Pocket God
Encyclopedia
This page is about the computer video game. For the comic, see Pocket God (comics)
Pocket God (comics)
Pocket God is a series of digital and paperback comic books–strips, published by Ape Entertainment, published and marketed by iVerse Media, released for iOS devices, and available as a print in retailers, via contest, on August 3, 2010. The comic is currently written by Jason M. Burns and drawn by...

.

Pocket God is a god game
God game
A god game is an artificial life game that casts the player in the position of controlling the game on a large scale, as an entity with divine/supernatural powers, as a great leader, or with no specified character , and places them in charge of a game setting containing autonomous characters to...

 developed by Bolt Creative
Bolt Creative
Bolt Creative is a developer and publisher of video games based in San Francisco, United States. It was founded in 2001 by Dave Castelnuovo as an Adobe Flash development studio...

, in which the player manipulates an island and its inhabitants. It was originally released for the iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...

, iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

, and iPod Touch
IPod Touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...

 on January 9, 2009, and later released for Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless
Cellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, is one of the largest mobile network operators in the United States. The network has 107.7 million subscribers as of 2011, making it the largest wireless service provider in America....

 on September 1, 2010, Android on December 1, 2010, and Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market...

 on December 4, 2010. The closed beta for the Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

 game was announced December 1, 2010.

Gameplay

Pocket God is a god game in which the player takes the role of an omnipotent being who rules over an island and controls everything. The primitive islanders, known as Pygmies, are subject to the player's god powers. These range from benevolent powers, such as giving the islanders a fishing rod, to destructive, for example summoning a hurricane, or simply entertaining, such as levitating the Pygmies. Built-in features of iOS, the iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...

, and iPod Touch
IPod Touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...

 are used, such as the accelerometer
Accelerometer
An accelerometer is a device that measures proper acceleration, also called the four-acceleration. This is not necessarily the same as the coordinate acceleration , but is rather the type of acceleration associated with the phenomenon of weight experienced by a test mass that resides in the frame...

 to simulate gravity and earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...

s. Most of these features can be toggled on the game's menu bar. The "March of the Fire Ants" update also added a new feature known as OpenFeint
OpenFeint
OpenFeint is a social platform and application for the iOS and recently also available for Android. It was developed by Aurora Feint, a company named after the video game of the same name, by the same developers. It is used by multiple iPhone applications...

, where players can access chat rooms, leaderboards, achievements, and announcements during gameplay. Pocket God was ranked number one on iTunes for at least six months.
One of the game's most notable features is the regular release of updates introducing additional content. The episodes "A New Home", "Dead Pygmy Walking", and "The Pyg Chill" added additional islands to the game, which can be toggled from the menu
Menu
In a restaurant, a menu is a presentation of food and beverage offerings. A menu may be a la carte – which guests use to choose from a list of options – or table d'hôte, in which case a pre-established sequence of courses is served....

 bar. The
Fun n' Games until A Pygmy Gets Hurt update added mini-games for consecutive coconut bounces, consecutive shark snaps, underwater skewer, pygmy bowling, and hurricane zaps. The Ooga Jump update added the first crossover minigame, Ooga Jump, which was followed by a Harbor Master crossover. In the Idle Hands 2: Caught With Your Pants Down update more idle features were added to the Pygmies when they are not in use. Also, Buddy Challenges were implemented with OpenFeint. In the Good Will Haunting update, a downloadable content
Downloadable content
Downloadable content is official additional content for a video game distributed through the Internet. Downloadable content can be of several types, ranging from a single in-game outfit to an entirely new, extensive storyline, similarly to an expansion pack. As such, DLC may add new game modes,...

 (DLC) store was added with changeable skins for the T-Rex. Other packs, such as the Halloween, Holiday and alien themes, have since been added.

Pocket God is updated often with new 'episodes', a themed update that adds new features to the Pocket God world, such as new islands, items, or minigames.

iOS version

As of October 12, 2011, forty-one episodes have been released for the iOS version of
Pocket God. The current update is titled I Sting the Body Electric.



Episode descriptions

Episodes
Episode number Version number Release Episode title Features
1 1.0 01/09/09 Nowhere To Go, Nothin' To Do Initial release of Pocket God. Abilities include flicking and levitating
Levitation
Levitation is the process by which an object is suspended by a physical force against gravity, in a stable position without solid physical contact...

 the Pygmies, as well as throwing them into the water.
2 1.1 01/14/09 Does this Megabyte Make My App Look Fat? Several updates to the game engine
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...

.
3 1.2 01/20/09 You Always Hurt the Ones You Lava Added a volcano
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...

 which the player can flick Pygmies into. After three hits, the volcano will erupt, spewing molten lava
Lava
Lava refers both to molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption and the resulting rock after solidification and cooling. This molten rock is formed in the interior of some planets, including Earth, and some of their satellites. When first erupted from a volcanic vent, lava is a liquid at...

 onto the island. The Pygmies are set on fire
Fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....

, and then jump in the water and drown.
4 1.3 01/29/09 Shake That App! Added gravity features allowing Pygmies to slide across the screen
Electronic page
An electronic page is a term to encompass the grouping of content between basic breaking points in presentations or documents that originate or remain as visual electronic documents. This is a software file and recording format term in contrast to electronic paper, a hardware display technology...

 by tilting the device, and creating an earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...

 by shaking the device.
5 1.4 02/05/09 A Storm is Coming Added storm
Storm
A storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather...

 cloud
Cloud
A cloud is a visible mass of liquid droplets or frozen crystals made of water and/or various chemicals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of a planetary body. They are also known as aerosols. Clouds in Earth's atmosphere are studied in the cloud physics branch of meteorology...

s and lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...

 which can electrocute the Pygmies.
6 1.5 02/14/09 And on the 7th Day, Rest! Added the ability
Skill
A skill is the learned capacity to carry out pre-determined results often with the minimum outlay of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills...

 to change between day
Day
A day is a unit of time, commonly defined as an interval equal to 24 hours. It also can mean that portion of the full day during which a location is illuminated by the light of the sun...

 and night
Night
Night or nighttime is the period of time when the sun is below the horizon. This occurs after dusk. The opposite of night is day...

 by dragging the sun or moon up and down.
7 1.6 02/20/09 Just Give Us 5 Minutes Added the ability to make the Pygmies dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....

 by tapping the screen, a feature unlocked by achieving five minutes of gameplay. The boulder
Boulder
In geology, a boulder is a rock with grain size of usually no less than 256 mm diameter. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive....

 was also added, which can crush Pygmies or bowl
Bowling
Bowling Bowling Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule...

 them off the island.
8 1.7 02/26/09 Jumping the Shark Added a shark
Shark
Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....

 to the ocean
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...

, which will eat a Pygmy if it is dangled over the water. Players can also levitate a shark out of the water and drop it on a Pygmy's head, or slap Pygmies off of the island.
9 1.8 03/06/09 Idle Hands Added top menu and more gravity functions. Also added more idle animations to the Pygmies.
10 1.9 03/15/09 Hi, Dracula! Introduced the vampire bat
Vampire bat
Vampire bats are bats whose food source is blood, a dietary trait called hematophagy. There are three bat species that feed solely on blood: the Common Vampire Bat , the Hairy-legged Vampire Bat , and the White-winged Vampire Bat .All three species are native to the Americas, ranging from Mexico to...

, which turns one sleeping Pygmy into a vampire. The vampire will knock all the other Pygmies off the island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

, but it is destroyed when the player changes night into day. Also added an eclipse
Eclipse
An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object is temporarily obscured, either by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer...

 when the boulder is levitated in front of the sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...

.
11 1.10 03/24/09 A Mighty Wind Added the ability to create a hurricane by making circular motions on the screen during stormy weather. The hurricane whirls Pygmies and objects around the island and drops them in the ocean
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...

.
12 1.11 04/01/09 Something Fishy... Added a fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

 rod, to let Pygmies catch and eat the new fish. This was also the April Fool's Day release, which implied that the player had only purchased the lite version of the game, and must buy the full version for $4.99.
13 1.12 04/08/09 March of the Fire Ants Added an anthill and magnifying glass
Magnifying glass
A magnifying glass is a convex lens that is used to produce a magnified image of an object. The lens is usually mounted in a frame with a handle ....

 to the island. Tapping the anthill and drawing a line from the anthill will draw out fire ant
Fire ant
Fire ants are a variety of stinging ants with over 285 species worldwide. They have several common names, including ginger ants, tropical fire ants and red ants.- Appearance :...

s, which will consume a nearby Pygmy. The magnifying glass allows destroying ant
Ant
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...

s and burning Pygmies. Also added OpenFeint
OpenFeint
OpenFeint is a social platform and application for the iOS and recently also available for Android. It was developed by Aurora Feint, a company named after the video game of the same name, by the same developers. It is used by multiple iPhone applications...

, an iPhone social network with chat rooms and leader-boards.
14 1.13 04/17/09 Say My Name! Added the ability to name
Name
A name is a word or term used for identification. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. A personal name identifies a specific unique and identifiable individual person, and may or may not include a middle name...

 individual Pygmies and their tribe
Tribe
A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists...

. Also added stats to see how many times Pygmies were sacrifice
Sacrifice
Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals or people to God or the gods as an act of propitiation or worship.While sacrifice often implies ritual killing, the term offering can be used for bloodless sacrifices of cereal food or artifacts...

d and given gift
Gift
A gift or a present is the transfer of something without the expectation of receiving something in return. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation of reciprocity, a gift is meant to be free. In many human societies, the act of mutually exchanging money, goods, etc. may contribute to...

s.
15 1.14 04/28/09 A New Home Added a new, larger, island that contained an outhouse
Outhouse
An outhouse is a small structure separate from a main building which often contained a simple toilet and may possibly also be used for housing animals and storage.- Terminology :...

, as well as a mysterious dinosaur egg
Dinosaur egg
Dinosaur eggs are represented today as fossils. They represent the product of egg laying activity and can offer clues as to how dinosaurs behaved. In some cases the embryonic dinosaur is preserved within the eggshell, and can be studied....

. Pygmies who use the outhouse will stay indefinitely until the player knocks on the door; meanwhile, Pygmies who are forced to wait in line will eventually burst.
16 1.15 05/08/09 The Tyrannosaurus Strikes Back! Now, when a player drops the egg three times, a Tyrannosaurus Rex will appear and begin eating the Pygmies. The Moai
Moai
Moai , or mo‘ai, are monolithic human figures carved from rock on the Chilean Polynesian island of Easter Island between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the...

 statue is changed to an octopus
Octopus
The octopus is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms...

 god
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

 statue, to avoid racial insensitivity. Additionally, a story about the island's background was introduced.
17 1.16 05/19/09 Return of the Pygmy Added a spear
Spear
A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head.The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as flint, obsidian, iron, steel or...

, which the player can give to Pygmies to fight off the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Once the T-Rex's health bar is emptied, it will fall into the water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

. This update also added buttons for toggling T-Rex egg and outhouse functionality. Finally, an easter egg
Easter egg
Easter eggs are special eggs that are often given to celebrate Easter or springtime.The oldest tradition is to use dyed or painted chicken eggs, but a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs, or plastic eggs filled with confectionery such as jelly beans...

 was added so that if players touch the octopus god statue
Statue
A statue is a sculpture in the round representing a person or persons, an animal, an idea or an event, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger...

 three times in rapid succession, all Pygmies on the island are vaporized while the statue mumbles, "You know you love Pocket God". A god statistic screen is revealed, but does not save the user's changes due to a small glitch.

The game is upgraded to iOS 2.2.1.
18 1.17 06/01/09 Surf's Up! Players can now generate a tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...

 by moving a finger across the water. The flood reveals a new underwater
Underwater
Underwater is a term describing the realm below the surface of water where the water exists in a natural feature such as an ocean, sea, lake, pond, or river. Three quarters of the planet Earth is covered by water...

 area, with a mysterious statue that protects ancient ruins. Tapping the statue will release a deadly spear that skewer
Skewer
A skewer is a thin metal or wood stick used to hold pieces of food together. They are used while grilling or roasting meats, and in other culinary applications....

s the Pygmies. Pushing the water down will return the scene to the prior island. The new god stat screen is fixed and allows users to change their god
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

 type and shows users their achievements
Achievement (video gaming)
In video gaming parlance, an achievement, also sometimes known as a trophy or challenge, is a meta-goal defined outside of a game's parameters...

.

Due to complaints, the game is downgraded to iOS 2.2.
19 1.18 06/17/09 Fun n' Games Until A Pygmy Gets Hurt Pocket God now includes achievements that turn some Pocket God activities into mini-games. Achievements include records for most consecutive coconut bounces, consecutive shark snaps, underwater skewers, pygmies bowled and hurricane zaps. Also, a two-finger swipe is now needed to create a tsunami or change the weather: the change was intended to avoid players accidentally triggering the tsunami or changing the weather. This was also a cleanup update to correct many glitch
Glitch
A glitch is a short-lived fault in a system. It is often used to describe a transient fault that corrects itself, and is therefore difficult to troubleshoot...

es and optimize animations.
20 1.19 07/03/09 Stop! My App is On Fire! This update gives the pygmies wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

 to make a fire
Fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....

 so they can cook
Cooking
Cooking is the process of preparing food by use of heat. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely across the world, reflecting unique environmental, economic, and cultural traditions. Cooks themselves also vary widely in skill and training...

 fish and warm themselves. Pygmies assemble a pile of wood, and the player hits it with lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...

 to set it on fire. Now, the player can roast a fish over the fire, but roasting a fish for too long will burn it. Giving the burnt fish to a pygmy will make the pygmy choke and fall into the water. Players can also cook pygmies so that they turn rock-hard. A more complex background is added for the underwater area. The two-fingered sky and water movement controls are reverted to one finger controls after technical difficulties.

Due to this being the 20th update, some thought Pocket God would cease updates.
21 1.20 07/09/09 Flipping the Bird' Added a flying Dodo bird to every island. Poking the bird will make it drop "bird bombs"
Guano
Guano is the excrement of seabirds, cave dwelling bats, and seals. Guano manure is an effective fertilizer due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen and also its lack of odor. It was an important source of nitrates for gunpowder...

 on the pygmies. This leads to a new a mini-game, in which the player must drop the most feces
Feces
Feces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus or cloaca during defecation.-Etymology:...

 consecutively without missing. The dodo bird will go after caught fish, and will snatch up a Pygmy holding a fish. The bird can be caught and cooked over the fire, or can be struck by lightning. A whirlpool
Whirlpool
A whirlpool is a swirling body of water usually produced by ocean tides. The vast majority of whirlpools are not very powerful. More powerful ones are more properly termed maelstroms. Vortex is the proper term for any whirlpool that has a downdraft...

 ability and some fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

 animations are added to the underwater area. Achievements are now recorded in Feint.
22 1.21 07/24/09 Ooga Jump This update is a crossover with Doodle Jump
Doodle Jump
Doodle Jump is a video game developed and published by Lima Sky for Windows Phone, iOS, BlackBerry, Android, and Nokia Symbian and soon on the Xbox 360 for the Kinect platform. It was released worldwide for iOS on April 6, 2009, and was later released for Android and Blackberry on March 2, 2010,...

. When a player drags a Pygmy over the cloud line and drops him, it will bounce off the cloud and be propelled up into the sky. There are four types of cloud
Cloud
A cloud is a visible mass of liquid droplets or frozen crystals made of water and/or various chemicals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of a planetary body. They are also known as aerosols. Clouds in Earth's atmosphere are studied in the cloud physics branch of meteorology...

s: a normal cloud which bounces the pygmy further into the air, a thundercloud which lights a pygmy on fire and shoots him even higher up, an ice cloud
Ice cloud
The term ice cloud has been used to describe clouds of carbon dioxide on Mars. Such clouds can be sufficiently large and dense to cast shadows on the Martian surface. Clouds of water ice also occur on Mars.Clouds on Earth can contain ice particles....

 which freezes a pygmy and prevents him from jumping as high, and a fake cloud which disappears when one tries to jump on it. On reaching 1,000 oogles, there will be doodlers perched on clouds that will try to shoot the pygmy. If the pygmy fails to hit a cloud, it falls back down to the island and is flattened. The record height for "Ooga Jump" is a new achievement.
23 1.22 08/05/09 Bait Master This update is a cross over with Harbor Master and adds a new mini-game to the underwater scene. When the anchor is picked up and dropped, piranha
Piranha
A piranha or piraña is a member of family Characidae in order Characiformes, an omnivorous freshwater fish that inhabits South American rivers. In Venezuela, they are called caribes...

s begin to enter the screen from the left and right to eat floating Pygmies. Players must guide each piranha by drawing a path. The goal is to keep them away from each other as they are led to their dinner, and then back off the screen. The more Piranhas are "served", the faster they arrive. Gameplay is similar to Flight Control
Flight Control (video game)
Flight Control is a game for the iOS, WiiWare, DSiWare, Android and Windows Phone 7 developed by Firemint and first released for iOS on March 5, 2009. The app was a number one bestseller on the App Store in 19 countries simultaneously on April 6, 2009 and has sold over two million copies...

, but players may move the Pygmy targets as well as the piranhas. This update also adds two improvements to Ooga Jump: players will no longer end up in a situation where there are no possible jumps, and the doodlers appear sooner and only one at a time.
24 1.23 08/19/09 Idle Hands 2: Caught With Your Pants Down This update adds more idle features to the Pygmies when they are not in use. The new idle features are as follows: The Pygmies' grass skirt
Skirt
A skirt is a tube- or cone-shaped garment that hangs from the waist and covers all or part of the legs.In the western world, skirts are usually considered women's clothing. However, there are exceptions...

s fall down showing underpants
Underpants
-Boxer shorts:Boxer shorts, or simply boxers, have an elasticated waistband that is at or near the wearer's waist, while the leg sections are fairly loose and extend to the mid-thigh. There is usually a fly, either with or without buttons...

, sneezing, a Pygmy thinks of a food item, it pulls the bone
Bone
Bones are rigid organs that constitute part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue...

 out of its hair and it falls down over their face, and the Pygmy beats its chest like Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...

. This update also implemented Buddy Challenges through Feint.

Due to some coding errors, this version of Pocket God ran iOS 2.1s and 2.2s. Due to this problem, Bolt Creative replaced the update with the prior update "Bait Master". The next update was later released as a combination of Ep. 24 and Ep. 25.
25 1.24 09/02/09 Sharks with Frickin' Laser-beams Attached to their Heads This update added a chum
Chumming
Chumming is the practice of luring animals, usually fish or sharks, by throwing "chum" into the water. Chum often consists of fish parts and blood, which attract fish, particularly sharks due to their keen sense of smell....

 bucket option to the underwater area, which players can use to attract a shark. The shark can shoot pygmies, using the accelerometer
Accelerometer
An accelerometer is a device that measures proper acceleration, also called the four-acceleration. This is not necessarily the same as the coordinate acceleration , but is rather the type of acceleration associated with the phenomenon of weight experienced by a test mass that resides in the frame...

 to control aiming. Sharks will also eat Pygmies if they are holding a piece of chum. There is now a button to go to the underwater area from the menu. The title is a reference to Austin Powers
Austin Powers (film series)
The Austin Powers series is a series of action-comedy films written by and starring Mike Myers as the title character, directed by Jay Roach and distributed by New Line Cinema...

.
26 1.25 09/17/09 Dead Pygmy Walking This update added a new location: the Pygmy Graveyard. On the island is a grave
Grave (burial)
A grave is a location where a dead body is buried. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as graveyards or cemeteries....

 in which players can bury a Pygmy alive. The seal on the grave will cause the Pygmy to come back as a Zombie
Zombie
Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli...

, which proceeds to eat the brains of the other Pygmies on the island (which turns them into Zombies as well). When the player makes zombies dance, it is based on "Thriller." If a player touches a zombie, it explodes into blue flakes of skin. Added two new sacrifices (Brains Eaten, Buried Alive) and one new gift (Gift of Zombie dance).
27 1.26 10/06/09 Good Will Haunting The graveyard island will now create ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...

s when any Pygmy dies on the island. Players can direct the ghosts by dragging across the screen, and can make ghosts and Pygmies interact: The ghosts can possess a pygmy, scare it to death, pick up a Pygmy and carry it away, pull a Pygmy into the ghost dimension, or make a banshee scream that will burst the eardrums of the pygmies. To get rid of a ghost, players have to direct it into "the light", located at the top left of the screen. The ghosts can be toggled from the menu. Also, there were DLC features for the T-Rex which include skins, tattoos, and hats.
As a result of the DLC using the iOS in-app purchase system, Pocket God can no longer run on iOS 2.0.
28 1.27 10/28/09 Barking Spider, Crouching Pygmy In the graveyard, a giant spider has been added. To attract the spider, a Pygmy must be placed in the web hanging from the tree, touched to summon a small spider to cocoon him, and touched again to burst the cocoon, revealing dozens of baby spiders. The giant "Barking Spider" then appears. Pygmies can be webbed and eaten by the spider, or put in the spiderweb where the mother spider puts the pygmy in a cocoon to be fed to the spider babies. Pygmies can also fight the spider with the spear, but a different strategy is needed than with the T-Rex. Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...

 themes for the DLC was added for many items around the island, such as the volcano, the dodo bird, the meteor
METEOR
METEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...

, and the Doodler from Doodle Jump
Doodle Jump
Doodle Jump is a video game developed and published by Lima Sky for Windows Phone, iOS, BlackBerry, Android, and Nokia Symbian and soon on the Xbox 360 for the Kinect platform. It was released worldwide for iOS on April 6, 2009, and was later released for Android and Blackberry on March 2, 2010,...

. The "Barking Spider
Barking spider
Queensland Whistling Tarantula Selenocosmia crassipes is native to the east coast of Queensland, Australia. Its name comes from its ability to produce a hissing noise when provoked, a trait it shares with other Australian Theraphosids. This hissing is produced by the spider stridulating a patch of...

" literally barks when it is about to eat a Pygmy
Pygmy
Pygmy is a term used for various ethnic groups worldwide whose average height is unusually short; anthropologists define pygmy as any group whose adult men grow to less than 150 cm in average height. A member of a slightly taller group is termed "pygmoid." The best known pygmies are the Aka,...

 and whines when it is hit with a spear. Like the T-rex, there is an achievement for least spears used to kill it.
29 1.28 12/04/09 The Pyg Chill Introduced a new ice island with an igloo. Players can cook fish in it, but the igloo
Igloo
An igloo or snowhouse is a type of shelter built of snow, originally built by the Inuit....

 can also fire pygmies out the top or sides. This update also included an ice monster, which is battled by flicking Pygmies at it. The ice monster can block attacks and throw snowball
Snowball
A snowball is a spherical object made from snow, usually created by scooping snow with the hands, and compacting it into a roughly fist-sized ball. The snowball is often used to engage in games, such as snowball fights. Snowball fights are usually light-hearted and involve throwing snowballs at...

s. Additionally, there is now a new island selection screen which shows a map instead of a list. Another holiday
Holiday
A Holiday is a day designated as having special significance for which individuals, a government, or a religious group have deemed that observance is warranted. It is generally an official or unofficial observance of religious, national, or cultural significance, often accompanied by celebrations...

 skin pack was released as an add-on purchase, which includes Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

 themed items.
30 1.29 1/26/10 Great Job, Ice Hole Players can now expand and contract the sun to make the world hotter and cooler. When it’s cold, the pygmies turn into frozen statues that shatter when the player touches them. When it's hot, they start sweating, and eventually explode. If the Pygmies are on the ice island when it gets hot, they melt through and create an Ice Hole. Pygmies can fish in the Ice Hole and catch a swordfish, which is lethal when eaten. If a player holds a Pygmy over the Ice Hole a squid will come out of it to try and catch the Pygmy. If players pull too hard against the squid, the pygmies head will fall off and body taken into the ice hole by the squid. There is also an Easter egg, if the player drops a burnt pygmy from the Dino island, an ice geyser will erupt, killing all the remaining pygmies. Eight new dances were included as downloadable content.
31 1.30 3/15/10 What's the Story, Morning Gory? Added a story mode, which lets players watch movies from the creators, create their own, or share them on OpenFeint. A new game, called the Pain Drain, was added to the underwater area, which involves players tilting their device to control a pygmy dropping down platforms. An alien themed DLC pack was also added.
31B 1.31 3/29/10 What's the Story, Morning Gory? Part II A clean-up update to fix some bugs
Software bug
A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...

. Added an in-game news alert for Pocket God events.
32 1.32 5/25/10 Crack is Wack Added the ability to make a crack in the island and make the pygmy fall in and start a new Canabalt-like minigame called "The Runs": A pygmy runs along underground platforms chased by a lava flow, while the player pokes him to jump across the gaps (to avoid falling into the lava below). There is also an ice monster skin pack. An added update to the shop makes it easier to view and change skin packs, dance packs, etc.
33 1.33
1.33.1
8/3/10 A Pygmy A Day Keeps The Ape Away Added a new area called "Ape Mountain" that come in three parts with an ape on it that the Pygmies can summon by doing several actions. It is the first area without an ocean and is a tribute to Ape Entertainment. The update also includes a new skin pack called the "Retro Gamer Pack."
34 1.34 9/25/10 Monkey See Monkey Chew Adding the second part of the ape mountain trilogy to "Ape Mountain" There is now a banana tree that the player can pull bananas from, which lure monkeys out. Also adding another dance pack with 7 new dances seen in "Pocket God Update Song".
35 1.35 10/31/10 Double Rainbow All The Way Across The Sky A new update including the ability to draw a double rainbow in the sky (referring to the internet meme
Double Rainbow (viral video)
Double Rainbow refers to a viral video posted by Paul "Bear" Vasquez. The clip, filmed in his front yard just outside Yosemite National Park, in the U.S. state of California, chronicles his sighting of and Stendhal syndrome-like reaction to a double rainbow...

). The Pygmies will react to the rainbow. This is the first update where the Pygmies can actually talk, when showing reactions from the double rainbow. Includes a new medieval skin pack.
36 1.36 12/21/10 Konkey Dong Last part of the ape trilogy. This update added an Ape Idol on Ape Mountain (when the banana tree is visible). Drop a pygmy into it to start a new minigame, which is a parody of the original Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong
is a fictional gorilla in the Donkey Kong and Mario series. He is roughly twice the size of a normal gorilla, weighing approximately 800 pounds. Donkey Kong first appeared in Nintendo's popular 1981 video game of the same name. Since then he has appeared in over 20 games in his own series, as well...

 game by Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

. The update also marked the open beta of Pocket God for Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

, which is linked to in the loading screen of the game.
37 1.37 2/23/11 Moron Pests The thirty-seventh update is a cross over with The Moron Test, with a new island, named the "Island of Misfit Crossovers". It also contains new thought bubbles when they sleep, and when tapped, the new island will appear, and by performing a certain task, the game will lanch the mini-game Moron Pests; the player must answer increasingly difficult questions while running away from a character from The Moron Test. The Spider Skin Pack is also included in the update.
38 1.38 4/6/11 Two and a Half Pygmies This minor update, with the title parodying the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 sitcom Two and a Half Men
Two and a Half Men
Two and a Half Men is an American television sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 22, 2003. Starring Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, and Angus T. Jones, the show was originally about a hedonistic jingle writer, Charlie Harper; his uptight brother, Alan; and Alan's growing son, Jake...

, and alludes to Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen
Carlos Irwin Estevez , better known by his stage name Charlie Sheen, is an American film and television actor. He is the youngest son of actor Martin Sheen....

's exclusion from the show. It features a "guest-pygmy" visiting Oog Island from Mars called "Charlie", who morphs into a tiger, and slices the other pygmies in half, using his claws. All of these are referenced to interviews of Sheen and others on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

. Also, when there is a vampire active on the island, Charlie turns into a high priest
High priest
The term "high priest" usually refers either to an individual who holds the office of ruler-priest, or to one who is the head of a religious caste.-Ancient Egypt:...

, and destroys the vampire, along with any other pygmy.
39 1.39 5/19/11 Challenge of the Gods The thirty-ninth episode enables players to discover new ways to discover god powers. The player selects a prior episode, such as Crack is Wack, and the player must complete a challenge, in which case is won, he or she will receive a 'god idol' from that particular episode, in which there are 39 to collect. Also a new island is added, called God Island; which features a temple and four pedestals which idols can be placed. The Shark Pack is also added with the update. When four idols are placed on the pedestals it shows a preview of the next episode, Battle of the Gods. If the player has updated to episode 40, the player will instead be taken to the battle of the gods. (See below)
40 1.40
1.40.1
8/10/11 Battle of the Gods The fortieth episode of Pocket God introduces battle mini-games against other gods or pygmies. The mini game is played with the idols that are unlocked through Episode 39. It has introduced a faster mechanic to level up a player's idols, which the developers have indicated for leveling from 5 to the max level of 20. Also, a pillar appears when winding the winch on Ape Mountain.
41 1.41
1.41.1
1.41.5
10/12/11 I Sting the Body Electric The forty-first and current update introduces a new underwater area, called the Coral Reefs; which also includes a new animal, jellyfish. Another major addition is the introduction of turn-based multiplayer for Battle of the Gods. The update also implements use of iOS
IOS
iOS is an operating system for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, and Apple TV.IOS may also refer to:-Companies and organisations:* Illinois Ornithological Society, American state-based bird club...

 5, including iCloud
ICloud
iCloud is a cloud storage and cloud computing service from Apple Inc. announced on June 6, 2011 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference . The service allows users to store data such as music files on remote computer servers for download to multiple devices such as iPhones, iPods, iPads, and...

. The episode's title references an episode of The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...

, titled "I Sing the Body Electric
I Sing the Body Electric (The Twilight Zone)
"I Sing the Body Electric" is the 100th episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.The script was written by Ray Bradbury, and based on his short story of the same name, itself named after a Walt Whitman poem. Although Bradbury contributed several scripts to The Twilight...

", which aired in 1962.

Downloadable content packs

Since the first downloadable content
Downloadable content
Downloadable content is official additional content for a video game distributed through the Internet. Downloadable content can be of several types, ranging from a single in-game outfit to an entirely new, extensive storyline, similarly to an expansion pack. As such, DLC may add new game modes,...

 (DLC) pack was added in the Good Will Haunting update, fourteen packs have been released for in-game purchase.
Downloadable content
Pack title Features
T-Rex Skin Pack Added customization of the T-Rex, including a dragon
Dragon
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...

 skin and several tattoo
Tattoo
A tattoo is made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. Tattoos on humans are a type of body modification, and tattoos on other animals are most commonly used for identification purposes...

s.
Halloween Skin Pack Added customization of objects such as the moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

 or meteor
METEOR
METEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...

 and the ability to place pumpkin
Pumpkin
A pumpkin is a gourd-like squash of the genus Cucurbita and the family Cucurbitaceae . It commonly refers to cultivars of any one of the species Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbita mixta, Cucurbita maxima, and Cucurbita moschata, and is native to North America...

s on each of the islands.
Holiday Skin Pack Added customization of objects such as the dodo bird or fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

 and the ability to place snow
Snow
Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...

 on each of the islands.
Alien World Skin Pack Added customization of objects such as the outhouse
Outhouse
An outhouse is a small structure separate from a main building which often contained a simple toilet and may possibly also be used for housing animals and storage.- Terminology :...

 or spear
Spear
A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head.The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as flint, obsidian, iron, steel or...

 and the ability to place alien world extras on each of the islands.
The Dance Pack Added customization of the pygmies' dances, including a tribute to the "Pants on the Ground" man from American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...

.
Ice Monster Pack Added customization of the Ice Monster, including a Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...

 and a yeti
Yeti
The Yeti or Abominable Snowman is an ape-like cryptid said to inhabit the Himalayan region of Nepal, and Tibet. The names Yeti and Meh-Teh are commonly used by the people indigenous to the region, and are part of their history and mythology...

.
Retro Gamer Skin Pack Added customization of objects such as the meteor into a Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong
is a fictional gorilla in the Donkey Kong and Mario series. He is roughly twice the size of a normal gorilla, weighing approximately 800 pounds. Donkey Kong first appeared in Nintendo's popular 1981 video game of the same name. Since then he has appeared in over 20 games in his own series, as well...

 Barrel or the Volcano into a Mario
Mario
is a fictional character in his video game series, created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot and the main protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation...

 Pipe.
Dance Pack Too Added seven new dances, including the Riverdance
Riverdance
Riverdance is a theatrical show consisting of traditional Irish stepdancing, notable for its rapid leg movements while body and arms are kept largely stationary. It originated as an interval performance during the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, a moment that is still considered a significant...

 and the dances of the "Pocket God Update Song" (which includes the song itself).
Medieval Skin Pack Added customization of objects such as the meteor into a mace or the volcano into a castle.
Japanese Skin Pack Added customization of objects such as the meteor into a sumo wrestler or the volcano into Mount Fuji
Mount Fuji
is the highest mountain in Japan at . An active stratovolcano that last erupted in 1707–08, Mount Fuji lies about south-west of Tokyo, and can be seen from there on a clear day. Mount Fuji's exceptionally symmetrical cone is a well-known symbol of Japan and it is frequently depicted in art and...

.
Fishmas Skin Pack Added the Pygmies' "Fishmas Carol" dance and other fishy holiday customizations.
Spider Skin Pack Added customization of the Barking Spider, including a dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...

, a robot, a dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

 and a "spider monkey
Spider monkey
Spider monkeys of the genus Ateles are New World monkeys in the subfamily Atelinae, family Atelidae. Like other atelines, they are found in tropical forests of Central and South America, from southern Mexico to Brazil...

".
Pimp Skin Pack Added customization of various objects, including the meteor being a 'Rolex Watch' and fish being a stack of money.
Mafia Skin Pack Added customization of the meteor, moon, fish, dodo bird, and Mafia extras on each island.
Underwater World Pack Added customization of most islands and various objects, such as coral, volcano, igloo, etc.

Bonus content packs

With the release of "A Pygmy A Day Keeps the Ape Away" a new feature was added to Pocket God: Bonus Packs add an un-lockable feature to the app, which require players to either complete a task or reach a certain score.
Bonus packs
Pack title Features
Pocket God Comic Pre-Order Bonus A jet pack is added to Ooga Jump, found floating around the clouds. The player can unlock this either by entering the Pocket God Comic Contest, or reaching God status on Ooga Jump, by reaching 6000 Oogles after this update was released.

Facebook version

A Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

 version of Pocket God was released on December 23, 2010, citing more features from the mobile versions of the game.

Comics

Pocket God is a series of comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

s/strips, published by Ape Entertainment, released for iOS, and available as paperback
Paperback
Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...

 in retailers, on August 3, 2010. It describes "...an indestructible race of people who inhabit a mysterious island and are continuously (and comically) tortured by their mischievous gods". It features all six Pygmys, in the tribe 'Ookga Chaka'. Ooga, Klik, Klak, Booga, Dooby, and Nooby.
There are currently four comics, including a special Christmas issue, and a 'behind-the-scenes' comic, named The Pygmy Peril. Although Bolt Creative had stated they were going to only publish four comics, in The Pygmy Peril, however, they stated they were to publish more comics, due to popular demand: currently, the Pocket God Comic books are outselling DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

 entire catalog.

Releases

Pocket God was released for iOS devices on January 9, 2009. According to the official Pocket God blog, Bolt Creative have "about ten ideas for standalone Pocket God games". They also noted that even if sequels are developed, Pocket God will still receive updates, but at a slower rate.
A digital comic-book tie-in is currently being published; the first issue was released on August 3, 2010 through iVerse and Ape Entertainment.

Pocket God is slowly being released on non-Apple platforms. A version was released for Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless
Cellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, is one of the largest mobile network operators in the United States. The network has 107.7 million subscribers as of 2011, making it the largest wireless service provider in America....

 cellphones on September 1, 2010. An Android port (published by ngmoco
Ngmoco
ngmoco, Inc. is an American-based publisher of video games for the iOS and Android platforms, and a subsidiary of DeNA. The company was founded by former Electronic Arts executive Neil Young in July 2008. Since its founding, ngmoco has had more than seven million combined game installs...

) was released on December 1, 2010. A Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

 port (co-developed by Frima studio
Frima Studio
Based in Quebec City and founded in 2003, Frima Studio is a Canadian multiplatform game developer. The studio develops products across multiple platforms, including the Web, console, handheld, iPhone, iPad, TV and mobile...

) moved to closed Beta on the same day.

Pocket God will also be a Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market...

 launch title. The creators stated that they would be releasing Pocket God: Journey to Uranus exclusively for the iPad, and that it would include minigames allowing the pygmies to travel to other planets, it was scheduled for release in Fall 2010, but was since delayed. According to the developers regularly updated blog, the app was released on December 16, 2010. JTU has since been updated in the episodic style of Pocket God, and now features four areas (Earth, space, Uranus, Mercury). In Episode 4: Quantum Entanglement, JTU was made compatible with all iOS devices.

Reception

Pocket God has received ratings that ranged from generally positive reviews to universal acclaim. iTune App Reviews gave the game 5 out of 5 stars. AppStruck gave the game 5 out of 5 stars referring to the game as "endlessly amusing and is an easy way to completely lose track of time". iPhone App Reviews gave the updated version of the game 4.8 out of 5 having given the original version 3.92 out of 5 Appvee gave the game 4 out of 5 after episode 11 was released, having originally given the game 1.8 out of 5.

Controversy

The game was subject to controversy when some Pacific Islander
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islander , is a geographic term to describe the indigenous inhabitants of any of the three major sub-regions of Oceania: Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, these three regions, together with their islands consist of:Polynesia:...

s and anthropologists protested to Apple Inc. claiming the game was racist. The game's creators defended the game, saying "it depicts no specific race or nationality." Pocket God programmer Dave Castelnuovo got in touch with one of the original Pacific Islander
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islander , is a geographic term to describe the indigenous inhabitants of any of the three major sub-regions of Oceania: Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, these three regions, together with their islands consist of:Polynesia:...

s and came up with some compromises: The islanders would be called Oogs instead of Pygmies, and the Moai
Moai
Moai , or mo‘ai, are monolithic human figures carved from rock on the Chilean Polynesian island of Easter Island between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the...

 statue would be replaced with a statue of an Octopus God.
On May 27, 2009, Dave Castelnuovo announced that the characters would no longer be called Oogs, as 'Pygmies' was a more suitable name, and didn't actually cause any friction between Pacific Islanders.

In other apps

As part of the effort to promote Pocket God, the developers engaged in cross-promotion
Cross-promotion
Cross-promotion is a form of marketing promotion where customers of one product or service are targeted with promotion of a related product. A typical example is cross-media marketing of a brand, for example Oprah Winfrey's promotion on her television show of her books, magazines and website...

 with a number of other developers. This promotion saw a number of updates where new themed features were added to "Pocket God" and in return the related apps added Pocket God themed updates.

Three apps have featured the game as a direct result of cross-promotion. The addition of Doodler to Pocket God resulted in a new version of Doodle Jump
Doodle Jump
Doodle Jump is a video game developed and published by Lima Sky for Windows Phone, iOS, BlackBerry, Android, and Nokia Symbian and soon on the Xbox 360 for the Kinect platform. It was released worldwide for iOS on April 6, 2009, and was later released for Android and Blackberry on March 2, 2010,...

being released on May 22, 2009 which allowed users to play as a Pygmy from Pocket God. To unlock the Pygmy, players must change the high score name to one of the characters from Pocket God: Ooga, Booga, Nooby, Dooby, Klik or Klak.

The second crossover was with Harbor Master on August 8, 2009 where Pygmies replaced the normal boats in the path drawing game.

The final cross promotion saw a new test added to "Moron Test" with a Pocket God theme to it, which characters from the Moron Test were featured on a new island and minigame within the Pocket God universe.

Two other apps have featured the famous Pocket God characters within their games. The Creeps released an update allowing pygmies as characters. Also Trenches added to their "Zombie Horde" mode by allowing Zombie Pygmies to replace the Zombie Germans as the antagonists within the game.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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