Tag Archives: social

May 30 2012

BBC In Dundee – Games Special

For a recent episode of Show Me The Money, the BBC sent reporter the excellently-named-for-a-lead-action-hero, Jack Garland to Dundee to ponder the ongoing evolution of the games sector.

Mr Garland mentions the collapse of RTW (again), before moving thoughtfully onwards to the rise of casual, social and mobile gaming.

Digital Goldfish are shown, strolling, like well-dressed playas, down balmy South Tay Street, while Guerilla Tea discuss business models and the importance of marketing and social media, with Jack.  Proper Games rounds things up with a quick visit to the studio and fleeting, yet intriguing mention of product placement as a potential business model.

Hmm…

Jack then abseils down the side of the McManus gallery, punches a bus and leaves in a sports car.

But that’s not the first time Mr Garland has had a mission in Dundee.  Jack produced an earlier piece, also featuring Guerilla Tea, Proper Games and an amiable bunch of students, whom Jack didn’t execute with icy indifference.

Looking this time at the growth of mobile gaming, Jack appears on top of a game of Flock!, using only the power of his mind, before carrying out enhanced interrogation on Proper’s Grant Alexander and winning 300 games of Yo Deshi in a row.  He then paddled up the Tay on a burning torpedo and roundhouse-kicked a horse to death.

According to the following week’s Points Of View, the horse was evil.

May 28 2012

All Change…

So you may have noticed the new theme on the www.scottishgames.net site.  It’s the first step in the ongoing evolution of the site as a force for all that is good and right and true in the rapidly evolving wide, wide world o’ games.

NOW for the FIRST TIME EVER you can find all of the important bits of the site – The COMPANY DIRECTORY, the SUBMIT A BANNER page and the CORNER SHOP of ULTIMATE FASHION, all in one place.

The banner remains.  We love you and it gives individuals and companies a way to contribute and participate in new and exciting ways (and it’s open to everyone remember…)

Along with the new LinkedIn group, the Facebook page, Twitter account, RSS feed and e-mail list, we’re hitting several thousand people per day and pulling in all manner of attention from the powers-that-be, the powers-that-would-like-to-be, media, wider interactive sector and the ivory towers of academia from all four corners of the world.

Welcome all, to “the industry bible” (Holyrood Magazine).

We’re planning a lot more new and fascinating updates over the next few weeks, in anticipation of something a little more fundamental and radical later in 2012.  All good, we assure you.  In the mean time, we’re going to try this democracy thing over on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  We’ll be asking what you, our beloved readers, would like to see more of, less of, some of and otherwise pick your brains about how to make Scottishgames even more invaluable and awesome.

Then we can stick it to the rest of the creative industries with our astonishing use of digital media.  Because let’s face it, it would be embarrassing to be overtaken by the film & tv crowd, or art & antiques.

We’re counting on you.  Now go enjoy Monday…

May 21 2012

Are You LinkedIn? Ultra Limited Exclusive Memberships Now OPEN

Yes, you can now join the Scottish Games debates, discussions and strategy planning on the professional social network LinkedIn.  Membership is by approval only and for strictly limited to professionals working within the digital media space (and students on relevant courses).  Join now for early bird incentives and unique super powers.

Apr 24 2012

WeeWorld – Studio Profile

WeeWorld has been around on the periphery of the games industry, for several years now. Yet while many people recognise the company, it has evolved hugely since it was founded and is now working at the cutting edge of interactive entertainment.

So. In a nutshell: WeeWorld creates ‘visually distinctive and deeply engaging web, iOS and Android social games and applications’. The company’s goal is to ‘entertain and expand creativity and self expression in people of all ages.’

Which makes WeeWorld a ‘social entertainment’ company, which exists in the sweet spot between social networking, casual gaming and online communities. To start with, WeeWorld runs WeeWorld.com which has, quite literally, millions of teens hanging out every month.

WeeWorld.com is a top 10 teen social community, with a massive audience in the US. Every month millions of WeeMees express themselves, socialize, play games and engage with some equally large marketing campaigns, brands and celebrities.

As of now, there are 50 million WeeMees, which can be personalised and outfitted in the latest designer clothing, or equipped with massive range of accessories and interests, allowing users to reflect their real life interests and enthusiasms. These WeeMee are used all over the web to personalize blogs, email signatures, Twitter pics, the chances are very high that at least one of your contacts has one.

Last – and perhaps most importantly – WeeWorld is now in the mobile apps development and publishing business with a long list of five star rated apps in the market so far including:

WeeWorld’s mobile games studio has launched nine mobile applications to date, including the WeeMee Avatar Creator, which is #1 avatar on iPhone and ranked in the top 10 highest grossing iOS apps in the entire social networking category.

The company is following their existing apps with the recently announced Pocket Pup.

This is a virtual pet game in which the player has to train and care for an adorable WeeMee style puppy. Play with it, walk it, feed it and keep it healthy. From work-in-progress shots we’ve seen, the opportunities for ‘creative care’ should keep kids… happy.  WeeWorld’s mobile team also have a variety of other fun new applications in development.

WeeWorld’s focus on entertainment, gaming, virtual goods sales, personalisation and fun has paid dividends with the younger audience. The youth market currently drives around 50% of the overall app market so WeeWorld is perfect placed for further success in the App markets.

WeeWorld has also worked with many of the biggest brands and licenses in the teen market. Companies, artists and personalities including Coca Cola, Skittles, Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, The Jonas Brothers, Jason Derulo, Snoop Dogg, Skechers, Timberland and Warner Music have all had campaigns and new content included in WeeWorld.

New games, new content, new apps and new deals with brand owners are all produced at WeeWorld’s development office in Glasgow.

WeeWorld works entirely on its own IP and now you – yes YOU – can be part of that creative fun! The company is actively looking for game designers, iOS developers and talented people to help the company continue innovating and producing popular, fun and original new content.

WeeWorld is backed by two of the most respected venture capital funds in the digital world. Benchmark Capital and Accel Partners, both of whom have invested in many pioneers in the online and mobile markets.

We’ll be talking to WeeWorld’s CEO Celia Francis later this week, to get more insight and information on the company and their work.

In the meantime, check out the Game Designer and iOS Developer jobs, or download one of WeeWorld’s apps for limitless creative fun!

Apr 23 2012

Coming Soon… WeeWorld Week

The first ever week-long focus on an innovative interactive company based in Scotland kicks off later today with WeeWorld.

Thanks to the art team for the spiffy new banner gracing the top of the blog.  Watch this space for much more info.  Coming soon….

Apr 18 2012

The Physical Effects Of Audio In Gaming

GamaSutra has just posted a new piece of research commissioned by Euphonious and carried out by the team at Abertay’s H.I.V.E. facility, which looks at how audio in games physically affects players.

It’s an interesting read.  Across the board, with very different types of game, players experienced heightened breathing and heart rates when playing games WITH audio present.

There’s a brief excerpt from the piece below.  You can find the whole article on GamaSutra…

[What effect does in-game audio have on players? Audio expert Raymond Usher (Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Crackdown) shares the results of a study in which players were monitored while playing three games -- Osmos, FlatOut, and Amnesia -- with audio and without.]

This study investigated the importance of audio in computer games. To do this an experiment was designed that compared groups of participants that played the same games with and without audio. Participants’ physical responses to the games were recorded via a bioharness that recorded participant’s breathing wave, heart rate, respiration rate and skin temperature.

Analysis of the heart rate and respiration rate of participants showed that those playing games with audio had a higher level of arousal (a combination of heart rate and respiration rate) and demonstrated the immersion capabilities of audio in games.

Which is why Euphonious started the off-the-shelf AudioSkins service, which provides smaller projects and indie developers with access to complete audio ‘packs’ for their online / casual / social or mobile games titles…

If you’re a developer, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

Apr 17 2012

Not Just A Blog…

You can find us, like us, love us, join us, read us or participate with us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ too.  Go on, you know you want to.

You can even sign up for a daily e-mail newsletter, should you work for an evil organisation.  Links on the right hand side of the screen there.  Enjoy!

Mar 21 2012

An In At Outplay

Prior to this weekend’s festival of games-related recruitment opportunity and wonder, Dundee’s own venture-backed social gaming outfit Outplay Entertainment is looking for a variety of summer interns.

Covering roles from art and programming through to community management, marketing and data analysis, there’s something for everyone.

The words ‘talented’ and ‘creative’ were mentioned, which certainly covers most of our readers.  If you’re interested pop over to Outplay’s jobs page and find out more.

Feb 29 2012

Bigpoint Signs Deal With GamesAnalytics

All games, all analytics, all the time. Oooh yeah...Edinburgh’s Games Analytics have signed a deal with Bigpoint, the German-based online games publisher.  The deal will integrate Games Analytic’s Predict platform into Bigpoint’s games.

This will allow Bigpoint to analyse and predict user behaviour.  They can use this information to enhance the user experience, personalise games and increase retention rates and revenues.

Games Analytics worked with Bigpoint on one game back in 2011 and obviously impressed them with their technology and approach, since this new deal means platforms will be integrated and tight connections formed.

The Bigpoint Logo - yesterday

Bigpoint is the company behind games such as Battlestar Galactica, Skyrama, The Mummy Online and many others.  They get millions of players on a monthly basis.  Most of their titles use the freemium model, so clearly customer satisfaction and retention is a key priority.

Quote time:

Philip Reisberger, Chief Revenue Officer, Bigpoint said: “We are pleased to continue the collaboration with GamesAnalytics having enjoyed very positive results from our first project. Their predictive modeling and in-game messaging technology is an excellent extension our existing market-leading analytics toolkit and we look forward to seeing increased player value and player satisfaction.”

GamesAnalytics’ COO and Co-Founder Mark Robinson added; “it’s a great opportunity for GamesAnalytics to be working with Bigpoint. Their games are played by millions of users which the Predict platform can segment into actionable behaviors to develop sophisticated in-game messaging strategies.”

Games Analytics are out at GDC should you fancy a quick chat with them.  Stand #833 to be precise.

While some people may scoff, or indeed sneer at the use of data analysis and modelling, this is a great achievement for Games Analytics.  Online gaming is only going to get larger and to move beyond the standard cash up front business model (which doesn’t work out so well for anyone bar the publisher) data analysis is a key tool.  Congratulations to the Games Analytics team.

Feb 28 2012

Relaunch: Digital Goldfish Online!

Everyone’s favourite tangerine coloured, mobile game type, non-analogue, low maintenance, pet themed development studio, Digital Goldfish has had quite a good couple of years, thank you.  The company’s work on the massively popular Bloons franchise has gone from strength to strength, while DG’s original content and other branded games have also started to gain traction in the App store/s.

Now, Digital Goldfish has given itself a major makeover, with the launch of an entirely new website.

David Hamilton, co-founder told us: ”We hope 2012 will be another great year for Digital Goldfish and there’s no better way than kicking it off with a new look (which was well overdue!) We’ve got some great games coming out this year so be sure to ‘Like’ our facebook page and follow us on twitter to be kept up to date”

Congratulations to the DG team and we’re looking forward to finding out more about their new games, new projects and further monkey focused blob fun.

You can find the company’s new website here.  Follow them on Twitter, or Like and love them on Facebook.  You should.  They’re lovely.