Inside Social Games

I’m really bad at bowling. So it is with a certain level of chagrin that I take a look at Bowling Buddies on Facebook.

Developer Playfish has created a pretty solid Flash bowling game here, but I’m not very good at it. You control the ball by manipulating your mouse and releasing it at the appropriate time. You can also spin the ball after you release by using your mouse, but even with this advantage, I’m still not very good.

But I’m a bit hooked. The Flash graphics are great, the difficulty is believable and the depth is pretty substantial.

The more you play, the more achievements you unlock. There are some for skills, and there are some for how many times you play, and there are some for how many people you invite. You can customize your bowler, and this little sprite will cheer or groan depending on you do. In order to get new outfits to dress your character, you need to invite more of your friends.

Though the “challenge” feature is just launched, you get a sense that there is a large community here by clicking on the “world” feature (and subsequently letting a little groan yourself as you are nowhere near as good as these people).

The game has some nice innovations over typical Flash animation as well. You can play 2-D or 3-D version and manipulate the graphic quality depending on how good a computer you are running. Touches like this make Bowling Buddies a universal winner.

Gameplay: 7
Development: 8
My average score: 89

If you’re one of those people who believe golf is more luck than skill, well then welcome to the world of the Golo Golf Dice Game.

The game is essentially a dice game with a golf theme. Think Yahtzee meets plaid hats. You roll all nine dice and select the lowest numbers possible to achieve the lowest score. You can also click “bottoms up” to flip the dice (and thus hope for a better number that way). When you get dice that enable you to go one under par, a bird will fly across the screen (birdie, get it?), and if you get two under you’ll see an eagle. If you get a bogey, meaning going one or more over, a little gopher will appear to taunt you.

Despite the jokiness of the animation, the game is plenty addictive and there is some strategy. Do you roll the dice again or do you settle for a par? When should you go “bottoms up?” There’s a leaderboard, challenging, and a point system that rewards you for the better you play. You get a huge bonus for having the top score of the day or beating an opponent head to head. Though it’s nice to see yourself move up in the global rankings, I’m not sure what the incentive is to acquire points. There doesn’t seem to be a way to trade them in for prizes or open new features… at least yet.

For a golf -dice hybrid, it’s a cheeky little distraction and has some genuinely funny moments. Though the directions and strategy take some getting used to, it’s a fun adaptation of several games to a more social platform. Whether or not people will find this fun enough to want to challenge their friends remains to be seen.

Gameplay: 7

Developers: 6

Luck involved: 75%

Unit 501 seems to come out with a new Flash sports game every week. Maybe they should plan on a longer development cycle.

Football Penalty Shootout, or “Soccer” Penalty Shootout for you Yankees, is a kicking Flash animation game where you try to score goals on a little cartoon goalie. You click twice - first to aim the ball and second to determine its power. Like real shootouts, a lot of the game seems to be based on luck. The goalie picks a direction to dive; you pick a direction to kick. If they’re the same, the ball is blocked. If not, you score.

The game is challenging, but not necessarily fun. Like its home run derby game, Unit 501 makes a half-hearted attempt to create a social game and even less of an attempt to create gameplay depth. I applaud them for creating so many flash animation games, but the one-trick pony that is Football Penalty Shootout will be enjoyed by few Premier league fans or social gamers.

Gameplay: 3

Development: 4

Boredom sets in: Faster than watching American soccer matches.

I decided to play Ping Pong with about two seconds thought, and the game was worth that amount of time. No more, no less. The game is exactly what it promises, a digital game of ping pong. It’s not to be confused with the classic “pong,” because that was a 2D game. This is a 3D flash game that takes into account angles, speed, and depth of the shot.

You play against a CPU, and this is perhaps the best indication of how much work this game still needs. The CPU is good. Really good. For only being a floating paddle, it handles like a champion of the poltergeist world. The challenging element keeps you coming back, but it’s still a pretty tedious experience.

The developers have created a forum, high scores, videos, and an invitation tab. The photos and videos don’t relate to this game specifically, but instead to the greater idea of “ping pong.” It’s pretty amateurish but you can imagine that there are people who are really enjoying the making/playing of this app. The game would be greatly improved by the ability to challenge your friends and unlock new features. As it stands, this game is worth perhaps two minutes of game play, and after that you move on to other applications.

Gameplay: 4

Developers: 4

Speed Racing is a car racing game developed by John Hwang’s TripMonger (now part of Zynga) that has all of the tell-tale signs of a viral game. The game’s economy is based purely on driving new sign-ups for the game - in order to obtain parts to win races, you need to gain points; the only way to gain points is to invite friends and have them join. Like many of the viral games out there, the only way to succeed is to help perpetuate the game. But while other games like Vampires and Pirates seem to perpetuate themselves without offering much gameplay, Speed Racing has a little bit more to offer.

Speed Racing is a bit like playing dress up with paper dolls. You can dress up the dolls in a variety of costumes, but in the end you’ll still just have a boring piece of paper that doesn’t do anything. In a similar way, Speed Racing allows you to “pimp” your ride, but you’ll see your car actually race just as soon as your paper doll comes to life and does the Macarena.

Speed Racing invites players to customize their little 2-D cars with paint jobs, rims, and various accessories that will help performance. The game screen has several tabs that allow you to buy new upgrades, customize your car’s appearance, or race it. Since I figured that the point of the game was to race it, I chose to try that first.

The most irritating thing about Speed Racing is that there is no actual animation. The “Racing” element of the game is not displayed on screen; instead, you are informed through text if you win or lose based purely on the stats of your car. You can only race your friends, so if you have only one friend who installed the game, you’re stuck racing him/her until you invite more friends.

The “Pimp my Ride” and “Buy Upgrades” tabs are more promising for longer game play. The level of customization is deep, and gets deeper the more points you have (you can buy new cars, gadgets, etc). But you can only get those upgrades through invites, so if you haven’t done that, your paper doll is going to look pretty naked.

With so much of the game tied to invitations and so little focus on actual gameplay, the game gets a very low score on the experience side. Yet, the game is popular because people are competitive and like the idea of being able to customize their own digital car. Races can happen even when you’re not logged in, so you can find out that you’ve beaten your friends several times when you check back in on the car.

Similarly, being informed you’ve been challenged and lost several times will push you to invite more friends, spruce up your model, and keep playing. The developers astutely tap into a competitive gameplay element that is especially present with internet users, though again I wish they would give visual representation of the competitiveness.

The game could be improved vastly by allowing players to actually race their cars. Similarly, simply allowing players to race anyone (and not just friends) would increase playing time and the likelihood the game will not be deleted just as quickly as it was installed.

Developer’s Score: 6/10

Gameplay Score: 1/10

Viral Level: 9/10