Inside Social Games

There are a lot of casual/social game sites, or at least a lot that try to be. One of the better ones is Iminlikewithyou.com, which plays host to some rather fun and addicting games like Balloono, Blockles, and so on. Nevertheless, today we’re looking at one of the site’s newest titles: Jigsawce.

As the name suggests, Jigsawce is a virtual jigsaw puzzle. Seems pretty simple at first right? Heck, what could possibly be interesting about an online jigsaw? Well, Iminlikewithyou has dubbed it the first MMOPG (massively multiplayer online puzzle game). Jigsawce actually lets an unlimited number of players simultaneously compete and collaborate on the assembly of a rather hefty selection of different puzzles.

No, this is not anything turn based. Everything is live. Each player has their own avatar attached to a mouse pointer, and you can see everyone in the game moving about, trying to place pieces. As you place pieces, you score points, and at the end of each puzzle you get ranked amongst them.

Of course, if you do not feel like working on a puzzle yourself, you can choose to simply watch other people assemble them. While this might seem a little dull at first, it is actually rather soothing. There is something relaxing about watching the images come together, and the company actually has plans to create a dedicated 24 hour stream of puzzle building. Though it probably won’t win an Emmy, it seems like an interesting extra feature.

Another great aspect of the game is the absolutely unobtrusive inclusion of advertisements. Usually, free gaming sites make their money in the form of flashy and distracting banners, AdSense ads, or videos that interrupt game flow. This is not so much the case in Jigsawce, as the ads are actually integrated directly into the game itself as sponsored puzzles. These brand images appear randomly throughout game play, and the first sponsor (a “well known carbonated soft drink”) has generated over 10,000 minutes of engagement for the brand throughout the beta.

Overall, the game is fantastic and a lot of fun to both play and watch. Combined with the success of the previous games (i.e. Blockles with over 10 million plays), the Iminlikewithyou is on a roll, and we hope to see more high quality games coming down the line in the near future.

You can check out Jigsawce at either www.iminlikewithyou.com or www.jigsawce.com.