Inside Social Games

Not every game you play on Facebook needs to be about mafias, pet caring, farming or epic fantasy adventures. On the contrary, sometimes the simplest games can prove to be the most enjoyable. Sure, they may not be something you come back to often, or even at all, but for what they are, some of these simple apps are just the pick-me-up one needs to end a long day.

The first app is a little title called Foxie Jump from Fusion Creative Studios. In this arctic game, players control a 3D fox avatar with the sole objective already spelled out in the title. The fox, Foxie, is apparently in a dream where she jumps her way to the moon. Here is the trick: Players only get five jumps to do so.

The path upwards is littered with gems, eagles, and bats. Touching these will not only increase your score by a set amount, but provide you a much-needed vertical boost. Essentially, the game comes down to moving Foxie back and forth, with the mouse, to reach the next highest gem or critter before gravity takes over. If you miss, you can recoup with one of the five jumps, but once you run out and miss, the game’s over and you fall to the ground. Then you can see how you compare on the leaderboards.

It’s a simple game of who can get the highest score, but for whatever reason, it is extremely fun and addictive for a short while.

The second application isn’t, technically, a game in the truest sense, but it certainly provides as much amusement. This is actually a Polish title from the company, Mint Media. This European company specializes in advertising on social networks – namely, Facebook – using technology from German partner Ad-Tech to provide video, banner, mobile campaigns, and more. But perhaps this is why the company’s Facebook app, is along the lines of advertising people.

The application is called Ploteczki, and it’s a shame it’s only in Polish because it is quite funny. What it does is pull up random friends from your Facebook account and allows you to publish preset tabloid-like commentary to your feed. An example is “Pobdono wyjada wino Rona w supermarketach!” Translated, this comes out to be “ reportedly eats grapes in supermarkets.” To put an exclamation point on everything, the item comes with a very noticeable banner or random photograph reminiscent of said tabloids. Other publications can include banter such as so-and-so doesn’t wash their hands after using the toilet, so-and-so has a secret lover, and so on.

It goes to show that quality can come in all shapes and sizes. Just because something is simple or has a basic visual style, it doesn’t mean it’s not fun. It’s easy to make a game or an app look good. It’s not even that hard to make it complex. But to make it fun… now that takes a certain level of art.

Currently, Ploteczki is earning around 200,000 monthly active users (not surprising given its viral nature) while Foxie Jump has only a few hundred. Nonetheless, if you’re having a rough day, and you want a little smile, these are two apps definitely worth a play through or two… though you might want Google Translate open for the Polish one. Just a thought.