Cricket is a somewhat under-represented sport in the world of computer and video games, and it is with this in mind that Indian gaming company Zapak has brought CricVille to Facebook. The game is a social cricket game that combines business management simulation elements with skill-based gameplay during matches.

After installing the game, players are launched into a brief tutorial in which they are introduced to their new cricket ground — little more than a dirty wasteland at the outset. This is where team management mode introduced. While in the management part of the game, the player is able to hire, fire and train players, with their abilities affecting match outcome; hire coaches for limited periods of real time to provide bonuses to the team’s skills; acquire sponsorship deals with numerous rather unsubtle bastardizations of recognizable brands to provide income; and build up the team’s stadium to provide greater rewards from playing matches. Incentive to continue playing is provided through a gradual unlock system, with better coaches and stadium parts available to higher-level players, or those willing to spend real money on the game. Gameplay in this section is simple but provides opportunity for players to build up their team — optionally guided by a series of tasks at the side of the screen — and see the fruits of their labors through the growth of their ground.

When the time comes to play a game, the player has two options: a practice match against a computer-controlled team, or a social match against either a friend or another worldwide player. A tournament facility is also planned for an upcoming update. During practice matches, the player takes on active control of the batsmen in the game, while the team’s turn to field is simulated at high speed with no visuals. In a social match, gameplay is asynchronous — the challenging player is first up to bat against the opposing team’s bowlers with their abilities determined by their statistics, then a challenge notification is sent to the other player to inform them it is their turn to bat. When both players have played, the final result is calculated.

The game assumes a basic familiarity with the rules of cricket as it does not take any time to explain how to play outside of showing the basic keyboard controls. These are kept simple, with two shot buttons for varying degrees of power and directional controls determining in which direction the ball will be hit. If the player successfully lands a hit on the ball, they are able to trigger their players running by simply pressing a key, with their speed determined by their statistics and upgrades.

A match is straightforward and relatively quick to play, and allows cricket fans the opportunity to enjoy the game at a much faster pace than real matches, which often continue for several days. The player is encouraged to develop a sense of ownership and pride in their team by customizing their colors, choosing a name and even renaming their players — with a profanity filter firmly in place. Presentation is solid with clear visuals in the management section and realistic sound effects and smooth animation in the match section. The only element which feels somewhat unfinished is the fact the management part of the game is completely silent, with no music or sounds at all.

One mildly questionable aspect of the game is the amount of  unnecessarily sexist imagery throughout. While it’s a fact that Indian Premier League cricket (on which the game is based) does indeed make use of female cheerleaders in revealing outfits, in the case of this game every “out,” “four,” “six,” and even the end of a match is punctuated by a gratuitous full-screen animation of three cheerleaders gyrating provocatively. The whole game is presented in a lighthearted, cartoonish style but this feels a little too much at times — and may even be off-putting to some fans considering playing the game.

Even so, CricVille is a well thought out game that is easy to understand yet provides a great deal of opportunity for friendly competition between fans — and, by extension, a strong built-in viral promotion and retention strategy. Even those with only a basic grasp of the rules of cricket will be able to find the experience of challenging worldwide opponents and Facebook friends to be enjoyable.

From a business perspective, the usual reliable combination of premium items and an energy mechanic mean that — assuming Zapak is able to acquire a healthy player base — the game has potential to be quite profitable, particularly in those parts of the world where cricket is a popular sport. Developer Game Ventures saw some success last year with its Facebook cricket game, Howzat Cricket.

CricVille has picked up 6,000 monthly active users and 1,000 daily active users since its launch in late January. To follow its progress, check out AppData, our tracking service for social games and developers.

Play

Questionable imagery aside, this is a solid offering for cricket fans.

Zynga’s Reynolds, Nexon’s Kim appointed to ISAS board – Zynga’s chief game designer Bryan Reynolds and Nexon America’s co-founder Min Kim have been appointed to the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ board of directors.

Harmonix working on Facebook Game – Boston-based Harmonix, best known for its Rock Band and Dance Central franchises is working on a Facebook. Shacknews reported the news based on an updated resume for the company’s lead designer Brian Chan. There is currently a Dance Central Facebook app called Dance Central 2 Challenge. It has 2000 MAU.

Square Enix adds Facebook to FFXIII-2 – Andriasang is reporting that the Japanese version of Final Fantasy XIII-2 has been patched to add Facebook support to the game, allowing a player to post information about their game to their wall.

Crytek unveils GFace, a PC-mobile social game network — PC game maker Crytek has created a PC to mobile social gaming network. The GFace network is currently in beta and focuses on cross-platform, multiplayer gameplay.

Final Fantasy Brigade now has 1 million players – Square Enix’s first mobile social game Final Fantasy Brigade is proving to be extremely popular. The game, which is available on DeNA’s Mobage network, now has over 1 million users according to Andriasang.

Monster Hunter coming to Mobage – Capcom’s ultra-popular Monster Hunter series is coming to DeNA’s Mobage Platform. The game will be a collectible card-battle game and will be called Minna to Monhan Card Master, according to Andriasang. It will launch on both smartphones and feature phones on Feb. 21.

Japan’s social game market to double value by 2016 – The Nomura Research Institute has predicted that the Japanese social gaming market will be worth $5.1 billion dollars by 2016 according to industry watcher Serkan Toto, who translated the report.

Nintendo will allow devs to offer microtransactions - Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has said his company will now allow third part developers on its Nintendo Network to offer microtransactions. Iwata revealed the information at Nintendo’s third quarter financial results briefing on Jan. 27.

DeNA, GREE continue legal slugging match — DeNA and GREE are continuing to play out their rivalry in the Japanese courts. In November, GREE sued DeNA, claiming the company was pressuring developers to sign exclusive contracts. According to Serkan Toto, DeNA is now suing for damages related to GREE’s actions.

[Launch] NASA releases new Facebook Game – NASA has released a multiplayer Facebook game called Space Race Blastoff that tests users knowledge of the space program.

[Launch] ESPN Return Man comes to Facebook - ESPN.com’s popular casual arcade game ESPN Return Man is now available on Facebook. The game was a collaboration between ESPN and Disney Social Games, and is the third collaborative release between the two studios. Our full review of the game can be found here.

[Launch] Microsoft Research launches new Facebook game - Microsoft Research has released its second Facebook, Doubloon Dash, in order to study the reactions of real people engaging in game theory like interactions.

ESPN and Disney Social Games have teamed up to bring the ESPN Return Man game to Facebook. The game is still available in its original form at the ESPN Arcade games portal site, but it has been completely revamped with social play in mind for Facebook. It’s an action-based football game, but rather than covering the entire match, it focuses on the efforts of the titular return man to catch the kickoff and return it to the end zone for a touchdown. There is no team management, no complex calling of plays — simply pure, fast-paced arcade football action: catch the ball, and run up the screen to the end zone. It’s a very simple concept, but one that is executed very effectively, creating a naturally compelling and addictive game without having to resort to more manipulative tactics to keep the player engaged.

ESPN Return Man's arcade gameplay is both simple and effective.

Without a few twists, however, this simple concept could very easily get boring. The game regularly mixes things up, not least with the variety of situations the player must navigate in order to get those all-important touchdowns. Some plays may see the return man accompanied by other team members who will barge the opposing players out of the way, others will see the return man faced by a seemingly endless (and probably illegal) swarm of other players with no support. The return man also has a few tricks up his sleeve that come in the form of special moves and boosters, access to both of which is unlocked through a gradual leveling process. Each play also has several instant-effect power-ups scattered over the field, also, allowing the player to acquire score multipliers and quick speed boosts to get out of trouble.

Special moves, which are available in limited quantities and then must be topped up using the game’s soft currency, generally allow the return man to dodge or inconvenience a defender, with more physically-improbable moves being unlocked as the player increases in level. Four moves may be equipped at once, but an individual move may only be used once per play, meaning they’re far from being an “instant win” button. Boosts, meanwhile, must also be refreshed with soft currency when they deplete, but offer more passive bonuses such as increased speed or the ability to run through mud and snow without suffering movement-hampering effects.

There’s no obligation to spend any money on ESPN Return Man, but those willing to drop some Facebook Credits on the game will find they have access to a number of options which make the challenging gameplay a little easier. Additional blocking players can be purchased, for example, and certain boosts may only be purchased with hard currency. Players may also pay to unlock content before reaching the experience level at which it is normally unlocked for free, and those who wish to play more per day can pay for energy refills.

Unlike many Facebook games, failure is an option here, encouraging players to develop their own skills.

One of the particularly noteworthy things about the game is that it is possible to win without the use of any special moves or boosts — and in fact, players are rewarded for doing so with higher score bonuses at the end of a play. Given the game’s strong focus on topping the leaderboards against Facebook friends, this means that players are encouraged to develop their skills and become better at the game rather than simply unlocking as much content as possible through repeated play.

ESPN Return Man is an excellent, simple sports game perfectly designed for short gaming sessions Facebook users typically prefer. It’s made better by the tension that comes from the fact it is possible to “fail” a game and have to try again from the first play. This fact alone will attract both fans of the drama of sport and the core gamer market, the latter of which often finds itself frustrated and dissatisfied by social games which are either far too easy or impossible to fail at. Sports fans, meanwhile, will appreciate the little touches such as the ability to listen to ESPN Radio during play and the inclusion of the likenesses of ESPN’s Herm Edwards and Trey Wingo in the game. The ESPN branding lends the game a feeling of authenticity and credibility and, if past ESPN-branded titles are anything to go by, will likely see a large initial spike in traffic thanks to the recognizable name.

ESPN Return Man currently has 70,000 monthly active users and 5,000 daily active users. Want to track its progress? Check out AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

Play

A simple but effective sports game that deserves to see success among fans of football and arcade games alike.

Triple-A publisher 2K Games is working on an as-yet unannounced sports based social game.

According to a job posting for its sports-oriented Visual Concepts studio, the company is seeking to hire an associate producer to “oversee the development, release and operation of an exciting new sports-based social game.”

The position, as posted on Creativeheads.net, calls for a minimum of two years of experience working in social and free-to-play gaming and an understanding of user attraction, retention, monetization and microtransactions.

The position does not elaborate which sport the game will focus on, or if it will build off an existing 2K Sports franchise.

While 2K is often in direct competition with rival EA for dominance of the sports game genre, so far EA has taken the lead in the social space. EA is currently one of the most successful social sports game publishers on Facebook, with its games FIFA Superstars, Madden NFL Superstars and NHL Superstars boasting a combined 2.2 million MAU. Other competitors in the genre include Nordeus, with its game Top Eleven (3.5 million MAU) and Vostu’s GolMania (600,000 MAU).

Although 2K has been highly successful in the sports genre it may be at a disadvantage on Facebook, as unlike EA it does not have an existing soccer franchise. According to our traffic tracking service AppData, six out of the 10 most popular sports game on Facebook are soccer themed.

2K’s first social game was CivWorld, a social version of its studio Firaxis Games’ classic franchise Civilization. CivWorld has failed to find traction on Facebook. The game peaked at 567,790 MAU in August, shortly after its official release, but users dropped off quickly. The game currently has 30,000 MAU.

BMW xDrive Challenge is a new Facebook-based driving game developed by game.punks and designed as a promotional tool for the motor company’s series of xDrive-powered four wheel drive cars. The game launched into a public beta in November of 2011 and saw its official release as a full scale game with competitions and prizes on December 15, 2011.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, BMW xDrive Challenge peaked at 90,000 monthly active users and 9,000 daily active users.

The game gives players the chance to drive several vehicles in the BMW X series, beginning with the X1 and progressing through the increasingly powerful X3, X5 and X6 models.

Players are able to drive freely around the game’s area for as long as they like to get a feel for the cars, and can engage in races by stopping at the start line of the game’s various racing environments, which include Road, Dirt, Ice and River. Players can either challenge their friends to a race, take on computer-controlled opponents or enter daily, weekly and monthly championships, with prizes provided by the game’s sponsors.

Rather than providing real-time racing, BMW xDrive Challenge takes an asynchronous approach, with players recording their best lap times with which to challenge their friends. When racing, a “ghost car” can be seen showing the route the opponent took, but there are no collisions between vehicles. The same is true for the championship races, with the only difference being that opponents are pulled from all over Facebook rather than the player’s friends list.

Completing races awards players with BMW Credits, Race Credits and experience points. BMW Credits are used to refuel and repair the player’s car and purchase new vehicles. Experience points, which are awarded not only for completing the race but also for driving stylishly and accurately, are required alongside BMW Credits to unlock the different vehicles. Race Credits, meanwhile, are used to access championship races.

The game is graphically intensive and as such requires a relatively powerful computer to enjoy to its fullest. The developer recommends an Intel Core 2-powered PC or Mac with a Shader Model 3 graphics card as a minimum. There appear to be a few technical issues at the time of writing — when tested, the game ran consistently well in Mozilla Firefox but sometimes refused to start at all in Google Chrome, giving an error message complaining of “too many players.” The developer does, however, claim to have tested the game on six browsers across PC and Mac, so results may vary.

As an advergame, the game is sponsored by K2, Bang & Olufsen, Deluxe Music, Rauch and BMW itself. The sponsors’ involvement extends not only to having their names on the game’s introductory screens, but also in providing prizes for the championship races. At the time of writing, for example, K2 is offering a prize of some BMW-branded skis for the best drivers on the icy track.

The game has been primarily marketed towards selected countries in the central-eastern European markets (specifically  Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia), and promoted heavily via local BMW Facebook fan pages in those regions. The game has also grown organically through its “friend racing” mechanic as well as Facebook’s usual Like and Share systems. AppData shows relatively steady growth since launch, but it’s still early days for the game, and the team at game.punks is thinking long-term.

“Currently the game is growing, and we are hosting daily, weekly and monthly competitions with prizes from the sponsors,” explained Marco Höglinger, managing director of developer game.punks. “As the game goes into this year, we will look at the options for increasing the number of cars in the game and adding a new game mode to encourage off-road driving.

“[We currently have] no plans to launch on G+,” added Höglinger, on the subject of potential expansion to other platforms alongside Facebook. “It would be an interesting experiment to launch on a mobile market, and also on gaming networks such as BigPoint and Steam. This would need to be negotiated with the brand holder, though.”

11×11 is a new Facebook-based soccer management simulation from Nekki, best known for their asynchronous combat game Shadow Fight on Facebook and, more recently, Google+.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, 11×11 currently has 250,000 monthly active users and 50,000 daily active users.

11×11 gives players the keys to the manager’s office of a new soccer team. After naming the team and choosing the color scheme of their uniform, it’s up to the player to manage the team effectively, taking into account the team’s training regime, club finances and tactics. Players can be bought and sold using the game’s soft currency, and the team can be trained a certain amount each day to gradually improve their abilities.

Social features in the game include the facility for players’ teams to compete against one another and be ranked on a worldwide leaderboard. Players also have the facility to gift “Fans” to each other, providing morale boosts at the start of matches and increasing the team’s performance. It’s also possible for friends to compete in matches against one another, meaning no wait time while looking for an opponent. There’s only a certain number of these “Friend Challenge” matches that can be taken on per day, however.

Monetization is handled through the sale of hard currency, here known as Boosters. Payments are handled entirely through the use of Facebook Credits. Boosters can be spent on a variety of things, including more effective training routines, allowing team members to level up quicker; and four levels of “VIP” membership, which allows for increasing the number of players on the full team’s squad; additional fans to send to friends each day; additional “Friend Challenge” matches and the facility to enter more tournaments at the same time. Committed players who enjoy the game will effectively be able to play more each day by paying.

It’s clearly early in 11×11′s lifespan as there are a number of items on the main menu which currently do nothing or simply promise that the feature is coming “soon.” These currently include a “Unions” and a “Try your Luck” facility. “Try your Luck” is set to launch in 4-6 weeks and is a lottery-like minigame where players can throw a dice once per day for free (with additional rolls available for Facebook Credits) and get rewards for successful throws. These may include money rewards, player specializations or, once in a player’s career, a “superplayer” to use on the team. “Unions,” meanwhile, is a facility for players to organize championships and play together, and is set to be added to the game within 4-12 weeks.

Despite its tender age, the game has been enjoying strong, steady growth since launch in both MAU and DAU figures and shows no technical issues that would slow down its early growth. In the increasingly competitive market of soccer management sims on Facebook, 11×11 is a good showing. Nekki also has plans to bring 11×11 to Google+ — there’s no set date for when this will launch as yet, but the team is 100% sure that it is going to happen.

You can track 11×11′s progress using AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

Golaço – Esporte Interativo is a soccer-themed Facebook game from Brazilian developer O2 Games. The international release of the game is being supported by publisher Hoopla Media.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Golaço – Esporte Interativo currently has 140,000 monthly active users and 40,000 daily active users.

Golaço – Esporte Interativo casts players in the role of the manager of a soccer team. Players are able to name their team whatever they please, along with customizing uniforms and the team’s logo from a variety of selections. Following this, players are responsible for every aspect of team management, ranging from key financial decisions to on-pitch tactics. It’s a complex game, but fans of soccer management simulations will be immediately familiar with most of the options on offer. Newcomers to the genre may find the variety of options to be somewhat daunting, however.

Matches take place in accelerated time and are depicted by an abstract top-down tactical view. Unlike rival title Gol Mania from fellow Brazilian dev Vostu, which features real-time arcade-style soccer gameplay, Golaço’s focus is primarily on the strategic and management aspects of the sport.

According to Daniel Coquieri from O2 Games, the company’s main strategy is to target the male demographic and niche interests such as sports. O2 Games is planning to release two further games in 2012 — one in April and a second in August. The company hopes to close 2012 with a total of 1.85 million monthly active users and 380,000 daily active users across the three games. So far, Golaço has been growing steadily and holding on to its users. It remains to be seen, however, whether the international market will take to it. O2 Games appears to be a well-established company, having received over $900,000 in investment over the course of the last six years, including support from the president of Brazilian investment fund Capital Fir.

It’s early days for the game’s international release, but some work needs to be done on the game before it is ready for the prime time. Currently, the game features a mixture of English and Portuguese text throughout — it’s fully playable and understandable in most cases, but messages informing the player of special offers and some “missions” have not yet been fully translated. The in-game help feature is also still in Portuguese.

Social features in the game include worldwide leaderboards and the facility to compete against other players’ teams. It’s also possible for players to post short “press releases” onto their Facebook wall, publicly sharing their achievements and the latest news from their team as they see fit.

The game’s monetization is handled by standard sales of soft and hard currency using PayPal, PagSeguro or cellphone. Hard currency can be spent on equipment to upgrade the team’s performance, while soft currency is used on the club’s everyday finances and player trading. There is also a proposed auction house feature, but at the time of writing this does not appear to be working.

Currently, monetization is handled in Brazilian real, with no facility to use Facebook Credits at this time. As the international release moves forward, O2 Games will need to list these prices in local currency or make use of Facebook Credits in order to make prices transparent to worldwide audiences.

You can follow Golaço’s progress with AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

[Editor's Note: The following article comes from Vostu co-founder and Chief Scientist Mario Schlosser and Chief Researcher Neil Molino. It compares retention patterns between Vostu's city-building sim, MegaCity, and its recently-released real time soccer sim, Gol Mania.]

In Vostu’s experience, what makes a successful traditional social game (defined here as games with common social features like quests and gifting) is building a highly dedicated and engaged long-term userbase that plays up into very high levels in the game. Game play in high levels becomes complex and extremely social. (High-level users exchange a lot more gifts than low-level ones, for example.) These games lose a lot of users early on, but those who stay (at least in a good game) are there for long periods of time and are highly engaged with the game. And, hopefully, they’re paying users.

In contrast, casual games (defined here as games that are social but rely less heavily on traditional social features like quests and gifting) have a tougher time engaging a long-term audience. Gameplay in high levels tends to be the same straightforward, simple activity that it was in lower levels. That means it is harder to continuously engage users in casual games when they reach high levels. This game type does have its advantages, however, as it is easier for users to re-engage with a casual game after a lapse.

From our perspective, social games are soap operas while casual games are sitcoms. The retention characteristics for a traditional social game like MegaCity, our city-building simulation, are very different than those we see in a casual game like Gol Mania, our real-time soccer game. But some of these differences clearly point to opportunities for casual games to learn from social games and vice versa.

We’ll quantify a number of key differences between MegaCity and Gol Mania below. First, at a very basic level, we see the amount of minutes that users play per day shows a divergence between the two games. When we drill into this and break down the userbase of the two games by level, we see that this divergence really stems from the fact that (a) social games have a higher portion of high-level dedicated users and (b) these high-level dedicated users actually play longer each day than their analogous users in casual games. The chart below shows the percentage of users who play x minutes or less per day. “Social game” stands for Vostu’s MegaCity, and “Casual game” is Vostu’s Gol Mania. For example, in Gol Mania, 80 percent of users play 30 minutes or less per day, while in MegaCity, just 60 percent play 30 minutes or less per day.

In the graph below, we see that low-level users show very similar time played per day for both games. Note that it normally doesn’t make sense to compare levels across games, as level 10 in a poker game is bound to be different than level 10 in a cafe game. In our case, however, we can calculate our games’ level curves in a way that an average user levels up every 1-1.5 days regardless of which type of game they are playing. This is interesting: in a user’s early days, casual vs. social games don’t differ.

Mid-level users start to show differences in the duration of play per day:

This difference becomes even more extreme as we progress to very high levels. Hard-core users in MegaCity are highly engaged. A full 50 percent plays more than 30 minutes per day. That’s not the case for long-standing fans of Gol Mania, which are less engaged.

As we can see, the main difference between the two games in minutes played per day is that MegaCity enjoys a larger portion of high-level users and that these users play more minutes per day than those we find in Gol Mania.

Similarly, we see that as a whole, the games show a different distribution of their users’ “login intensity.” We define this term as the fraction of distinct days since registration that the user actually played the game. For example, if you played eight out of 10 days since you joined, your login intensity would be 80 percent.

The left skew for MegaCity is apparent. As a whole, its userbase logs in more frequently; in fact, nearly one in five MegaCity users has logged in more than 80 percent of the days since registering. We can attribute some of this behavior to the fact that MegaCity does a better job pulling users into higher levels. We can also say, however, that the game’s age plays a significant role, as MegaCity is old enough to have accumulated a lot of high level users whereas Gol Mania is comparatively young.

So we’ll look at login intensity by level below, across both games:

In terms of login intensity, casual and social games actually turn out to be pretty similar once you normalize correctly for game age, etc. While active users log into both games at about the same rate, they play casual games less intensely once they’re logged in, however. This behavior is very clearly a function of the fact that casual games are less social than social games.

The chart below illustrates the point. It shows the percentage of game sessions that started with the user entering the game through a “social” channel, like clicking on a news feed story or accepting a gift.

There are a number of powerful observations in this chart. First, casual games and social games work very similarly when it comes to viral acquisition. In early levels, users are about equally likely to enter the game because of some viral channel like a canvas app ticker story.

But social games exhibit a higher virality via in-game activity. At higher levels, users in a social game are a lot more likely to get back into the game because of some viral activity like an in-game gift request. This is because viral activities like exchanging gifts to build stuff are the bread-and-butter of the high level user experience. That type of gameplay also explains some of the differences we’ve seen in previous charts: viral mechanics like gifting lead to more intense engagement for higher levels in social games.

In contrast, there is no high-level gameplay loop at work in casual games. We’ve recently begun experimenting with this by adding more personalization to Gol Mania. For example, we introduced in-game “private rooms,” where users can directly challenge their friends to an immediate real-time match. In a period of a few days, roughly 7 percent of active users invite their friends to Gol Mania, whereas 17 percent of those users who enter a private room invite their friends to a match. So, there are ways of making casual game more social — and therefore more viral.

To us, this represents an opportunity for casual games. An important share of a social game’s everyday traffic is users who had left the game “waking up” from a lapse in daily play and returning. If casual games could recreate the viral “wake up call,” they could potentially enjoy an even larger audience of high level users.

That may be easier said than done, however, as social games naturally encourage users to return — or suffer consequences like withering crops or expired storyline quests. Here, casual games gain the upper hand as users suffer fewer consequences for a lapse in gameplay, meaning there’s less of a barrier to returning. The chart below is a bit complicated: it shows the probability that a user returns to the game after being gone, depending on how long the user has been away from the game. While it is true that the longer a user is away, the less likely they are to return (the lines both slope down), an extended break does not decrease the probability as rapidly in a casual game as in a social game:

In casual games, crops don’t wither, quests don’t expire and the gameplay is more or less the same as it was when the user left. No matter how long a user is gone, it’s just as easy to return to the game as it was when the user was playing daily. The effect is powerful. Casual games get a lot more out of waking-up users than social games.

Moreover, once a user wakes up in a casual game, they are more likely to play more frequently. We believe this is because a casual game feels new and more self-contained each time a user plays. The graph below shows the login intensity for users who wake up and return to a game:

Social and casual games need to learn from each other. Social games need to make it less burdensome for users to return: ease users back into the game instead of showing them the one hundred feature launches they missed while they were gone. Casual games need long-term investment opportunities for the user.

For Vostu, it makes sense to keep a portfolio of both social and casual games. Our casual games have a higher chance of getting users back into our portfolio and also bridge the gap between big social game launches. We think of them as the sitcoms you flip to during the commercial breaks in your prime time soap opera. Having the soap opera, though, is necessary to really build a longer-term, engaged and paying audience.

6waves Lolapps has teamed up with developer Game Ventures (Howzat Cricket) for Homerun Heroes, a new baseball game for Facebook. The game combines arcade-style batting mechanics with league-based play, power-ups, and training options.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Homerun Heroes currently has 5,000 monthly active users and 300 daily active users.

Homerun Heroes lets players choose the name and colors for their imaginary team before heading out onto the field. Rather than play full games, the title has them meet specific requirements to win, such as scoring a certain number of runs without striking out more than an allotted amount. Gameplay unfolds from a viewpoint over the batter’s shoulder, with a clearly defined strike zone and an indicator of where players are aiming their swing with the mouse. Swing types can be switched between center (easiest), left or right field (harder), and power (most difficult to connect). The pitcher throws automatically and players can see where the ball is heading inside or outside of the strike zone a moment before they must swing.

If players are able to hit the ball, they’ll take their base automatically and the computer-controlled fielders will do their best to get them out. Players only control their team when they’re at bat; there’s no fielding gameplay. Players can’t steal bases, but can tell their runners to go home if they think they can make it, but there’s a risk of being tagged out.

Playing a game requires one challenge point. These recharge over time, and the maximum amount of them the player can have increases as they level up. Challenge points can be purchased should players not wish to wait for them to refill automatically. Coins and Glory Points are also awarded for winning games. Coins can be spent on buying new equipment to help their teams play better (one-game use) and on training to restore stats for tired teams. Training takes time, and players can’t play a game while training, but can hurry up the process using Facebook Credits. Glory Points count towards players leveling up.

The game is structure such that there are various tournaments players can enter into that become progressively more difficult and contain a varying number of match-ups. When players have completed all of the games in one tournament, a new one opens up.

Homerun Heroes lets players add their friends so they can compare scores in a real-time leaderboard a the bottom of the screen. It’s also possible for players to share stories about games they’ve won and other activity via viral channels.

The game is monetized using Facebook Credits, which can be spent to purchasing the soft currency, coins, which are then used on power-ups, training, and Challenge Points. Facebook Credits can be used directly to speed up training.

Speaking to Inside Social Games, Game Ventures Founder & CEO Zaki Mahomed explains that the developer hopes to satisfy what he feels is the under-served sports game fan community on Facebook, mobile, and other social networks and web games portals. The management sims that currently dominate the sports game genre on Facebook, he says, have a limited appeal and a lack of intensity. In 2012, Mahomed hopes to see Game Ventures launch five sports games on Facebook and at least one for Android (and possibly iOS). The developer raised a bridge round of $800,000 from investors Neoteny Labs, Digital Garage, IIPL and from the NRF Singapore fellowship program, bringing their current funding up to about $1.1 million.

You can follow Homerun Heroes’ progress using AppData, our traffic tracking service for social games and developers.

Brazilian social games developer Vostu is kicking its Facebook offering up a notch with Gol Mania, a realtime arcade-style soccer title for the platform. The game launched at the end of September and is so far making regular appearances on our weekly list of emerging Facebook games.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Gol Mania currently has 880,000 monthly active users and 100,000 daily active users.

Gol Mania lets players compete against friends and random Facebook users in soccer games around the world. When starting the game, players select their team name and a look for their players which includes three types of hairstyles and numerous color combinations for their uniforms. There is a training mode designed to get players accustomed to the game’s simplistic control scheme and the basics of soccer.

All gameplay is against live opponents in real time. Down on the field, one team is given possession of the ball and must work to get it into the opposing team’s goal. On offense, players can move using the arrow keys, as well as pass and shoot using the X and Z keys. If positioned at the proper distance and angle from the goal, they can also shoot and have a CPU teammate assist in kicking the ball into the goal. On defense, players move with the arrow keys and use the X and Z keys to switch defenders and steal the ball away from the other team.

The game length is significantly truncated from the traditional 90 minutes down to just a couple to encourage faster gameplay. For participating, players receive coins, experience points, and even trophies. Once players have leveled up sufficiently and acquired enough coins, they can unlock new stadiums to play in. Trophies can be displayed in the player’s trophy room.

Social elements of Gol Mania extend beyond playing against random opponents. Players can share their accomplishments via viral channels and track their friends’ position in relation to theirs using a leaderboard at the bottom of the screen. This can also be toggled to show how many coins their friends have earned. Players can play against their friends directly by creating game lobbies and inviting their friends, or searching for friends that are currently playing and joining them.

Gol Mania is currently monetized through the use of Facebook Credits to purchase additional coins, the soft currency, which can be spent on unlocking new stadiums. Credits can also be used to purchase additional energy, which is required to play games. Note that playing against friends does not currently cost the player any energy.

The game contains several placeholders for upcoming features, the most prominent of which is an in-game store. The world map, which displays the stadiums available to players, currently shows several countries as “coming soon.” Vostu appears to be actively adding content, as it launched a Mexico stadium for the game in mid-October.

You can follow Gol Mania’s progress using AppData, our traffic tracking service for social games and developers.