Like many other eager iOS gamers with a penchant for Nimblebit and freemium titles, I picked up Tiny Tower as soon as it was released about two weeks ago. Now, for the uninitiated, Tiny Tower allows players to construct a tower full of a wide variety of businesses (used to generate money and thus, construct new floors) as well as residences (used to recruit ‘bitizens’ for your tower which are then employed by your businesses). Once you have bitizens and businesses in your tower, the player makes money by purchasing inventory for each business, and then stocking said inventory once its timer is up. When inventory is stocked, it will slowly generate income for the tower. As players earn more money, they can add additional floors, create more businesses and residences, earn more money, and so on. Additional strategy elements involve putting your bitizens into their ‘dream job,’ which will double inventory stock, as well as an attribute system for bitizens which decrease the cost of inventory based on the type store that bitizen is employed at. Finally, the ‘freemium’ portion of the title lies in its ‘bux’ system. Tower Bux can allow players to speed up construction, speed up inventory stocking, instantly move bitizens into residences, and can be used to upgrade elevators. Buxs are slowly gathered naturally by players when they participate in activities, but can also be bought outright for money as in-app purchases, thus giving the player an easy avenue to speed past a lot of the waiting required when stocking inventory or constructing floors. Overall, despite some nuances, Tiny Tower’s gameplay is easy to understand, easy to play, and does a good job for rewarding players for their efforts.
One interesting aspect of Tiny Tower, which I would like to explore a bit more, is the game’s addictive nature. To put it bluntly, this game is addicting as hell. I find myself continually wanting to check my tower every time I have a new floor completed, or a store is ready to be stocked. I find myself wanting to stay engaged with the game all the time. This sort of addiction is excellent for Nimblebit, as the more one plays, the most likely one will end up shelling actual money for the IAP. As a gamer, however, I still would like to know why they manage to accomplish this.
Simply put, Tiny Tower has done a wonderful job of codifying certain gameplay elements as perpetual rewards for the player. Most folks of the technologically driven generation are used to instant gratification and reward. We want what we want when we want it (usually instantly). Tiny Tower’s stocking mechanism, which lets players constantly stay engaged with small timers that can go off all day long, successfully creates that ‘reward’ mechanism that drives continual playing. In addition, Tiny Tower’s various methods of coin collection (bitizen ferrying, bux collection/conversion, and the constant, perpetual stream of inventory sales) successfully achieve the instant gratification ‘catch.’ I can open my tower up at any time and see my coin collection gradually increase. It satisfies the perpetual reward desire that my brain wants, and it somehow manages to achieve a near constant feeling of accomplishment. Combine this with the various inventory stocking timers (each store has different timers, meaning that inventory can pop at various times throughout the day), Tiny Tower seems to have created a perfect storm for gamers.
Now, how is this different from other freemium games that attempt to create that perfect storm as well? It’s quite different actually. Most other freemium titles have a linear progression for reward, typically culminating in most players earning the ability to set one timer for all their coin earning mechanisms. In Farmville, for example, you build a bunch of fields, you plant something that takes 8 hours or more in every field, and you call it a day. In Tiny Tower, it’s not possible to build stores that all have the same timer. The player can’t really consolidate all their earning potential into essentially one timer. This means that in order to continue to maximize the reward, players must constantly launch the game to stock and purchase inventory. Thus, assuming that the player is attached to the reward and instant gratification of the game, they will continue to launch it all day, maximizing the potential for IAP and usage stats.
Second, most other freemium games do not provide constant reward, as is evidenced in Tiny Tower. Typically, other freemium games attach a strict timer to the reward mechanism and then once that timer is up, the player receives the full award. In Tiny Tower, award timers exist, but players do not reap the full reward instantly once the timer expires. Instead, ‘stocking’ inventory simply turns on a flag for slow coin collection to start based on the amount of inventory being stocked. While this does detract somewhat from the instant gratification goal of games like this, it does enhance the ‘reward’ mechanism as discussed above. The end result being a game that improves upon the standard freemium model by enhancing the player’s desire to continually access and play the game vice what is essentially setting a timer and leaving it alone in other similar games.
All this, of course, leads to a fun and extremely addicting new title from Nimblebit. I’ve been a fan of most of their games, and I hope they continue on this tradition of making titles of this caliber. Tiny Tower can be found here.
he day that most online retailers had already sold out of the Collector’s Edition. Apparently, it looks like Bioware is actually treating the Collector’s Edition like…. a rare thing (what a concept!), so I am pleased that I managed to snag a copy this morning. By the way, this looks to be a pretty decent CE, with an included authenticator, a lore book, an art book, a ton of in-game items, a 7-day ‘early access’ to the game, possible preference for the weekend beta, and a supposed “Collector’s Store” that will let folks with the CE purchase special items in-game. Can’t wait for its eventual release!
Erratic Rantings 