Inside Social Games

Not too long ago, FooMojo, creators of the popular Facebook app Pokey, announced the closing of a $9.9 million Series A round led by SoftBank Capital. The company is focused on the virtual pet space, but not just on Facebook. Rather, the company develops such applications all over the web and for the iPhone as well.

Combined with the seed round it raised last year, the company has now raised $10.7 million in total. After the Series A round closed back in September, CEO Ron Hornbaker noted that the company was especially fortunate to be ahead of the market crash, and was no longer looking for further investment.

Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank Corp. added, “Japan was the birthplace of the virtual pets phenomenon and I witnessed first hand, the amazing success of the Tamagotchi driven from the basic fulfillment of virtual companionship.” Son went on to say, “FooMojo has taken the model to new heights of realism and technology by creating virtual pets that evoke a strong emotional bond with owners and are portable across social networks and devices. FooMojo is creating the next-generation of virtual pets and I expect the company to lead the category.”

[via Virtual World News]

Earlier this month, there was discussion regarding the taxation of virtual assets in China. Unexpectedly, however, similar discussions have recently been happening in the US.

Apparently, there is a “gap” in the New York state budget, and in response to this, Governor David Patterson proposed a number of solutions. Most interesting of them all was the one dubbed the “iPod tax” that would impose both state and local taxes on “digitally delivered entertainment services.”

Essentially, this means that any and all downloadable content could be affected. This includes all major video game platforms, and could also possibly encompass virtual goods and currencies. It’s not clear what exactly will happen, but GamePolitics.com says:

“If you live in the state of New York, you could find yourself paying sales tax on downloadable content (DLC) for video games, beginning in 2009.

That’s because, much like the private sector, state and local governments have been hit hard by the current recession. In New York, Gov. David Paterson (D) has responded by proposing a budget that calls for layoffs, service cutbacks and new taxes, including one that will likely add to the cost of your DLC on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii or PC.”

Of course, this is all just speculation at the moment. The budget will still have to be approved by the legislature, but regardless of whether it passes or not, it is interesting to see this sort of suggestion appear at all.

[via Virtual Goods News]

Christmas is almost here: A time for cheer, a time for giving, a time for sharing, and a time for thanks.

In light of this holiday spirit, a new service called TouchLeagueSharp, is now available to both iPhone and web game developers. Sharp is a C# wrapper and a demo web site that can be utilized in order to build games on the TouchLeague.com Competition API. An example of this can be found here with some play-for-money poker.

This is where the real story comes into play, as the API provides a set of web-based services that are capable of supporting turn-based, asynchronous game play. This means it can support games such as chess, checkers, and other board games, but can also support core elements from other game genres such as the Final Fantasy battle system, Risk, or Civilization. It is simply up to the developer to determine a creative means of utilizing the concept of “turns.”

Time for creativity should not be an issue either, for as with other third party APIs, TouchLeague allows developers to focus more on game play and handles some of the more tedious, back end aspects of multiplayer game development.

Currently, the API provides developers with a number of supported functions listed in their development blog, that can be used based on their preferences. The site handles simple features such as user registration, and advertising revenue, but can also be used to set up ladder systems, rank-based matchmaking, as well as a web service that can retrieve and update game states without requiring the use of a database for your game.

According to the creators of TouchLeague, the features are far from done as well. The API is looking to encompass more features as well in the future such as a “play ad free revenue generation” as well as the hosting for tournaments and leagues.

The best part, however, is that a would-be developer does not require much in order to make their game. All that the API requires is a public web server that can execute your game code. The TouchLeagueSharp package easily implements the API through the use of an ASP.net web project.

In a market where social, casual, online games are becoming very widespread, it is certainly nice to have as many choices as possible when it comes to easing the development process. Nonetheless, it is interesting to see something that applies more specifically to the turn-based aspect of games when more and more live-multiplayer support has been showing up lately.

It’s the end of another year folks, and with the coming holidays it means parties, food, drink, gifts, resolutions, more food, and, of course, reflections on the time that has past. With that spirit in mind, and since the iPhone has been a rather interesting space for social games lately, it is only fair to see how social games are doing on the iPhone charts. Apple has been gracious enough to make this easy by releasing the Top 10 iTunes App Store Downloads of 2008.

There are a number of categories to look at, but what is of most interest here is the overall applications and the games (of course). If, however, you are interested in the other categories, MobileCrunch has a nice compilation of all of them.

Coming in at #2 in overall paid applications is the title, Texas Hold’em.  The accomplishment gives Texas Hold’em a great badge of honor and greatly displays the popularity of such card type games. Many of the other top 10 paid apps overall are games as well.

Top 10 Paid Apps (Overall):

1. Koi Pond
2. Texas Hold’em
3. Moto Chaser
4. Crash Bandicoot: Nitro Kart 3D
5. Super Monkey Ball
6. Cro-Mag Rally
7. Enigmo
8. Pocket Guitar
9. Recorder
10. iBeer

Top 10 Free Apps (Overall):

1. Pandora Radio
2. Facebook
3. Tap Tap Revenge
4. Shazam
5. Labyrinth Lite Edition
6. Remote
7. Google Earth
8. Lightsaber Unleashed
9. AIM
10. Urbanspoon

That brings us to the Top 10 lists for the games category itself. So how did social games do?

Well, no surprise, after seeing the overall charts,  Texas Hold’em hits #1 in the paid category. As for free games, we find a familiar company: SGN. Popping in at the #4 position is the ever so talked about iBowl application that turns the iPhone into a Wii-like remote. This motion based game lets players go through the motions of actual bowling and most certainly went over well with the public (so long as they didn’t look too strange playing it, and didn’t drop their phone in the process!).

Top 10 Paid Games:

1. Texas Hold’em
2. Moto Chaser
3. Crash Bandicoot: Nitro Kart 3D
4. Super Monkey Ball
5. Cro-Mag Rally
6. Enigmo
7. Air Hockey
8. Bejeweled 2
9. Flick Bowling
10. Line Rider iRide

Top 10 Free Games:

1. Tap Tap Revenge
2. Labyrinth Lite Edition
3. Sol Free Solitaire
4. iBowl
5. Pac-Man Lite
6. Touch Hockey: FS5
7. Cannon Challenge
8. Audi A4 Driving Challenge
9. Sudoku
10. reMovem

Although 2 social games broke into the top 10 lists on the iPhone this year, it’s encouraging to see just how many games are succeeding on the iPhone platform - particularly paid apps. We’re looking forward to 2009, as the social infrastructure of the web and mobile web gets increasingly mature.

Owned and operated by the Finnish Sulake Corporation, Habbo Hotel, a virtual world game, has been host to a social network of teenagers for years. Since its inception back in 2000, the virtual goods based business has expanded to include communities across 31 countries in five continents.

The game allows players to create their own Hotel rooms and create a social space for themselves and their friends using furniture they buy with real currency. They can then travel around this virtual world to socialize with others within various “chat rooms.” Each room is either dubbed public or guest, the latter of which consists of a highly customized space created by a player who then has complete control over whom they admit. Public rooms, on the other hand, are created by Sulake themselves and are not customizable, but rather depict scenes such as restaurants, bars, clubs, etc. In addition, the free guest rooms also play host a number of mini-games such as Falling Furni, Quiz, and Wobble Squabble. Each game is hosted by the administrator and can reward winners various prizes such as new furniture.

The company became profitable this year, 2008, with revenues of $50 million. Habbo has 100 million registered users and there are 10 million active players each month.

Sulake has also released a mobile version of the service called Mini Friday that is nearing the 1 million registered user mark. Here’s what makes that number even better: Not only is the game restricted to users 18 and up, but it only works on the Nokia S60 series of mobile phones.

Inside Mini Friday, players can create their own avatar, customizing aspects such as gender, height, and clothing then move about and between rooms. As most of the rooms look to be bars, the chat is more mature, and players can talk between one another individually or “shout” and be heard by all.

Currently, the game is still in beta, and has been since 2006. Since that time, it has steadily grown in popularity, especially in areas such as Indonesia, and is expected to leave the testing phase soon.

Perhaps what is most interesting, however, is a comment noted in a VentureBeat article from Habbo Hotel co-founder Aapo Kyrola. While there is little to go on at this time, Kyrola did state that the company is working on an iPhone version of this application. He goes on to say that compared to the Nokia platform, the iPhone has been a significantly better experience.

[via VentureBeat]

Since September, Social Gaming Network has been releasing a suite of games that make use of the iPhone and iPod Touch’s accelerometer capabilities that turn the mobile device into a Wii-like remote. To date, the company has released five applications: iBowl, iGolf, iBaseball, iBasketball, and iFun. While it was known that these free to download apps were doing well, it was only just recently that SGN released some of the numbers.

As of today, the five games that began coming out three months ago have had well over 4.5 million downloads. In fact, iBowl, released back in October was dubbed by Apple the #4 most downloaded free iPhone game of 2008. For those that are curious, the numbers 1 - 3 spots went to Tap Tap Revenge, Labyrinth Lite Edition, and Sol Free Solitaire respectively (and let’s face it, everyone loves solitaire). Furthermore, outside of the top games of the year, SGN’s iBasketball is also currently sitting pretty at, ironically, the #4 spot for the currently most popular free iPhone games.

Evidence would suggest that the majority of the company’s resources has been focusing on the iPhone platform as its number of active Facebook users nets around 4.7 million with a growth that has been rather stagnant as of late. Also, considering that 50+% of downloaded applications for the mobile devices are, in fact, games, a shift in focus isn’t necessarily a bad idea, especially considering the rate in which SGN has been making these new games. While this is no claim as to what the company will be doing in the future, it does feel like a very strong avenue for the social developers.

So in recent months, SGN has been pumping out iPhone titles that emulate the basics of various sports. Through the exploitation of platform’s built in accelerometer, they have produced Wii-like titles that allowed users to golf, bowl, and play baseball. Now, the latest to come off the line is iBasketball, coinciding with the start of the basketball season.

The title, once again mimics the real thing (though slightly more awkward feeling than earlier titles), and allows players to participate in games akin to “Around the World” and “HORSE.” Using the accelerometer technology, players are capable of taking shots from five different positions. Each shot is worth one point and they are able to not only challenge their friends, but can enter an “Open Challenge” and join the global leader board. Furthermore, if desired, players can even receive email notifications whenever someone is challenging them.

The game also contains a rather life-like spectator feature, and great presentation complete with simulated sounds such as ball bounces and net swishes. However, despite the quality presentation, one begs the question, are the developers taking this Wii novelty a little too far? At first it was refreshing, but with iBasketball, it is starting to feel like a stretch.

SGN has done a great job in expanding the social graph to the mobile market. Considering that the iPhone is mobile, many people are going to play games on in public areas that are often confined (waiting in a restaurant, on the bus, etc) and these large motion based games aren’t the kind of things that will be able to be played anywhere. However, iTennis, iHockey, and iCurling are already most likely in the pipeline!

Over the past couple of months, SGN has released its series of Wii-like sports games for the iPhone: iGolf, iBowl, and iBaseball. The quick success of these three applications has effectively entrenched the company as the leader in the remote-controlled sports space.

For those that are unfamiliar with SGN’s family of iPhone applications, the 3 aforementioned titles emulate their Wii Sports counterparts with simple motions that turd the iPhone into virtual golf clubs and baseball bats - and basically act like a Wiimote.

iFun actually turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a controller for your PC or Mac at home. The first game to use the app is iFun Golf, and you play the game as if you were playing a golf-based game on Nintendo’s Wii, except now the phone is the actual controller.

The setup is not too difficult either. All you have to do is log on to the game in your browser and load up iFun on your iPhone. So long as you have a wireless connection, the two should sync up automatically and you are ready to play.

It’s nice that a number of game elements are on the iPhone itself as well. From your makeshift Wiimote, you can select your clubs, options, and adjust your shot angle, thus adding a nice convenience factor to game play (as apposed to pointing a Wiimote at a screen). As with iGolf, you swing the iPhone like a golf club to hit the ball and your actual swing affects the shot in game. The control is very smooth and intuitive; which is to be expected considering the three games that came before it.

Here’s a full demo from Shervin Pishevar, CEO of SGN:

SGN says they may license other online games to add to the iFun platform. Furthermore, they also plan to release an API for other developers to create their own titles on iFun as well. Will this be a new movement in mobile games? One can only hope.

Zynga, one of the biggest developers of social games today, is announcing today the launch of “Live Poker” for the iPhone, thus making it the first truly live game on the iPhone platform. The game is a mobile version of the highly popular Texas Hold’Em application and has effectively turned the iPhone into an always-on social gaming device.

With Live Poker, players can compete with any of the 1.4 million daily web players at any time from anywhere with an internet connection. Finding and joining buddies or selecting tables is even easier than the Facebook version, and it’s not just limited to Facebook. Users can now connect and play with friends from Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, or Zynga’s own account system.

Table selection has also been simplified, and there are always games going on. You can easily see when your friends are playing, or join in with users of any level.

Live Poker is also the one of the first applications to make use of Facebook Connect, thus deepening the level of social integration for the iPhone platform. With Facebook Connect, Live Poker can allow social information (such as photos) to be displayed in-game.

It’s also worth mentioning that Zynga has created a 2^nd app that is advertised in the free version as “buy 40,000 chips,” and costs $9.99. This upgraded version of the free rendition (and other paid versions at different prices) circumvents the lack of any virtual goods infrastructure on the iPhone, and allows users to buy more poker chips whenever they want. It also gives users access to various poker tournaments.

“We have seen the creation of the next important social gaming platform, thanks to ‘Live Poker,’” said Zynga CEO Mark Pincus in a statement. “Delivering the first social game on the iPhone is a logical extension for us. Social gaming continues to grow, and this is another giant step towards taking it to the mass market.”

Like its web predecessor, Live Poker has great design, its fun, plays well, and works impressively fast considering it is a live multiplayer game on a new mobile platforum. The game is available on any iPhone with 3G or Wi-Fi access, as well as the iPod Touch. It can be downloaded at the iTunes store here.

Dating - it’s something everyone feels they need to do, but there are so many that don’t have the time to really go out and meet people, or maybe they don’t know how, or maybe they are not confident enough. Regardless of the personal reason, the evolution of dating and flirting online has evolved by leaps and bounds due to the nature of web anonymity. However, this is not limited to simply dating sites, but many dating games and simulations as well.

In Japan, dating sims have become extraordinarily popular in their fast paced and technological culture, and like so many times before, that popularity has migrated to the United States as well. One such example of an Americanized sim is AvaPeeps FlirtNation by Digital Chocolate.

The game begins with the creation of your own personal paper doll style avatar as you customize his or her look to reflect your own. Once your avatar is created and you have registered a name, the game takes you on an immediate “first date” which is basically a tutorial level. The way it works, is you answer a few questions about what to “do” on the date, and based on the answers your “date” provides, determines how well it goes.

Of course, after the initial tutorial date, you have to go out on your own and customize your profile. In your profile you can change your clothes, your personality traits, and even select some theme music to go with your personality. Then it’s time to make the scene, as you spend AvaChips to visit various clubs, beaches, and other locations in order to meet and flirt with new people. If you successfully flirt with them, you can go out together on virtual dates (like the tutorial date) as well as send messages back and forth to each other in the hopes that a real relationship and/or friendship develops.

Currently, the game is still in its beta stages, but even now the numbers seem promising. Paul Abbassi, CTO of Digital Chocolate reports that of the initial 10,000 users, more than 25% are playing everyday, and over 10% are actively participating in the beta by sending feedback to help further improve the experience.

What is most interesting, however, is that AvaPeeps was originally a mobile game that migrated to the web space (rather than the other way around). That said, you are also capable of playing the game using T-Mobile, BOOST, Virgin, or Three (in the UK). Mobile games isn’t particularly unusual, but in this case, the game has been tied to the web version as well, allowing players to interact with each other in real time, from anywhere, regardless of whether or not they are using the web or a mobile device. And people are using this method as well: According to Abbassi, “since 2007, almost 2% of BOOST’s 4 million users have played AvaPeeps.”

Since the game is still in beta, it is still evolving as the developers receive more feedback from its users. As such, it is expected that the game will begin to incorporate more and more social gaming features native to the web space such as an avatar-goods economy. Furthermore, it is also stated by Abbassi, that AvaPeeps will also be available, in the future, for Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, and other major social networks. So far, AvaPeeps looks quite promising and the final product should be even better.