This meant that the player was forced to plan and find the best routes using the best planes rather then upgrading every city on a path to anywhere. What elements did you introduce to the game in order to add more depth? One aspect we changed during beta was preventing the player from upgrading cities to any class. We did intend for basic advancement to take little planning for casual play, but for careful planning to be necessary to unlock your airlines true potential. The game is only as complex as the player makes it for themselves. Was this something you specifically aimed for? I think the real problem is that the depth is relatively hidden unless you're looking for it. The twins Marsh: Dave and Ian (left to right) We're also able to be brutally honest with each other about our work since we've been beating up on each other for almost 30 years now! Pocket Planes is very accessible, which encourages extended play, but remains fairly untaxing in terms of gameplay difficulty. We have this shared knowledge of all the games we played, books we read, and movies we saw growing up so we can always reference something and know exactly what the other one is talking about. What's it like working with a family member? Working with my twin brother is pretty amazing. You founded NimbleBit with your twin brother. Were there any other significant challenges you had to overcome? I'd say the biggest challenge by far was making the simulation deep enough to be enjoyable to more 'core' gamers while still keeping it simple enough for casual gamers. A screen from the canned Pocket Trains Luckily most of the systems we'd developed up to that point were still able to be utilised in Pocket Planes. Why did you make that change? We had developed the train game to a certain point when we realised that staying on tracks was limiting in a few different ways, and also the average person can relate to air travel much more easily than rail travel. The game was originally about trains not planes. ![]() I don't think we'll let the art style dictate the types of games we make though. Will all NimbleBit games take this approach going forward? I think there is a good chance we'll continue using it as long as it suits the game. We ended up loving it so much that we decided we should make a game with many more environments than a single restaurant. Can you tell us a little about how you settled on your pixel art style? Before Tiny Tower, we were playing around with the idea of making a restaurant management game and Dave had started mocking it up in a pixel art style. ![]() We kept the BitBook and added other world events to give a sense of the world carrying on with or without you. What lessons did you carried over? I think the most important thing was the sense of a living breathing world that you're playing in. ![]() Pocket Gamer: What were your aspirations for Pocket Planes? Ian Marsh: With Pocket Planes we set out to make a game with much more strategy and deeper gameplay than Tiny Tower while still keeping it relatively casual and approachable. We talk to co-founder Ian Marsh about the Pocket Planes' origins, balancing the needs of casual and core players, and what it's like working with your twin brother. Yet the project could have been very different. Following the success of Tiny Tower, San Diego-based NimbleBit returned to the social management sim with the release of Pocket Planes, securing another strong reception, both critically and commercially.
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