When EA PopCap launched Lucky Gem Casino earlier this month, it looked like the developer had finally “sold out” eight months after its $1.3 billion acquisition in an attempt to enter the rapidly-expanding casino genre on Facebook. PopCap’s Dennis Ryan, EVP of worldwide publishing, tells us that’s not the case.

“Lucky Gem is [meant] to compete in the casino-slots genre,” Ryan said in a meeting at the Game Developers Conference this week. “But we’ve been in the casino genre for years. Bejeweled and Zuma are popular in the U.K. where we license them to [online and land-based casino] partners.”

The idea for the Facebook game originated in PopCap’s Dublin studio, Ryan explains. Several of the themed slots rooms, like the Bejeweled one pictured below, borrow features from the real-gambling implementations of Bejeweled. Ryan says the Facebook version both looks and sounds the same, though the actual slots mechanics are adjusted.

Even if Lucky Gem is not exactly a fast follow on 2011 slots hit Slotomania, it’s clear that PopCap struggles with packaging the game within its core franchises. People that come to PopCap on Facebook through Bejeweled Blitz or Zuma Blitz probably wouldn’t think a slots game is out-of-character — but players that know the developer through its downloadable games titles like Plants vs. Zombies or Peggle might. This was certainly the case for our reviewer, Pete Davison, who reviewed both Lucky Gem Casino and PopCap’s newly-launched Solitaire Blitz within the last week. He gave the former a “Skip” rating and the latter a “Play” rating.

“The loyal fanbase is an important part of our audience,” Ryan says, when we pointed out Davison’s dislike of Lucky Gem and contrasting like of Solitaire Blitz. “But it’s not the only part of our audience. We’re interested in casino style games in general. Its connection [to our brand] comes from our mission to entertain the masses through games.”

Caesars Interactive Entertainment expects to be number one in the casino genre on Facebook and mobile, CEO Mitch Garber tells Inside Social Games at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week. The online gambling giant hit the ground running on Facebook and mobile with its 2011 Playtika acquisition and a branded Facebook casino game, but it still has a ways to go toward leading the genre.

Currently, all that stands in its way is Zynga Poker — which still leads Playtika’s Slotomania on Facebook, Android and iOS in terms of traffic, according to our AppData tracking service. That might change in 2012, however, as more social and mobile game developers try to cash in on the slots and bingo craze and more land-based casino brands look at social and mobile acquisitions or licenses. Most recently, we’ve seen EA PopCap launch a slots game and IGT acquire Facebook favorite DoubleDown Casino developer DoubleDown Interactive. Meanwhile, Zynga continues to step up its “Casino” franchise of games with Zynga Bingo and is also offering licensed casino classics outside the franchise like Zynga Slingo.

Garber tells us it’s still early days in the casino genre competition. He sees plenty of opportunity to rise to the top of the category as its matures. For reference, Caesars Interactive currently has about 100 employees on the social and mobile team, and it hopes launch two new casino apps in 2012.

“Our key differentiator is that we only do one thing — casino style games,” he told us during a meeting at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week. “We think we will win the casino [genre] war with our competitors because we’re going to focus on what we know. We’re not going to do a ‘Ville game.”

The Caesars casino franchise shows a lot of forward thinking when it comes to getting their brand out to the newer, younger generation of gambler. Many of its customers in the 20 to 30 age range expect to do their gambling online. Social and mobile fit into that plan by delivering the Caesars brand in areas where i-gaming and real gambling perhaps aren’t legal.

“I don’t have a gaming license in Australia, but I can offer Slotomania on Facebook,” Garber explains. “Brand proliferation and [in-game transactions] are the main parts of our social and mobile strategy.”

I-gaming’s merge with the social and mobile games industry presents investors and developers with a lot of new factors to consider. For one, i-gaming monetizes at a higher conversion rate and volume than anything even the most successful social-mobile game developer has seen to date. Garber declined to break out specific average revenue per user figures, but he was able to tell us that the lifetime value of a user in i-gaming reached $1,000 in 2006.

“We’re still learning how [to interpret] LTV in social games,” Garber says. “Right now we look at the daily ARPU in social.”

This means social-mobile game developers will have to adjust expectations around what their casino titles generate in ARPU. They might also have to drill down into the psychology of the traditional gambler, understanding that there’s a fundamental difference in psychology between those playing for real money and those playing for virtual currency.

A real money slot machine gambler, for example, will have a finer understanding of odds and payouts compared to a social gamer that is motivated more by the concept of achievement and fairness in game-playing. Garber compares Slotomania’s specific appeal to inserting quarters on the classic Pac-Man arcade game; a player does that to keep their score — not because there’s a chance at winning more quarters. The motivation is different, which has an impact on monetization.

Another new area of thought comes from managing the relationships between casino suppliers on and offline. On land, Caesars’ biggest competitor would be MGM. On Facebook, it might appear to be IGT now that it owns DoubleDown Casino — which is very similar to the soft-launched Caesars Casino. Garber says, however, that Caesars does not want to view IGT as a competitor — because the company is a supplier of gaming content to its land-based casinos.

“We will expect to license IGT content online,” he says. “Whatever IGT puts into DoubleDown, we would expect to license in [our Facebook games].”

Brands and licenses are a proven method for user acquisition on social and mobile because people trust names they recognize. Up until now, many license holders have carved up the rights to their properties by platform — for example, licensing Wheel of Fortune for mobile to one game developer and Wheel of Fortune for Facebook to a different developer. Garber says we’ve moved past all of that; but some social-mobile game developers might be slow to catch up, especially if they’re already locked into outdated licensing agreements that prevent them from launching games on new platforms.

As the casino genre expands on social and mobile, and Facebook explores real money gambling, we expect to even more players enter the space with high expectations. Garber says, however, that while there will be thousands of attempts, there will only be a handful of winners — and Caesars expects to be one of them.

Developer Crowdpark launched two new social betting games on Facebook today, Pet Vegas and AnteUp, showing us just how the company’s kept busy since it raised $6 million in funding back in October.

Pet Vegas is a slot machine game featuring a cartoony animal theme. Players can bet on up to three slot rows and adjust the number of coins they’re willing to wager. Placing bets (even if they don’t win) allows players to level up, which unlocks bonuses and auto-spins of the slots. Like Crowdpark’s original Facebook betting game, Bet Tycoon, Pet Vegas incorporates virtual coins that players can buy with Facebook Credits, though there are also daily bonuses providing some free currency to play with.

AnteUp, meanwhile, is a peer-to-peer betting game that currently doesn’t have monetization in place. Instead, players target friends in their network with custom challenges and bet things like a drink, lunch, or a candy bar (“I bet Lisa a soda that I’ll get to the office before she does”). If players want to give the challenge a little extra publicity, it can be tweeted or turned into a Facebook announcement. After a bet is accepted, the challenged player is asked whether or not they won, and the challenger is asked to either confirm or dispute the results. Gameplay doesn’t change when an outcome is disputed, other than the game issuing a message about poor sportsmanship.

Crowdpark also has a third game in the works called 90Live, which will bring the company’s trademark social betting to the soccer field. 90Live is now in open beta and offers a variety of social sports bets for players, including live event wagers, trivia questions, and weekly predictions. The game doesn’t have an official launch date yet, but a final version is expected to launch some time soon.

Crowdpark’s increasing game base shows how social titles are continuing to tap into the i-gaming space, even though Facebook doesn’t currently allow users to gamble with real money. It’s estimated that revenue from online gambling will be up to $35.8 billion (over last year’s estimated $33.6 billion), which makes for a very tempting pie out of which to take a slice.

Following a closed beta launch in late January, Zynga Bingo is now available to all Facebook users. Zynga Bingo joins Zynga Poker as part of the Zynga Casino franchise, and the publisher is keen to distinguish the new game from the recently-released Zynga Slingo.

Zynga Bingo provides players with a fast-paced take on the traditional game of Bingo with a layer of Zynga polish over the top. After taking a virtual seat in one of the three currently available themed rooms (one of which is locked until the player reaches level 7, and “special” variants on which are available to unlock through play), players may purchase between one and six Bingo cards using tickets that replenish over time, but which can also be won or purchased with hard currency. Rooms in which more tickets are required to purchase Bingo cards offer greater rewards during play and for victory.

The basic Bingo gameplay requires players to listen to the caller and/or watch the row of drawn balls at the top of the screen and attempt to form either a “five in a row” line across one of their Bingo cards, or fill in all four corners. Unlike some other Facebook-based Bingo games, in which numbers on the cards are automatically daubed for the player, here the player is required to click on called numbers manually. It’s also possible for players to daub incorrect numbers, and the game does not inform players they have made a mistake until they attempt to call “Bingo,” at which point the card becomes locked for further play due to a bad call. If players purchased more than one card, however, they can continue to play on their other cards.

A twist is added to the gameplay in the form of powerups. With every correctly-daubed number, a powerup meter at the side of the screen gradually fills. When it is full, the player has the opportunity to use the currently-displayed powerup, which cycles through several options as time passes. Some powerups attach special items or coins to squares on the Bingo cards, while others automatically daub random numbers without the caller having to have mentioned them.

The player is awarded experience points for each correct daub, and once a game’s finite number of “Bingos” has been depleted, all players receive rewards according to their performance. Those who called “Bingo” at least once are typically rewarded with extra tickets to prolong their play session, while all participants receive experience points. Leveling up brings players closer to unlocking the FarmVille-themed room, and also rewards players with hard currency. Players also acquire keys to unlock boxes following each round. Said boxes may contain soft currency, tickets, powerups or “collection” items, which allow players to unlock the “special” rooms.

Social features include real-time chat during gameplay, which allows players who are competing against one another to interact. A real-time leaderboard at the bottom of the screen also tracks the people who were quickest to correctly call “Bingo,” allowing for friendly rivalries to develop. If the player convinces their friends to play and join their “Bingo Club,” too, they unlock the facility to play up to six Bingo cards at once — without friends playing, players are limited to no more than four at once. Players can also ask their Facebook friends for up to five “free daubs” per card once per day via to give them an advantage over other players.

The simple addition of manually having to daub one’s own numbers gives Zynga Bingo a much more interactive, competitive feel than many of its Facebook-based rivals, as the game takes on an element of concentration and skill rather than simply sitting back and watching. The addition of powerups also adds variety and excitement to the mix, and the whole experience is tied together with the typically high production values and polish expected of a Zynga product. Each room has its own uniquely-voiced caller, for example, and the sound effects and visual flair give the game a very “arcadey” feel. With Zynga’s talent for user acquisition, it’s clear that Zynga Bingo is going to be a big success.

Zynga Bingo currently has 40,000 monthly active users and 10,000 daily active users. You can follow its progress with AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

Play

A polished, fun and addictive take on Bingo that keeps players feeling engaged and involved at all times.

PopCap Games is well-known for its high-quality, creative takes on games in the social arena, occasional missteps like Pig Up! aside. It’s for this reason that the company’s new release Lucky Gem Casino is such a disappointment — not because it’s a particularly bad game as such, but because its lack of creativity, new ideas and fun just doesn’t seem very “PopCap.”

Lucky Gem Casino marks the EA-owned casual gaming giant’s first steps into the rapidly-growing casino genre on Facebook. The game currently offers seven different video slots machines based on PopCap properties including Bejeweled, Insaniquarium, Zuma, Bookworm, Big Money, Chuzzle and Mystery P.I. London. At the outset of the player’s career, only the Bejeweled-themed machine is unlocked, with the remaining machines locked behind level gates. There is no means to unlock these machines early, whether that is through Facebook Credits, hard currency or soft currency earned in-game.

Each of the machines follows a very conventional video slots format, with the only variation between each machine (besides the obvious aesthetic differences) being the number of pay lines it’s possible to bet on and the minimum bet required along with very rarely-occurring bonus minigames. There’s little in the way of incentive to progress to more advanced machines save the promise of higher payouts — but given that there is nothing for the player to spend their hard-earned virtual currency on besides continued play, this in itself isn’t a particularly strong incentive, either. There are no boosts, nudges, holds or indeed powerups of any kind for players to purchase, meaning that a play session is typically reduced to repeatedly clicking the “spin” button over and over with little in the way of skill or strategy required.

Progression is painfully slow, too, with the unlocking of higher-level machines requiring a considerable time investment due to the number of experience points needed to level up. To make matters worse, after the first machine is unlocked it takes more than one level to unlock the next, meaning that players will be spending a very long time staring at the same virtual slot machine to acquire the experience necessary for a bit of variety to their virtual gambling session.

Social features are somewhat limited at the time of writing. It’s possible to send packs of coins to friends who are playing and compare experience levels, but little else. When running the game in “full screen” mode (which sends the game into a new maximized pop-up window rather than being a “true” full-screen mode) it’s possible to engage in real-time chat with other people who are also playing the game, but at the time of writing the community was both very quiet and very small. The game also features viral promotion through the sharing of in-game achievements and trophies, though since players have no control over the machines besides telling them when to spin, the acquisition of these is entirely down to luck rather than any sort of skill or knowledge of the machines’ quirks.

On the positive side, the game is well-presented, featuring attractive visuals and authentic sound effects from the games the various machines are based on. This isn’t enough to make the game interesting or compelling, however, even for the most dedicated of video slots or PopCap fans. The developer claims that the game will be considerably enhanced in the coming months with community features, more games and a few “surprises” but as yet has remained tight-lipped on what these new features might be. It may be worth checking back in a few months to see if the game has improved, but Lucky Gem Casino as it stands shortly after launch is not worth your time.

Lucky Gem Casino currently has 900 daily active users and 900 monthly active users. You can follow its progress with AppData, our traffic tracking service for social games and developers.

Skip

An uninspiring video slots game bereft of PopCap’s usual creativity and flair.

Lucky Cruise is a new Facebook game published by 6waves and developed by Large Animal Games. It’s the second collaboration between the two companies following their recent Spartacus: Vengeance tie-in. The game has been showing steady growth since its launch in late January, and provides an original take on the increasingly common slot machine genre.

Lucky Cruise combines elements of slot machine sims and time management games to produce a game with an addictive quality and a strong sense of progression.

Players are placed in charge of ensuring a cruise ship gets to its destination on time. This isn’t just any cruise ship, however — it’s a cruise ship that runs on luck. As such, it’s up to the player to help earn the luck necessary to reach various worldwide destinations and, upon arrival, to acquire various rewards for their hard work through playing a chance-based tile-flipping minigame.

Luck can be acquired in several ways. The main means through which players earn luck is simply by playing the game’s slot machines, all of which are based on WMS Gaming’s various video slots products. Playing a machine earns luck every time the reels are spun, with higher-stake machines earning more luck per spin. Players must also keep track of their chips, since running out means they’ll be unable to play any more, though these are replenished every few hours and can also be topped up by spending Facebook Credits.

Players also have a number of powerups including reel nudges, holds and re-spins which can be acquired either with Facebook Credits or won during the minigame at the ship’s destination. Causing a win after using one of these powerups earns the player a certain quantity of the game’s other currency Emeralds, which are used to purchase additional machines for the cruise ship’s casino.

When not playing the slots themselves, players see a representation of the inside of the cruise ship, and avatars representing the player’s friends — even those who are not currently playing the game — show up regularly. Assigning these avatars to the available machines allows players to earn Friend points, and upon reaching a certain threshold of these points, a Friend Frenzy is triggered. During this time, players must correctly assign friends to their favorite machines, with appropriate assignments resulting in large Luck rewards, offering a degree of variety to gameplay besides simply staring at the slots. The more friends a player has actually playing the game, the greater the rewards from Friend Frenzies. Friend points can also be earned simply by winning on the slots, so Friend Frenzies become a regular — but optional — part of gameplay.

The game also features a leveling system allowing for the gradual unlocking of new machines and new destinations for the cruise ship. Higher level items result in greater rewards for the player, though those who do not wish to grind for experience may unlock these items early in exchange for Facebook Credits.

Like many video slots games, Lucky Cruise assumes that players are already familiar with how the machines work, and as such the only tutorial the game features demonstrates its own unique mechanics such as Friend Frenzies and the powerups on offer. This may prove a barrier to entry for those unfamiliar with the genre, but the machines introduced at the outset of the game are simple enough to pick up easily, and the player is rarely overwhelmed with on-screen information.

Lucky Cruise provides a user-friendly and original take on video slots that distinguishes it from its numerous competitors. If its growth continues at its current rate, 6waves and Large Animal Games look set to have a modest success on their hands.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Lucky Cruise currently has 690,000 monthly active users and 110,000 daily active users.

Play

A worthwhile take on video slots that doesn’t daunt newcomers and offers some pleasing variety to its gameplay.

Slingo, a popular slots-and-bingo hybrid from the developer of the same name, is coming to Facebook today by way of Zynga in a licensed game called Zynga Slingo.

Slingo may be familiar to web game connoisseurs, given the game’s 15-year history on its own site and portals like Yahoo Games. Players spend balls on individual spins of a number-generating slot machine attached to a bingo card above. Once the numbers appear, the player must select as many of their tiles as correspond to the numbers, hoping to complete rows, columns or specific patterns to score points. Special joker cards and other powerups alter the dynamic of the game, allowing players to select corresponding numbers faster or gain better odds each spin. More advanced players have access to larger cards with more numbers.

Where Slingo becomes a Zynga experience is in the energy mechanic and the social features. The game is organized into five worlds with nine levels in each world. Players must spend different increments of energy to access different levels, with higher difficultly levels costing more. At launch, social features will be limited to friends-only leaderboards, gifting energy or powerups. Zynga tells us, however, that it is testing a multiplayer feature where players can challenge one another to beat their high score on individual levels. Primary monetization comes from the sale of powerups and energy refills.

As to why Zynga and Slingo partnered on this game when Zynga already developed its own games for the Zynga Casino franchise, both companies say the move made sense given Zynga’s experience in social games and Slingo’s experience in i-gaming — internet gambling. Though Zynga hasn’t entered the i-gaming word quite yet, it’s well-positioned to do so with Zynga Poker on Facebook and mobile and potentially with its other casino franchise games. Last month, the developer told AllThingsD it was looking for partners in i-gaming — this month, COO John Schappert told investors on its Q4 earnings call that Zynga saw i-gaming as a “very interesting opportunity.”

The licensing partnership with Slingo moves Zynga that much closer to seizing the opportunity. Slingo already has strong ties to real casinos via gaming machine supplier IGT — which acquired social game developer DoubleDown Interactive earlier this year — and it has a firm grasp on how i-gaming revenue compares to what social games are seeing.

“It’s 10-times plus, how much people will spend on some of the games out there,” Slingo CEO Rich Roberts tells Inside Social Games. “Remember you’re not buying items, you’re at a slot game online. There are numbers on one operator where certain operators are driving seven figures in profit on one game in one operator. When these numbers start coming out, once [i-gaming] becomes legal in the U.S., you’ll see more and more developers seeing this as the next opportunity.”

As to why Slingo went with Zynga, Roberts explains that it was the strongest possible partnership opportunity to make the classic game social. As a company, Slingo has developed along two paths for the past decade and a half: its online presence and its for wager presence in real life bingo games and slot machines at casinos. “For online, it’s our website, our past history with AOL and our future social game with Zynga,” Roberts says. “We look at i-gaming as a mix of both worlds of us — that’s our future, down the road. Today, it’s how we’re going to build our brand overall with our partners — including our new partner, Zynga.”

Update: A Zynga spokesperson says Zynga Slingo will not be a part of the Zynga Casino franchise. This contradicts what Rich Roberts told ISG.

Call of Duty Elite earns Activision more than $75 million – Despite a rocky start, Activision’s Call of Duty Elite social network has been a massive hit. According to the company’s fourth quarter earnings results, more than 7 million users have signed up for the service and 1.5 million players have chosen to pay for $49.99 annual subscription memberships, translating to $75 million in additional sales for the franchise.

PlayDemand grabbing PopCap’s former Baking Life users for Diner Life – Manchester-based PlayDemand is trying an interesting new user acquisition strategy –  the company offering former players of ZipZapPlay and PopCap’s now-shuttered Baking Life free in-game currency it its game Diner Life.

Wooga sees user growth of 185 percent in 2011 — German social game developer Wooga saw its Facebook user base increase by 185 percent to 40 million players in 2011. According to the company’s founder and CEO Jens Begemann, 5 percent of new users are acquired through advertising, 40 percent through viral features and 55 percent come from cross promotion.

Casino company MGM Resorts to announce social game soon — MGM Resorts’ CEO Jim Murren has told Forbes his company will soon reveal its first social game. The game, which Murren compares to FarmVille, will allowe players to run a casino empire.

Kabam sets up new San Francisco headquarters – Gamasutra is reporting that Kabam has signed a multi-year deal for a new 63,000 square foot office in San Francisco. All of the company’s 450 employees will be housed in the same space.

EA Vancouver confirms layoffs – As multiple news outlets reported this week, EA’s Vancouver studio will be laying off an unspecified number of employees. Although the studio was responsible for hits like FIFA Soccer, the company is restructuring in order to shift focus to digital “high growth formats” according to Develop’s report.

Konami revenues up, social games growing – According to Konami’s latest financial results, the company’s net revenues rose to 194,522 million yen ($2.5 billion) in the nine month period ending on Dec. 31, up 3.3 percent over the same period a year ago. The company has adjusted its earnings outlook for the rest of the financial year upwards, and is now expected to earn 265,000 million yen ($3.4 billion), up from 250,000 million yen ($3.2 billion.) The company’s social games division revenues grew by 1.6 percent.

Nabeel Hyatt Leaves Zynga — Conduit labs co-founder Nabeel Hyatt has left his position as the head of Zynga’s Boston studio. Hyatt joined the company when Zynga bought Conduit in 2010.  Fareed Mosavat is replacing Hyatt.

Disney Interactive reports drop in revenue, bigger year-on-year loss – Disney’s Interactive Media division earned $279 in revenue million during the holiday quarter ending on Dec. 31, 20 percent less than the $349 million it earned in the same period a year ago. Losses were up to $28 million from $15 million the previous year. In related news, Joystiq is reporting that Alex Seropian has left his position as head of game development at the studio.

One Piece social game hits 2 million users in 17 days — Industry watcher Serkan Toto is reporting that Namco Bandai’s One Piece social game on the Mobage network has hit 2 million registered users just 17 days after launching. In other Mobage news, Andriasang is reporting the network will soon be getting a social game based on the popular Japanese character Doraemon.

The Sims Social wins Social Networking Game of the Year Award – EA’s The Sims Social has won the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences’ award for for Best Social Game of the Year at the 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. EA beat Digital Chocolate, Zynga, Disney, and Spry Fox to win the award.

[Launch] Snooki’s Match Game Hits Facebook – Reality TV star Nicole Polizzi has released her first Facebook game. Called Snooki’s Match Game, the title monetizes through advertising. The game was developed by Apps Genius Corp.

[Launch] Akamon Entertainment launches Chinchón — Spanish-based Akamon Entertainment has launched its first Facebook Game, Chinchón. The game is based on a traditional Spanish card game.

[Launch] Popcap Launches Solitaire Blitz — EA PopCap is officially launching its newest game, Solitaire Blitz. The game is going into a gradual beta launch and will be available to all Facebook users by March.

With all the talk of “cloning” recently, it’s easy to think that original ideas in the social gaming sector are getting increasingly hard to come by. And while there may be a finite number of ways you can represent particular styles of gameplay, that doesn’t stop some developers thinking of an interesting, original twist on an established formula. Such is the case with Team Slots from Product Madness, a new video slot machine game for Facebook. Unlike most other Facebook-based slots titles that focus either on personal gain or competition against friends, Team Slots adds a cooperative element to the format.

When starting the game, players are randomly assigned to the Red, Green, Blue or Yellow team. The assigned team is persistent for the player’s entire Team Slotting career, with no facility to change at this time. Wording on the official FAQ suggests this may be under consideration for the future and indeed it may provide an additional monetization opportunity for Product Madness — however, it also opens up the possibility of unbalancing the game if a large proportion of the player base suddenly decides that it wants to be on, say, the Blue team.

When playing any of the game’s virtual slot machines, the player’s individual accumulated winnings are tallied up and added to that of the rest of their team. Whichever team has the highest cumulative winnings between them at the end of a 30 minute round wins a gold trophy, with second and third place achieving silver and bronze ones respectively. At the end of a day, the team with the most trophies wins the daily competition, providing them with a shower of coins to spend on the next competition. The teams also compete for dominance over the course of a month, with bigger prizes on offer.

As players compete on the machines, they earn experience points and level up. Each level up provides a small coin bonus and, after certain milestones, unlocks additional machines for play. The higher-level machines have fewer players playing them, so individual winnings tend to have a greater impact on the team’s results as a whole. Potential winnings are also higher, so it’s often in a player’s best interests to play the highest level machine they can. Most machines work in the same way through the use of various-shaped “win lines” which players can turn off and on by increasing or decreasing their bet, so once players have the hang of one they can move to the others easily. However, those new to playing slots may find it initially confusing, since the in-game explanations of how the machines work are not presented very clearly.

A few technical flaws prevent the experience from being as polished as it could be, not least of which is the fact that the game runs very slowly even on a powerful computer. This doesn’t appear to be the fault of the game itself, which is presented in Flash like most other social games. Rather, it appears to be the fault of the real-time social feed under the game — each team has its own fan page on which both players and team administrators can post comments, and the feed from this page is continually updated beneath the main game window during play, allowing players to interact with one another. The way this feature is currently implemented leads to that part of the game page almost constantly refreshing itself, which creates constant loading, a flickering mouser cursor and poor frame rates. The issue could perhaps be avoided by refreshing only once every few minutes, when a player actually posts a comment or through a manual “Refresh” button.

Aside from this issue, Team Slots provides an original take on a simplistic game genre. The addictive nature of slot machines provides plenty of monetization opportunities from among those players who enjoy protracted play sessions and/or runs of bad luck. The slow income of coins from competitions, leveling up, individual winnings and a regularly-provided bonus will likely be enough for casual players, but those serious about their virtual gambling or contributions to the daily and monthly competitions have the potential to make the game very profitable. It’s a shame to see the game spoiled by the issues mentioned above, however.

Team Slots currently has 460,000 monthly active users and 60,000 daily active users and is still on an upwards trend after its launch in mid-December last year. To track it’s progress, check out AppData, our traffic tracking service for social games and developers.

Wait

An original, social and cooperative take on the slot machine genre with a user experience marred by technical issues and unclear explanations for new players.

Seattle-based casual game developer GameHouse is still working to make the transition from a downloadable gaming company to a freemium social game leader. In September, the company’s CEO Matt Hulett told Inside Social Games his goal was to break into the top 10 social game developers by daily active users on Facebook.

According to AppData, GameHouse is currently the No. 27 most popular game developer on the platform according to DAU, an increase over the No. 33 spot the company held when Hulett announced his plans. GameHouse now has 821,150 DAU on Facebook and the number has been slowly but steadily increasing. To support the transition, GameHouse recently announced it was doubling the headcount at its Facebook-focused Canadian studio.

Located in Victoria, British Columbia, GameHouse Canada started life as Backstage Technologies, a financial services company that pivoted into Facebook games in 2007. Its game Scratch and Win was one of the first games to integrate with the Facebook API and monetize through the free-to-play model. GameHouse’s parent company RealNetworks bought Backstage in September 2010 to bolster its social game talent, but it’s only now that the company has moved into a much larger downtown office is it ready to push forward with an aggressive expansion plan that will see it grow from 25 to 45 people in the next couple of months, according to Alex Mendelev, GameHouse Canada’s general manager and head of studios.

Inside Social Games had a chance to visit the company’s new offices and speak with Mendelev about the company’s plans in the social gaming space.

Inside Social Games: What can you tell me about GameHouse’s larger Facebook strategy? Earlier this year GameHouse’s CEO Matt Hulett said the goal was to be in the top 10 by DAU within six months?

Alex Mendelev, general manager and head of studios, Gamehouse Canada (pictured right): I think our strategy on Facebook is not necessarily take all the users from our other platforms and bring them to Facebook. I think our strategy is to operate our businesses that run really well. Our casual, downloadable business continues to function really well and we will continue to grow that business in its own way. Social is a giant opportunity to capitalize on. Backstage has been doing it for a long time and at this point we have two studios hitting directly into that market with good numbers and growth to show. Backstage primarily contributes to the social game area of the effort.

ISG: So will you be focusing on new IP or porting existing hits? Are you worried about cannibalizing a casual game’s existing audience by bring it onto Facebook? 

Mendelev: I think regardless of what we do, there are new platforms and new, exciting experiences that people want to partake of. Whether you’re on one platform or another, as new platforms come in, users will want to try them. Some of them will stick and want to play games there and some of them won’t. I think our approach is more to give people a place to play, regardless of what platform they’re on. In that regard, we’re very well positioned with casual downloadable, mobile and iOS and social.

ISG: There’s certainly a precedent for games from casual game portals to find success on Facebook. 

Mendelev:  We’ve seen some great results from some of the titles we’ve had as GameHouse for a long time, such as Collapse, and bringing them to Facebook. Collapse is kind of a classic GameHouse game and it’s shown great results so far and is continuing to grow. Some of the recent titles we’re really excited about are Bayou Blast.

ISG: What is GameHouse Canada working on right now?

Mendelev:  We’re working on a slots game and we’re going to release it early this year.

ISG: With your history working on slots and games of chance, how do you feel you would be positioned if Facebook does make real-money gambling available on the platform?

Mendelev:  It’s really hard to say because Facebook is very good at pivoting very quickly around things. Just because there was an announcement that certain kinds of business would be open doesn’t mean it will happen soon if at all. We’ve learned to kind of temper our expectations in terms of what’s actually going to happen in the platform, so we not actively considering it.

ISG: But if something were to come up?

Mendelev:  We’re always open to looking at new opportunities and consider that as part of our strategy but we haven’t made a decision to move in that direction. It’s really hard to make that decision before Facebook.

ISG: Gambling companies have shown an interest in the platform with some large social game investments like Double Down Interactive and Playtika. What do you think of that?

Mendelev:  I would say that with gambling companies moving into Facebook, they’re recognizing that Facebook is a large revenue opportunity and they’re actively investing in that space. We’re already in that space, so it makes sense for us to continue to invest in the space. If you look at GameHouse as a whole and our entire social gaming effort we have lots of games coming out and they’ll be across multiple genres.