Platogo Blog

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

(more...)

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.

(more...)

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.

(more...)

During the development of one of our new games for Platogo we got our hands dirty with Adobe´s Pixel Bender technology. In short, Pixel Bender is a technology to create programmable effects that run fast. They can be used for Flash, Photoshop and After Effects. You can create awesome effects with just a few lines of code. As a simple example we tried re-creating Apple´s Genie Effect for windows closure. (more...)

Today Florian is going to co-host an event with veterans of the Austrian gaming scene at the Medienmesse '08. Their topic of talk will be the current state and the future of the gaming industry in Austria.

We determined it would be a perfect opportunity to show a slight glimpse of what Platogo is about since it might as well be the future of online gaming =). Therefore the website of Platogo sports a new splashscreen that explains its main features. We'd love to show more of Platogo as there are lots of unique features that we haven't talked about yet but unfortunately that will have to wait.

There is currently a lot going on in the Nullstars HQ as we are hard at work adding the finishing touches to the beta version of Platogo. The coding fairies are busy sprinkeling their magic fairy dust upon the website to make everything sparkle shiny and new.

In the meantime we suggest you sign up for the beta notification and we'll drop you a mail as soon Platogo is ready.