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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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TinyCo and FOX have released their new free-to-play iOS game based on the popular TV show Family Guy. The game, called Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff, has gameplay similar to EA's freemium The Simpsons: Tapped Out, released in 2012.

In the Family Guy game, the town of Quahog has been trashed by a fight between Peter Griffin and Ernie the Giant Chicken, and gamers must help Peter rebuild the town, collecting many of the characters from the game along the way. The game features original content from the voice actors along with stories and jokes from writers at Seth MacFarlane's Fuzzy Door productions.

familyguy1.png
The TinyCo team stressed that the freemium elements are solely there to speed up the game or for cosmetic decorations, but that users will never be forced to pay money to progress. It's meant to be something that users play for short bursts -- "on the bus or on the toilet", according to the company -- but it can also be played for long stretches, particularly later in the game.

Family Guy's trademark irreverent humor -- including numerous cutaway gags -- are everywhere in the game, with some characters from the show making a brief appearance for a single joke before disappearing for the rest of the game.

The game features Facebook social integration so gamers can visit friends, but the social play is strictly optional. Logging in to TinyCo's servers with a Google+ or Facebook login does make it significantly easier to play the game on multiple devices, however. The game backs up progress to the cloud, allowing users to seamlessly shift their ongoing game from an iPad to iPhone on the same account. It can also be used offline, on an airplane for example, but will need to eventually sync to the cloud to save progress.
"Not only is the game exponentially more entertaining than reading this press release, it's the only place you'll find Peter and Quagmire napping together," said Rick Phillips, SVP, Fox Digital Entertainment. "We're excited to deliver a game that brings the spontaneity and eccentricity of the show to the mobile gameplay experience for the first time. TinyCo successfully marries the world of FAMILY GUY, its infamous cutaways, lampooning of current events, and irreverent humor with entertaining game mechanics."

"We've had an absolute blast bringing The Quest for Stuff to life," said Andrew Green, head of business development and business operations at TinyCo. "Working with an IP like Family Guy wasn't a responsibility we took lightly, and thanks to fantastic collaboration with Fox we're delivering a game that both fans and newcomers will love."
Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff is a free download for the iPhone and iPad. [App Store]

Article Link: 'Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff' Launches for iPhone and iPad
 

Nikoraisan

macrumors newbie
Apr 10, 2014
6
3
I'm gettin' real tired of these types of games. Pay2Progress will be the downfall of my enthusiasm for anything mobile.

I'll go back to my micro transaction free Xbox games now.

... Well ****.
 

bushido

Suspended
Mar 26, 2008
8,070
2,755
Germany
"The TinyCo team stressed that the freemium elements are solely there to speed up the game or for cosmetic decorations, but that users will never be forced to pay money to progress."

same as Tapped Out and its damn Donuts then. 80% of those limited decorations will cost a redic amount of money
 

Eddy Munn

macrumors 6502
Dec 27, 2008
377
758
"The TinyCo team stressed that the freemium elements are solely there to speed up the game or for cosmetic decorations, but that users will never be forced to pay money to progress."

same as Tapped Out and its damn Donuts then. 80% of those limited decorations will cost a redic amount of money
That's so untrue, there are so many elements to Tapped Out that need donuts.
So many donuts, that you could only humanly get through paying.
 

Frankied22

macrumors 68000
Nov 24, 2010
1,775
577
Simpsons and Family Guy release freemium iOS games riddled with micro transactions. South Park releases a full blown video game. I think we know who is better.
 

bushido

Suspended
Mar 26, 2008
8,070
2,755
Germany
That's so untrue, there are so many elements to Tapped Out that need donuts.
So many donuts, that you could only humanly get through paying.

not really you can play Tapped Out without using any donuts, it just takes longer OR you miss out of certain items
 

seble

macrumors 6502a
Sep 6, 2010
972
163
not really you can play Tapped Out without using any donuts, it just takes longer OR you miss out of certain items

Exactly, I haven't spent a penny on tapped out and I don't intend to. It's fine as a free game but not worth paying anything for. Having said that I admit to having spent some money on the Sims Freeplay...
 

Nikoraisan

macrumors newbie
Apr 10, 2014
6
3
3 minutes in the game has a quest requiring me to buy a pack of coins for real money and a quest requiring me to connect the game to my facebook account. Neither of them can be cleared from the list. I don't want to pay, and I don't have a facebook account.

Removing this.
 

Pakaku

macrumors 68040
Aug 29, 2009
3,118
4,359
From the comments in this thread so far, you could argue that Quest For Stuff is a parody of the very style of videogame it's participating in.

Or is that too deep for Family Guy?
 

Oohara

macrumors 68040
Jun 28, 2012
3,050
2,423
Simpsons and Family Guy release freemium iOS games riddled with micro transactions. South Park releases a full blown video game. I think we know who is better.

Noting of course that Family Guy is the vastly inferior show from the outset, regardless of which game is better. :cool:
 

Evil Spoonman

macrumors 6502
Jan 21, 2011
330
171
California
Just so nobody starts losing faith in humanity just yet...

I recently finished BioShock Infinite, and am currently deep into Metro Last Light. These games had an upfront cost, are extremely high quality, and do not deploy microtransactions in any fundamental way.

So whilst casual mobile gaming seems to have been largely consumed by an insidious free to play model. There are still immersing and breathtaking stories being told by games on other platforms.

I sincerely hope the average quality of casual mobile games increases, especially on iPad. That we begin to see complex and engaging content with a fair and reasonable cost of entry that you only pay once.


End optimistic post.
 

macduke

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,101
19,603
Just so nobody starts losing faith in humanity just yet...

I recently finished BioShock Infinite, and am currently deep into Metro Last Light. These games had an upfront cost, are extremely high quality, and do not deploy microtransactions in any fundamental way.

So whilst casual mobile gaming seems to have been largely consumed by an insidious free to play model. There are still immersing and breathtaking stories being told by games on other platforms.

I sincerely hope the average quality of casual mobile games increases, especially on iPad. That we begin to see complex and engaging content with a fair and reasonable cost of entry that you only pay once.


End optimistic post.

Well said. I'm hopeful too. There was actually quite a bit of stuff like that on the App Store before Apple unveiled in-app purchases. Scott Forstall unveiled it for "Subscriptions, Additional Levels, New Content" at the iPhone OS 3.0 event. Then they allowed Ngmoco (which is a tragic tale of a developer who made quality games who started pushing out microtransaction garbage) to show off LiveFire, which was a new game they were working on. It was an FPS that had IAP for things like weapons.

I really do blame Apple for allowing that to happen, which has mostly ruined gaming on iOS for me. It took a year or two after IAP became available before games started taking advantage of it on a larger scale—and using it for evil microtransactions. There just don't seem to be as many quality titles nowadays. And with the pure volume coming out of the App Store, quality titles are easy to miss. I need to browse TA more often.

But anyway, that's why I buy the hell out of a game like Jet Car Stunts 2. The original was amazing and had a fixed cost. The new one has IAP, but they do it the way it should be done: Free to try, pay to unlock additional level packs. I think I bought the whole game outright for like $6. Would have easily paid $15-20 for such a great game. Too bad IAP is like a Pandora's Box. Once they started that thing up it can't go away. There would be lawsuits like crazy—that and Apple is making too much money.

I wish that they had a premium section of the App Store. Developers could submit fixed-cost, high-quality titles to Apple for inclusion in the premium section. Apple could essentially have a diverse team of game reviewers who would judge whether or not a game was enough of a AAA title to include in the premium section. Or set it up like many of the consoles do by getting a special contract? I don't know how else you could do it. It could be rather subjective. If they could pair that with a new beefed-up Apple TV with game controller support then that would be amazing. They could also follow similar pricing structures of consoles. New releases would be between $30-50. After they've been on the market for a few months, or hit a certain number of downloads and become a "classic" or something like that, they can drop the price to a minimum of $20. The A7 chip is approaching the kind of speed in an Xbox 360. The A8 may match, or even surpass it on the iPad if it goes quad-core. Suddenly AAA console titles are a reality—but won't ever make it over in bulk if the pricing structure isn't there to support development. And in a few more years, iOS devices will be approaching next-gen console quality. Apple would be smart to see this coming and put something into place to promote high quality development. They added game controller support, and that's a good start. But Apple takes their time so that they get it right.
 

jrswizzle

macrumors 603
Aug 23, 2012
6,107
129
McKinney, TX
Geez - lots of hate on this thread.....

I'm looking forward to playing the game - think Family Guy is hilarious. Never been a fan of South Park.

But hey, that's why they exist right? They have different audiences.
 

nutmac

macrumors 603
Mar 30, 2004
6,043
7,286
Family Guy appears to be a much better game than The Simpsons. Having said that, there are some many glaring issues. For one thing, there's no way to restart the game (short of reinstalling the app, but logging in to account reverts to the old progress).
 

bzero

macrumors member
Apr 1, 2014
42
0
Simpsons and Family Guy release freemium iOS games riddled with micro transactions. South Park releases a full blown video game. I think we know who is better.

Yes, the Simpsons :p
I still hate games with excessive in-app purchases and use my "modified" iOS to deal with those.

----------

So is Fox still having people's entire video accounts SHUT DOWN for showing gameplay with their precious copyrighted characters?

http://toucharcade.com/2014/04/08/fox-is-issuing-copyright-claims-family-guy-the-quest-for-stuff/

Fox seems like a game company worth staying away from. You never know what strange planet their lawyers might be living on.

I put "Vevo" in a YouTube channel name. Boom, erased within a week with no explanation. And Fox owns Vevo.
 

bpcookson

macrumors 6502
Apr 6, 2012
484
90
MA
So many games copy others now a days. Where is the creativity or imagination anymore?

I believe the word you're looking for is novelty. Or at least that's what many game devs seem to think we want...

I generally prefer Family Guy to South Park, though they both have their ups and downs. Anyway, I gave this a try and I'm disappointed. The jokes feel disjointed and forced, really formulaic. Also, while the animation is decent, the flow between characters or actions doesn't feel organic. The whole thing just comes as very intentionally manufactured.
 

furi0usbee

macrumors 68000
Jul 11, 2008
1,790
1,381
I don't even download apps which have IAP, let alone having to constantly pay to play. No thanks.
 

SWD

macrumors member
May 3, 2011
96
2
It's basically tapped out with dick jokes.

I enjoyed tapped out and built a decent city after a good 7 months without paying. But friends were using cheats and it was impossible to accumulate hundreds of donuts. I think I ended up with 138 after 7 months. We'll see how the Quest for stuff plays out.

Is anyone else having trouble logging in on multiple devices? No matter what way I try, the iPhone will not log into Facebook. It worked on the ipad, but the ipad won't log in to g+.
 

MadAngelUK

macrumors 6502
Sep 15, 2012
354
701
It's basically tapped out with dick jokes.

I enjoyed tapped out and built a decent city after a good 7 months without paying. But friends were using cheats and it was impossible to accumulate hundreds of donuts. I think I ended up with 138 after 7 months. We'll see how the Quest for stuff plays out.

Is anyone else having trouble logging in on multiple devices? No matter what way I try, the iPhone will not log into Facebook. It worked on the ipad, but the ipad won't log in to g+.

Not sure if I've had the same trouble as you. I started playing on iPhone (signed in with facebook) and for the life of me couldn't connect to my facebook (game) account to continue my game on the iPad. After numerous communications and me sending error messages and screenshots to the support team, it's finally fixed. (I have to say, they respond back very speedily!)

Firstly. If you are signed in on one device, you have to sign out on that device before you even attempt to sign in on the second device. (You sign out by clicking the button that says you are signed in.)

If you then still can't sign in on the second device (my problem), go to your iPad (in my case) Settings, Go to the Facebook app permissions, if the app has facebook permission turn it off, then turn it on again. Go back to the game and sign in via facebook but through the "I have an existing account" button. I hope that helps in some way.
 
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