Tiny Tower maker NimbleBit just took another bite at Zynga for copying their game with the launch of Dream Heights. First the guys at Nimble Bit wrote an open letter to Zynga.
And now, to the delight of their Tiny Tower players, they've created a new passive aggressive mission to win in-game currency.
The mission, "Beware of Dog" with a Bitizen dressed in a Devil costume includes the copy "After failing to buy your tower, a rival developer would like the following: 13,500 Tower Design (Architect Office), 2,500 City Sim (Game Studio)"
It's no secret that many of Zynga's games are clones from other studios. In fact, this is pretty common practice across most social gaming companies.
I'm a captive audience for Tiny Tower, given that I've already invested time building my tower. I'm less likely to try Zynga's new game. However, it will be interesting what's going to happen. Unlike Facebook, where Zynga has a the offer bar, virality is a harder nut to crack with mobile. Social, on balance, is a lot harder to get right on mobile than on Facebook. Social games that have worked are either multiplayer or head-to-head games (like words with friends)
The ease of copying a game and the inability to protect the IP mean that companies like Nimble Bit have a couple different options: They can complain about it (which Nimble Bit did with dazzling pizzazz), double down on customer acquisition, and/or innovate.
While the jabs are definitely fun, Niimble Bit also needs to start pouring money to make sure they get in front of the user first. Apple's spotlight as the game of the year has been great, but the team needs to continually throw cash in becoming the first play for each new user. Continually innovating (which they have done) will help beef up retention from their player-base.
