Inside Social Games

With the unveiling of the iPad, the cottage iPad speculation industry that had grown up around it has… kept going. Having seen and, in some cases, actually used the iPad, blogs and magazines are continuing a non-stop torrent of ideas and predictions for the upcoming Apple slate.

A particularly popular subject so far has been games. So we’ve taken some of the better lists out there and combined them — not to pick out specific games (for the most part), but to point out the concepts and game mechanics that are getting the most attention ahead of the iPad’s launch.

For this list, we looked at CNET’s top 30 picks, TechRadar’s top 20, Touch Arcade’s iPhone games to port, and Techland’s 5 games to make ASAP. Here’s what we came up with after melding them all together:

Civilization — This game is a top pick for pretty much everyone. Sid Meier’s classic has always been at least partially about seeing the sprawling extent of your empire, and smaller screens like the iPhone haven’t quite done it justice. Along the same lines, SimCity; and, for the real-time fans, Command & Conquer is a popular choice.

Board games — Another no-brainer, perhaps due to the close resemblance of the iPad to a real-life board. You you can take your pick: Scrabble, Settlers of Catan, Chutes & Ladders or pretty much anything else would work. Several of the lists pick Monopoly, but we’d have to disagree, unless there’s a major breakthrough in battery life.

FarmVille — Maybe it’s just this game’s unending popularity on Facebook, but FarmVille seems to be a consistent pick for any iPad wish-list. There’s certainly a synergy between the intended audiences, although the gameplay might have to be modified for longer play-times.

Line-drawing – CNET wants DrawRace, in which you draw out your car’s intended course, while Touch Arcade wants Boom Brigade, which is a bit like real-time, directed tower defense. The idea is the same in either case: lots of contact between your finger and the screen.

Nintendo games — Techland’s top two picks are both Nintendo games: Scribblenauts and Boom Blox. The latter seems like a good pick; a potential mechanic could involve first touching your target on the screen, then twitching the iPad for an accelerometer “throw”.

Point n’ click adventure — TechRadar suggests Beneath a Steel Sky; our own vote goes to King’s Quest. It’s the ability to tap the screen to achieve any action (this style of game interprets your click to perform the action on its own) that would make these games work.

Physics games — Draw objects with your finger, tilt the iPad to move them around. Crayon Physics, for example, was excellent on the computer, and would probably do even better on an iPad. There’s also World of Goo to consider.

Tower defense — The only question is which tower defense games will do best on the iPad. Fieldrunners would probably do well, as would Plants vs Zombies, which we reviewed earlier tonight. Our own vote is for a graphically amped-up version of Gemcraft, which blends in RPG concepts.

Bright lights, flashing colors — This isn’t a genre, exactly, but extremely visual games seem to be a thematic undercurrent in many of the lists. Pinball, Missile Defense, Geometry Wars — the idea is that the iPad will be bright, beautiful and perfect for some hand-twitching, seizure-inducing action.

Wooden labyrinth — Props to CNET for coming up with this one. This isn’t a computer game, of course. It’s an actual wooden labyrinth in which you guide a stainless-steel ball bearing with physical knobs. The iPad’s accelerometer and flat shape could pull it off perfectly.

Looking through these lists, it might seem that pretty much everything is being fingered as an iPad potential. But we can think of at least a few games that wouldn’t work at all. For example: Whac-a-Mole, played with real hammers. Or, more seriously, any full-on FPS like Quake or Medal of Honor. Without an external controller of any kind, some games will simply be awkward.

Finally, our own pick: Bubble Ghost. Sure, it’s an old game, and one that was never really revived during the console era. But the idea of navigating a bubble through a spiky maze is perfect for some intense iPad gaming, and the internet connection could even make use of some cooperative ghost-play. Just think it over.

In November, global games publisher and developer Merscom said that it was looking for more beyond the casual space and into the social scene. Not to long ago, the company gave us a first look at the alpha rendition of its new social Facebook title, The Crazies Tower Defense. Based on the upcoming movie, the app has been deemed, by the developer, ready as ever to be seen by public eye as Merscom has more 137,000 monthly active users, according to AppData.

In a nutshell, the film is about a toxin that gets into the water supply of a small Iowa town – when is it not a small Midwestern town? – that drives its victims insane before killing them. The few sane people remaining must band together to survive and that’s where the game comes in.

Already we see Merscom’s casual roots appear in this application with its “tower defense” title. As one of the older, and more common forms of casual games, it is a fun genre, but rarely original. Nonetheless, it looks like the developers are more than aware of such issues, as this defense app has a few key differences to make it feel a bit different than the sea of others.

Unlike the hundreds of other tower defense games, The Crazies does not give the user a set path that the enemies will follow. When they start the game, they are basically told, “This is your house. This is where bad guys come from. Enjoy.” Okay, yeah, there are tutorial prompts too, but you get the point. Regardless, between the player’s house and the alleyway where Crazies spawn from, there is nothing but a big open field to start out with (there are other, unlockable maps), and it’s up to the player to build a path – with bullets.

Starting with basic pistol wielding soldiers, users plant them down in little sandbagged bunkers to automatically shoot at passing enemies. With all tower defense games, this first “tower” has limited range, damage, and no area of effect (it can only hit one enemy at a time). Luckily, the game also grants new players with a slightly-better shotgun solider and some sandbag barricades (which are used to block off where enemies move) as well.

As Crazies die, cash – referred to as “Dollars” in this game – is automatically put in your wallet, with the occasional stack of money dropping on the playing field and needing to be picked up with a click. This is your in-game currency in the sense that it is used to purchase new soldiers and ammunition during battle.

Yes, you have to buy ammunition. This is one of the other interesting elements to The Crazies Tower Defense. The more towers you have, the more bullets you use, and if you run out…. Well, let’s say it won’t end well. It truly is a simple, but interesting feature though, as it adds a bit of chaos, urgency, and resource management to the game. Of course, if you need more Dollars to afford more, you can always buy a nest egg’s worth with the virtual currency, Gold.

Purchasing Gold is fairly standard, with offers, PayPal, etc, but what makes it worth buying is that you need it to buy new soldiers (snipers, mortars, etc.) at the weapon shops as well as upgrades for them. Thankfully, Gold is earned, slowly, through in-game means (killing Crazies), so a player is never forced to make a purchase in order to continue playing.

As a social game, yet another difference puts this app over most other tower defense titles. Beyond simple leaderboards and wall posts, the game has a handful of achievements for users to try and accomplish, as well as the ability to visit a friend’s map layouts, and even gifting. Nothing says “Be My Friend” like a sack of bullets, no?

Tower defense games are an enjoyable lot, so there isn’t a whole lot to complain about here other than minor usability issues. Honestly, the only true irritation was that the price of a soldier was not displayed upon a mouse-over. Instead, you had to click it and view its entire set of stats (in a different part of the screen) to see the cost; hardly intuitive when it is grayed out (because you don’t have enough money) or time effective when there’s about 9000 Crazies at the front door. On the other hand, the game did feel a bit easy, so perhaps the latter wasn’t that big of a deal after all.

Regardless, The Crazies Tower Defense does make a few nice changes to a pretty tired genre, and we’re interested to see how effective the game is at promoting the film.

About mid-year, last year, German developer wooga (world of gaming) created an entertaining quiz-like game by the name of Brain Buddies. Since then, the game has done fairly well, currently earning around 3.2 million monthly active users. However, the European company has also been hard at work on a new Facebook game, Bubble Island.

The game is a remake of a classic arcade type of game where the player shoots multicolored bubbles toward a collection of other bubbles hanging from a ceiling. The object is to match three or more of the same color to remove them. However, every couple of shots, the ceiling lowers, and should any of these soapy orbs cross the red line located near the bottom of the screen, the game is over. Of course, if you remove them all, you win.

Like the arcade rendition – and the myriad of casual Flash versions – of this game, bubbles can be bounced off of walls, and in the case of Bubble Island, the ceiling. Furthermore, all bubbles hanging from the ceiling must be connected to the ones above them to avoid falling, so the player is capable of shooting connecting ones to remove all those below.

Like with wooga’s last title, the presentation value for Bubble Island is fantastic. Players play as a backpacking raccoon and move about a tropical island setting. Each section of the island is a new level that has three to four stages that must be cleared in order to move forward. Furthermore, each one has a very nice visual display and music that, for the most part (there are a few stages where the music skips), fits perfectly.

Beyond aesthetics, each level changes the board slightly too. Some boards seem to be taller, others wider, thus adding a nice change in game play pace. Frankly, even more dynamic and oddly shaped levels might be prudent in adding a little new flavor to such an old game concept.

Nevertheless, what Bubble Island does bring to the table — that is very new — is its social elements. Yes, it has the basics of inviting friends and competing for high scores on each level, via leaderboards. But there’s more. Players have lives in Bubble Island. Should they fail to remove all the bubbles before they reach the bottom, they lose one. However, the more they play, and the more their Facebook friends play, the more lives they earn.

Beyond the above, this app also has other social standards such using the social graph through feed postings and earnable trophies (achievements). To the untrained eye, it may not seem like terribly much, but for many players the earning of achievements is narcotic, and adds a great deal of longevity to even the simplest of games.

The only real complaints to be had are minor, at best. It feels like the bubbles shoot a bit too fast. They literally are in place in less than half a second, and there was always something gratifying about watching them bounce into place. Ironically, the second issue is the reverse. When one completes a level, it often takes a exorbitant amount of time to load the scoring screen, leading one to the assumption that the game might have crashed.

It is also worth mentioning that, yes, a more original game concept would be much better, but, this type of game is still very entertaining, and new iteratoins on old ideas are loved by many social game players.

Currently, wooga’s Bubble Island is still in beta, and it doesn’t have a tremendous amount of users yet. Our AppData is tracking around 19,300 monthly active users. However, unlike most Facebook games that say “beta” (Pet Society still has a beta tag, and that came out ages ago) wooga’s seems more like a real one. It prompts users to input an email and wait a bit for access. That in mind, this app isn’t exactly doing too bad. We look forward to seeing how it does when fully released.

“ScamVille” Lawsuit Dropped Against Facebook: Rebecca Swift has withdrawn her potential class-action lawsuit against the social network, although she has not yet dropped her charges against Zynga. Both were in court over scams that ran on offer walls in social games. More on MediaPost.

God of War III Rages into 7-Eleven: The latest game to make use of virtual goods is the heavily anticipated console (PlayStation 3) title, God of War III. Though the game doesn’t release until mid-March, marketing in the form of Slurpee cups will be starting on February 1st. Each cup will grant the consumer a special code that will allow them to download various content such at behind-the-scenes videos, animated Kratos themes, and special armor usable within the game.

Peanut Labs Announces 11 More Publisher Partners: Peanut Labs Media, provider of monetization services via surveys, offers, and direct payments, announced this week 11 new social publisher partners. The list includes Aeria Games, Backstage Technologies, Blue Frog Gaming, Challenge Online Games, Inc., CyberStep, Gamepot USA, Inc., Large Animal LLC, Ray Flame Entertainment, Inc., SmallWorlds, Vogster Entertainment, and Zeevex. Each new partner will have access to the myriad of monetization methods Peanut Labs offers as well as making use of the turnkey platform’s sales logistics, customer support, currency conversions, optimizations, and inquiry resolutions.

Adobe Plans for iPad: Currently, one of the biggest concerns with Apple’s new iPad is that it imposes restriction that currently disallow users to access Flash-based content on the web. Frankly, this is a big issue considering that Flash content makes up most of the internet nowadays. However, Adobe’s Flash blog states that they and about 50 other partners in “the Open Screen Project are working to enable developers and content publishers to deliever on any device. ” Hopefully, this means we’ll be able to use Flash on the iPad sooner rather than later. [image via The Flash Blog]

Microsoft Downplays Virtual Currency: Despite the social movement for Microsoft, Wednesday played host to the announcement that the company would be downplaying the role of its Xbox Live virtual currency, Microsoft Points. Apparently, a number of users have been complaining about the Point pricing system, calling it “misleading.” To mitigate the issue, Microsoft will be displaying the real world currency (based on location) in tandem with the virtual currency price.

Gowalla Grants User-Generated Content: One of the key features of the location-based iPhone application, Gowalla is the prospect of trips. In a nutshell, players would have to visit various locals in order to complete a “trip” and would earn corresponding digital “pins” as a reward. However, most of these required users to go out of their way. In light of that realization, Gowalla announced a new feature that would allow it’s players to create their own trips using locations they regularly visit. Should the trip prove popular, Gowalla will promote it based on “the quality and relevancy of the trip, [and] the number of people who have completed the trip.” Afterwards, participants will be given their own custom, in-game pin artwork as a reward.

Motally Brings Mobile Analytics to iPad: Third party developers aren’t wasting any time with Apple’s new iPad. Just Thursday, mobile analytics firm, Motally announced that it will be bringing its services to the iPad. Already, it’s platform allows publishers to collect data and create analytic reports on the usage of their applications on the iPhone, but with the expanded service will now also be able to access said data through the iPad. Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg as Mottally has stated that intends to support the iPad SDK once available.

Loopt to Spin Location-Based Apps in a New Way: A new location-based iPhone app called LooptCard from Loopt may be coming soon. Using the same type of technology as apps such as Foursquare and Gowalla, this title is adding one more step to the check-in process with real world, vendor deals. Yes, these will be location based deals, but more than that Loopt is looking to get vendors to incorporate their game-like ideas of only offering deals as rewards for doing certain tasks or checking in at certain times of day. In addition to these new ideas, LooptCard is also planning, according to TechCrunch, to make direct use of Facebook’s social graph. [image via TechCrunch]

C64 for iPhone Emulator Gets a Little Social: For all those classic game lovers, the Commodore 64 emulator for the iPhone is getting a little bit more social through the use of OpenFeint. Games will be receiving social features such as global leaderboards and/or achievements. Updated games within the emulator include Jupiter Lander, Lemans, Artic Shipwreck, Uridium, Nebulus, and Paradroid.

EA Considers Building or Buying Facebook Sports Apps: “We are learning an awful lot about a very different type of game experience than we are used to doing,” head of EA Sports Peter Moore tells Reuters. “You’re seeing a focus in our M&A activity being on companies that will enhance our digital strategy.”

A year ago, Mpowerplayer launched the Mplayit Mobile Arcade app for Facebook which allowed users to play and buy Java-powered mobile games through the social network. Now, in 2010, games developer Namco Bandai is doing the same with its announcement, last week, of Namco Arcade. Having teamed up with the veteran, Mpowerplayer’s Mplayit, Namco is hoping to increase the sales of its non-smartphone titles using the behemoth social network‘s 350+ million users.

The application is made up of preview versions of Namco’s major mobile titles including Pac-Man, Time Crisis Elite, Inspector Gadget, Zoo Keeper, Rolling With Katamari, and a myriad of others, totaling 18.

As far as play goes, it is similar, in respect to the Mplayit Mobile Arcade app in the sense that the user interface is designed like your more common mobile phone. Players make use of the digital phone’s keys as well as the keyboard and mouse in a sort of rudimentary emulation of how they might play on one’s cell. In any case, the real point is that should the user enjoy the game, and wish to buy the full version, they merely have to enter their country and phone number. A text message will then be sent directly to the device where a mere confirmation is needed for the purchase.

Recent months have shown similar uses of Facebook to promote bigger games outside of the platform. Most recent was Sanrio Digital with its Hello Kitty Online tutorial application, but even the bigger players have come to bat on this with LucasArts and its simple Indiana Jones 2 app, as well as the gargantuan Electronic Arts with both Dante’s Inferno and Need For Speed Nitro.

Already, we have seen budding successes with these titles’ growth on Facebook in both our weekly top games and our weekly top emerging games (both based on monthly active users). That said, we look forward to seeing how the new move pans out for Namco Bandai, and just who will be next to follow in these predecessors’ footsteps.

[image via Geek.com]

Last month we took a look at the Finnish company Frosmo and its Facebook Connect powered arcade portal of the same name. Now it has launched a Facebook edition. It has all the same bells and whistles that come from the full web portal rendition, with the only noticible difference being the use of dollar, not just Euros, and its obvious use of the Facebook social graph. Here’s a closer look.

As expected the account created on the original site was still intact, and when jumping in, the player is immediately prompted, at the top of their screen, with a three step tutorial – of sorts – to guide them through the basics of Frosmo. Pleasantly, it doesn’t have to be done, so the user is able to move through the digital arcade at their own pace. But considering some of the more complex nuances of the app, the tutorial might not be a bad idea.

Game play is as expected for any arcade compilation. Some games are high quality and extraordinarily addictive, and others… not so much. Nonetheless, players play various games to raise their Frosmo player rank. This isn’t to be confused with rank in regards to leaderboards, but more like a skill level, and it is far more than just superfluous bragging rights.

As was mentioned prior, tournaments make up a great deal of the Frosmo app, and the level and quality of tournaments one can participate in is reflective upon Frosmo rank. Why should that matter? Well, prizes, of course. Each tournament comes with real prizes, including cash, for its winners. Currently, the low end prize is $70 but requires a rank between 15 and 29, while the high end is $560 but requires 200 to 999 (which, obviously, means a lot of play time).

Certainly, the cash is an attractive incentive, but Frosmo is hardly throwing money away. In order to participate in tournaments, one needs the virtual currency known as Frollars to enter. It can be earned a number of ways including direct purchase, offer completions, or Frollar Tournament participation in which the prize is said virtual currency. Furthermore, Frollars can also be used to purchase expensive, limited, upgraded memberships such as Silver, Gold, or Platinum in order to earn rank faster, play higher quality games, or participate in premium game tournaments.

While all this might seem like a lot for one person, remember that Frosmo is based around team play. Players can actually become the leader of one team and a member of up to four. The way these work is actually most inventive: You see, as a team, players contribute what is called “energy” towards the creation of “inventions.” This energy is earned through most actions within Frosmo such as increasing your level, buying Frollars, or playing in tournaments. Once enough energy has been acquired, an invention is completed, which can then be sold by all members for even more Frollars.

Better inventions become available as a team’s leader advances in Frosmo. This advancement is represented by a time era (i.e. the Stone Age) and inventions are based around that period. As a team member, it is your duty to support the leader and move them through the ages (10 ranks equals a new era) to earn better, and by extension, more valuable, inventions to complete and sell. Moreover, the newer the era, the more players a team can have, thus earning everyone more Frollars in the long run.

Obviously, this support of the team leader is what makes having multiple teams prudent. It just wouldn’t be fair to give everything to them, but with the five potential teams a user can have, it is possible to have everyone interconnected so that they can all help each other through the ages and all earn more Frollars. In fact, this works on two levels because as a member advances to a new era, that earns even more of the virtual currency for the leads, thus if everyone is on each other’s teams then everyone is earning virtual cash!

After playing through parts of Frosmo in more depth, it can certainly be said that the developer has more than thought out all the complexities that come with it. Everything feels very tightly knit in how you can use Frollars for everything, but are not merely limited to buying it. By tying its uses to real prizes, membership upgrades, and weaving it into social teamwork, Frosmo has effectively improved longevity, incentives to play, and virtual currency sales. There is an option for everyone, and with its myriad of casual titles, certainly a game for everyone as well.

In the last few months a number of casual gaming companies have created social games. Four of the titles, that we know of,  have broken 1 million monthly active users, including: 1) Bejeweled Blitz by Popcap Games at 9.83 million, 2) Bubble Popp by GameDuell with 3.11 million, 3) Jungle Jewels by GameDuell at 2.62 million and 4) Icy Tower  by Muskedunder Interactive at 1.12 million.

While the MAU for these games are nowhere close to those of dominant contenders coming from social game developers, they are still interesting case studies that demonstrate which aspects of a casual game development mentality work on Facebook and which don’t.

What works

Addicting Skill Based Gameplay: Thumbs Up

All four casual games ported to Facebook are skill-based games. Bejeweled Blitz and Jungle Jewels are puzzle games that reward users for aligning certain gem combinations quickly. Bubble Popp scores users for popping as many bubbles as possible in a limited number of shots and gives users bonus points for popping diamond bubbles. Icy Tower rewards user for reaching higher levels of the tower before time runs out.

Like casual games from time immemorial all of these games use scoring to capitalize on users’ competitive desires and thus engagement. They do this by providing scores and leveraging users’ social graph to popularize these scores between friends (and in some cases between other users of game who are not friends). Not all of them do this well.

Viral Distribution: Thumbs Down

With the exception of Bejeweled Blitz, all of these games miss many opportunities for integration of viral hooks. Jungle Jewels and Bubble Popp do not auto-prompt you to share score information at the end of each game with a popup Facebook message. Instead, the sharing option is blended in with other options on the results screen.

Another of these casual games, Icy Tower, has no scoring wall messaging at all. Users who beat a high score of one of their friends send their friend a Facebook notification, a viral element that does not leverage the social graph of either the person who beat the high score or the one who was beaten as these notifications are not visible to all of their friends.

Bejeweled Blitz, however, does a very good job with viral distribution. Like the other games Bejeweled Blitz is a classic casual game that has seen much success outside Facebook. However, the makers of the Facebook version of Bejeweled Blitz understood that the key to a successful social game is interaction with other Facebook friends. Because of this they have not only made high score posting to Facebook walls easy and obvious but have also added many other social features such as the “Jewel Jabber” which allows you to trash talk your friends who are playing the game on their walls. Also unlike the other games as well as many social games — where the copy for the message inviting friends to the game is often bland and uninspiring — the copy for Bejeweled Blitz taps into users’ competitive motivations.

Monetization: Thumbs Down

Being skill-based scoring games, they don’t lend themselves to virtual items. Because of this, three of the games Bejeweled Blitz, Bubble Popp, and Jungle Jewel have no real system for monetization except for what seems like incentivizing users to leave Facebook to go to their own game sites. According to PopCap’s director of online products, Jon David, the company has had success with this, although he declined to tell us how much. He also said that theyhave plans further to monetize Bejeweled Blitz.

One exception to this strategy is Icy Tower which uses pre-game and interstitial advertising to motivate users to purchase or fill out offers for its in-game currency. This currency can then be used for customize the Icy Tower avatar.

It is unclear how successful either of these strategies have been.

And the Final Score Is… One Thumb Up, Two Thumbs Down

This brings the total score of these four casual games ported to social networks to -1. As we can see from their successes viral distribution is possible for skill based games but the viral events and messaging must be carefully thought out. As for monetization, skill-based score casual properties have fewer monetization opportunities. However, there are many other casual game properties that are better suited for monetization. We look forward to seeing more of these on Facebook in the coming year.

Sana Choudary runs Traffichoney. It works with casual game companies who are having the challenge of understanding how to build social games, helping them understand how to use and optimize viral channels and social game design to build popular social games. To contact her or learn more about what Sana is up to please visit Sana’s blog at www.traffichoney.com

Sometimes iPhone developers like to clone a popular arcade game and sometimes take a more creative spin on the matter, and the latter is what Raptured Line did with its brand new, socially enabled title, 3D Noid. The game is actually a rendition of breakout games – the ones where you hit a ball with a paddle and destroy all the blocks – but here’s the catch: Like the name suggests, this breakout app is entirely in 3D.

Using a mix of nostalgia and new technology, this $0.99 application puts the player in the perspective of the paddle as the screen moves down an elevator shaft type of environment. Periodically, multi-colored boxes fill up the room horizontally and vertically, with the objective to keep them from reaching the paddle by breaking them with a the typical white, bouncing ball.

As far as standards go, it has all the basic breakout elements: The ball bounces about with decent physics, players can hit multiple blocks for combos, pick up power ups (i.e. multiple balls at once), and so on. The trick, and the fun part, is that the game’s 3D environment is completely controlled by the iPhone’s tilt sensors. It’s a little jarring at first as the player adjusts to the new controls, but it quickly becomes very intuitive and entertaining.

Unfortunately, the game does have one big flaw in its design and that is the concept of depth perception. It is exceedingly difficult to tell how far away boxes or the ball are vertically as all the shades and hues are of roughly the same value. Multiple times, we lost extra balls because it was too hard to tell which blocks were closer. Furthermore, it is almost impossible to see behind blocks due to the perspective, so while in a 2D breakout game you could angle the ball into gaps so it bounces around a bit before coming down, these are now very hard to see, thus removing high scoring strategies used in the traditional versions. Perhaps that just means that new strategies need to be formulated. However, what did make up for it, at least a bit, was it’s OpenFeint capability.

Likely, users will spend a lot of time making use of the social capabilities that come with the platform. A personal favorite is the challenges which allow users to submit their high score to a friend directly, leading to some competitive longevity. Seeing as how this is a remake of a classic arcade game, and high scores were what really made these games addictive back then, it really is a perfect fit. Moreover, the game also has built in leaderboards that can be sorted by your OpenFeint friends, or globally, as well as a handful of achievements that can be earned and displayed to other users.

Unfortunately, there are only seven that can be earned at this time, but Raptured Line did put in a interesting “Secret” achievement that will not be revealed until it is unlocked. This will likely lure at least some players into the draw of figuring out just what it is, and with any game that has any sort of social implication, there is something to be said about being the first to do something.

Of course, in the end, the game is still just a breakout game, so the secret isn’t going to be anything earth shattering. Furthermore, despite its use of new technology, 3D Noid is not much more than a nostalgic trip down memory lane. It is fun the first couple times you play it, but even with OpenFeint, unless you are a diehard breakout fan, you probably won’t play it much after a while. The good news though, is that as an iPhone app, updates are often frequent and significant, so this average game is likely to get much better in the future.

High scores are all well and good, but sometimes it is nice to have something a little bit more to a game. While leaderboards might be good way to garner competition with other players, what about the concept of working together rather than against? This is sort of the idea Montreal, Canada-based developer ODD1 had in mind with it’s latest iPhone title Catch Me! If You Can.

Based on the classic arcade game, this app has players taking on the roll of a thief as they run through a maze of city streets collecting gold, jewels, and other riches as they avoid a trio of very persistent guards. The idea, is to collect as much loot as possible before the time limit expires and without being caught.

Should the player be captured, the level brings forth an pleasant surprise. Rather than losing, the user is placed in the role of one of the three guards. The same time limit continues to tick down, and they will not go back to being the thief until they have caught, well, the thief. Since the objective of each level is to acquire as much coin as possible, it is prudent to capture the deviant as quickly as possible.

To make things more interesting, each character type also has special abilities they can use to make their respective jobs easier. As the thief, the player can see the entire map and leap over objects. If they are one of the guards, then they only see a limited area around them and can either reveal the entire map, lay traps, or sprint, but frankly, the guy that can reveal the map seems to have gotten the short end of the stick.

The game is presented in a warm, quirky style coupled with light-hearted music, but despite how good it looks, the controls were aggravating. The movement of characters is actually controlled using a digital directional pad (like the one on a Nintendo). This hurts the game on two counts: First, since it is just a digital version of a directional pad, there is no tactile feedback when a direction is pressed, so it is more difficult to steer without looking at where you are pressing. You can’t “feel” which direction you are pressing, leading to slow reactions and frustration when trying to flee guards or catch thieves.

While this might seem like a minor point, when people have grown up accustomed to something being a certain way, that’s what they expect, and changing that just comes off as irritating. A digital directional pad is not the same thing as an analog one, and with the iPhone, there are a myriad of other control methods that could be employed (touching where you want to go, path drawing, or even tilt controls). Moreover, the emulation is backwards with the pad on the right and the buttons on the left; another key detail.

Despite the control complaints, Catch Me! If You Can did come with another saving grace. While players can play through subsequent levels in a “Story” mode, or play quick games with a “Challenge” mode, it was a feature called the “Band of Thieves” that was the most interesting. Rather than compete with other players, users actually work together. After each level, acquired gold can actually be sent to what is called the Treasure Vault; a community collective of every player’s submitted winnings. On the screen, users can see a progression bar that shows how much has been turned in, in total, as well as a percentage of their contribution.

The benefit is two-fold: Not only does the player get the social gratification of seeing how much they are doing, but when the progression bar is full, ODD1 actually releases new content. According to the developer, new content will generally be free and will consist of new levels and challenges. As it stands, it doesn’t look like users can see what others have contributed specifically, but such an added leaderboard-like feature would be very nice wish list item. Not only would you get the benefit of seeing yourself “score” higher than your friends, but the you would also get the gratification of viewing how much more you did, or did not, help the community; something that can eventually evolve into pseudo-celebrity status in more in depth online communities. Vain, it’s true, but vanity can be a powerful tool.

Of course, such status levels are highly unlikely in Catch Me! If You Can. This is generally more reserved for complex social role-playing or massively multiplayer online games. Nonetheless, the employed social technique should still prove effective, and this app does still make for an okay of a classic title – if you can get over the tough controls. Frankly, an update in this regard is desperately needed, but perhaps younger gamers will be more forgiving. Currently, the full version, costs $1.99, but a free rendition with the first three story levels and the Band of Thieves feature is also available.

When Facebook implemented a flurry of platform changes that curtailed some viral marketing tactics in early December, developers scrambled to revive tactics. There was the thought that this might level the playing field a bit, taking some wind out of the sails of the most aggressive viral marketers.

To get some initial feel for the impact of these platform changes — and to provide a benchmark for the industry — we looked at Daily Active Users (DAU), Monthly Active Users (MAU) and the resulting Sticky Factors (DAU/MAU) for top developers on December 7, 2009 (this was around the time the platform changes were starting to go into effect) and January 5, 2010. We assume that the impact of the holidays was across-the-board dips around Christmas and New Year’s Day for these titles. It also comes with the caveat that developer level numbers are not necessarily unique users as a user may play multiple games made by the same developer.

This initial cut makes it appear that some of the biggest developers (Zynga, CrowdStar and Playdom) have done reasonably well, but each of these developers actually launched a significant new game during the period. Because new games typically haven’t reached a steady state (which inflates the sticky factor) and because we’re more interested in the impact on games existing prior to the platform changes, let’s look at the numbers without Zynga’s PetVille, Playfish’s Poker Rivals, CrowdStar’s Happy Island and Playdom’s Tiki Farm:

The total line is not for all developers on the Facebook platform, just the seven aggregated above, so there is some bias in the aggregated numbers because Zynga makes up over half of the total MAU and DAU numbers. But given this caveat, the total line suggests that so far, these developers are seeing on average a 4.6% decline in MAU and a 12.2% decline DAU which has reduced the sticky factor by 8%. I believe MAU numbers will continue to decline a bit more before they stabilize a bit.

The Winners…so far

Without the new games, CrowdStar appears to be the only developer that increased their MAU, but even this is somewhat skewed by the fact that Happy Pets had launched in mid-November and was still seeing some increase in the beginning of December. CrowdStar’s Happy Aquarium maintained a relatively flat MAU, but saw a steady decline in DAU (down 20% from 8.17 million to 6.64 million), driving CrowdStar’s overall sticky factor to the worst drop amongst the group. Another trend here is that each successive title launched seems to be reaching a plateau that is lower than the previous launch, mirroring something we pointed out for Zynga’s games recently. Happy Island is still only a month old, but it’s looking like the potential of sim games may be reaching a new ceiling.

The only developers with below average declines in both DAU and MAU were PopCap and Zynga. Pop Cap’s Bejewled Blitz has actually been impressively consistent, bouncing back after each holiday-induced dip — its addictive game play and short, 1-minute sessions (perfect for the Facebook audience) helped it make more than one top ten Facebook games list for 2009.

Zynga’s individual games have been a mixed bag: FarmVille is still down 2 million DAU from its December peak of 28.7 million, but Zynga Poker (which we previously thought might be losing focus with the rise of sim games) seems to be chugging along (its synchronous play, scale, and allowance of in-game friends made it less dependent on viral marketing to retain users). In light of the core changes to its business model, Zynga has been especially aggressive in trying to retain users, giving away items that usually required hard cold cash through a slew of promotions in its games that also drove gifting (especially helpful after the pre-game gifting interstitial was banned by Facebook):

• FarmVille pushed gifting of presents – every 20 presents received from friends helped grow your Christmas tree. Then after December 24th, users could open these presents to get a number of decorative vanity items like reindeer, cats, sleighs but also free 1-, 5- and 10-packs of fuel for tractors (usually only available for cash payments). FishVille had a similar gifting of presents, as did PetVille.
• Mafia Wars created a gift safe house, providing users free rare items, as well as promoting gifting that provided extra XP or health and reward points (which can usually only be earned by completing levels or by spending cash).

And those promotions are carrying into the New Year:

• FarmVille is in the midst of “free fuel week” where users can gain a tank of gas (something previously you could only buy for cash) each day they come back (it would seem to be a test of a daily lottery system to get users to come back each day).
• Fans of Roller Coaster Kingdom were given 75 Coaster Cash (something that would have cost users $14.50 in real dollars) in an effort to revitalize massively declining MAU and DAU numbers (it may also be a way to meet the issue that items like park expansion were still gated based on the number of friends a user has – a practice currently in violation of the new Facebook policies).
• While not cash driven, PetVille users had the fee for reactivating their pet waived to get users back after the holidays in one of the longest (text-wise) notifications I’ve seen to date.

It’s hard to say what the financial impact of these giveaways will have (it could provide enough users a taste of what they could be paying for to push them into buying them themselves), but if they are curtailed, I would expect the DAU and MAU numbers for Zynga to fall further than they have to date.

Losing Ground

Playfish, Slaskey and Playdom all had relatively higher than average declines in both MAU and DAU over the last 30 days. Playfish appears to be continuing their decline since the purchase by Electronic Arts in early November. Pet Society rebounded a bit with the launch of a daily lottery in early December, but it revised its slumped much like Restaurant City after the holidays without aggressive marketing promotion (PetVille passed Pet Society in DAU earlier this week). Now two months since the acquisition, EA appears to have done little to prop up Playfish’s position (newcomer CrowdStar passed Playfish in total DAU earlier this week).

Slashkey and Playdom both saw some pretty large drops in the DAU of their farm sim games: Farm Town (Slashkey’s only title) dropped nearly 28% while Playdom’s (Lil) Farm Life dropped nearly 30% from its mid-December highs. Playdom’s numbers, though, could be partially explained as cannibalization by its new farm title, Tiki Farm – the rise in daily active users for Tiki Farm seems to nearly mirror the decline in (Lil) Farm Life:

Managing Churn Becomes Crucial

It is still early to assess the full impact of the Facebook platform changes, but there is no question that the core economic model (getting 2-4% of users to buy virtual items) is drastically modified when churn increases. Developers have traditionally stemmed churn by a) building better games or b) acquiring new players through ad buys and viral growth to replace the users that leave. With three core viral tactics removed or marginalized (and the eventual loss of Notifications on the horizon), developers need to build more compelling games and features to keep users or innovate with new tactics and spend a lot more in advertising to drive new users.

Based on the numbers above, it appears PopCap has been able to maintain an audience based on its proven hit casual game mechanic in Bejeweled Blitz and it will be interesting to see if any more Pop Cap titles make their way to Facebook or whether they focus on their own social free-to-play destination site.

At the other end of the spectrum, Zynga’s aggressive promotion and give-aways appear to be buying it time while it tries to figure out how to revive and develop new viral mechanics – a luxury afforded by the recent influx of investment that most other developers can’t match – as well as figure out what game mechanics to develop next.

Eric von Coelln is a casual games and MMO marketing veteran who focuses on emerging metrics in social games. He is currently a New York based freelance consultant to games and social media companies. You can find his blog here.