The Tiny Tower creator looks to strike iPhone game gold once again. Pocket Planes is the NimbleBit's next iOS game, revealed to TouchArcade at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. According to the website, this free-to-play game is markedly different from its predecessor, despite employing the same adorable, classic Nintendo-like art style. In Pocket Planes, players will run their very own airline from a small-time operation into a global commercial flight empire akin to Virgin Airlines. (Though, we seriously things will go "Galactic" in Pocket Planes.) Players will have to ferry passengers around the globe in 100 percent customizable planes to real-life locations across a cute little map of the Earth.
Of course, the game will contain microtransactions, though NimbleBit promises TouchArcade that it will balance the money-making scheme so that it retains the fun factor for those who refuse to pay up. Based on this in-depth preview of the game, Pocket Planes sounds far more complex than Tiny Tower ever was, something NimbleBit is admittedly worried about.
That said, everyone knows the name Tiny Tower, thanks to both a "Game of the Year" nod on the App Store in late 2011 and ... recent events. As excited as we are to see the next big NimbleBit game, we almost wish the developer would have waited a bit longer to reveal Pocket Planes. You know, so it could have a healthy head start? Pocket Planes is due out this summer.
[Via PocketGamer]
Are you psyched for Pocket Planes' summer debut? How long do you think NimbleBit has before other developers become "inspired"? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.
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Of course, all of these items must be sourced through your loyal, helpful friends. The impatient will be happy to hear that they can buy their way out of these requirements, too. Once it's complete, you will also need to staff it with a few friends. Your reward for completing this Goal is 500 Coins and a Zipp Energy Drink, which will come in handy later. 
This Goal is simply to show you that it is, in fact, possible to attack your friends while defending your vital buildings. This Goal's reward ups the ante quite a bit with double the previous reward ... 200 Coins. 
Set during the 
When you begin, you're asked to choose a name, gender, allegiance ('freedom' versus 'service'), and race. There's eight races to choose from (dunlending, eorling, dunedain, edain, hobbit, sindar, silvan, and dwarf), and all have richly detailed histories to read up on. This all sounds simple enough, but if you've never played a MUD, it can be overwhelming because there's lots of required reading. MUDs are basically interactive walls of text. 
I chose to play a silvan (a species of elf) named "Kelsiera" and after I first got booted, I discovered a nice bloke named Aradir who helped me put all my stuff back on. In fact, Aradir and plenty of the other characters will be holding your hand the entire time you're setting up to play. There's also other players and admins floating around who can help. Whether you're in it for the classic gaming nostalgia, Tolkien geekery, or just out to try something new, once you've completed the tutorial (which involves learning tons of keywords) the rich-text world of Middle-Earth definitely opens up. 
