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The Simpsons: Tapped Out

Game Information Released: iOS February 17, 2012 February 21, 2012 February 29, 2012 February 29, 2012 March 1, 2012 Android January 29, 2013 February 6, 2013 Kindle Fire June 24, 2013 Developer(s): Electronic Arts Publisher(s): Electronic Arts Genre: Action Platforms: iOS Android Ratings: 12+ Players: 1

The Simpsons: Tapped Out (TSTO) is a free game for iOS and Android, developed and published by Electronic Arts, first released on February 17, 2012 on iOS, then released on Android on January 23, 2013 and on Kindle Fire on June 24, 2013. The game consists of the player helping Homer and other characters to rebuild Springfield and features the cast of the show.

Description

D'OH! Homer accidently caused a meltdown that wiped out Springfield. Now, it's up to you to rebuild it. From the writers of The Simpsons, tap into a city building game that lets you create your own living, breathing Springfield...for FREE. Recreate Springfield just like you want it, as you help Homer find Marge, Bart and the rest of his family and friends. Complete comic quests like making Apu work ridiculously long shifts at Kwik-E-Mart, growing and harvesting Tomacco on Cletus’s Farm, partying down with Duffman at Duff Brewery, and more. Finish jobs and tasks to earn currency and...mmm, donuts. You can even get social and visit your friends' versions of Springfield. Make mischief and play pranks on their towns to collect cash. But remember, they can do the same to you. We told you that this game is life-ruiningly fun.

--Official description by EA.com

THIS GAME IS LIFE-RUININGLY FUN! Homer accidently caused a meltdown that wiped out Springfield. D’OH! Now, it’s up to you to rebuild it! From the writers of The Simpsons, tap into a city building game that lets you create your own living, breathing Springfield... for FREE.

--Description at iTunes Singapore

Gameplay

An example of a town.

How to play

To play the game, players need to tap on things in the game. For example, the player wants a list of Bart's jobs, so the player taps on Bart. Also, when placing things in the game, you need to drag it to a space then tap it to place it. When a character does a task, or builds something, a donut can be used to speed up the task. There is an 'Other Springfield' in which the player can help every day and get money and XP in reward. There is a tutorial in the first few levels.

Tasks

When you tap a character with a speech bubble saying "!", it means they want to say something. What they say may have something to do with a task, and if it does, a box will appear on screen. In the box, there will be a title, e.g. Square One, and underneath a task, e.g. Build the Simpson House. Sometimes there may be two tasks underneath, or three. Then you might need to buy what you need to complete the task, e.g. You go into "Buildings". "Simpson House" will be highlighted and have the price underneath. You buy whatever you need to complete the task, and if your task is to build, you drag the building to the shaded box, or anywhere you want to build it. Then, a box will come up with the reward, and perhaps another box saying you have unlocked a character, and perhaps ANOTHER box saying you have leveled up. There is also a task later on in the game where you have to catch Sideshow Bob, who has been spotted in your town, and try to catch him in between going to hiding spots.

Adding friends

The player can add friends via Facebook Connect, Gmail, their device's contact list and EA's Origin. After the player has added some friends, they can visit their versions of Springfield to complete three tasks each day, which results in more rewards for themselves. The maximum number of friends you can add in Tapped Out is 100.

Story

Homer is at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, and instead of working, he is playing The Happy Little Elves Game on his MyPad. His negligence results in the Power Plant blowing up. Homer starts rebuilding the town, and is soon aided by other characters.

Information

• Collecting all characters in a character collection will result in a reward.
• Levelling up will unlock new buildings and decorations.
• Building new buildings will unlock new actions that the characters can perform.
• Donuts () are the game's premium currency.
• The game is compatible on:

• Android 2.3.3 or later.

– Android didn't from the start enable players to visit their friends’ Springfields.

• iOS: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad mini, iPod touch 3 (3rd generation) and iPod touch (4th generation), and requires iOS 4.3 or later.

• The game needs an Internet connection to play.
• This game downloads additional content on first launch that can be up to 175MB based on device.
• The game regularly updates and require additional downloads when released.
• Game saves are not supported across multiple devices (each device will have its own save file). (unless you connect to an Origin account then your game will be save on EA's servers and can be accessed later on another device.

History

Connectivity problems

On March 3, 2012, due to connectivity problems, Tapped Out was removed from the App Store.^[1] In mid-June 2012, EA took the game offline to fix the server, and to fix the Springfields which experienced problems.^[2]

It was announced on August 14, 2012 that The Simpsons: Tapped Out would return to the United States App Store later that week, and it would relaunch worldwide (apart from Germany and Canada) in either September^[3] or later in August, with improved gameplay and enhanced graphics.^[4] With the relaunch, there will be new content in Tapped Out, Kotaku says it'll be packing new stuff from the latest season of The Simpsons. Other outlets say it'll have some new visuals as well as mechanics.^[5] It was re-released two days later, on 16 August. After December 5, 2012, EA upgraded their software to meet the constant demand of new and improved devices, and warned that the game may not work on 1st or 2nd generation iPhones or iPods anymore. ^[6]

Level 21

Many players of the game were convinced that there was a Level 21, and also convinced that there was a bug when the player reaches 48880 XP because the game did not level up.^[7] An update for the game was then released that introduced more characters and buildings, and the Level 21.

Android version

The Android version of the game was released on January 23, 2013 in the Netherlands and Australia; the ninth content update was included with the release.^[8] The game was added to the Google Play store in other countries on February 6, 2013. The game was made available on Kindle Fire devices in many countries on June 24, 2013.

Buildings

Main article: The Simpsons: Tapped Out buildings

The Store

The Store is an in-game store where you can use in-game cash to buy decorations and buildings, as well as the premium in-game currency called "donuts" (the cost of which will be charged to your iTunes or Google Wallet account). The donuts purchased can be used to speed up activities (jobs, quests, building times) and also to buy premium characters, buildings and decorations that can only be acquired with donuts. You can also trade donuts for additional in-game cash.

Real-world purchases

File:Store of 900 Donuts.png Boatload of 2400 Donuts Store Full of 900 Donuts Truckload of 300 Donuts $99.99 £69.99 89.99€ CHF100 3290.0 RUB $49.99 £34.99 44.99€ CHF48 1690.0 RUB $19.99 £13.99 17.99€ CHF20 649.0 RUB Tray of 132 Donuts Crate of 132 Donuts Stack of 60 Donuts Dozen Donuts $9.99 £6.99 8.99€ CHF10 329.0 RUB $4.99 £2.99 4.49€ CHF5 169.0 RUB $1.99 £1.49 1.79€ CHF2 66.0 RUB

In-game purchases

Product Cost 100,000 600 50,000 325 15,000 115 10,000 80 5,000 41 2,500 21 1,000 9 500 5

Decoration

Main article: The Simpsons: Tapped Out decorations

Characters and their tasks

Main article: The Simpsons: Tapped Out characters

Quests

Main article: The Simpsons: Tapped Out quests

Levels

The levels for the game go from Level 1 to Level 37.

Level needed to level up Character and quote Spoken by 1 40 NO QUOTE NONE 2 75 250px Bart 3 85 Apu 4 120 Homer 5 250 Barney 6 800 Mr. Burns 7 1 800 Wiggum 8 3 200 Luigi 9 5 000 Lisa 10 8 000 Otto 11 12 000 Krusty 12 15 500 Marge 13 18 000 Skinner 14 22 000 Sea Captain 15 23 000 Lenny and Carl 16 25 500 Comic Book Guy 17 25 000 Grampa 18 28 000 Moe 19 34 215 Willie 20 36 400 Professor Frink 21 44 225 Brockman 22 58 720 Nelson 23 62 310 Martin 24 99 120 Dr. Hibbert 25 105 000 Duffman 26 111 120 Mrs. Krabappel 27 117 480 Kang 28 124 080 Rod and Todd 29 130 200 Fat Tony 30 138 000 Cletus 31 145320 Bumblebee Man 32 152880 The Rich Texan 33 160680 Dr. Nick 34 168720 Cookie Kwan 35 177000 Gil 36 185520 Kearney 37 185520 Hank Scorpio

Daily Play Combo

Day 1 - $150

Day 2 - $250

Day 3 - $500

Day 4 - $1000

Day 5 - Mystery Box

• 

  A screenshot of day one, a daily play combo.

• 

  A screenshot of day two, a daily play combo.

• 

  A screenshot of day three, a daily play combo.

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  A screenshot of day four, a daily play combo.

• 

  A screenshot of day five, a daily play combo.

Homer Buddha

A Homer Buddha cost 15 and gives the player one of these premium objects.

Object Chances Mystery Box 9.98% Bench 10% Planter 10% Dumpster 10% Picket Fence 10% Burning Bush 10% Orange Tree 10% Apple Tree 10% Tire Swing 10% Squeaky Voice Teen/30 4% Hans Moleman/60 4% Frink’s Lab/150 1% 30 donuts 1% Tire Fire/40 0.01% Springfield Sign/170 0.004% Duff Brewery/190 0.002% Volcano Lair/200 0.001%

Mystery Box

A Mystery Box gives the player one of these objects.

Object Chances Mystery Box 10.983% Lemon Tree/250 10% Parking Lot 10% Brown Fence 10% Tree 10% Large Hedge 10% Newspaper Dispenser 10% Picket Fence 4% Gazebo 4% Angel Topiary 4% 500 4% Bench (with towel) 4% 1,000 4% 10 2% Squeaky Voice Teen/30 2% Homer Buddha 1% 2,500 0.01% 30 0.004% Tire Fire/40 0.002% Lard Lad 0.001%

Job income

Content updates

Main article: The Simpsons: Tapped Out content updates

34 content updates have been released so far – two in September 2012, one in October 2012, four in November 2012, one in December 2012, two in January 2013, two in February 2013, three in March 2013, three in April 2013, five in May 2013, two in June 2013, three in July 2013, two in August 2013, two in September 2013, and two in October 2013.

Reaction to the game

"We want this to be one of the biggest titles this year," EA SVP of global publishing for social and mobile Bernard Kim told CNET. "We've invested a lot. It's absolutely a top-tier development priority for us. Hardcore Simpsons fans will get a lot out of it."^[9]

On February 17, 2012, the free Tapped Out app appeared on the Sweden, Singapore, Norway, Denmark and Finland's App Stores. It was later added to Canada, the United Kingdom and several other countries, with the United States receiving the game last. On March 1, the reaction to the app being released in the United States was so overwhelming, that it created connection problems.^[10] On March 3, 2012, three days after the US release, the app was removed from every App Store (with the exception of the Canada app store; the game was removed later), so "to make sure you current players have the best possible experience".^[11]

Most connection problems have been fixed since then, but the bugs were the main problem with the downloaders of the game. Tons of bugs were reported on the Tapped Out forum, mostly reported was the "DC while loading friends city bug".

Tapped Out was the top-grossing iOS game for EA under the last quarter 2012 and earning $23 million in sales.^[12] Tapped Out had generated over $100 million in life-to-date digital net revenue, by Electronic Arts in October 29, 2013. After August 2012 to October 29, 2013 has it been in the top 20 iPhone grossing games in the United States for all but 12 days since launch.^[13]

International releases

Gallery

• 

  A screenshot from a town in Level 20.

• 

  A screenshot from a teaser trailer of the game.

• 

  Promotional image.

• 

  Reconnecting screen.

• 

  App icon.

• 

  Logo.

• 

  Artwork

• 

  Artwork

• 

  Halloween artwork

• 

  Christmas artwork

• 

  Christmas app icon

• 

  Valentines screen

• 

  Whacking Day artwork

• 

  Whacking Day app icon

• 

  Squidport artwork

• 

  Squidport artwork

• 

  Squidport artwork

• 

  Krustyland artwork

• 

  Krustyland app icon

• 

  Halloween 2013 artwork

• 

  Halloween 2013 artwork

• 

  Halloween 2013 artwork

• 

  Halloween 2013 app icon

References

External links

Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to The Simpsons: Tapped Out.

• The Simpsons: Tapped Out at Wikipedia
• Official Tapped Out page at EA.com
• Official Tapped Out Facebook page
• Official EA Games Tapped Out forum