games Archive

The Social Gaming Network (SGN) has announced the exciting launch of the iBasketball game today. Today’s iBasketball release follows SGN’s iGolf release. iBasketball uses the iPhone accelerometer to make playing the game fun. You can pick from "Around the World" or "HORSE" and you can shoot layups and practice drills.

The game can connect to an online community of other iPhone iBasketball players and as you take turns it updates the app so you know when your friend got a swish or hit a really tough 3-pointer.

I can only imagine what you must look like as you "shoot" your iPhone through the basket and then have to look quickly to see if you made the shot. I could just imagine what Penn Station will look like if there are delays.

The iBasketball app is available on the iTunes app store. I am looking forward to iPool, iFishing, iPacMan and iFrogger. The iFrogger should be fun as you get down and jump from pad to pad to cross the river.

Reflexive has announced that they have been acquired by Amazon. Reflexive is a maker and distributor of casual games and apparently Amazon will help Reflexive reach a new set of customers for their games. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Reflexive CEO Lars Brubaker noted on the acquisition:

As I’m sure you can all imagine this is a very exciting day for us at Reflexive. It means we’ll be able to expand our distribution network to include Amazon’s amazing distribution channel. With Amazon we will bring a huge new group of customers into play.

At Reflexive we have always prided ourselves on maintaining good relationships with everyone in the industry, and are excited that Amazon shares that philosophy. We intend to provide the best distribution platform anywhere, and to continue working openly with all the participants of the casual games space. Together it is our priority to continue this inclusive attitude going forward.

What this means for all you developers is that it’s time to get excited about your future with Reflexive. We can’t talk about everything yet, but we’ll be in touch shortly with more information. All of the features that you know and love about GameCenterSolution will still be available to you now and in the future, and you can continue to submit games through the Reflexive site. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us at developersupport@gamecentersolution.com.

I’ve created enough casual games in my career to know that they were hot, are hot and will continue to be hot. They bring together players, developers, aggregators and advertisers into a unique opportunity where everyone benefits. SellMoreGames and Gamezebo have more details on the acquisition.

A new semi-mobile game launched last week named Snapherd. The idea behind Snapherd is simple: each day they post a word and you submit photos that match how you view the word. Some of the words to-date include: ashamed, debate, empty, exact, and favorite.

Photos can be submitted via email, MMS upload, or traditional upload from your computer. They are giving out prizes to the highest rated photos. Users can leave comments on photos. What makes this interesting to me is that you can see how others view a word or topic. I could see Snapherd adding groups to allow a circle of friends to explore how their views on a topic differ through photos.

Snapherd was founded by Joshua Gross. You might remember Joshua from our review of his other startup TapeFailure (now called Vistrac). When I spoke with Joshua about Snapherd last month, my suggestion was to partner with brands which could help Snapherd grow quickly and virally along with the real possibility of a business model. I could see brands like Coke, Pepsi, Apple, Microsoft, etc. A perfect example would be the "I’m a PC" campaign that Microsoft is currently running. 

Earlier this month we reviewed mobile scavenger hunt game platform SCVNGR. Today, via Source of Inspiration, I found GPS Mission. Germany-based GPS Mission allows you to create games using the GPS functions on many mobile phones.

Here’s how GPS Mission works: You create a mission for your friends to travel through. Each winner receives "gold" which helps them move up the leaderboard. Here’s an example of a mission from San Francisco named the Nob Hill Gold Rush.

What’s great about both GPS Mission and SCVNGR is that the games are played outside. This falls in line with my article the other day about the airplane mode function on cell phones. While the phones must be on to play the game, players are outside and away from the desk getting exercise, social interaction and sunlight.

Below is our live coverage of the Wednesday morning startup presentations at the Techcrunch50 conference in San Francisco. Keep refreshing this page to view the newest coverage – we will note once the coverage has concluded. And check our main DEMO and TechCrunch50 conference section for our video event coverage as well.

Grockit

– massively multiplayer online learning
– gives points when experts help others
– offers a game lobby to see what other games are active
– get "grockit points" for saying helpful things (yea that won’t be gamed)
– allen: i would stay away from calling this a game

Akoha

– games for everyday people
– games for people who don’t want to be wizard
– wanted the game to have a tie to philanthropy
– wanted to play it in the real world
– based off the idea of pay it forward
– works with some mission cards
– viddler for the video
– apparently you give something plus the card – really no idea
– has a karma map so you can "touch" other members of the community
– i bet this was a great idea in concept but in reality it’s really pretty weak
– aah the cards cost money to get

Atmosphir

– design grid to create video games that you can share
– "if you have built with lego blocks then this is for you"
– canvas of 1 million spaces
– nice looking game development interface
– revenue model is based around virtual gifts
– ok so you make the level and then walk around it – it’s not a game, but more like a simcity
– if they pitch it as a sim and not as a game, it could work well

Playce

– they believe you should be able to send a link to a friend and then play a high end game with high end graphics
– the games are multiplayer with a social graph
– they are making the world a playground
– focus is on the social experience – you can import your friends
– has a text based chat
– the presenter keeps pushing that there’s no download
– there is no download – there is no download – there is absolutely no download
– they don’t create the games themselves, they partner with other game developers
– they offer "game infrasructure as a service"
– i guess it’s like gigya for casual games
– monetization from virtual goods and advertising

post concluded

SCVNGR is one of the companies in the DreamIT startup incubator. SCVNGR describes their service as an "on-demand interactive mobile platform". What this really means is that they help companies and other groups create scavenger hunt games.

The actual game works very similar to any scavenger hunt but with more intelligence. Because everything is sent back via text message to SCVNGR, the system can appropriately send people to the next items and make sure that different groups are doing different things. A variety of commands can be sent via the moble to get tips, hints and current team scoring. The Web application is used to setup the actual scavenger hunt.

To-date the company has generated $25,000 in revenues including over $10,000 from a deal with a Philadelphia jewelry store. SCVNGR is currently targeting the university market segment and is expanding to the museum segment. 

SCVNGR has raised $125k to-date and they are looking for $650,000 for team expansion, technology and sales/business development.

Usain Bolt bolted his way into the Olympics winning gold medals in the events he competed in. Apparently he’s like the fastest man on earth. And now thanks to Puma (his sponsor), you can attempt to beat him at his own game. Puma has created a casual game that lets you challenge Bolt in a race. You race using your fingers, he races using his feet. I was able to beat him because I am a master of the arrow keys. You see I played Track ‘n Field all the time growing up so I was prepared for this world record holder. Play the game on Puma’s site.

The only thing Puma did wrong is not allowing the game to be embedded outside of the Puma Web site. This would have easily spread the game, Bolt and Puma further than keeping the game locked up on the site will. The game is a smart move for Puma and Bolt. Now that the Olympic Games are over, Bolt will slowly fade out of the spotlight. The game can keep him top-of-mind for casual game players and Puma Shoppers.

This game should see millions of plays a day if it gets the kind of traffic similar games I produced did. It’s a quick play and is addicting to hit the leaderboard. Can you beat my time above? Leave a comment with your best score.