Crosswords' creator made a social game with just an idea and passion

Alright, maybe he had a little bit of cash, but PuzzleSocial founder and Crosswords creator Jeb Balise tells us that he has no previous experience making social games. So, how did Balise go from not knowing the first thing about social games to becoming the CEO of his own social game company with its first game out of the gate? (Hey, Mark Pincus did it.)

A deep love for crossword puzzles, and an idea--a pretty good one, at that. (A recent MBA graduate from Fordham University, Balise has a thing for business, too.) The PuzzleSocial CEO tells us that he's a tournament-level crossword puzzle solver, having competed in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament for several years. "For the record, compared to most of the people that go to that tournament, I'm average," Balise humbly admits.

It was thanks to his time competing that Balise came up with PuzzleSocial. "[I found that] once you add the social nature of certain games such as multiplayer, they can spread so quickly and people can have a lot of fun playing together," Balise says. "That was a remarkable sort of thing that happened that I was only able to catch on because I was playing the [crosswords]."
Gallery: Crosswords on Facebook
The Fordham graduate soon realized that the world's crossword puzzles were made by a surprisingly small amount of people. That was about 14 months ago, and soon after Balise reached out to professional crossword puzzle constructors behind the puzzles readers of Newsweek, The Onion's A.V. Club and over 200 other newspapers and online news outlets worldwide enjoy. "Once I put two and two together that, 'Hey, we could all get together and put these great crosswords on the most powerful distribution platform ever to exist,' you know, we could make some cool things happen," Balise tell us.

PuzzleSocial CEO Jeb BaliseOf course, not knowing much about game development, the PuzzleSocial founder had to seek out those that did. Balise calls it a lucky break that he found the game developers that he did. The first designer he hired to work on Crosswords has moved into his New York City office. Today, Balise and his team of about 10 developers are working with 50 of the most syndicated crossword puzzle creators in the world. "I haven't taken a day off in 14 months, and I've enjoyed every single second of it."

Now that Crosswords is available to the public, it's initially drawn a crowd reminiscent of the average social gamer: middle-aged to older folks (that likely have experience with crosswords). However, we're told that this is just the beginning. When asked about plans for future growth, Balise says he plans to make its puzzles appeal to younger crowds both through social features like real-time Doubles Play and Celebrity Crosswords chock-full of current events and topics you'd find on TMZ.

"The typical way, just as you said, is that you're solving a crossword puzzle in the paper. How many times have we experience someone looking over someone's shoulder and chiming in with an answer? In this case, you don't have to do that," Balise says. "We want to prove to the world that crosswords are for all ages."

As for the future beyond Crosswords, the PuzzleSocial founder unsurprisingly has little he can talk about. What we do know is that PuzzleSocial has plans to launch two more social games and two mobile games in 2012. However, Balise promises that his company's mission to promote education through social will permeate throughout. "The philosophy behind what we're building lends itself to other games that can be built both in the puzzle world and beyond."

Have you tried Crosswords for Facebook yet? Do you think PuzzleSocial's approach will help it carve out a niche on Facebook?

Google+ Games shows its colors with new game discovery features

The seemingly endless tit for tat battle between Google+ and Facebook may finally be over. Well, at least where games are concerned. The search giant of the same name (minus the "+") issued an update to Google+ Games that includes three new ways for players to discover which games to play next. The lists are "Top Games"," "New Games" and "Staff Picks."

They're pretty much self-explanatory, but the key takeaway here is that features like these take full advantage of the fact that Google+ Games is its own tucked-away section of the social network. Therefore, Google has opted to take more of an app store approach that you'd find at Apple's App Store or the Android Market than Facebook's highly ad-driven and social approach.

Each list appears on the left hand sidebar of the Google+ Games home page, and clicking on each opens a new page. While the way each list is populated is entirely different, they each look identical. Each page features a number of game icons in a grid layout, and mousing over each reveals a description of the game and the option to play. If a player wants to find the newest games on Google+, the guy or gal can simply click on "New Games" and instantly find brand new games to play.

Well, brand new in theory: The majority of social games on Google+ are already available on Facebook, save for exclusive releases like The Godfather: Five Families and GT Racing: Motor Academy. As the platform matures, game discovery features like these could be the selling point for Google+ Games. Your move, Facebook.

Do you think these features could pique your interest in gaming on Google+ once it brings in more games? How do you think Facebook will respond ?

New Playfish GM Aaron Loeb: '[Social games are] just not going away'

The next console developer to join the ranks of the Facebook game regime, Aaron Loeb--formally of Planet Moon Studios, now of Playfish--said to Gamasutra, "People might look at the Facebook games right now and say, 'I can't imagine that's what people will be doing 20 years from now, ergo this will never last and it's a bubble.'" Loeb, now the general manager of Playfish in San Francisco, claims to have never been on the traditional developers to roll their eyes in response to the social gaming movement.

In fact, Loeb said, "It's just not going away," he says. "In fact it's only going to get stronger and better, and games are always at the forefront of how new technologies expand. We have no idea how huge this stuff can get, and it's going to be unbelievably important to the growth of companies, and to the growth of the industry." In other words, advanced social gaming is bound to expand into more devices and become simply commonplace.

Loeb went on in the interview to explain his strengths honed in his days of console development and how he plans to apply them to new position. Team building is his game, and he's bringing it to Playfish. More important is how confident he claims to have been in social game development while working with consoles. Most traditional developers we hear are crying foul. Perhaps time for lashing out at social games is nearly over, and now the movement boons? Let's hope, because it's about time.

How do you think Loeb will fare at Playfish? Do you think the time for the movement to, well, move forward is here?

Lunchtime Poll: Facebook's big plans to cash in on your private info - do you care?

It's no secret -- if you play games on Facebook, you've signed up for a profile and agreed -- to some degree or other -- to share your private data with the world, including the powers that be at the social network.

So far, that might not seem like a big deal -- after all, signing up for Facebook has given you access some of the world's most popular free entertainment, such as games like FarmVille and the like. This weekend, however, an LA Times article warns that Facebook is now planning to cash in -- in a big way -- by getting more aggressive about selling ads against your personal data as the company prepares to go public in the not-too-distant future.

I'm not talking about standard profile items like your age or your location, but sell ads against things that you write about in updates or based on things that you 'like' on your fellow Facebookers pages.

    "For years, the privately held company founded by Mark Zuckerberg in a Harvard dorm room put little effort into ad sales, focusing instead on making its service irresistible to users. It worked. Today more than 600 million people have Facebook accounts. The average user spends seven hours a month posting photos, chatting with friends, swapping news links and sending birthday greetings to classmates.

    Now the Palo Alto company is looking to cash in on this mother lode of personal information by helping advertisers pinpoint exactly whom they want to reach. This is no idle boast. Facebook doesn't have to guess who its users are or what they like. Facebook knows, because members volunteer this information freely - and frequently - in their profiles, status updates, wall posts, messages and "likes."

    It's now tracking this activity, shooting online ads to users based on their demographics, interests, even what they say to friends on the site - sometimes within minutes of them typing a key word or phrase."

If you're familiar with internet privacy, this type of targeted advertising isn't necessarily anything new. Google, for instance, has been serving up ads based on your searches and email discussions forever. But, the LA Times says Facebook will be able to take it to the next level -- its "unique trove of consumer behavior could transform it into one of the most powerful marketing tools ever invented."

Then, there's the larger issue -- as in how many of the 600 million people on Facebook are really aware of how much info they're giving up to advertisers, as well as just how much Facebook stands to gain from selling off your personal data and interests.

So -- I throw the question to you -- does it bother you that Facebook will be selling more ads based on your private info? Or, do you see it as a necessary part of partaking in one of the world's most vibrant social networks? Take our poll below.

Facebook's data mining: How much does it bother you?
I don't mind at all, it's a trade-off for joining a social networkOn the fenceDon't like it -- it's a gross invasion of privacyDon't know much about Facebook and privacy
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Farmerama's Bigpoint knows how badly Zynga wants out of Facebook

"Oh they desperately want to," Bigpoint chief games officer Philip Resiberger told GamesIndustry.biz. "They have plans, they've had plans for the last two years. Everyone wants to reduce their dependence on Facebook I think." That's what everyone has said, but even the FarmVille maker's upcoming Project Z is tied rather intrinsically to Facebook, so what gives?

"Eventually it will come, but as some attempts have shown in the past, it's not as easy to understand the world outside Facebook because it's a totally different world," Reisberger elaborated during an interview with GI.biz "That's why Bigpoint is in a very good position: we're not just the ones developing, we've mastered, to a certain degree, the distribution."

But Bigpoint's (known best for Facebook-less social games like Farmerama and Skyrama) Resiberger goes on to compliment Zynga on its innovations in social games. Of course, it's safe to take Reisberger's earlier comments with a grain of salt: He works with a company that creates social games outside of Facebook--crazy, we know. And that company is doing quite well for itself, with 250 million registered players on Bigpoint, according to Reisberger.

It makes you wonder, however, is Zynga really drawing in new players, or are meteoric launches like CastleVille more thanks to its existing players than new ones? Most would go with the former, at least for the time being. Will Project Z and zTags finally help the CityVille creator bring in new players from throughout the web? Stay tuned for 2012.

Do you think Zynga relies too much on its existing player base for successful games? Would you rather play social games on Facebook or elsewhere?

Digital Chocolate's Galaxy Life on Facebook has quite a deceiving title

When you hear the words "Galaxy Life," what do you think? We don't know about you, but that sure sounds like living out life across the galaxy. No one ever said anything about epic intergalactic battles against friends and "the sinister dark forces." Nevertheless, that's what you'll be up to in Digital Chocolate's new strategy game game for Facebook and web, Galaxy Life.

The San Mateo, Calif.-based social game developer, best known for games like Millionaire City and Zombie Lane, launched the game simultaneously on Facebook and its own website in an effort to increase its reach. Galaxy Life lets players become leader of a colony of aliens called Starlings that look to create a peaceful planet amidst sinister (and ambiguous) dark forces. Players will vie for dominance over the new found territory amongst friends, or frenemies, both known and anonymous.

Of course, you'll do so by creating daunting armies and stalwart defensive structures with which to attack opposing colonies and defend your own. Players can also create alliances with fellow players--yup, this sounds like a strategy game, all right. Galaxy Life sounds like more of the same on paper, but its Facebook-connected social features are optional. If you decide to play on Digital Chocolate's website, you can build a network of friends without Facebook.
Galaxy Life in Action
"We've created a groundbreaking sci-fi game with great competitive and cooperative elements, along with fantastic characters," Digital Chocolate president Marc Metis said in a release. "Galaxy Life takes the best elements of the strategy and space genres to create an immersive game that players can engage with across different platforms."

At first glance, Galaxy Life has a ton of character, with smooth animations, fun tunes and sounds, and adorable artwork. However, the play hook doesn't seem all too different from games like Kabam's Edgeworld or Kixeye's War Commander. That said, this could change in due time. But give it a shot: This cartoon-like take on the genre could be your cup of tea.

Triple Town, 'Civilization of match-3 games', goes Kindle to Facebook

Triple Town is a new puzzler on Facebook that had its start on the Amazon Kindle last October, where it flourished in popularity. It was created by Spry Fox, a game studio founded by Daniel Cook, the co-creator of Realm of the Mad God, and David J. Edery, a former Worldwide Portfolio Manager for Xbox Live Arcade. After a spiffy makeover, Triple Town made its debut on Facebook and Google+ Games earlier this month, with plans to go mobile. According to AppData, it's now attracted 190,000 monthly players on Facebook.

Hailed by one reviewer as "the Civilization of match-three games," Triple Town is a unique title with familiar aesthetics. Spry Fox originally chose the Kindle as the game's platform, which was explained as "an interesting emerging opportunity" by Edery. But as the game grew popular, Spry Fox wanted to spread the love around. Citing a lack of Bejeweled Blitz-type games on Facebook, Spry Fox decided to push for Triple Town's launch on the social network, as well as make it available in both English and Spanish.
Triple Town merge objects
A basic principle to understanding how to play Triple Town is the following idea: "Grass turns into bushes, bushes into trees, trees into huts, and so on." When you start a round, you're presented with a grid in a woodland theme. There are no time limits and no energy limit. Though you do run out of moves eventually, the creator made sure that you get so many moves that any average player would be able to earn enough virtual currency to buy more moves through play alone.
Triple Crown Double Combos
Like most match-3 games--Bejeweled Blitz and Diamond Dash, for instance--you'll receive random pieces one at a time, but you get to control where they go on your grid. But unlike those traditional games, matching stuff doesn't make it disappear. Instead, matching stuff creates other stuff that's worth a lot more, thereby, netting you more points. The goal of the game is to get as high a score as possible by continuing to merge objects and not running out of space to put things.
Triple Town bears church
The game also throws in some monkey wrenches in the form of Bears and Ninja Bears to make things more challenging. These are pieces that will move around the grid even after you've put them down. Despite having evil, beady and glowing red eyes, the bears are pretty adorable. They'll totter about, roar, and make grumbly ursine noises as you play. On the flip side, other pieces will be there to help you, like the Blue Crystal and Imperial Bot.
Triple Town gameplay
You can see how all these elements can make the game simple, yet surprisingly complex. Every time you move objects on the grid and a match occurs, you've altered the playing field. I thought I'd jump in for a few minutes for one round, but the better of a player you are, the longer you can last, and this game can easily suck up an hour.

Triple Town is truly unlike any game I've ever seen before, for Facebook or otherwise. The closest comparison I can think of is Scott Brodie's Hero Generations, which also involves manipulating an evolving grid-based landscape with a fantasy setting. But Brodie's game is more like an old-fashioned, 8-bit role-playing adventure game. Triple Town also isn't a social game at all, since the only element is a weekly leaderboard, though Spry Fox has plans to expand the game in the future, hinting that it's only a small aspect of a larger Triple Town universe.

Click here to play Triple Town on Facebook now >

Have you ever played any other game that reminded you of Triple Town?

Bubble Witch Saga pops on Facebook, King.com hits 900M gameplays

If games like Bubble Bobble have taught us anything, it's that sometimes there's nothing more relaxing than popping bubbles. Casual and social game developer King.com knows this all too well, and has released its second bubble-bursting game on Facebook, Bubble Witch Saga. This new game is a socially-enhanced port of one of the top five most popular games ever on King.com (the casual games website of the same name), King.com Director of Product Performance, Social and Mobile, Lars Jornow told us.

The game features more levels than ever with 70 unique stages, new booster power-ups available for Facebook Credits and a deeper storyline than before. Players assume the role of an aspiring witch who wishes to join the proverbial circle of three. In order to impress the witches, you must burst the bubbles by matching three of the same color to fill their cauldron with magic goop. I mean, who knows what witches put in those things?

Bursting the bubbles will get the cauldron below bubbling, as witches are so wont to do. Each successful match causes spiders to drop from the ceiling. The more spiders you have when you burst enough bubbles, the more points you'll get (and hopefully stars), as the spiders will act as bumpers for the remaining bubbles and increase your chances of scoring big.
Buggle Witch Saga concept art
Completing each level with the most stars possible will help you reach new uncharted parts of a vast forest in your quest to become the fourth witch of the circle. Players can invite their friends to the game to help restore their lives if they fail to clear a difficult level, and later in the game they will need more friends to unlock new levels to play.

Bubble Witch Saga takes an interesting spin on the bubble-bursting sub genre of casual and social games, with its semi-realistic art style that's delightfully reminiscent of the unforgettable Halloween flick Hocus-Pocus. While the game already has six episodes (with about 10 levels each) of content, Jornow tells us that more content is already in the works.
Bubble Witch Saga gameplay
Not to mention that the game will hit mobile devices later this year. King.com also announced that it has surpassed 900 million monthly gameplay sessions across all of its platforms. Granted, that's thanks to its over 200 games total, but an impressive feat nonetheless--though, the company does say that it has beat PopCap in monthly players on Facebook, according to AppData. Bubble Witch is available for play now on Facebook, so have at those bubbles, my pretties. (I promise that's the last time I say "my pretties" here ... whoops, done it again!)

Click here to play Bubble Witch Saga on Facebook Now >

Are you excited to kick back and blow up some bubbles once again? What do you think of this game so far, and the bubble-bursting sub genre of casual or social games? Share with us in the comments. Add Comment