Swords and Sandals 3 - coming soon

The next Swords and Sandals installment is coming soonish. We’ve not yet announced a launch date, it’s a big project and there is still a bit to go. For the fans though, here’s a little teaser video. there are a few more on Youtube.com

You’ll notice that the biggest change to the game is that it will be full multiplayer.

We’ll let you know when there is more to see.

Fizzy.com opens doors to developers

Fizzy is now about 9 months old. There have been several upgrades to the site itself in that time, and plenty of new content, but this latest update is by far the most significant. Fizzy has now launched its developer portal. If you are a Casual Game developer (in Flash), you can now sign up to become a Fizzy Developer and start using the developer portal right away. When you start using it to distribute your content, you get a 50% share of all revenue your game(s) generate. Visit www.fizzy.com/developers

The portal has everything you need:

• Comprehensive Documentation
• Personalised SDKs
• Add Free games (web games) and Download game (for sale)
• Testing enviroment
• Online reporting (keep track of plays, downloads, sales, etc)
• Online statements
• Public Developer profiles on Fizzy
• and more…

The developer portal has been built from the ground up to maximise revenue for Casual Game developers, with built in game marketing all part of the deal. Take a look at the reach of Fizzy already (still only 9 months old, remember).

If you are a Flash Games developer, then you should certainly have a look at this as a potential source of significant additional revenue

We’ll pay you to place our games on your site…

The new Fizzy Affiliate programme is up and running now and it’s a little different from most. Instead of banners and buttons to place on your site, we’ll give you games. That’s right, over 30 cool games you can put on your site. We’ll even host them, so all you need to do is cut and paste some code. Now, of course the games have links back to Fizzy.com, but that’s how you make the money. For any visitors who subsequently buy any games from Fizzy, you get a generous 25% of the sale.

Become a Fizzy affiliate today and we’ll give you a $25 sign up bonus.

More informations and the full low down at www.fizzy.com/affiliates/

fizzy.com

Surely not another casual games website!

We think it’s different enough to be worth a mention. I’ll talk more over the next few days about how Fizzy is different, but right now I’d like to thank the team at 3RD sense for all the effort they have put into building the site and its hugely engaging content.

I guess the big difference about us as a business is that we are Casual Game Developer and Casual Game web site Publisher in one. Most of the other bigger players in the industry tend to do one or the other.

Anyway, have a play and why not buy some games….

Visit www.fizzy.com

ANDLet us know what you think

To Free or not to Free

There seems to be an unending amount of comment about casual and online games and whether they should be free to play. On one side the users or the casual game player, who would like all of the games produced to be free and available for all and on the other, the businesses who try to make enough money so that they can flourish and develop more and more games.

So who is right? Well in my opinion everyone and no-one. I think for the industry to really grow there has to be a sensible mix of the free and pay-to-use casual game.

Casual games sites can not grow by surviving on advertising revenue alone. But these games sites need to offer content that is free to play. Even the biggest casual games portals offer free trials of their games for sale. After all it is sound business practise to encourage users to play the game before they part with their hard earned cash.

For new and innovative games to be created the developers need to know that there is the ability for them to earn a living from doing what they love.

We have experienced the backlash from users in the free vs pay debate. Our sequel to Swords and Sandals was offered free as a demo, but the full game was only available to paid subscribers or as a download. Yet we offer over 180 free games on our website of which about 50 of them we developed and built in-house. To call a business greedy and selfish for trying to earn a living is short sighted and ill-educated.

With the revenue generated from games sales companies are able to develop bigger and better games, employ more games developers and generally help the industry grow.

In my opinion, free content is great and it should be encouraged but to disparage those who are looking to provide more is just wrong.

Casual games = Increased productivity

It’s always a good thing when surveys are conducted about the casual games industry, especially when they highlight the positives of fun and games.

Casual game company Worldwinner recently conducted a survey amongst 500 of its customers specifically asking about perceived benefits of playing casual games. What they found was that around 76 percent said that it improved productivity while 72 percent revealed that they rely on game breaks to lessen job-related stress.

The most prevalent games to play seem to be puzzle and card games and these have long been the most popular of all casual game categories. It seems amazing that as casual games become more sophisticated, games like solitaire, three in a row puzzlers, spelling games and bubble shooters remain at the top of most popular games lists. Even larger games companies are recognising the benefit of games that stimulate the mind. Two of Nintendo’s biggest games for its DS system are Brain Age, and Big Brain Academy.

The majority of respondents (66%) in the survey said they played casual games for around 30 minutes during the working day. The survey shows that more and more people are seeking out casual games for more than just entertainment.

I still think it is amusing large companies are quite happy to lose productivity by allowing employees to go for a smoke or a coffee, yet frown upon the use of a computer to play a game and take a quick time out. The US recently calculated it loses 92 billion dollars worth of productivity every year from smoking.

I don’t expect this survey will change the preconceptions large employers have about computer games, but at least a few of them will take notice, and that’s a good thing.

Wii Wii All The Way Home

This morning another piece of Nintendo heaven arrived at my door. A box-fresh Wii complete with Wii Sports and the dodgy Wii-mote control strap. It’s set to shake up my family’s gaming habits by bringing us all together for some serious bonding. But that’s not until Christmas Day. Until then the Wii belongs exclusively to Mii.

Their Walmart, Argos

A review of Argos’ advergame on Adverblog with a revealing comment on the relative size of UK retailers:

I have no idea who Argos is, and the site isn’t innovative at all in graphics and interactivity, but it’s based around toys from the ’80s, and this is enough to grab my attention.

Maybe the game will change that…

quick links 8-Dec-06

A well crafted idea for Logitech: http://www.ballbalancer.com/

Smart but a little over-cooked game for Argos: http://www.goodgamegoodgame.com/

Whack-a-mole re-skin for the National Christmas Tree Association*: Attack of the Mutant Artificial Christmas Trees

*only christmas trees can join.

Meal Or No Meal?

The more virals there are, the harder it is to get noticed. And as we get desensitized to the extremes of the funny, the fleshy or the foul items that crash into our inboxes our own criteria for what IS and what ISN’T worth forwarding on get ever more refined and hard to meet.
But this makes the cut for me.

Meal Or No Meal? is an advergame made to promote a handy new auction service called Price Your Meal where the items on offer are tables in restaurants. It’s a highly satirical take on Deal or no Deal, the TV quiz show for which we have Noel Edmonds to thank. I’ve not seen much of Deal or no Deal but I can safely say this is much better.
What is so impressive is the lengths to which the fellas at Chunk have gone to with the dialogue, video and production quality (the casting of the host is borderline genius - he should be on telly). All for an advergame. The bar just got a little higher.

Sit up and take notice

Business Review Weekly (BRW) is a high profile business magazine based in Australia. It is a conservative magazine, not a publication we would have expected to publish a profile piece on casual games and advergaming. Even when they interviewed 3RD sense for the article we weren’t really sure the piece would actually be published.

It is certainly pleasing that the casual games industry is drawing greater attention from the mainstream business community, but it is hard to know whether as an industry we have reached a maturity where other business sectors see us as a major business opportunity, or just another business fad of the moment.

My thoughts are that any exposure we get as an industry is good, and when it comes from respected mainstream media publications, online or not, we should accept that as a move in the right direction.

I like to think that the recognition we as an industry are getting from this increased exposure is as a result of the hard work invested by the thousands of creative people that work in our industry. We love what we do and we think it’s worthwhile, and millions around the world agree with us.

It’s early days, but it seems the business community is finally sitting up and taking notice.

Roadie Runner

I got sent this by the creator of this game Roadie Runner. It’s a frogger-type game for Make Roads Safe, a group that campaigns to reduce road deaths globally. There are 3 charming things about it: its simplicity, the graphics for the vehicles and the Dirty Pretty Things soundtrack. Have a look and remember to sign the petition.

quick links 16-Nov-06

A smart, well produced Sonic derivative for the School Food Trust - called Snack Dash. I find it a little too hard - but then again, I’m not 12 years old anymore.

Aygo is a weeny car that Toyota make and this is a game about it.

Big, Flat and Twisted is not a game about the Millenium Bridge. It’s for Capri-Sun and it’s very good.

Top ten viral marketing mistakes

This is an interesting list posted on e-consultancy but created by the folks at AzACreations. Apart from the slightly alarming thought that there are even 10 ways to make mistakes with viral marketing, this is a handy list for advergame creators:

1. Neglecting promotion and seeding
Utilise mailing lists, press releases, forums and invest in banner impressions or PPC.

2. Failing to create an incentive for users to pass it along
Make the content itself good/funny – according to AzACreations, 88% of web users say they have forwarded on jokes or cartoons.

3. Failing to capitalise on a campaign that proves successful
If your campaign starts to take off, ask yourself whether you can get any further publicity, further monetise incoming traffic or use it to generate leads.

4. Trying to copy a popular viral campaign when it doesn’t fit your aims
If a campaign isn’t suited for you, you will end up with something that’s out of synch with your brand.

5. Failing to integrate viral campaigns with other marketing efforts
Implement the concept of viral marketing to other campaign processes, and test out different types of viral campaigns.

6. Using a sledgehammer rather than a fine scalpel
Simple ideas, such as email signatures, often produce better results.

7. Failing to understand the SEO value of viral marketing
Try designing viral pieces around your important keywords, and provide users with easy means to link to your application or site.

8. Forgetting to ask the user to take action
Encourage them to submit an email or sign up for a newsletter, as well as adding the application to their website or blog.

9. Not making it easy enough for users to forward content
Use send to friend forms, single button clicks etc.

10. Confusing your marketing message with ‘the hook’ that will attract users
Don’t be too self promoting.

Only one thing I would add - use a specialist.