Platogo Blog

Last monday we had the chance to meet with the biggest & most important names in the online gaming business right now: Zynga, Mochi Media & HeyZap. We're great fans of all these companies so actually meeting them in person was exciting & awesome.

Mochi Media

Jameson Hsu & Justin Wong took some time off their busy schedule to welcome us in their cosy office. Their space is really nice - lots of cool little gadgets all around the place. Music was playing in the background which I never heard before (identified by Midomi to be the band Passion Pit). The song Little Secrets has grown to be among my very favorites - I'm listening to it on Spotify while I type these lines.

For well deserved breaks Mochi provides comfy couches placed in front of a huge TV with various consoles attached, also including a full rock band kit. Nice. I'm looking forward to their Flash Gaming Summit which is taking place on March 8th. Like the website says: The conference will bring together leaders in the Flash game space to share industry insights and strategies on successful game design, development and monetization.

Zynga

Next up was Zynga which is like the epicenter of social gaming at the moment. They are continuously growing, now employing about 800 people and still looking for more. Bret Terrill gave us a "quick" tour around the different offices. Quick is being put in quotes as their place is really huge! They even have an own Zen Room where employees can get acupunctures and massages. Great way to motivate their people - I know I'd enjoy a foot rub every now and then.

While wandering through their departments I think I caught a short glimpse of a top-secret project of theirs. However, after signing their NDA contract & everything, I sure won't break the news. I'm confident this will be another sure-fire hit though.

HeyZap

Jude Gomila, the co-founder of HeyZap, met up with us at Brainwash Cafe since they are just moving into their new office. He's a bright guy who thinks fast and talks just as fast. They have lots of ideas for the future of HeyZap and I can't wait to see where they're heading. Definitely an company to keep an eye (or two) on.

San Francisco has been an awesome experience. Prior to our trip we'd never thought that we'd have the chance to meet with so many interesting and well-known people. Think about it: these three companies are among the most relevant in the whole industry right now. And we were lucky to meet them all.

Seedcamp organized a week in the states to meet up with interesting people from all sorts of different companies. Being among the lucky Seedcamp winners we got to join the trip and, oh boy, what a ride it's been.

It started in New York where we stayed for a couple of days before eventually heading to San Francisco. The very first thing we did after arriving in NY was buying tickets for a comedy show with free drinks on the street. As it later turned out they were way overpriced and instead of getting free drinks we had to buy a minimum amount of 2 drinks each. Well, at least the comedians were funny.

The next surprise came when we entered our hotel room which more felt like a sauna. Apparently  the heating was broken and running at full speeds. The solution suggested by the hotel manager? Turning up the air conditioning to fight the heat.

Other than that New York treated us really well. We had the time to see some of NY's amazing sights: Central Park, Empire State Building, Brooklyn Brigde ...

Seedcamp New York

On Tuesday it started at Google Chelsea Market - a refurbished office building with old wooden floor elements, relaxed atmosphere and several coffee machines + candy dispenser in the cafeteria. After each team gave a 3min pitch, we had 30min mentoring sessions. It looks like the new concept of Platogo was well received in the USA.

At Brown Bag Lunch (event organized by Beta Works) at the Apple HQ in New York we ran into Charles Forman the founder of OMGPOP and we had a great and rather nerdy discussion about the future of casual / social gaming, the limitations of multiplayer games and more...

Day two started at Union Square Ventures with with Brad, Albert and Andrew talking about the difference between startups in the US (East Coast / West Coast) and Europe, values they are looking for in startups and answering questions.

After that we met Saul Klein's uncle Jonathan Klein the CEO of GettyImages, who founded the company 15 years ago. As the market leader they acquired 100+ companies within these years and still managed to establish values among their employees.

Our flight to S.F. was delayed but once we arrived with the rental car at our wonderful Motel at 3 in the morning, everything was fine ...

Seedcamp Silicon Valley & San Francisco

The next day a little boy's dream came true by entering the Google Plex for a really great event. We bumped into people like Pascal Finette, Catalyst at Mozilla talking about the future of the most used open source browser and other well connected people like Pietro Dova, ex-Googler and now business angle at XG Ventures who introduced us to Frederic Descamps. Frederic is the founder of a company called A Bit Lucky, working on next gen Facebook games - we met him on Saturday - he is a genius and perfectly connected in the San Francisco gaming scene.

We also took part at Startup2Startup, met Mike Arington from TechCrunch and had further mentoring sessions at First Round Capital. As for the whole trip - the advice was highly relevant for us and lots of great ideas popped up every time.

Values of Seedcamp

Once again, this trip really showed the values of Seedcamp - it is not just some money, it is the chance for a small company (from a small country) to visit and talk to people you would have never met without their help in such a short period of time. The great thing about these mentors is their advice and the access to their network of companies and startups  - and they always help you to connect.

Just a few weeks ago we started experimenting with the integration of one of our games into Facebook. Quick progress was made and we already have made a few fans. Our conclusion: giving all our fellow Platogo developers the opportunity to easily publish their games on Facebook without any changes.

What does this mean for you gamers out there? It means that in the not too distant future most Platogo games will be available on Facebook too. But one step at a time: Right now we have two games online for testing purposes – Whac-A-Pal and Veggie Snake.

Below each game we have a score- and achievement board to make it easy and fun to compete with your friends. Expect more features soon.

Check out two screenshots of the current version:

Compete and play with your friends

You are instantly notified when you win an achievement

Of course we are constantly trying to improve your Platogo experience on Facebook and we would love to hear your feedback in our forums. Additionally we've started a survey to make Platogo the best place to play together online.

Go for the win!
By the way: There's a new chance to win. This time the prize is the award-winning indie game World of Goo. Check it out on our Rising Star Contest page.

Two weeks ago, on October 8th, I seized the opportunity (made possible through Seedcamp) to visit ThoughtWorks in London and talk about Platogo with two of their user experience experts. Over the course of the four hour session, we looked at the aspects and processes of our website in order to determine its strengths and weaknesses.

The overall conclusion was that we're on the right path and that we do a lot of things right. But, of course, when you look a little closer, there's always room for improvement. The most important issue we found was that our website doesn't properly sell our USP (i.e. that users can create levels in every Platogo game and also connect with their friends): it's not yet clear enough that Platogo is about users creating levels for users.

We'll therefore be taking prompt action in these areas: we'll soon be adding a dedicated 'Create' page that contains all relevant information and guides, and we're also working on ways to make creating levels much more accessible.

Another important issue is to enhance the feeling that users are really playing with their friends, which is the key to getting the viral loop going. We're therefore improving our 'Community' page, working on a closer integration with Facebook, and looking into integration with other social networks.

In addition to feedback on the website, I got suggestions for improving our 'Join' and 'Sign In' processes, and lots of other details that will help us improve our conversion rates. I also got many useful tips and tricks for usability testing, as well as tools that we might use.

All in all, the session at ThoughtWorks was extremely valuable and well worth the journey to London.

Yes, it's been a great launch. We'd like to thank everyone who has
taken the time to check out Platogo and to write about us. Here are
just a few media picks. It's fantastic to be a start-up!

"It's a fascinating endeavour, and there seems to be a real
emphasis on quality rather than quantity - the UGC stuff is also nicely
implemented in the games I've played. Have a look and see what you
think though – it could be a more creative way of blowing your lunch
hour than playing Desktop Defense for the millionth time..."
Keith Stuart, The Guardian

"Platogo has launched a casual game web site where gamers can
create their own levels in games and share them with friends so they
can play the levels together."
Dean Takahashi, Venturebeat

"The wonderful Gregory Weir has already got in on the action with
his game Exploit, and Platogo users have been creating tons of levels
for it. Any flash devs out there might want to check it out!"
Michael Rose, Indie Games

"Platogo is a casual games portal that at first blush resembles
many others. What makes it very different lies under the portal's
virtual hood: all of its games except one are designed by portal users,
rather than by Platogo itself."
Virtual Goods News

"To be honest, the platform looks pretty awesome. P2P online games creation platform where users create their own levels. Very much about challenging others to play your levels, so potentially addictive."
Mike Butcher, TechCrunch Europe

The wait's finally over! After a successful pre-launch test run, we've thrown off the covers, polished up all our games and features, and now invite the whole wide world to come and play together online at Platogo.com.

Want top quality family-friendly casual games? We've got them.

Want to build your own levels? Easy as ABC.

Want to share your thoughts and creations with the world? Got that covered too.

So don't delay - register, play, create and connect! The more active you are on Platogo, the more chance you'll have of winning a great prize in our weekly Rising Star Contest.

You're also a talented game developer? Then check out our Dev Center to find out just how easy Platogo makes it to (hopefully) become rich and famous. Publish your game and watch the Platogo community play it, rate it and expand it.

With Platogo, there's no such thing as "Game Over".

Dusk 'til dawn, yeah we know: planet Platogo is at your service - but bigger, better and brighter than ever before! Play and share games, check out our other wicked features, and build your own levels.

Our pre-launch Invitation Codes are spreading like wildfire, and gamers and developers the world over are already logging in (thank you!)

We're so excited, and we just can't hide it. But then again, the new Platogo is so good, why would we want to? If you can't wait until our upcoming official launch, scan the Net for our Invitation Codes or try your luck on our waiting list.

After we watched Terminator Salvation the only salvation was to get out of the cinema and do something to forget what we saw before. So what to do at 11 pm in Vienna? Luckily Andi Gessl, a friend of ours, had his camera and a couple of lights with him. We climbed into the nearest playground, switched on the lights, used long exposure and got this nice photos. Thanks again to Andi for this awesome experience!

You can find all his experiments on his flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gessman

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We like Platogo. Our friends and family like Platogo. And since you're reading this, we assume that you like Platogo - or are at least interested in Platogo.

And now we know that a lot more people like Platogo! Florian and I had the chance to show off our little baby (we're still talking about Platogo) at the Seedcamp in Berlin. We came well prepared: with a wicked presentation (finished during the flight to Berlin), a slick outfit, a healthy dose of confidence and a few extra candles in case it got cold in the camp late at night.

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It's summertime, and the living's easy.... All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go, I'm standing here outside Florian's door...

Yep, time to go camping! Florian and I are leaving the hubbub of urban Vienna to roam the Berlin badlands next week. With our brilliant team all raring to present Platogo to the world, we've been invited to present our baby at next week's Seedcamp in Berlin.

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