Facebook Application Gating and Gifting Features Shift to Fit Changing Platform Policies
Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by admin in Blog, Blog Category 1
When Facebook announced these policy changes we knew that things were about to get interesting: No one was sure how stringent some of the changes would be. They haven’t attempted to enforce the gating until now. yet I would guess they have seen the back and API chatter drop down enough from the other changes that they do not feel they need to enforce the no gating. Perhaps they are even rethinking this to allow some gating!
Social Games See Just 1-3% of Players Convert to Paying Customers, says CrowdStar
Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by admin in Blog, Blog Category 1
An increasing number of people are talking publicly on the Social Depth vs Game Depth. Peter Relan, chairman of social games company CrowdStar comments on the risks involved in migrating console games over to a social game environment.
Social Game Revenues To Hit $1.3B In 2010
Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by admin in Blog, Blog Category 1
“The analyst also warned against application fatigue, citing it as a “key risk” for social game developers and publishers to keep in mind. “Given the relatively simple game play, the sometimes fickle users, and the social dynamics of the game play, application fatigue is a key risk for social game companies unless companies focus more on innovation and game quality,” he said.”
This ties back to one of our last blog posts on the whole issue of game play being on or off the rail so to speak. For now though players seem content to move from one game to the next. I am not seeing any trends where their movement is due to game play as of yet. As new games come out with deeper game play we may start to see an overall trend. Even with this warning however there are big projections on revenue from social gaming which is great news for all the players.
Victory: A ranking system for what makes a social game into a blockbuster
Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by admin in Blog, Blog Category 1
The premise of this ranking is promising, but as it stands now, there are a few issues. There is not enough information on what constitutes a high mark in the more subjective categories, i.e., judging cooking competitions. Their judges however are told what a should receive a high mark. It would be helpful if they released more details about their categories. Secondly, for comparison purposes samplings from more average and bottom applications should be included, not just the top applications. Otherwise, the understanding of the impact each of these metrics has on the MAU/DAU/FB app Ranking is limited.
Ethical Design: Are Most Social Games Just Virtual Slot Machines?
Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by admin in Blog, Blog Category 1
With a phenomenal year in Social Gaming behind us only time will tell what 2010 has in store for players. This article touches on an interesting topic that really has nothing to do with gambling, but instead highlights that many social games have the player running along a very narrow rail with only the slightest bit of free choice. The first phase of social gaming took advantage of the many people who, whilst unwilling to play traditional games, will play social games. But this year marks the next evolution of the social gaming space and will see deeper game play appear in many games.
What do you think? Are players simply looking for the next click here masterpiece or do they want something more?
User-Driven Development & Lessons from the fbFund
Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by admin in Blog, Blog Category 1
This is a great post extolling the virtues of collecting and taking action based on metrics. While this article is referencing Social Applications and their need for metrics the lessons also apply to really any business. Much like the social space where we must figure out where the break down is for user conversion traditional software sales must do very much the same. Their process is slower and they do not tend to have the wealth of metrics that we can gather.
What Are Game Players Looking For Next?
Posted on 25. Jan, 2010 by admin in Blog, Blog Category 1
Are they ready for more advance game play or are they simply looking for that next click here?
Web Developer
Posted on 19. Jan, 2010 by admin in Jobs, Web Developer
Web Developer
Do you like RoR, Social Networking and games? Good, then you’ll be thrilled to learn that we are looking for a talented RoR developer who can wear lots of technical hats beyond programming. Design, user experience, app performance and more. This will be a contract engagement that may lead to a full time position for the right candidate. Along with Rails it would be convenient if you have a background with SQL, memcache, AJAX, DHTML, HTML, CSS, etc. Come work on an innovate new social and leave the clone wars behind!
Huge pluses for anyone experience in;
- Social networking application development (Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, etc.)
- Game development experience
- Metrics/data warehousing/analytics experience with RoR
- Payment system/e-commerce experience
UI Developer
Posted on 19. Jan, 2010 by admin in Jobs, UI
UI Developer
We are looking for an experienced UI Developer to join our team, initially this will be a contract position. This role will work closely with the creative teams and the rest of engineering to develop the various interfaces needed for our gaming and application platform.
Responsibilities:
Contribute to the development & design of the user interface to our social gaming and application platform
Convert various prototypes and photoshop mockups into full functional HTML code.
Work with Engineering & the creative teams, to assure that we maintain creative, and brand standards across all the board
Required Skills:
2+ years of development experience with interactive database driven web applications and/or games.
BS degree in graphic arts, interaction design, or a design related field.
Experience with the following is desirable.
DHTML, HTML and CSS
Working with Visual and UX designers
Javascript and at least one framework (JQuery, YUI, etc)
Adobe Flash and Flex
UI Designer
Posted on 19. Jan, 2010 by admin in Jobs, UI
UI Designer
We are looking for an experienced UI Designer to join our team, initially this will be a contract position. This role will be responsible for creating user focused interactive experiences. This will cover aspects at all phases of a games development. Starting with the initial UI design and user interactions to working with the analytic’s team to improve user flows.
Responsibilities:
Develop UI, style guides and interaction specifications
Research, design & create complex web based interfaces for social games and related applications.
Work with Engineering & the creative teams, to assure that we maintain creative, and brand standards across all the board
Required Skills:
2+ years of design experience with interactive web applications and/or games.
BSdegree in graphic arts, interaction design, or a design related field.
Advanced understanding of tools needed to complete the design of creative based projects, such as, Photoshop, Illustrator, Catalyst, as well as XML and HTML editors
Working knowledge of XML/HTML/CSS/JavaScript, and Flash, motion graphics, 2d/3d art experience a plus.