Sorry for hogging all the carrier deck slots!  iQ212 has three mobile games live NOW on tier 1 carriers. We are livin’ the cross platform vision.

• Monopoly Tycoon for EA is a new twist based on the Hasbro license.  We improved the tycoon play with a clever once-around auction mechanic (thanks for the inspiration Dr. Knezia!) that works superbly for mobile gameplay. It is on every carrier and every handset everywhere on earth.
• Redneck Fishin’ is our own game IP and is published by Vivendi Games Mobile.  Yes, it plays like it sounds, you toss TNT at fish in a pond.  It has a cute/funny story where Brandi and Randy must save their homestead from Sheriff Buford. It is exclusive to Verizon and ATT at first, watch for it on other carriers later this year.
• Emoticons is our original puzzle game based on the chat smiles.  It is published on mobile by Konami.  You can play it on web, PC and now where ever you go whilst mobile.  Launched on T-Mobile and Verizon.  More carriers coming soon.

Microsoft is the new IBM. Google is the new Microsoft. Facebook is the new Google.

In the 80s, it was said that no one was fired for picking IBM. Microsoft was the hot new innovator in the 80s. In the 90s, got stagnant and then beloved for embracing open source. Microsoft turned into a villian. Five years ago Google was the new innovator that everyone loved. Now they are playing the kind of tricks we used to expect from Microsoft, while Microsoft is earning new love, probably coming from new leadership from Ray Ozzie.

It might feel early to some, but I think it’s time to say that no one will be fired for picking Google for their IT services. Search engine and adwords aside, Google’s office suite (especially email) is strong enough for the enterprise. But while Google has awesome products–products that are more exciting than Windows and Office ever were–it’s also playing games in the market.

Case 1: Android. Is Google serious? Yeah, it’s a move against Apple and the iPhone, but where’s the beef? Android phones should have been here by now. It’s not too late for Android to make a mark, but it does seem like Google announced early to scare off competitors. Fortunately, it hasn’t worked. Nokia/Symbian going open source is a strong move. And Motorola had news recently about their Linux phones, which actually are coming out. The more people at the party, the better for us users.

Case 2: Knol. A lot of people have noticed over the past few years that the top link on many searches at Google point to Wikipedia. For whatever reason, Wikipedia does not use Google adsense. They don’t have any ads. I remember Jason Calacanis begging them to put ads there, but they didn’t listen. Google can’t have so much traffic going off into non-monetized land. Their solution is to clone wikipedia and put ads on it. And just to make sure the traffic is going there, they seem to have juiced their search results. Techcrunch reported last week that Google Knol entries are appearing high in search results much faster than should be expected. That’s the kind of behavior that inspires Justice Department types. But worse, it erodes confidence in Google search results.

Case 3: Friend Connect. Google has clearly blown it in the social space. I don’t count them out entirely, but they have not been winning. Orkut is insigificant. They’ve been sneaking social features into Gmail and Reader, which depending on your perspective either treads close to or steps over the social contract with users. With Friend Connect, they seem to be pushing Facebook towards being more open and letting users keep hold of their data. This is a net positive for users because Facebook didn’t blink. They accelerated their own Connect strategy. Still, Google comes out looking like a bully in this.

At F8 last month, Zuckerberg talking about how the mission of this company is to bring people closer together, the enable better understanding of each other. That’s a big goal that sounds a lot like Bill Gates’ mission to have a computer on every desktop. Google’s do-no-evil motto seemed hip a few years ago, but their misteps sometimes make it seem like a joke. Their stated mission is to connect people to information. Boring. Give me the world-changing missing every time.

Lest there be confusion, I am in no way suggesting that Google itself is evil. It’s a corporation. Individuals are judged by morality, not abstractions. And I’ll be the last person to indict business and businessmen. If I could offer humble advice, I’d suggest to Google’s leadership that they not allow their teams to pull these tricks even if they seem to make sense in the short run.

Leon’s insightful writings regularly appear at www.leonatkinson.com

Rick and Nicki are proud to welcome the newest member to the iQ212 team (and our family!).  Chloe Thyme Marazzani arrived May 9th and weighed in at 7lbs 9oz. 

Her big sisters are happy helpers who actually argue over dibs on changing diapers!  Rick is catching up on Tivo (and two seasons of Smallville from Netflix) during the midnight feedings.  Chloe is little and cute and happy and healthy.

Three weeks ago iQ212 released Emoticons^TM, our first game.  As part of our multi platform launch strategy, Emoticons is on PC, web/facebook, and soon on mobile.  There are big differences between launching a PC or mobile game, and an app for the web.    Fortunately iQ212’s experience comes from diverse platforms.  Here is a bit of our recent experience releasing Emoticons on Facebook.

The best advice for launching a game on Facebook is to not launch it.  Retail and mobile games launch.  An online game does not need to launch, it can continue to live and grow tied to the umbilicus of the web.  Too often, traditional game companies outsource their online version (often as a Marketing expense) and and paste the delivery up on a server.  Fire and forget. A good online game requires a different way of developing and launching.

Emoticons was on Facebook a day after we started development.  At first the build had no game logic, scoring, animation, or server calls, but it was up on the Fb canvas page and the entire team could poke at it.  By building it online, in the setting the users would be playing it, we were able to tweak and plus as we developed.  Every day we would add features and polish, and we would also slowly add real users.  The iQ212 team at first, then family, then friends. 

There are no ads in Emoticons for facebook, yet.  The game is the message and we didn’t want to clutter it with random advertising.  For now we want players to download the PC version, learn about the upcoming mobile version, and invite friends to the facebook version.  Once the Emoticons brand is more established we will incorporate ads and make the shift from retail revenue towards ad revenue.

As Emoticons rolled out to a wider Facebook audience, we watched our stats and honed the experience to ensure a quality gameplay experience, as well as the viral potential.  We have received good advice from smart people, especially RockYou (they KNOW viral and facebook).  After a few weeks we are now up to almost one thousand daily players, and five thousand total. We look forward to a big ad push to expose Emoticons to a wider audience and hasten the viral spread.  Though our focus is now on new games, we still come back to Emoticons as Facebook unveils new features, and to enhance the experience for our players.

So the take-away is that to take advantage of the power of Facebook, you need to take time to craft your game using Facebook as you develop.  Copying a flash file to a webpage will not cut it.  Learn the APIs, adapt to the changing platform, and listen to your players as you roll out.  The benefits will result in a better game, happier players, viral spread, and ultimately more revenue.

Wow! I found this on the web today and had to share it.  Brief History of Match Three Games  Some guy wrote a long paper on the history of match three games.  Feel free to pass it along.

Who knew?  I thought Gamehouse invented the Match Three game in 2001!  Turns out that Match Three games have been declared “old fashioned games” because they really ARE!

Great news for Tuesday, Emoticons is available today!  We had one minor setback: as a cute, innovative, mass-market, puzzle game, no game portal would carry it.  But yesterday we redesigned it into a Hidden Object game and TODAY it is live on every game portal!  Check out the screenshot of the new Emoticons below.

iQ212 has been in business for a year and we have finally launched our first game, Emoticons^TM.  It is an original puzzle game that is now available for PC and web/facebook, and will soon launch on mobile carriers.  Hopefully you will be seeing and hearing lots more about Emoticons as it spreads to new game portals and platforms.  Please try it out and let us know what you think. www.EmoticonsGame.com

A Pew Internet and American Life Project report is forshadowing the near future where mobile is really the most personal computer.  In a recent report, when asked how hard it would be to give up a specific technology, folks are more likely to say the cellphone would be most difficult to do without, followed by the Internet, TV, and landline telephone.

Backing up the story that we Americans love us some cell phones.  This week whilst watching Celebrity Rehab on Vh1, one of the participants made an interesting statement.  Jessica Sierra, a former American Idol contestant, was presented with a stay at a clean living facility to continue her clean and sober success after graduating from the Pasadena Recovery Center.  Jessica was distraut over the prospect, worried that an extended stay in rehab would interfere with her ability to work, and to EARN MONEY TO PAY HER CELL BILLS.  Here is a cocaine addict who is more concerned with her cell phone than with sobriety OR crack!

Those jokes about the T-mobile SideCrack, and the RIM CrackBerry are not so far off after all.

Gary Gygax co-created Dungeons and Dragons in 1974.  His obituary today got me thinking and reminscing.  I was in elementary school in the late 70s when D&D made it to California.  I recall my fourth grade teacher having to explain to me the difference between chain mail and postal mail! 

As kids my friends and I played with army men, and occasionally would incorporate dice and rulers, and impose rules.  When we ran around the hills and fields of pre-Sprawl Bay Area, we role played as knights, and soldiers, and cowboys.  Just as we were about to cross from kids to adolescents, along came Dungeons and Dragons, a game with imagination, and heroes, and monsters, and that was OK for big kids, and even adults to play.

Gary Gygax made it OK for grown ups to keep dreaming, playing, imagining, and inventing.  I’d wager that MOST of us in the games industry over age 30 got our start playing DnD back in the day.  Back then there was Atari and DnD, and you could not buy Atari for a week’s allowance.

One thing in his obit by the AP made me smile, they perfectly described DnD: “Dungeons & Dragons players create fictional characters for themselves and describe their adventures with the help of complicated rules and unusually shaped dice.” 

Who else credits Gary Gygax for their lifelong love, creation, and play of games?

GDC was fun, informative and productive for me and iQ212 this year.  I think my GDC Mobile lecture accomplished its goal of getting people thinking and talking about casual and mobile design and the issues that even good games face when entering the mobile gauntlet.

My talk was called “Tetris: the Best/Worst Mobile Game Ever”.  Nice coverage of the talking points is here. 

In short, I declared Tetris as the best game ever.  Then I deconstructed the game, to look at the design elements and to see why it was such a great game, and how its play transferred to mobile. 

Slim Jim brand beef jerky was used as an example to illustrate the shelf space problem on mobile carrier decks.  A supermarket has all kinds of beef choices: filet mignon, short ribs, and prime rib roast, etc.  They have the shelf space for it.  But a convenience store only sells one type of beef, Slim Jim.  Small footprint, long shelf life, broad appeal, always in season, and in snack size portions.  It is because of this shelf space issue that carriers feature Tetris and that Tetris is a perennial best seller.  So Tetris is not beef jerky, but carriers are a bit like 7-11.

At the end of my talk, I asked the room, “If Tetris were invented today, how many of you think it would get published by mobile carriers?”  Exactly one guy in a room of 75 people raised his hand.  It is a telling indictment on the state of mobile when the best game in the world would not get published today.