Word Trick, Outplay Entertainment’s first title for Apple iOS is now live on the App Store in the US, UK, Canada and Europe. The game is new take on the classic board game formula. Players take it in turns to make the highest scoring words they can from a selection of eight letters.
The board features the familiar double and triple letter or word scores, but Word Trick adds a new element with green ‘trick tiles’ which give players bonus points when they’re used in groups of three or more. Up to four players can take part in a single game and players can have up to 21 games in progress at any one time.
Clear? Good.
Word Trick can now be enjoyed by Facebook and iOS users alike. On the same game. On different platforms. Mind BLOWN. Truly we are in the FUTURE…
You can also play against other players in the same location by passing your phone back and forth, like a tiny electronic board game of joy.
Word Trick for iOS is available now for your iPad, iPod or iPhone. There is a free, ad-funded version of the game available now. A paid for version which removes the adverts will be available shortly.
Whatever will they think of next? Cobra has started promoting a forthcoming game – BEFORE IT’S EVEN RELEASED!
Their so-called promotion will be looked upon by the wider industry with the greatest disapprobation and their concept will be stolen, pirated and released upon the lawless streets of the world before they can draw breath.
Will it be mobile? Will it be online? Will it be social? What genre is it? THEY DON’T SAY! There’s literally NO information there. It’s like the expect people to GUESS or actually wonder what they’re up to.
It’s IMMODEST and crass.
It’s clearly madness!
Looks very nice though. Count us as impressed.
(Oh and the rest of you. Yes, you lot. This is a GOOD idea…)
The local chapter of STV popped into the Dundee HQ of Outplay Entertainment earlier this week to take a look at what the company’s working on and ponder the ongoing evolution of the games business.
Superstar reporter Holly Hamilton spoke to senior producer Tone Brennan and a handsome passerby to ask how the industry has changed in the last couple of years and what the future holds for the local development studios and publishers (which are increasingly one and the same).
Outplay has clearly been borrowing some of Santa’s elves, as the company has been a positive avalanche of news, information and updates in the last few weeks.
With social gaming much in the media, thanks to Zynga’s initial public offering (which is what IPO stands for, fact fans…) last week, Outplay has announced two new additions to the company’s board, as well as officially launching their debut titles – Word Trick (4.5/5 on Gamezebo) and Booty Quest (now with added Pirates).
Former head of AOL in Europe Karen Thomson has joined Outplay as non-executive Chair. Randy Breen, a former executive with Electronic Arts (executive producer/creative director) & LucasArts (VP of Product Development) has meanwhile joined the board as a non-executive director.
Quotes time!
“I chose to join the Outplay board because I believe Douglas and Richard have the vision, passion, drive and experience to create huge business opportunities as well as fantastic entertainment properties,” said Karen Thomson, non-executive chair for Outplay. “I am delighted to be involved with such a forward thinking company and look forward to working with Outplay to create rich gaming experiences that bridge the gap between mobile and online platforms.”
“Social and mobile gaming have only begun to show their full potential, and I believe Outplay are well positioned to become a major player in the industry,” said Randy Breen, non-executive director of Outplay. “I’ve known Douglas and Richard for more than a decade and having seen what they and the rest of the Outplay team have accomplished since April and what they have planned for the future, I’m very excited to be part of the board.”
“Karen and Randy bring a wealth of complementary experience and expertise to Outplay Entertainment,” said Douglas Hare, CEO & co-founder of Outplay. “Karen’s marketing background and track record with large-scale consumer-facing internet and mobile businesses combined with Randy’s remarkable creative, production and business expertise will be invaluable to Outplay’s ambitious growth plans for 2012 and beyond. We are thrilled to have them onboard.”
There’s more to come from Outplay in 2012 including, if possible, a look at the company’s three main principles for creating successful games for the new generation of online and social players:
Social Games by Design - From the initial concept stages through launch, Outplay will weave social features into every game design. These social activities will always be entertaining and will enrich the player’s overall experience.
Games Playable Anywhere - Outplay games are designed to allow players to continue their experience wherever they may be, whether on a mobile device or at a desktop. The desktop and mobile experiences may be identical or complementary to better leverage the qualities of each respective platform.
Skill Based Gaming - Outplay believes that players have much more fun and play for longer when there is some form of skill to learn and to master. Rewarding skillful gaming is essential to providing an enduring and engaging experience.
Congratulations to Outplay and welcome, Karen and Randy, to the Scottishgames community. You’ll enjoy it here, we’re lovely.
While the rest of the economy languishes, the creative sector seems to recovering a little faster than other sectors. The interactive industry in particular seems to be thriving right now, with a great many companies now looking for new employees and recruits.
First up in a festive rundown of recruitment is Dundee’s Cobra. If you’re unfamiliar with the company, the chances you’ve come across their games – especially if you’re an iPhone, iPod or iPad owner. Cobra is the company behind Low Grav Racer 2, Storm In A Teacup, iBomber 2, the BAFTA nominated iBomber Defence andNumba, amongst many others.
The company was founded by DMA Design veteran Mark Ettle and was a pioneer of the iOS platform. Cobra continues to focus on simple, casual and addictive games.
They’re now looking for staff:
Cobra Mobile is looking for enthusiastic artists and graphic designers to come and work on a series of exciting new games and platforms in Dundee. Please get in-touch if you would like to come and work with some of the best. Visit cobramobile.com or say hello on Facebook at facebook.com/cobramobile to find out more about its amazing products.
Artist/Junior Artist
To be responsible for creation of in-game graphic assets.
Traditional art skills required, including 2D drawing skills.
Knowledge of Photoshop and Illustrator.
If you’re interested, visit the links above, the e-mail a CV to jobs@cobramobile.com
Outplay Entertainment is the new social/casual/mobile games publisher founded earlier this year by Doug and Richard Hare. Since the company was launched in February, it’s had its head down, working away, recruiting staff and creating several original new games.
The first of these, Word Trick, was released several weeks ago and has just received a fairly major update. The game is a simple word challenge, in which players take turns to make the highest scoring words from their letter tiles. A bit like the well-known board game which features word creation, but very, very different. We’d like to emphasise that…
Word Trick also has a couple of actual tricks up its sleeve. Putting down trick tiles in a sequence triggers bonuses and combos, to boost your score even more mightily, leading to stratospheric scores and general wonder from your friends and contacts.
The game has now received its first update, improving the UI, increasing the integration with the social network allowing users to boast, brag, chat and find opponents more quickly and simply, plus it all works faster and more smoothly.
You can find the complete list of updates over on the Outplay blog. The company has also created Twitter feeds for both Word Trick and the brand new Booty Quest puzzle game (which we’ll be covering in more depth fairly shortly…)
It’s a busy week for releases. Hot on the heels of their move into new (larger) office premises Tag Games has released the first title from their new original games label, Tag Play.
Funpark Friends is an original new game for iPhone and iPad in which players must create and manage their own theme park. Without putting the words ‘theme’ or ‘park’ in any sort of legally meaningful way…
Joking aside, the game takes the widely loved build-your-own-fun-park-theme-park-thing genre and moves it into the new generation of casual and social gaming. Now you too can become a tycoon who excels at building amusement rides such as roller coasters.
According to Tag:
The first game from Tagplay marks our baby steps into social and freemium gaming. Funpark Friends is going to be an awesome free to play game in which the player must build the theme park of their dreams. It’s due for global release on 1st October of this year and we’ve very excited about the opportunity to grow the game over time with weekly and monthly content updates planned. It may start off small, but this is one game that has the potential to become huge! The design team are just bursting at the seams trying to stop coming up with cool game-play ideas and so we know if you have as much fun playing the game as we’ve had making it you’ll be in for a treat!
Funpark Friends will introduce a number of quirky social features allowing players to share the game experience with their friends. One problem with so called social games on mobile is that very few of them are actually all that social. We’ve tried to avoid this kind of response, after all no-one visits theme parks alone! What point is there in taming the wildest of rollercoasters if your friends aren’t there to experience it with you? This won’t be a problem in FPF. You can find out more about Funpark Friends by “Liking” us on Facebook to keep up with the latest info.
Tag Games is moving onwards and upwards, with a relocation into larger offices within the opulent Seabraes Yards, digital media hub in central Dundee. Providing the company with greater space, lovelier views and room for further expansion, Tag’s new address is: Tag Games, West Wing 2nd Floor, Seabraes House, Greenmarket, Dundee, DD1 4QB. Yes, the West Wing. We were impressed too. All of the companies electronic and social contact points remain unchanged. Tag is also threatening more recruitment in the near future. We’ll keep you posted. On our NEW (soon to be COMPLETED) JOBS PAGE.
Glasgow’s WeeWorld is sometimes overlooked in a round up of games and interactive companies within Scotland. However, the company deserves a lot more recognition than it tends to receive, not least because of it’s 50 million+ Weemees and focus on the younger, more casual end of the market.
WeeWorld users can create their own avatar, or WeeMee, for free. They can then modify it, export it and use it across most other social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or whatever else floats your boat (like Skype, MSN Messenger etc). The chances are you probably have at least one or two contacts who use their WeeMee for a profile picture on one of those communities.
The company has also now spread WeeWorld onto the iPhone and iPad, with dedicated apps allowing users to build, modify and play with their WeeMees on the move. Plus, there are a growing range of games on WeeWorld.com, which allow players to enjoy games featuring their – and other users’ WeeMees.
Not to mention the fact that the company has numerous fun and game-like touches on its website – such as the banner on the Corporate Information page. Go on. Try it.
Bit of an odd article, in our opinion. Do we still think women can’t run a games company? However, it’s nice to see WeeWorld getting a little more exposure (their PR presence really dropped off around 2007, though we cannot imagine why…)
Word Trick, Outplay Entertainment’s first title for Apple iOS is now live on the App Store in the US, UK, Canada and Europe. The game is new take on the classic board game formula. Players take it in turns to make the highest scoring words they can from a selection of eight letters.
Word Trick can now be enjoyed by Facebook and iOS users alike. On the same game. On different platforms. Mind BLOWN. Truly we are in the FUTURE…
