Inside Social Games

Blackjack Attack, despite the name reminding me of a 80s hip hop group, is a step-up from the more popular Blackjack application on Facebook. Mytopia is creating a line of games that have interconnected economies and interfaces, and better visuals help. But really it’s just a nice new take on a game that’s been done before.

The Flash animation seems to be higher end than most other gambling apps, but the network is what really stands out. Mytopia is trying to create a gaming empire. When you install any app, you get 1000 game tokens up front that can be used in any of the games.

However, it’s just one of the two economies in the system. The other is “gold” – which hasn’t been launched yet. You’ll be able to win prizes in addition to leveling up your skills by playing various games, changing your ranks and title. We’ve seen this before, but not so well integrated.

However, the games aren’t perfect of course. The load time is long, and the Blackjack table can only fit four people. Some basic moves in Blackjack are missing as well. Mytopia should really fix some of these details. (They should also find a way to keep the apps in one window – most users don’t like pop-ups and many people will have pop-up blockers to prevent the game window from opening.)

Developers should watch this application with interest because Mytopia combines partner offer pages, invites, leaderboards, and log-in rewards to make it very easy for players to get tokens and even easier to switch applications. We’ll see if they can get this empire off the ground and truly unfurl all the plans they seem to be working on.

Gameplay: 5

Development: 8 (for now)

Potential for Mytopia: 9