Moket games on Mobile Hotdog

Moket have launched a new partnership with Mobile Hotdog (based out of Asia) with a couple of games being made available on their website - Eat Them Alive and Jon Burgerman's Sausage Smackdown. Both games are available on a (limited) free trial basis before you can purchase the game.

If you are interested in the Moket Content Network evaluating and potentially distributing your own games through this channel, please let me know.

Polar Cap Blues available now on Smashing Games

Moket's Polar Cap Blues is now available on Smashing Games (available in North America on Verizon Wireless) and is currently in the Spotlight section.

If you're on Verizon Wireless, follow these steps:

• Select "Get it Now" on your Verizon Wireless "Get it Now" enabled handset
• Select Get Fun and Games
• Select Get New
• Select Select Verizon Exclusives
• Select Smashing Games
• Polar Cap Blues can be found in Spotlight, New and Arcade.

While you're there, why not also download Cipher or Dizzy Zub Zub, and do your bit to keeping Moket game developers paying the rent :)

New Game on Chumby - GRORBS

We just released a new game for the Chumby called GRORBS. You'll also be seeing it soon in the Smashing Ideas catalogue in the US for Verizon customers. Check it out! Expect another announcement soon on where else you can buy GRORBS and other Moket games for your mobile ...

Mobile Life (Australia) #1 - Mobile Gaming Down Under

I'm taking up the invitation offered by Scott Janousek in posting more regional related news about the local mobile and Flash Lite industries.

Just like with MWC last week, I'm sure with GDC on at the moment there'll be some cool mobile game news floating around soon. I just wanetd to quickly highlight though the growing mobile games industry here in Australia.

There's a little company that some of you may have heard about that's doing some cool stuff with Flash Lite games, but I wanted to draw some attention to others as well - like Firemint who just won the Public Choice IMG Award for their cool 3D WRC game. They are based on Melbourne and have been creating some great 3D mobile work for a number of years now, along with some big licensed titles and their own IP.

Australia, and Brisbane and Melbourne in particular, is a popular location for game companies of all persuasions. Here in Brisbane we have EA Pandemic, THQ, Krome, and a growing number of smaller companies doing stuff for handheld consoles like Halfbrick. We are all part of a collective called Queensland Games that is organised by the state government - catch QLD Games at GDC this week (and if you find Mark Fludder, ask him to show you his Moket Phone that's loaded up with some new titles from Moket).

Mobile games specifically though are still something that are yet to take a serious hold in the development community here. Perhaps it's our proximity to low-cost labor markets (India, Philippines, etc) or the smaller consumer market here that has not fostered a lot of mobile game development companies. Moket is the main one involved in Flash mobile games, but we don't have as many opportunities in the immediate local market as we do even in the wider Sth East Asia region, or further beyond.

My prediction though is that it's only a matter of time before the high level of investment in console and PC game development here in this country translates into more being done on the mobile platform.

Moket launches "Cipher" on the Chumby

Today, Moket launched their latest mobile game title that has been Chumby-fied - Cipher.

Moket presents Cipher - a challenging memory game that isn't for the faint hearted. In a mix of classic Mastermind and memory-style gameplay, you must find the colours in the random code to complete each level. There are bonus tiles to help you beat the clock and to go further into this frenetic puzzle - but time is running out!

Cipher is also available for your mobile this Friday through Smashing Games.

Moket games out now through Smashing Games

Good news for the Flash Lite community and mobile gamers - the Smashing Games catalogue has been launched on Verizon Wireless! There are many great games available now to over 18 million subscribers in North America, including our very own Dizzy Zub Zub and Cipher.

Moket has many more titles in the pipeline for the Smashing Games catalogue over the coming months, so watch this space for more news on our latest releases. In some cases, you'll also be able to play ported versions of the games on the Chumby - like the Chumby-fied Dizzy Zub Zub.

Well done to the Smashing team on getting this baby born. It's another piece of the puzzle for Flash Lite content making an impact on the mobile content industry and one that I know will do very well. For those Verizon customers out there - go and buy some Flash Lite gaming goodness and help feed starving independent Flash Lite game developers around the world :)

Moket in the press

Today, Moket appeared in an article in the leading Fairax Media newspapers (Sydney Morning Herald, The Age) relating to mobile gaming. "The Big Money in Mobile Gaming" looks at the emergence and growth of mobile gaming, and how Australia is already producing worthy titles for the various sections of the global market. Flash Lite (although wrongly spelt in the article!) gets a great mention as well ... "With most mobile phones now running flash, a massive new platform has emerged for videogame developers."

Read the article here.

First Moket game on the Chumby

Today Moket launched its first game on the Chumby - a ported version of one of its leading casual mobile games, "Dizzy Zub Zub".

This is one of many games that Moket is either porting from mobile or creating specifically for the Chumby. You can find "Dizzy" in the Games widget category on the Chumby site.

Stay tuned for more Chumby titles soon!

Beta testers needed for Moket Chumby games

If you are a Chumby owner and would like to help out Moket by testing the games that we are porting from mobile to Chumby, then please email me (dale AT moket DOT com) with your Chumby account name so I can make you a Moket "Chum" and send you the games through to your channel. The games will be set as Private widgets until we launch.

Casual games help reduce stress

Maybe for the players - certainly not for developers :) PopCap have done a stress test study to measure the effects of casual gaming on stress levels.

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/63117,casual-games-help-reduce-stress.aspx