Blog
App Store Discovery Request
April 2, 2012 by Sensei
Like most iOS developers, I’ve expressed my fair share of rants on the App Store’s discovery woes. I remain hopeful that their acquisition of Chomp could lead to some very interesting/rewarding solutions. In the meantime, however, I’d like to toss out one idea into the mixer that would not require any UI overhauls and I believe would make a drastic difference.
Its a simple feature request: I would like to be able to hide apps from the results. Currently, when I load up the top 25 I’d say over 90% of the results are things I am not interested in. Similar to when I check my mail, I would like to be able to do a swipe gesture on apps in the list and have a red hide button appear over their title. Clicking on the hide button would have a similar result to archiving a read e-mail. The email will no longer appear in my inbox but I can still find it if I search for it. In the case of apps, anything I hide would not appear in my top 25, but I could still find them if I searched. Thus, I could hide all of the apps I own (I believe gizmodo suggested filtering apps you own from the list) and then I could also hide apps I see day in and day out that I know I will never buy.
By adding this simple feature the Top 25 quickly becomes MY top 25. I will be exposed to many more apps and thus will most likely be making more purchases. Apple will most likely see more diversity and healthier numbers in their top 100 as a result.
Baby Monkey TShirts for Sale! (Cyber Monday)
November 28, 2011 by ickydime
Baby Monkey shirts are up on Zazzle just in time for Cyber Monday. Check them out here: http://www.zazzle.com/kihongames/
We also threw our logo on some shirts just for kicks. If you have any requests, feel free to post them in the comments or get in touch with us on our Facebook page and we would be happy to help!
The World has Gone Insane: Free Baby Monkey Weekend!
November 18, 2011 by ickydime
Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig) is going free for a limited time starting this Saturday, Nov. 19th. Not only are we giving away pure joy, but we are also giving players 1,500 Monkey Bucks if they have five GameCenter friends in the leaderboard. In the whimsical words of Parry, ‘The world has truly gone insane’.
To celebrate this momentous occasion we will be giving away a plethora of ‘Official’ Baby Monkey T-Shirts. [Pictured Below] We will keep adding new ways to enter to this page, our Facebook page, and of course Twitter. So please check back throughout the weekend!
Ways to Enter (enter as many drawings as you like):
First Drawing: To enter the drawing, ‘Like Baby Monkey’ on Facebook! It is that simple. Already like us? No worries! We are giving the winner 2 shirts. Convince your friends so that they can get a shirt and hopefully will be nice enough to give you the second one! Everyone who likes us between NOW and tonight (Nov. 18th) at Midnight PST will automatically be entered to win in this drawing.
Second Drawing: Visit Kihon’s Facebook Page (not to be confused to Baby Monkey’s) and post on Kihon’s wall which Parry Gripp video you would like to see as a video game! Again, we will give out 2 shirts to the winner of the drawing. Encourage your friends to post as well! All wall posts need to be made by Midnight PST.
More ways to enter will be announced throughout the weekend!
Baby Monkey Update: 1.2.1
November 17, 2011 by ickydime
Thanks to everyone for all of the feedback on our Halloween release. We have listened and made the proper improvements in our latest update which was released earlier this evening.
Please keep the feedback coming by commenting on our Facebook wall and interacting with us on twitter.
1.2.1 Release Notes:
- Critical bug fixes for crashes reported in 1.2.
- Super Monkey costume! (Grants 50% more banana points AND allows you to control the monkey and pig independently.)
Super Monkey
- UI Improvements. We heard your feedback and cut down on the popups.
- The original background has been restored. If you want to continue enjoying the spooky scenery you will need to equip the Halloween costume.
- Invite 5 friends to Baby Monkey and connect with them in Game Center to earn free Monkey Bucks!
- ‘Offerwall’ support to earn free Monkey Bucks.
- 2 new Game Center Achievements.
Remaining Issues:
- We apologize for the disappearance of the iCade support. We have fixed the problem but it did not make this build. It will be in our December update.
- If you know of any other issues, please let us know!
Happy Belated Halloween!
November 4, 2011 by ickydime
Its never too late to celebrate! Kihon is proud to announce a large Halloween update to Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig).
New tricks and treats for this release include:
- Completely new art to celebrate Halloween! (screen shots below)
- New areas to explore and haunted obstacles to avoid.
- Costumes for our favorite Monkey and Pig duo!
- Angel Wings that will allow you to extend your run.
- Monkey Bucks scattered throughout the levels to unlock costumes and Angel Wings (they can also be gained through in-app purchases).
- A storefront to manage your inventory.
- OpenFeint support.
- 9 New Achievements.
Protected: Upcoming Halloween Treat from Baby Monkey
October 25, 2011 by ickydime
Attack of the Baby Monkey!
August 11, 2011 by ickydime
We’ve been told that Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig) will be making an appearance on Attack of the Show for G4TV! The show will be on this Monday the 15th at 7pm ET/PT so please set your TiVo/DVRs. Please note, there may be a chance we get bumped.
Thanks to everyone who has been supporting Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig). We are humbled by the overwhelmingly positive responses we have been receiving in the past week.
With your support we’ve been able to steadily climb up the charts. On launch day, exactly a week ago, we broke the top 200 paid games. Today, with the vast number of tweets and reviews, we broke the top 50 paid games and are currently listed as the #1 Paid Kids game! Needless to say we are very excited and extremely grateful to the community.
For those of you who want to become a part of our community, please like us on Facebook and follow us on twitter.
Below are a few quotes and comments that have caught my attention, but really its a drop in the bucket. To get the full effect you need to check out the customer reviews and youtube comments, as many of them are truly hilarious. I guess I should expect nothing less from Parry Gripp‘s community as that guy is surrounded by comedy.
From the Press:
“A pretty reasonable price to pay for pure happiness.” – Joystiq Review
“It’s a must-buy title with lots of fun and replay value.” – TUAW
“Baby Monkey (going backwards on a pig) is a great time-waster that can be enjoyed by the whole family.” – ‘CNET Review’
“Endearing entertainment for a dollar — well worth it.” – AppAdvice
“A ridiculously cute time waster with a stupidly catchy soundtrack, Baby Monkey knows what it’s doing.” – Touch Arcade Review
“The more I played this app, the more fun I had” – Family Friendly Gaming
“You have yourself one delightfully kooky video game.” – GamePro Review
From Customers:
My current favorite iTunes Review:
“Before Baby Monkey, I was depressed, jobless and alone. Ever since I started playing, my confidence has soared. I have a smoking hot fiance, a job and I’ve never been happier! Thank you Baby Monkey for saving my life! - Manatee Panic
My current favorite YouTube Review:
“This makes me wonder why there still is war in this world.”
I just couldn’t get that song out of my head…
August 4, 2011 by ZombieEye
Once school broke for summer, our house was a pretty popular spot for my two girls and their friends. It’s hot here in Tucson, so Dahlia (age 10) and Daisy (age 9) typically spend the day submerged in the pool. This year, I noticed they spent most of their time on dry land passing around their iPods giggling about the latest hilarious YouTube video from Parry Gripp; Baby Monkey (riding backwards on a pig). It seemed every time a new friend came over, the video was shown and laughter ensued. I had a feeling I was witnessing a viral phenomenon unfold right before my eyes, so I had to see what it was all about.
After watching the video for the 4th or 5th time (kids never play the thing just once btw), I knew it was something special. The next day, as I was singing the song in the shower (and in the car, and on the phone), I decided I had to share this with the team. If they felt the same way then maybe there was a game in there somewhere.
Fast forward 2 weeks and the video had spread through each of our family and friends lists. The video is hilarious, the song is catchy. We had to make this into a game. Mark reached out to Parry and before you know it, we had an agreement to use his song and make the official Baby Monkey iPhone game. We were chest deep in a few other game ideas, as well as perfecting our new toolset. We decided to drop everything and get Baby Monkey to market as fast as possible, utilizing the core of our new tools to accelerate development. The goal was to complete design, production and development within 3-4 weeks.
The games I design tend to be a bit more complicated. I am an avid strategy gamer and my design tendencies lean towards that genre, which is not always conducive to making games that I can play with my kids. With Baby Monkey we are catering to a younger, more casual audience, so we wanted to design a cute little game that was easy to play and hopefully captured that same special something that we all saw in Parry Gripp’s video. I was really looking forward to finally making a game that my kids would enjoy and share with their friends. Little did I know they would become even more involved in the process than I expected.
When I told my kids we were making the Baby Monkey game, they could not have been more excited. Both Dahlia and Daisy would spend a few hours in my office every day helping to build the levels and test the game. What better way to see how your target demographic experiences your game than by watching them play it. Better yet, get them to help us make the game. If I saw they were consistently blocked by a certain combination of obstacles, I adjusted it a bit until it was less of a challenge. We did not want to make this game difficult initially, but allow for a slow steady increase in speed and tempo so the challenge increases the farther you get. It enables the youngest of players to jump right in and enjoy themselves, but leaves room for us competitive adults to compete for the high score on GameCenter. Daisy actually become so good at the game that for a few weeks she had the score that none of us could beat. We even decided to add an achievement (Stomping Daisies) for when a player passes her once in-surmountable score. It really was a fantastic time in working with my girls on the game. We spent some quality time working on Baby Monkey together. They learned to appreciate the art of game development and they both have shown an aptitude for design and identifying fun gameplay experiences. As we continue to build our library of iOS games I look forward to seeing how I can involve them even more into our process.
Launched! Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig)
August 4, 2011 by ickydime
Check out our first game in the app store: Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig)
More details coming soon… in the meantime, enjoy the game!
Casual Connect and Our First Title
July 18, 2011 by ickydime
Exactly a month has passed since we tossed down the ‘game in a month’ gauntlet. So where is our game you ask? Well, its complete, apple approved, and waiting for us to hit the big red button.
As much as it pains me not to launch our game right this very minute, we are going to try our best to be patient and work out a few marketing related details. As soon as we get that worked out, we’ll see what happens when we hit the big red button.
If you want a sneak peak we will have a demo on us as Casual Connect this week, just shoot @kihongames a message and we’ll figure out the details on meeting up. Hope to see you there!