’t fit with the image they’d like to have. That said, if the shoe fits…

And for those iphone owners out there, I don’t really mean the above quote, because you can’t really make a generalization about millions of people from a couple dozen, but 110% of average people aren’t good at statistics.

As for the part I agree with: the iPhone is terrible for console games. But consoles are terrible for RTSs, the Wii is terrible for waggle-gestures (can we use that for expressive controls instead of a poor substitute for buttons sometime before the console dies?), the Xbox is terrible for atmospheric games (You got an acheivement! Thanks, Microsoft. Glad to know you wanted to ruin the moment telling me about useless things), the PC is terrible at standardization. Those are the short list of platform-specific weaknesses. As developers, we should learn to work WITH the strengths of a platform, not against their weaknesses. The problem with all shovelware is that it’s a cash-in based primarily on putting a particular brand on a given platform without a care about whether it works well or belongs there.
chrknudsen

@Seamus: Yeah, I tried to see if I could find some other smart phones with multi-touch, but Google only turned up some articles about possible upcoming multi-touch smart phones from some companies (as well as some way to enable it on HTC, I believe). It’s incredible what Apple has patents on. :/
Yakatori

Good for Apple to lay the smackdown on this very immature act.
Archagon

Eliss, Mini Squadrons, Flight Control, Space Invaders Infinity Gene, MinMe, Labyrinth 2, Cross Fingers, Edge, Angry Birds, Spirit, Hook Champ, Unify, Canabalt, Spider, etc. There are plenty of unique, platform-specific games on the iPhone. So what if they’re “casual”? Core mechanics are far more important than hours and hours of content, in my opinion.
Archagon

*platform-exclusive
MichaelJackson’sGhost

He has a point but is it really such a big deal. There are also good apps in the appstore too. What is he proposing? Apple should shut down the app store? Just another self-proclaimed indie complaining about something for the sake of complaining about something. Immature and unprofessional.
jon schubbe

@MichaelJackson’sGhost

I think the appstore is a way to bum money off people in the first place. It’s probably one reason they aren’t implementing Adobe Flash Player into it. You could just play Flash games for free then instead of buying them from the store.

They know people who travel a lot and buy the product in the first place have spare cash to just spend sporadically when they’re bored. It’s a business but some could call it a scam as well, just allowing nearly any crap game to advertise itself on an equal level as the other actual good games on there.

And that was Tommy’s point. (Maybe). The appstore just allows anything to be on it and compete with everyone else so people buy a shitload of shit games. If you walk into Gamestop you will find that there are far fewer games in there than in the AppStore.

It’s probably a bad example nowadays but 150 exclusively published games are probably going to be better as a collective than 50000 cheaper games.

He was probably experimenting to find out how many people would buy an app just for the sake of buying it like many do on many other apps and not making educated purchases like they are supposed to.
ShawnF

Interesting to me that he’s blaming the app store when what’s really at fault here is retarded consumers who care more about brand than quality.

apple allowed people to publish pretty much whatever they hell they wanted, and it turns out that most of what got bought is garbage. he’s ranting in the wrong direction.
Sninnyer

My HTC Hero has a multi-touch screen. Lots of phones have them.
http://www.klikscene.com Radix

@ShawnF:
I didn’t pick up a sense of *blame* either way; just ranting about the state of the thing.
Caiman

It’s a bit pointless though, isn’t it? All the experiment showed was that with a large enough audience, someone will fall for your scam. Doesn’t tell you anything else about the audience though. What does the amount of people who fall for scam emails tell you about people who use email?

I have an iPhone, and it’s one of four gaming platforms I own (PC, 360, PSP, iPhone). There are certainly some excellent games on there that use the touchscreen interface intelligently, but it’s no surprise there’s a lot of crap there too as with any device with a large audience.