Nitrome Touchy

Nitrome Touchy is a free Brass Monkey application for iOS and Android devices released on October 31 2012 for iPhone, and November 21 2012 for Android. The app allows for select Nitrome games to be played using devices running the application, using the player's mobile device as a controller. Nitrome Touchy supports motion detection and also local multiplayer, allowing for select games to be played with up to four people.

The multiplayer function of the Nitrome Touchy was first teased on September 18th, in the form of a mysterious trailer that showed four Spartans going throughout Double Edged levels. The next week, the app was revealed, and for subsequent weeks up until October 31st, new games and features of the app were revealed.

The app itself is free to download, and comes with Super Snot Put free to play, with Swindler also becoming free to play as of December 19th 2012. For full access to all Nitrome Touchy compatible games, extra payment is required. This fee gives app users access to all current Nitrome Touchy compatible games, as well as future releases.

Ten games were released for the Nitrome Touchy on its iPhone October 31st launch date and its Android November 21st launch date, with another 20 coming within six months of its release. The release of the iPhone version of the app was celebrated with the release of the Touchy skin, prior to the release, a mini site was released that would provide more information, links and resources about Nitrome Touchy.

On January 29th 2013, Nitrome Touchy went on sale, the app available half price across both iPhone and Android versions, the sale ending one week after going up.

The app has currently been removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play for unknown reasons.

Development
Nitrome Touchy's creation was the result of Nitrome's relationship with Brass Monkey, both companies knowing about each other and there expertise. 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.

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. 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.

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???" that showed four spartans going through the level 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.

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.

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

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. Many development costs were involved in Nitrome Touchy's development, something unlike the other games Nitrome has made. The game's relatively high Nitrome Touchy premium price was so that out of the distributed portions sale Nitrome receives a favourable portion.

The Android version of Nitrome Touchy was released on November 21 2012. Swindler was made a free game on December 19 2012 in the most recent update at the time. In 2012 a total of 11 games were released as 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, this sale ending on February 7 2013. On July 3 2013, Nitrome announced how they were working on an update to Nitrome Touchy, labelled "Touchy 2.0", and over the subsequent weeks released new information about the update. 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. In 2013 a total of 15 games were released as 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 it. Nitrome running their own server was considered, the cost of this being researched and discussed for several weeks. 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, the app removed from iTunes on March 4 2015 and from Google Play on March 12 2015.

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.

Features
Nitrome Touchy allows any iOS device to behave like a gamepad, along with supporting motion control and local multiplayer.

Touchy 2.0 added widescreen to the controller interface.

D-pad
Prior to Touchy 2.0, Nitrome Touchy contained a d-pad that moved in the direction of the player's finger (as any regular d-pad should). 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 allows the d-pad to cater to people of different hand sizes.

Buttons
Buttons simply react and perform their action when pressed, and do not move with the player's finger.

Motion control
Games which support this: Worm Food, Aquanaut, Thin Ice, Swindler, Flash Cat, Super Snot Put, B.C. Bow Contest Motion control refers to the physical movement of the device itself to interact with the in-game environment. Motions compatible for the Nitrome Touchy are swinging, and tilting the smartphone left, right, and down.

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 2, Twin Shot 2, B.C. Bow Contest With local multiplayer, Nitrome Touchy supports the ability to allow multiple players to play in the same game module. A trailer released under the title "Double Edged????" first revealed the feature that would allow four people to simultaneously play the same game (Double Edged) on the same computer screen.

Touch screen
Games which support this: All

The touch screen of the smartphone allows for unique control methods to be used. Buttons, d-pads, and other control methods can be used via the touch screen of a smartphone (iPhone, Android).

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.

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 Touchy users to play a certain part of a Nitrome Touchy game, but not the entire game. Nitrome added this feature as an incentive to buy the full version of Touchy. Upon reaching the end of the playable levels in the demo, the player is prompted to buy premium for Touchy.

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.

Demo games
For games that are given a demo, if the player has not yet

Game experiments
Nitrome has experimented with several Nitrome games, whether to see if they are Touchy compatible.

Dirk Valentine was experimented with, a dual-stick controller set up to experiment with playing the game. This controller setup was deemed uncomfortable for gameplay.

Nitrome tested Roly Poly on the Nitrome Touchy, but said that it may need new levels, as the game became incredibly hard after the first few levels, using tilt controls.

Nitrome also tested Nitrome Must Die on Nitrome Touchy - a title that was requested by many fans to be added. Nitrome said that it would be difficult to control such a "frantic fast paced game with virtual buttons.". Nitrome has stated that they may look into porting Nitrome Must Die to Touchy at some point.

Game adjustments
Several of the originally Flash Nitrome games had new features given to them. Some of the features range from only supporting 4-player multiplayer, to new game modes.

Nitrome later decided to focus on developing "games that play well on the controller and ideally where the controller brings something extra to the gameplay", after testing Dirk Valentine on Nitrome Touchy.

All game's playable with the Nitrome Touchy will be able to played in full screen on the monitor the game is being played in.

App download
Nitrome Touchy can either be downloaded from the game's iTunes page or Google Play store page for free.

Game purchase
Upon being downloaded, a few games are made available to play for free. However, to play the rest of the games, the player has pay a one-time price that allows access to all current and future Touchy games.

One-time price
The most well known method of unlocking all games, the player has to pay a one-time price that will allow them to play all Touchy games. This price also allows them to play all future Touchy games as soon as they come out, essentially making the buyer a Touchy subscriber. Below lists the prices for this method:

Brass Monkey coins
A less known method of purchasing games - spoken only of on the Brass Monkey blog - is purchasing games with Brass Monkey coins. On the Brass Monkey website, the player can individually buy (unlock as mentioned on the website) access to a Touchy game on through use of the coins.

In order to buy coins, the player has to download the Brass Monkey app for either iPhone or Android, then buy the coins through the app. The lowest amount of coins one can buy is 10,000 coins, 10,000 coins equal to US $0.99.

The player receives a discount by buying higher bundles of coins, as the higher bundles of coins actually cost less than if every 10,000 coins in the bundle cost US $0.99. Prices for coins are listed below (discount number is percentage calculated from the US prices):

Unusually, the cost of Nitrome Touchy games actually changed. Upon Nitrome Touchy being released, Super Snot Put could be played for free while all nine (at the time, only nine other Nitrome Touchy games were available) other Nitrome Touchy games could be purchased for 10,000 coins (US $0.99), or all games for 5,000 brass coins (US $0.50) on the Brass Monkey website.

At a certain point, the 10,000/5,000 for nine games was later dropped, and a single game became 10,000 brass coins. Although each Nitrome Touchy game can be purchased for a low price after the increase, it is considerably cheaper to pay the one time price in the Nitrome Touchy app, as for the US/CDN price of unlocking Nitrome Touchy, the player can only buy five Nitrome Touchy games.

Brass monkey coins are only useful for buying Nitrome Touchy games if the player only wants to play less than five premium Nitrome Touchy games. Otherwise, the player should pay the one-time price for unlocking Nitrome Touchy.

Brass Monkey codes
The Brass Monkey website features a page that allows the player to input codes. Brass Monkey will give out codes on their blog, codes generally given out when a game is released. Brass Monkey does not only give out codes for Nitrome games, generally for other games as well.

Codes usually allow the player to get the game for free. Generally, these codes are not given out for free, rather, the player has to usually answer a question given in the blog post. If codes require a preamble, the winner of a code has it sent to them in a method that does not expose the code to the public.

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

Updates
Throughout the lifetime of the Nitrome Touchy, Nitrome will release updates for the app.

Update 1
This update - issued on December 19th 2012 - allowed the player to play Swindler for free, and also play a demo of Swindler 2. This update is titled Version 1.6.

Touchy 2.0
This update was announced by Nitrome in their blog on July 3rd 2013. With the update, five new games became Touchy compatible (Test Subject Blue, Test Subject Green, Test Subject Arena, Test Subject Complete, and Colour Blind), plus Double Edged became free to play with the app. Also, the d-pad was updated to cater to people with different size screens and different size hands. It did this by moving with the player's touch and simultaneously predicting which direction the player is trying to press. This update went live on August 16th 2013.

Usage
Nitrome Touchy compatible games work once a player runs the app and is connected to the same WiFi network as the computer running the game. When opening a game, the app will automatically connect to the game screen to display a list of games the app has currently connected to. Selecting a game from the menu will automatically start it up. From there, the player can select options from the device's menu screen as they would on the game screen. Touchy controls can only be viewed from the help screen on the Nitrome Touchy app.

Bulk use
If there are multiple iPhones linked to one iTunes account, then if one person pays the fee for premium access to all games, the all subsequent iPhones linked to the same account can obtain free access to premium content without having to pay for it.

This applies to the Android as well.

General game/site changes
The release of this app changed the front page of Nitrome.com slightly, and also changed some games compatible with Nitrome Touchy. The bottom-right box in the inner box of the front page had its far right button that reads "More games" replaced with "More touchy". This was to allow Nitrome Touchy users to easily find the Nitrome Touchy page.

Along with that, going to a game that can be played on the Nitrome Touchy will cause the word "Play with Touchy" to pop up, and a speech bubble next to that with a signal symbol. The symbol possibly changes when one connects the Nitrome Touchy to the game. Along with that, on the bar above the game is a button that reads "fullscreen". This button when pressed will cause the game to in full screen, but only when playing the game with the Nitrome Touchy.

If one clicks the fullscreen button without a Nitrome Touchy connected to the internet, they are prompted to buy the Nitrome Touchy. Along with these changes, Nitrome released a skin to commemorate the release of the app.

Universal game changes
Some Nitrome games had their gameplay slightly changed when they were made Nitrome Touchy compatible. For example, in Aquanaut, the submarine's health was changed from three blows to six blows, therefore doubling the health of the sub.

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.

Nitrome Touchy 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 posts a blog post explaining Nitrome Touchy's removal.

Nitrome Touchy 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 can be found 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 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, 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 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.

Game appearances
Nitrome Touchy makes a cameo in Super Stock Take, on level eight.

Releasing on other devices
Nitrome originally said there are no plans to port Touchy to any other devices, 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.

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.

Release
Nitrome Touchy was released on October 31st 2012 for iPhone, which probably was incidental with coinciding with Halloween. Prior to the release, there had been strong support of an Android port, which Nitrome put out on November 21st 2012.

Reception
Nitrome Touchy has an average score of four stars on the iTunes app store and a score of 3.9 on the Google Play store. While Nitrome Touchy has been praised for the idea of app, it was criticized for its high price.

Nitrome has stated that the high price of the app was so that Nitrome could gain some revenue from the game as the cut Apple/Google Play and Brass Monkey take from the app does not leave much for Nitrome.

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

Price drop
On January 29th 2012, Nitrome announced that Nitrome Touchy would have its premium priced reduced considerably, stating that it would be reduced more than 50%. This special price was 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".

On February 6th 2013 Nitrome reverted their cover photo back to the Nitrome Touchy "Try for free on iOS and Android" version a public act acknowledging the end of the sale.

Trivia

 * The music used in the Nitrome Touchy trailer is actually unused music for Super Feed Me.
 * The games and shop tabs are updated versions from the tabs on Nitrome's website.