How To Build A Tiny Tower: A Q&A With Nimblebit

The app store and iOS is a huge market nowadays, and with the App Store boasting 15 billion downloads to date, with $2.5 billion paid out to developers so far, it’s no surprise that everyone wants to have the next big hit. However, not many developers ever expect to receive the level of praise heaped upon them as with Nimblebit’s Tiny Tower.

A gradual stream of word of mouth gave way to an avalanche of discussion over the game. People tearing their hair out over the addictive nature, with others having to charge their iOS devices multiple times a day, such is the obsession Tiny Tower becomes. We met up with Nimblebit Co-Founder Ian Marsh to talk Tiny Tower, and all things iOS.

Can you tell us some background on Nimblebit? How many people work in the company, what are your development backgrounds?

NimbleBit is currently comprised of my twin brother David, and myself. We both worked for 5 or so years in traditional AAA and mobile development before striking out on our own with NimbleBit.

What were your influences and inspirations for this game?

There are some obvious similarities with other games, but from the start the goal was to try and make a real time building and management game that really felt at home on the iPhone. Since users are right at home with vertical scrolling on their devices we thought a tower would be a perfect fit.

Having played SimTower in the early 90’s, this seems like a similar, yet simplified concept – obviously made more attractive by the retro graphics. Was it an aesthetic decision or developmentally necessary to use pixel art?

Part of the decision to use pixel art was to make it at least a little easier for Dave to pump out all the art necessary for the game. We also wanted to stand out from all the other casual games currently available.

How does the company decide what games to charge for and which to release as free downloads? Was there any point that Tiny Tower was a paid app?

Since our initial success with our first freemium title Pocket Frogs, the goal with Tiny Tower was to see if we could improve on that formula even more. Tiny Tower was designed to be a free to play game from the start.

Is the free vs paid for business model difficult to work with?

The free to play model certainly limits they types of games you can make, or at least forces developers to think outside the box a lot more.

How viable is the micro transaction model? Does it work any better in the mobile device market than with the PC market? Do you see that type of business model as being something that we’ll see for a while or something that will fade away with time in favour of the more established business model of just paying up front?

The micro transaction model has been proven by many to be an extremely viable business model. I think it works better on mobile for certain types of games, but it is already spreading more and more into the PC and console markets. I think there will always be room for different business models in the future, whether free or paid.

Do you work hard to make a game “addictive” or is that just a happy side effect of making a game that people enjoy?

We never actually work to make a game “addictive” but we certainly keep tweaking a game until we have lots of fun playing it ourselves.

Have you thought of bringing Tiny Tower to PC in some form? Imagine Tiny Tower as a Facebook app!

We tend to focus only on iOS development since we are still a small studio, but we never rule anything out!

Are there any other iOS developers out there that truly excite you?

I’m excited by every single small indie developer that goes toe to toe with the big boys like Zynga and EA. There are really too many to list, and you really only see that happening on the App Store and nowhere else.

Are you surprised by the success of Tiny Tower? It seems as though everyone is taking about, and cursing its addictive nature!

We were very happy with the end product once we were ready to release Tiny Tower but its reception has certainly blown us away. We could have never imagined all the praise it has received so far!

How did it feel to be “App of the Week” recently, and did that make a tremendous difference to download numbers?

We were very honored and happy to continue the tradition since Pocket Frogs was the very first Game of the Week on the App Store. An Apple feature always trumps any other kind of marketing to propel an app up the charts.

What games (iOS or otherwise) are you playing at the moment?

I have been playing a lot of Velocispider by Retro Dreamer on iPhone and Casey’s Contraptions by Snappy Touch on iPad, be sure to pick them up!

Tiny Tower was our download item of the week on the GodCast, Season 3 Episode 3. You download the title via this link, for free!