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Nitrome Touchy Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage

Nitrome Touchy was an application developed by Nitrome in partnership with Brass Monkey and released for iOS and Android on October 31, 2012 and November 21, 2012 respectively. The app made it possible for users to play certain Nitrome games with their mobile device as the controller. It was removed from app stores in early 2015 and announced to be deprecated by July 1, 2015.

The app itself was free to download and included a few free compatible games. An additional premium upgrade was also available for purchase, which would unlock all current and future Nitrome Touchy compatible games. A total of thirty Nitrome games were compatible with Nitrome Touchy during the app's lifetime.

Development[]

Nitrome Touchy's creation was the result of Nitrome's relationship with Brass Monkey, both companies knowing about each other and their expertise. [1] Brass Monkey sent Nitrome a beta SDK of the hardware they were making and Nitrome set to work testing it out with some of their games. [2]

Nitrome was first interested in testing out Super Snot Put, and after testing out a few more games with the hardware they became very interested in using it due to it being different from other virtual controllers in that it did not require downloading an external file or the player manually mapping out the buttons.[3] The controller for the app being simple to set up was also a major contributing factor as Nitrome found that this would be integral as the app's main audience would be casual gamers[4].

Nitrome Touchy was first teased in the form of a Nitrome blog post titled "Double Edged????", posted on September 18, 2012 that linked to a video also titled "Double Edged???", which showed four spartans going through the levels of Double Edged. Nitrome Touchy was revealed a week later on September 25 2015, with very general information shared on how it would come out for iOS first and Android later, with ten games initially available and twenty more to be available within the next 6 months. [5]

The decision to release on iOS first was due to apps being overall easier to make on that platform, as on Android due to the large variety of screen sizes pixel art does not resize properly due to many different aspect ratios and Nitrome Touchy would have to be tested on many Android devices.[6] The iOS and Android versions of Nitrome Touchy were both being simultaneously developed[7].

The Nitrome Touchy website was launched on October 2 2012[8], and from then up until the release of the app Nitrome continued to reveal games that would be Nitrome Touchy compatible upon release and also the features of Nitrome Touchy. By October 23 2012 the iOS version of the app had been submitted to Apple[9] and on October 31 2012 it was released, with ten games initially available, Super Snot Put being the only one that was free[10]. By November 9 2012 the app had received almost 10,000 downloads[11].

Nitrome games being able to be played in full screen via use of Nitrome Touchy was a feature of the app added late in development, less than two weeks before the app was finished. [12] Many development costs were involved in Nitrome Touchy's development, something unlike the other games Nitrome has made. [13] The game's relatively high Nitrome Touchy premium price was so that Nitrome received a favourable portion of each premium sale[14].

The Android version of Nitrome Touchy was released on November 21 2012.[15] Swindler was made a free game on December 19 2012 in the most recent update at the time[16]. In 2012 a total of 11 games were released with Nitrome Touchy compatibility or made Nitrome Touchy compatible.

On January 29 2013, Nitrome Touchy's premium in app purchase was put on sale for the first one thousand upgrades across both platforms[17], this sale ending on February 7 2013[18]. On July 3 2013, Nitrome announced how they were working on an update to Nitrome Touchy, labelled "Touchy 2.0"[19], and over the subsequent weeks released new information about the update[20][21]. The update was released on August 16 2013, this update bringing some more Nitrome Touchy compatible games, made Double Edged a free game, perfected the d-pad, and brought widescreen for iPhone 5 and various Android devices[22]. In 2013 a total of 15 games were released as Nitrome Touchy compatible or made Nitrome Touchy compatible.

In 2014 a total of 4 games were released that had Nitrome Touchy functionality. Unlike the previous years, all Nitrome Touchy activity was game releases.

In early 2015, Brass Monkey contacted Nitrome about Nitrome Touchy, discussing how since forming their new company they were going to shutdown the servers that ran the app as it was not feasible to keep it running just for that app[23]. Nitrome considered running their own server and the cost of was researched and discussed for several weeks[24]. When this began Nitrome Touchy and the app's premium in app purchase were removed as Nitrome did not want sales and downloads continuing while the app's future was indeterminate[24], the app removed from iTunes on March 4 2015[25] and from Google Play on March 12 2015[26].

Nitrome reached the conclusion that an independent server was impractical due to the high costs of it and a major update for both iOS and Android versions of Nitrome Touchy required for functionality, the necessary revenue taking years to recoup at Nitrome Touchy's current low premium sales[27]. This spelled the end of Nitrome Touchy.

At this point Nitrome negotiated with Brass Monkey about a three month cool down period prior to Nitrome Touchy's server shutdown, which they were granted, and Nitrome offered to pay Brass Monkey the revenue they would have received through royalties[28]. Despite Nitrome doing this at a loss, it was done out of love for there fanbase and there continued support along with minimizing the impact on new adopters and big Nitrome Touchy fans[28].

Nitrome announced the current state of Nitrome Touchy on March 30 2015[29], this day being the starting date of the three month cool down which would end on July 1 2015[30]. Despite the end of the cool down period being reached, Brass Monkey still kept the servers up, although it is not known for how long they will stay up. By July 8th, 2015, Nitrome had removed Nitrome Touchy related links from their site and were in the process of removing Nitrome Touchy functionality from games[31].

Although Nitrome Touchy never made a lot of money throughout its lifetime, the app was kept running prior to the server discussions because it still brought in some money and Brass Monkey handled the game's server[32].

An iPad version of Nitrome Touchy that would have optimized the controls for the large screen size[33] was planned and would have been developed if Nitrome Touchy made a satisfactory amount of money[34].

Features[]

Nitrome Touchy allows any mobile device to behave like a gamepad, along with supporting motion control and local multiplayer[35].

Touchy 2.0 added widescreen to the controller interface.

D-pad[]

Games that use this: Mega Mash, Double Edged, Bad Ice-Cream, Bad Ice-Cream 2, Bad Ice-Cream 3, Twin Shot 2, Super Stock Take, Test Subject Blue, Test Subject Green, Test Subject Complete, Test Subject Arena, Test Subject Arena 2, Colour Blind, Oodlegobs, changeType(), Ditto, Turn-Undead

Prior to Touchy 2.0, Nitrome Touchy contained a regular d-pad that often sat at the left side of the screen. Touchy 2.0 introduced a d-pad that moves with the player's d-pad finger, this d-pad also simultaneously predicting what direction the player was pressing. This addition allows the d-pad to cater to people of different hand sizes.

Motion control[]

Games which support this: Swindler, Swindler 2, Flash Cat, Super Snot Put, Thin Ice, Worm Food, Aquanaut, B.C. Bow Contest

Press image 04

An image demonstrating the motion control control scheme, using Super Snot Put

Motion control allows the player to physically move their device in order to interact with the in-game environment. Motions compatible for Nitrome Touchy are swinging, and tilting the smartphone left, right, and back.

The Wii Motion Plus style control method of Super Snot Put provides an example of how motion control works on Nitrome Touchy. Swinging the device around in a circular motion takes advantage of the gyroscopic motion control of the device.

Local multiplayer[]

Games which support this: Double Edged, Bad Ice-Cream, Bad Ice Cream 2, Bad Ice-Cream 3, Twin Shot 2, B.C. Bow Contest, Test Subject Arena, Test Subject Arena 2, Bump Battle Royale

Press image 03

Double Edged supports local multiplayer

For Nitrome Touchy compatible games multiplayer supports the use of the computer's keyboard and also the optional use of Nitrome Touchy or multiple Nitrome Touchy controllers. While multipayer gaming can still be done with a mix of players on Nitrome Touchy and those using the computer's keyboard, games that support up to four players can only have a third and fourth player if these players use Nitrome Touchy, with the exception of Bump Battle Royale.

All games that supported multiplayer also supported four player multiplayer, with the exception of B.C. Bow Contest and Test Subject Arena.

Menu interface[]

Four options are listed on the menu interface: Games, Shop, Help and Options.

  • Games - The Games page lists the number of games Nitrome Touchy can connect to, and the number of players that can participate in the game at once.
  • Shop - Allows players to purchase full access to all Nitrome Touchy compatible games, including all future Nitrome Touchy compatible games. This cost below is the same for both iPhone and Android versions of Nitrome Touchy.
Price CDN ($) US ($) GBP (£) EUR (€)
Reg. $4.99 $4.99 ? €4.49
Sale $1.99 $1.99 ? ?
  • Help - Lists frequently asked questions, trouble shooting and provides a link to a How-to video.
  • Options - This page adjusts settings for the Nitrome Touchy app. Currently, this is limited to game auto-connecting, which allows Nitrome Touchy to automatically start up a game once it has been connected to. By default, it is turned off. The options screen also provides links to Nitrome's comment and support emails, as well as a link to rate the app on the App Store.

Startup[]

When the player begins the Nitrome Touchy app, they will come to the games screen where the app will try to connect. When starting a game, the bronze Nitrome letters will appear before the game starts.

Demos[]

Released on December 20 2012, this feature allows non-premium Nitrome Touchy users to play a certain part of a Nitrome Touchy game but not the entire game. Upon reaching the end of the playable levels in the demo, the player is prompted to buy premium for Nitrome Touchy.

Game Demo released Level playable
Swindler 2 December 20th 2012 1-2

Controller interface[]

Main article: Nitrome Touchy/Controls

An iOS or Android device running Nitrome Touchy functions as a gamepad while playing a Nitrome Touchy compatible game. The touch screen, motion control and local multiplayer functions are used, depending on the game.

The linked list lists the layouts and use of the controller for each Nitrome Touchy game, both Android and iPhone versions of Nitrome Touchy using the same controls and layout. A gear image is placed at the top right side of the screen. As with the Music, Sound FX, and Pause button of Nitrome's other Flash games, this gear serves as the options button of the controller, allowing the player to toggle these functions.

Each controller comes with exclusive art pertaining to the game. In the sections for each game in the linked list, it will be informed what buttons on the smartphone are used for the game and what each button does. In each game section will be a condensed section, which states the controls of the game by specifying the action on the smartphone and what is done in the game.

Game availability[]

Compatible games[]

A total of 30 games were made Nitrome Touchy compatible.

Game Release
Swindler iOS (premium): October 31st 2012
Android (premium): November 21st 2012
Flash Cat iOS: October 31st 2012
Android: November 21st 2012
Mega Mash iOS: October 31st 2012
Android: November 21st 2012
Double Edged iOS: October 31st 2012
Android: November 21st 2012
Super Snot Put iOS: October 31st 2012
Android: November 21st 2012
Magic Touch iOS: October 31st 2012
Android: November 21st 2012
Off The Rails iOS: October 31st 2012
Android: November 21st 2012
Thin Ice iOS: October 31st 2012
Android: November 21st 2012
Worm Food iOS: October 31st 2012
Android: November 21st 2012
Aquanaut iOS: October 31st 2012
Android: November 21st 2012
Swindler 2 November 21st 2012
Bad Ice-Cream 2 January 8th 2013
Plunger January 22nd 2013
Twin Shot 2 February 7th 2013
Bad Ice-Cream February 19th 2013
Super Stock Take March 19th 2013
B.C. Bow Contest April 6th 2013
Test Subject Blue August 16th 2013
Test Subject Green August 16th 2013
Test Subject Complete August 16th 2013
Test Subject Arena August 16th 2013
Colour Blind August 16th 2013
Oodlegobs August 29th 2013
Test Subject Arena 2 October 16th 2013
Cheese Dreams: New Moon December 5th 2013
Bad Ice-Cream 3 December 20th 2013
ChangeType() February 20th 2014
Ditto March 26th 2014
Bump Battle Royale August 1st 2014
Turn-Undead October 7th 2014

Demo games[]

Game demos can be played by players who have not yet bought premium.

Game Demo released Playable levels
Swindler 2 December 20th 2012 1-2

Free games[]

Game When made free
Super Snot Put iOS: October 31st 2012
Android: November 21st 2012
Swindler December 19th 2012
Double Edged iOS: August 16th 2013
Android: August 15th 2013[36]

Game experiments[]

When making a game Nitrome Touchy compatible, Nitrome focused on games that worked well with a controller and ideally when the controller brought "something extra to the gameplay."[37] Nitrome has experimented with several Nitrome games to see if they would work well as a Nitrome Touchy compatible game.

  • Dirk Valentine was experimented with, a controller setup consisting of two analog sticks used for playing the game. This controller setup was deemed uncomfortable for gameplay. [37]
  • Due to a previous testing experience with Dirk Valentine, Final Ninja was also deemed an unlikely candidate for a Nitrome Touchy compatible game.[37]
  • Nitrome tested Roly Poly, controlling the game via tilt controls, but found it did not work well as it became very difficult after the first few levels. Nitrome did consider in the future returning to seeing if they could make it better.[38]
  • Nitrome Must Die was tested as a Nitrome Touchy compatible game, but the setup used did not work well. This was due to the fast paced nature of the game not performing well with virtual buttons, which actually made the game awkward and harder to play[39][40]. As with Roly Poly, Nitrome did not discount that they would ever return to trying to make the game compatible[39].
  • Hot Air was tested using tilt controls but was too "twitchy and annoying to control", although it was not discounted as a Nitrome Touchy compatible game and Nitrome said that they may come up with a suitable setup for the game in the future.[41]

Purchase[]

App download[]

Nitrome Touchy could be downloaded from the game's iTunes page or Google Play store page for free up until March 5 2015 for the iOS version[25] and March 13 2015 for the Android version[26].

Purchasing games[]

55?cb=20120317190109 Incomplete section

This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
Needed: All prices

Nitrome Touchy allowed the user to play a few select free Nitrome Touchy compatible games, but required that the player buy Nitrome Touchy premium in order to play the rest of the current Nitrome Touchy compatible games and future compatible titles when they become available, essentially making the user a Nitrome Touchy subscriber.

Price CDN ($) US ($) GBP (£) EUR (€)
Reg. $4.99 $4.99 ? €4.49
Sale $1.99 $1.99 ? ?

On Android and iOS if the player has purchased Nitrome Touchy premium this license would also extend to other devices connected to the same user account.[42][43]

Alternatively, the player could buy games via buying them with Brass coins.

In order to buy coins, the player has to download the Brass Monkey app for either iOS or Android, then buy the coins through the app. The lowest amount of coins that could be bought is 10,000 coins for US $0.99.

Upon Nitrome Touchy being released, Super Snot Put could be played for free while other Nitrome Touchy games could be purchased for 10000 coins each (US $0.99) or 5000 coins (US $0.50) on the Brass Monkey website[44]. At a certain point, the 5000 coins price was dropped.

Despite Brass Monkey offering to sell individual games it was more cheaper to play games via buying Nitrome Touchy premium as the US/CDN price for this could only be used to buy five games with Brass coins.

Brass Monkey codes[]

Brass Monkey usually on their blog would give out special codes that could be redeemed on the Promo Code Redemption page in order to get free games or game related content, these codes often given out as a prize for answering a question given on a blog post.

Game Code # of codes Preamble Code action Blog post Notes
Bad Ice-Cream Code is private, emailed to winners 2 (one for winner and winner's friend) Write a haiku about their favourite ice cream Allows the winner to obtain a free copy of Bad Ice-Cream [1] Winner may also win a free copy of Bad Ice-Cream 2 if their haiku is really good
Super Stock Take Code is private, emailed to winners 10 State what their favorite type of monkey is Allows the winner to obtain a free version of Super Stock Take [2]
B.C. Bow Contest bcbow 100 None Allows the user of the code to play B.C. Bow Contest for free for half an hour [3]
B.C. Bow Contest bcbow5k 5 None Brass Monkey emails another code to the user of the code [4]
B.C. Bow Contest Code is private, emailed to winners 5 Input the code bcbow5k into the promo page of playbrassmonkey.come 25,000 Brass Monkey coins[45] [5]

Although not directly related to Nitrome, when Nitrome Touchy was released Brass Monkey celebrated the release by giving out free Brass Coins on their Twitter and Facebook pages at 30 minute intervals.[46]

Updates[]

Throughout the lifetime of Nitrome Touchy Nitrome released updates for the app.

Release version[]

Released on iOS on October 31 2012 and November 21 2012 for Android, this version was the initial release version of the app. It was labelled version 1.5 on iOS.

Update 1[]

Released on December 19th 2012 for iOS and Android and labelled 1.6 on iOS, this update allowed the player to play Swindler for free and also play a demo of Swindler 2. On iOS it also fixes some small bugs.

Touchy 2.0[]

This update was released on August 16 2013 for iOS and Android and was labelled as version 1.7 on iOS. This update was previously announced by Nitrome on their blog on July 3rd 2013 and called "Touchy 2.0"[22]. This update made five new games Nitromes Touchy compatible, these being Test Subject Blue, Test Subject Green, Test Subject Arena, Test Subject Complete, and Colour Blind, along with Double Edged becoming free to play with the app.

Also, the d-pad was updated to cater to people with different size screens and different size hands, doing this by moving with the player's touch and simultaneously predicting which direction the player is trying to press[22]. Widescreen support was also introduced, on iOS working with iPhone 5 and on Android working with various Android devices[22].

Usage[]

Nitrome Touchy connection screen

The main screen after starting up the Nitrome Touchy app.

When Nitrome Touchy is launched, the app will try to connect to the player's WiFi, and once that is done, try to connect to the Nitrome Touchy servers. After that, loading a Nitrome Touchy compatible game in the player's browser will cause the screen of the Nitrome Touchy app to switch to a list of compatible games that the app has connected to, along with how many players each one supports. Tapping a game will allow the player to play it.

From there, the player can select options from the device's menu screen as they would on the game screen. Nitrome Touchy controls for that game can only be viewed from the help screen on the Nitrome Touchy app.

General game/site changes[]

AquanautTouchy

The Nitrome Touchy words and fullscreen button - as seen on Aquanaut's menu

The release of this app changed the front page of Nitrome.com slightly, changing the bottom-right box of the main box the far right button that reads "More games" to "More Touchy", and also listing Nitrome Touchy compatible games. This was to allow Nitrome Touchy users to easily find the Nitrome Touchy page.

Previously released Nitrome games and all future Nitrome Touchy compatible games had an icon added to each game's menu, either a small image of the Nitrome Touchy app's icon with wings on the side or the words "Play with Touchy". In both these logos three upwards enlarging arcs used to indicate sound were placed somewhere in each logo, placed above the icon in the Nitrome Touchy app version of the logo and in a speech bubble at the left side of the "Play with Touchy" version, this arc icon varying in colour.

While the "Play with Touchy" icon was used for many games that initially became Nitrome Touchy compatible, it was phased out after Super Stock Take and instead replaced with the Nitrome Touchy app variant, this variant was sometimes changed to fit with some part of the theme of the game. The icon was pixellated for Bad Ice-Cream 2 and 3 to fit with its enlarged pixel graphics theme, brightened for changeType(), darkened and simplified for Ditto to fit with the theme of its art, and for Turn-Undead made slightly transparent in the sound icon part.

Despite Mega Mash having the "Play with Touchy" logo when it was made Nitrome Touchy compatible, this logo in the game was later replaced with the Nitrome Touchy app version of the logo, despite this happening for no other game.

For the bar above each Nitrome Touchy compatible game a "fullscreen" button was added alongside the "heart" button, this button when pressed causing the game to into full screen, but only when the game is being played with Nitrome Touchy. If the fullscreen button is clicked without Nitrome Touchy connected to the internet, they player is prompted to download Nitrome Touchy.

Along with these changes, Nitrome released a skin to commemorate the release of the app.

Game adjustments[]

Nitrome games that were later made Nitrome Touchy compatible were modified when Nitrome Touchy compatibility was added. All games were given a "Play with Touchy" icon usually at the top left side of the screen, and areas were added that called for the player to activate Nitrome Touchy in order to play the game with the app. In addition, some games also received adjustments to certain attributes:

  • For all multiplayer games that were Nitrome Touchy compatible, with the exception of the first Test Subject Arena, support for up to four players was added. Adding four players into the game required the use of two devices running Touchy, aside from Bump Battle Royale.
  • In Aquanaut, damage to the player was halved, allowing the player to withstand six hits instead of three.
  • When playing Double Edged in multiplayer, players could no longer hurt other players with a weapon, other than the event after the final stage.
  • For Plunger the ending was optimized to look okay on a mobile device and was also in .png (the browser ending is in .jpg).

Glitches[]

By July 11th, 2015, several Nitrome Touchy games had glitches relating to accessing Nitrome Touchy premium features with the free version of the app. Presumably, these glitches were the result of Nitrome removing Nitrome Touchy functionality from Nitrome Touchy compatible games.

Beta elements[]

Planned for the game select screen of the iPhone app is a "heart" button and "share" button. Ultimately, these were eventually scrapped for unknown reasons. Image on Nitrome Touchy's Google Play and Apple App store show Snot Put and Magic Touch supporting up to four players, the presence of these numbers likely being unintentional placeholder numbers.

Announcements[]

  • September 18th 2012 - Nitrome revealed an unusual trailer consisting of four spartan going through levels of Double Edged. The trailer was titled Double Edged????, and ended with four different coloured question marks in the colour of each of the crest of the spartans.
  • September 25th 2012 - Nitrome revealed the Nitrome Touchy Controller, along with two images of the game's interface.
  • October 2nd 2012 - Nitrome launched the Nitrome Touchy mini site.
  • October 19th 2012 - Nitrome revealed more Nitrome Touchy games.
  • October 25th 2012 - Nitrome revealed even more games for Nitrome Touchy.
  • October 26th 2012 - Nitrome released a trailer for Nitrome Touchy that shows how Touchy will support full screen.
  • October 31st 2012 - Nitrome Touchy is released and also a trailer for the game.
  • November 21st 2012 - Nitrome Touchy is released for Android and Swindler 2 is made Nitrome Touchy compatible.
  • December 19 2012 - Swindler is made free to play with Nitrome Touchy.
  • December 20 2012 - A demo of Swindler 2 is launched
  • January 8 2013 - Bad Ice-Cream 2 is made Nitrome Touchy compatible.
  • January 22 2013 - Plunger is released and Nitrome Touchy compatible upon release.
  • January 29 2013 - Nitrome Touchy is announced to be on sale for the first one thousand upgrades.
  • February 7 2013 - Twin Shot 2 is updated and made Nitrome Touchy compatible, along with remedying the availability of MochiCoins exclusive content.
  • February 19 2013 - Bad Ice-Cream is made Nitrome Touchy compatible.
  • March 19 2013 - Super Stock Take is released and made Nitrome Touchy compatible.
  • April 5 2013 - B.C. Bow Contest is updated to add Nitrome Touchy support and to remedy the unobtainable items caused by the closure of MochiCoins
  • July 3rd 2013 - Nitrome announced an upcoming update, Touchy 2.0, and shared the Test Subject Blue Nitrome Touchy controller skin for the game.
  • July 26th 2013 - Nitrome shared more information about the Touchy 2.0 update. With the update, many more games will become Touchy compatible, plus there will be another free game to play with the app. The controller skin for Test Subject Green was also shared.
  • August 2nd 2013 - Nitrome again shared more information about the Touchy 2.0 update. The d-pad was planned to be updated to cater to people with different size screens and different size hands. The controller skin for Test Subject Complete is also shared.
  • August 16th 2013 - Nitrome announces that Touchy 2.0 has been released, and with it that Test Subject Blue, Test Subject Green, Test Subject Complete, Test Subject Arena, and Colour Blind were made Touchy compatible and made Double Edged a free Touchy compatible game. They also added widescreen support for the app and modified the d-pad interface. A trailer for Touchy 2.0 was released.
  • August 22 2013 - Twin Shot 2 is updated to work with the updated version of Nitrome Touchy and also a bug relating to using clouds while playing with Nitrome Touchy is fixed.
  • August 29 2013 - Oodlegobs is released and Touchy compatible upon release.
  • September 25 2013 - Test Subject Arena 2 is announced to be Nitrome Touchy compatible.
  • October 16 2013 - Test Subject Arena 2 is released and Nitrome Touchy compatible upon release.
  • December 5 2013 - Cheese Dreams: New Moon is released and is Nitrome Touchy compatible upon release.
  • December 20 2013 - Bad Ice-Cream 3 is released and is Nitrome Touchy compatible upon release.
  • February 20 2014 - changeType() is released and is Nitrome Touchy compatible upon release.
  • March 26 2014 - Ditto is released and is Nitrome Touchy compatible upon release.
  • July 4 2014 - Bump Battle Royale is revealed and it is also revealed that it will be Nitrome Touchy compatible.
  • August 1 2014 - Bump Battle Royale is released and is Nitrome Touchy compatible upon release.
  • October 7 2014 - Turn-Undead is released and is Nitrome Touchy compatible upon release.
  • March 30th 2015 - Nitrome posted a blog post explaining Nitrome Touchy's removal.[29]
  • July 8th 2015 - Nitrome announced how they are removing Nitrome Touchy functionality from games.

Advertisements[]

Main article: Advertisements

On October 31st, Nitrome released an ad advertising their newly released iOS program. There were four versions of the ad, one showed a scene from the Nitrome Touchy version of Flash Cat, one showed the Nitrome Touchy version of Off The Rails, one showing the Nitrome Touchy version of Magic Touch, and the fourth showing an iPhone with words in it. At the bottom of all the ads was the word "download". Upon clicking on the ad, the player would be linked to the iTunes page for the Nitrome Touchy download.

Also, another ad could be encountrred when waiting for a distributable Nitrome game to load. After the sponsor ad, a randomly selected ad made by Nitrome will pop up - one of these being for Nitrome Touchy. The ad encourages fans to download or buy Nitrome Touchy from the iOS or Google Play App Store.

At the same time, in the shop section of Nitrome.com the MochiCoins ad was replaced with an ad for Nitrome Touchy. Also, on Nitrome's YouTube page, a large ad was placed at the top of the page, which informed visitors of the Nitrome Touchy.

On December 12 2012, Nitrome updated their site, adding several larger ads to their website. These ads included ones for Off The Rails, Flash Cat and Swindler, all advertising the ability to use Nitrome Touchy to control the characters of those games.

Also with the Nitrome.com 2.1 update, Nitrome added a section to their site labeled "Featured", which held small, square ads for new/upcoming events/games. One of these ads was for the Nitrome Touchy.

Cameos[]

Nitrome Touchy makes a cameo in Super Stock Take on level 8. The Nitrome jingle is heard upon collecting it.

Releasing on other devices[]

Nitrome originally said there are no plans to port Touchy to any other devices[47], however later on when asked if Nitrome Touchy would come to Windows Phone Nitrome shared how this would be unlikely, citing how the revenue Nitrome Touchy brings in on iOS and Android is not enough to justify a Windows Phone release and the Brass Monkey software Nitrome Touchy runs being incompatible with Windows Phone.[48]

Though Nitrome Touchy is already on Android, Nitrome has said that an Amazon App Store port is "highly unlikely" due to there not being much of reason to port it and the port requiring the help of an external company.[49]

Reception[]

Nitrome Touchy had an average score of four stars out of five stars[50] on the iTunes app store and a score of 3.9 on the Google Play store.

Sales[]

From October 31 2012 to November 9 2012 Nitrome Touchy had been downloaded nearly 10,000 times on iOS.[11]

Price drop[]

On January 29th 2012, Nitrome announced that Nitrome Touchy would have its premium priced reduced by more than 50%, available only to the first 1,000 premium downloads. As of February 1st 2013, Nitrome announced in their Friday update that not even all 1,000 had been sold, and stating that there are only "a few left"[51]. On February 6th 2013 Nitrome reverted their cover photo back to the Nitrome Touchy "Try for free on iOS and Android" version[18] a public act acknowledging the end of the sale.

Takedown[]

Nitrome Touchy was temporarily removed from app stores in early 2015 after Brass Monkey shared with Nitrome its plans to shutdown the app's server due to feasibility, although the app removal later became permanent when a solution for the server could not be found[24]. The situation with Nitrome Touchy was later announced on March 30th, 2015, along with the start of a three month cool down period which was planned to end on July 1, 2015[29], although it did not immediately end past this date.

Gallery[]

Trailers[]

Trivia[]

  • The music used in the Nitrome Touchy trailer is actually unused music for Super Feed Me.[52]
  • The games and shop tabs are updated versions of the tabs on Nitrome's website.

Notes[]

  1. Mochimedia: Flash meet mobile with Nitrome Touchy: It came from our relationship with Brass Monkey. We all love gaming, they new about us because of our games and we were aware of their technical developments., 3 Dec 12, retrieved 4 Apr 15.
  2. Mochimedia: Flash meet mobile with Nitrome Touchy: We were sent a beta SDK and we set to work on developing it into our games for testing., 3 Dec 12, retrieved 4 Apr 15.
  3. Mochimedia: Flash meet mobile with Nitrome Touchy: When we first got hold of the beta technology from Brass Monkey, the first thing we wanted to try was Super Snotput. ... We tried it out on a couple of games and instantly knew that this technology was different. ... We are not aware of any other virtual pad that can work without pre mapping controls or downloading an EXE onto your computer before you begin., 3 Dec 12, retrieved 4 Apr 15.
  4. Mochimedia: Flash meet mobile with Nitrome Touchy: [...] but more importantly how easy it was to use the app itself. ... In an ever expanding market of casual gamers we felt that it was vital for the process to be as straight forward as possible and we feel that this is one of Touchy's biggest selling points., 3 Dec 12, retrieved 4 Apr 15.
  5. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Nitrome Touchy Controller!, 25 Sep 12, retrieved 7 Apr 15.
  6. Mochimedia: Flash meet mobile with Nitrome Touchy: Why did you choose to first launch on iOS vs. Android? Any plans to launch this on other stores?
    ... the iOS market is a far easier task than on Android. [...] the varying shapes and specs of Android handsets is [sic] staggering and pixel artwork doesn’t resize easily. The differing aspect ratios of artwork mixed with the laborious task of testing on all of the handsets made it an easy choice to go with iOS first…, 3 Dec 12, retrieved 4 Apr 15.
  7. Touchy Controller | Nitrome: Frequently Asked Questions: The partnership with Brass Monkey has enabled us to develop Nitrome Touchy for iOS and Android simultaneously., 31 Oct 12, retrieved 28 May 15.
  8. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Nitrome Touchy!, 2 Oct 12, retrieved 8 Apr 15.
  9. Touchy Controller: comment by Nitrome: It has been submitted to apple..., 23 Oct 12, retrieved 8 Apr 15.
  10. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Nitrome Touchy Released!, 31 Oct 12, retrieved 8 Apr 15.
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Friday Update, 9 Nov 12, retrieved 10 Apr 15.
  12. Touchy Controller: comment by Nitrome: [this comment does not confirm fullscreen being part of Nitrome Touchy and discusses how it could be possible for Touchy, pointing to how it has not yet been added], 14 Oct 12, retrieved 9 Apr 15.
  13. Touchy Controller: comment by Nitrome: Most bog standard controllers cost a serious amount of money (we are talking £25+ for most retail Joypads). So we feel that the cost is quite reasonable in comparison. Don't forget that we will be continually supporting Touchy into the future as-well as there is a lot of development costs involved., 28 Nov 12, retrieved 25 Apr 15.
  14. Touchy Controller: comment by Nitrome: We need to try and cover our costs, as after Apple and Brassmonkey have taken there cut it really doesn't leave us with much., 24 Apr 13, retrieved 21 May 15.
  15. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Play Swindler 2!, 21 Nov 12, retrieved 12 Apr 15.
  16. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Nitrome Touchy gets an update!, 19 Dec 12, retrieved 13 May 15.
  17. 17.0 17.1 Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Touchy now on SALE!, 29 Jan 13, retrieved 22 May 15.
  18. 18.0 18.1 18.2 Nitrome on Facebook: Cover Photos, 6 Feb 13, retrieved 22 May 15.
  19. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Touchy 2.0 Update, 3 Jul 13, retrieved 15 May 15.
  20. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Touchy Controller!, 26 Jul 13, retrieved 15 May 15.
  21. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Friday Update!, 2 Aug 13, retrieved 15 May 15.
  22. 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4 Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Touchy Updated Released!, 16 Aug 15, retrieved 15 May 15.
  23. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Touchy Removed from App store: A few weeks back Nitrome and Brass Monkey had a meeting about Touchy. ... They wanted to talk about the future of Touchy. Since setting up their new company they were closing down the old servers that ran Touchy as they said it was not cost effective to keep it running just for our app., 30 Mar 15, retrieved 21 May 15.
  24. 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Touchy Removed from App store: Swapping over to new servers meant a substantial update to both versions of the App and there were costs involved to do this. It also meant running our own servers for the service in future. We have been discussing these costs over the last couple of weeks. We removed the app from download and the iAP during this time as we did not feel comfortable letting downloads or sales continue while its future was uncertain., 30 Mar 15, retrieved 21 May 15.
  25. 25.0 25.1 25.2 App Annie: Nitrome Touchy (iOS): Daily Ranks: March 4 2015: [This is the last recorded day for lifetime sales], 4 Mar 15, retrieved 21 May 15.
  26. 26.0 26.1 26.2 App Annie: Nitrome Touchy (Google Play): Daily Ranks: March 12 2015: [This is the last recorded day for lifetime sales], 4 Mar 15, retrieved 21 May 15.
  27. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Touchy Removed from App store: The costs it turned out were quite a lot more than we had hoped. They would take us over two years of sales at the current rate to recoup the costs....or just maybe due to sliding sales we would never recoup the costs., 30 Mar 15, retrieved 21 May 15.
  28. 28.0 28.1 28.2 Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Touchy Removed from App store: Nitrome have negotiated a 3 month cool down period from today where current owners of the Touchy App will still be able to use it. Nitrome have offered to pay Brass Money their usual revenue they would receive in royalties to make this happen despite the fact we will make no money from the app during this period. We are doing this because we love our fans and the support you give us., 30 Mar 15, retrieved 23 May 15.
  29. 29.0 29.1 29.2 29.3 Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Touchy Removed from App store, 30 Mar 15, retrieved 19 May 15.
  30. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Touchy Removed from App store: Nitrome have negotiated a 3 month cool down period from today where current owners of the Touchy App will still be able to use it. [...] The last day you will be able to use Touchy will be the 30th of June 2015., 30 Mar 15, retrieved 23 May 15.
  31. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Touchy RIP, 9 Jul 15, retrieved 23 Jul 15.
  32. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Touchy Removed from App store: Touchy never made a lot of money for Nitrome but we were happy to keep it running at this point as it did still make some and Brass Monkey handled the servers. There was no reason to not keep it running until this happened., 30 Mar 15, retrieved 22 May 15.
  33. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Play Iridescent! → comment by Nitrome: I think that would be the point in a native iPad version...thing would have been set up to be comfortable for the screen size., 25 May 15, retrieved 25 May 15.
  34. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Play Iridescent! → comment by Nitrome: We would have [made an iPad version] if the app had been more successful., 24 May 15, retrieved 24 May 15.
  35. 35.0 35.1 Nitrome blog post: Nitrome Touchy Controller, posted 25 September 2012
  36. Games | Touchy: comment by Nitrome: Our secret is out! the update hasn't quite gone live yet. It needs to be approved on the [iOS] Appstore before we can launch.
    TouchyDoubleEdgedFree

    The comment

    , 15 Aug 13, retrieved 15 Aug 13.
  37. 37.0 37.1 37.2 37.3 Nitrome on Facebook: Timeline Photos: we tried making up a duel stick style controller for Dirk Valentine as an experiment but I think without having shoulder buttons (which we can't add to a phone) it is not comfortable to play so at least for the moment we are not persuing that or Final Ninja for the controller., 4 Oct 12, retrieved 28 May 15.
  38. Nitrome: We hope that you are all enjoying our Touchy app! It is...: We have already considered Roly poly but it might need new levels or something with Touchy as it was almost impossible after the first few levels using tilt controls. Its a really old game with some really twitchy levels in it... (we might take a look at it again at some point)., 5 Nov 12, retrieved 28 May 15.
  39. 39.0 39.1 39.2 Touchy Controller | Nitrome: comment by Nitrome: Yes we have briefly looked at NMD as a touchy game. And it may still happen at some point, but on the initial look it is very difficult to control such a frantic fast paced game with virtual buttons. As your fingers have no feedback on real buttons it makes it 5 times harder than it already is. Like I said though maybe we will look into it further at some point and try to get it working better.
    NMDtouchy

    The comment

    , 11 Mar 13, retrieved 28 May 15.
  40. Touchy Controller | Nitrome: comment by Nitrome: Hmmmmm we tried it out [Nitrome Must Die] and it was a bit fiddly and hectic. We might play around with it some more and see if we can get something more playable., 24 Apr 13, retrieved 18 Jun 15.
  41. Touchy Controller | Nitrome: comment by Nitrome: Yeah we tried tilt on Hotair and it was just too twitchy and annoying to control. maybe we will come up with some way of controlling it better in the future. =), 7 Jun 13, retrieved 28 May 15.
  42. Support | Touchy: comment by Nitrome: If you have more than one device linked to an iTunes account you will only be charged once. For example if on the first device you click on the all games upgrade, you will be charged as normal. For the second device you will still see the same all games option, however when you click on it your device will be upgraded but you will not be charged., 6 Nov 12, retrieved 6 Jun 15.
  43. Ryan David Sheasby: if I purchase this license once can I use it on both my [an]droids?

    Support | Touchy: comment by Nitrome: If the user account is the same for both devices. Then you should be able to use it on both your [an]droids., 13 Nov 12, retrieved 6 Jun 15.
  44. Brass Monkey blog - Brass Monkey/Touchy enabled Nitrome games are now available! → Super Snotput is free to play on either site with either app, and the other 9 games are all available for 10,000 brass coins (~$1) [each] to buy or 5,000 brass coins ($0.50) [each] on playbrassmonkey.com, or you can get access to all 10 games on Nitrome.com as a single bundled purchase for $4.99 as an in-app purchase.
  45. Brass Monkey blog - (No Actual Dinosaurs Were Harmed in the) New Release: BC Bow Contest → Comment:
    loster111 says:
    April 17, 2013 at 7:45 am

    wow realy 25k coins. tnx very much :)
  46. Brass Monkey blog - Brass Monkey/Touchy enabled Nitrome games are now available!
  47. Nitrome on Facebook: Nitrome - Well, it looks like another Friday - time for an update!... → comment by Nitrome: There are no current plans to support anything else for the time being. Sorry., 1 Feb 13, retrieved 10 Jun 15.
  48. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: 8Bit Doves... AGAIN! → Comment by Nitrome: Touchy is very unlikely to make it to windows phone I'm afraid. It doesn't make enough money to make that viable and there is a third party [Brass Monkey] involved who made the tech and they don't support windows phone in that., 9 August 2010, retrieved 10 August 2010.
  49. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Platform Panic: Availible on Amazon!: Touchy I'm afraid is still highly unlikely [porting to the Amazon App Store] as it involves another company to make that happen and at the moment there doesn't seem a strong argument for them putting the time into making that happen., 29 Jan 15, retrieved 29 Jan 15.
  50. Nitrome Touchy: App Shopper, ?, retrieved 10 Jun 15.
  51. 51.0 51.1 Nitrome blog: - Friday Update!
  52. NitromeMusic page, http://soundcloud.com/leenicklen/nitrome-feedme-trailer-song-2
  53. Brass Monkey.com - About: Brass Monkey® is [a] video game console that uses smartphones as controllers and any screen with a web browser as the main display.
  54. Description: Nitrome Touchy website - "The App is free to download, with unlimited access to Super Snotput. There will be..."
  55. Nitrome Touchy website: - Main page - The App is free to download, with unlimited access to Super Snotput.
  56. Nitrome Touchy website: Games page
  57. Nitrome: - Coming Soon! - ...That's right! It's gonna be Touchy's second multiplayer game!
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