Blackberry Anyone?

After months and months of work, testing and throwing things against walls, we are FINALLY ready to announce that 4 Degrees is ready for release on Blackberry's App World.

The free beta version is available now for you to download to your Blackberry and coming any day now, (Right App World?), will be the full pay-for version.

This means we have a true multi-platform real-time mobile and online application - and we are the first to ever do it.

Give it a try and let us know what you think - and if you don't mind, tell everyone you've ever known, your family, co-workers, strangers on the street...

See what Cross-platform gaming looks like...

And away we go...

So - last July I had this hilarious idea. Why don't we put all out games on the net and mobile devices - and not only that, make them so that the players can compete against one another all in real time regardless of what they are using to play.

Amazingly, the ZAPiT games higher ups fell for it, and just over a year later we've launched 4 Degrees all over the place.

• You can play it on your iPhone
• You can play it on your Blackberry
• And you can play it online at Facebook, or at PlayGameWave.com.

So now, no matter where your friends are - across the room, across town or across the globe, that cool multi-player Game Wave experience is now available.

Check it out here and let me know what you think.

Cheers - and if you don't mind me saying so - Woot!

Gavin

The next Wave....

So - I'm pretty sure you've been wondering what the heck has been going on with ZAPiT Games and the Game Wave.

• Where is the next game?
• Where is the next Game Wave console?
• Are you going Blue Ray?
• Hello? Is anyone there?

And all of the above are great questions - and finally we're ready to provide answers (and it's about time too).

But before I get into where we're going, I'd better let you know where we've been these past few months. We had a HUGE push in 2008 to finally get the install base we've needed to make us a sustainable game production company and I'm happy to say - at this stage we are very, very close.

What this means is, with just a few thousand more Game Wave's in living rooms like yours, we can produce game titles that are guaranteed to at least break even.

Now - here's the bad thing about that. We don't want to "break even". We, instead, want to make all of our ever so patient investors a serious return on the money they've kicked in over the years. (Me included)

Thus the halt in our game production schedule of late. Producing games for our existing customer base was actually costing us a fortune, so unless we had a change of direction, or another revenue stream, we simply couldn't do it - it would have been business suicide.

Not a good situation to be in as a game developer obviously.

Something had to change. And something did - July 11th last year. Apple released their second incarnation of the iPhone, one with both WiFi and 3G access and I bought one

the first day it was available.

By the end of the following weekend I'd put together a business model for Game Wave game titles to be ported over to both mobile phones and online as well. And after months and months of research and investigation into the potential of the the idea - and a pitch to the investors and the board - it was finally accepted at the end of December last year.

So - what does all of that mean for you - considering you have a Game Wave and want new titles to play at home? Well, it means a bunch of stuff.

First off, we get to stay in business. (Yes we were getting close to closing the doors - which is a shame considering we have the highest rating from and gaming company there is anywhere: A survey from 2008 showed a 92% satisfaction level - the only pissy thing about us was the lack of new game titles.)

Second - we will be creating new Game Wave titles! Each new game title we produce will be available to play not only on the Game Wave, but online and on Smartphones as well.

And last but not least, we get to expand the reach of our multi-player socially responsible gaming philosophy from hundreds of thousands to hundreds of millions.

It's very exciting for all of us as we are the truest of true believers having stuck with this through thick and wafer thin.

I'll be keeping you up to date on the latest progress right here. I'll be showing you videos of the game functionality and our title release dates (don't tell anyone but the first is next month) and where you can play along.

So - we're back in the game development business - and I know I speak for everyone at ZAPiT games when I say....

It's about frikin' time!

Coupons? We don't need no stinking coupons!

So - you may have noticed that the front page of PlayGameWave.com has (finally) changed.

That's because there is a big couponing campaign going on right now and if you enter the right code, there are some serious discounts happening. We cut the price of the console, the games, the extra remotes, but only if you have one of those stinking codes...

So - how do you get one of those stinking codes? You have to know somebody who has one, that's how.

Tricky huh?

It's not what you know, it's who you know.

You know?

What I'm saying is, you know me, so...

Not Just in your Family Room Anymore

Next time you are in Tampa, drop by the Bilmar
Station Sports Tavern in Tampa on Hillsborough.

What you'll find there besides the requisite beer taps and multi screen TV's is a prototype of the new Game Wave coin-op that's gonna take the nation by storm.

This particular model is for 4-players and a 6-player model will also soon be available. All the regular Game Wave titles are available, like Rewind and ZAP21, plus other games like Texas Hold 'em.

Now - that's cool enough. What makes these things even cooler is all the games are what are known as "Redemption Games."

These are arcade games of skill that reward the player depending on how well they do - usually with tickets to merchandise of gift certificates. Or in this case, cash.

See, the idea is to make playing the Game Wave into an actual sport - where players can become pros.

From where we started, to where we are now, it's exciting to see where the Game Wave and it's multi-player interativity concept is going.

Apparently we're going to the bar, and if you're good enough - the drinks may be on us.

Both genius - and weird

Housewives of the early 50’s were convinced by an entrepreneur named Brownie Wise to hold these get-togethers for their fellow stay at home moms to demonstrate the latest innovation in plastic food storage containers.

The Tupperware party was born.

Tupperware's sales and popularity exploded, thanks in large part to Wise's influence among women who sold Tupperware, and her famous “jubilees” that celebrated the success of the highest selling Tupperware ladies.

And weirdly enough, although the idea of plastic containers to package food is hardly cutting edge as it was in post-WWII era, the parties have never stopped. “Jubilee” events are still held in major cities to recognize and reward top-selling demonstrators.

Brownie was a genius: Have someone demonstrate a product in their homes for their friends - and then have that person sell that same product for a commission.

I wonder what product, that people only get when they play it, would benefit from that grassroots marketing model…

If you got a Game Wave for Christmas - look what you missed out on....

Being in the gaming business, I can surely empathize with our competitors, especially over this past holiday season.

In our collective line of work, all everyone was trying to do was to get our products under people's trees so, hopefully, when they were opened they made the recipient happy.

Now - in the Game Wave's case - that's a given. But I wonder what the kids who received some of the following were thinking...

To me nothing says Christmas more than giving your kid a gun.

A gun that shoots Teddy Bears.


Dead animals you say? Well, what kid wouldn't love to have a nice stuffed Road Kill to snuggle with every night?


I bet you're upset now knowing you could have given your kids their very own cute and hugable human waste dolls...



... and if they were into that, you just know that they would love this...


It's never too early to set them down a career path. How about their very own HazMat training toys!


Or you could have gone straight to the "I want to scar them for life" gift and terrified the heck out of them with whatever this is:


We had a great Holiday season, and now it's back to work producing a whole bunch of games for 2008.

It's just too bad for us someone already cornered the defecation market.

Cheers - Gavin

An unhappy New Year's Eve

Last New Years eve I decided it would be a great idea to beta test the first disk of Rewind 2006 on my unsuspecting friends. It was the first game built using our Software Development Kit (SDK) that was in development, so much of the programming from previous Rewind builds was different and we wanted to test it to see if our new streamlined code could handle real world game play.

The short answer was, it could.

The long answer was, for me it was the worst New Years Eve EVER!

I popped in the game, asking my willing guinea pigs to play a few rounds, and to really put it through its paces. There was about 30 or so people there, so they all ganged up in teams and away they went with me watching in the background looking for any bugs.

There were a few entry screen issues and some overlay misalignments, but beyond that, functionally it worked perfectly. After only one round I had seen enough and thanked everyone and suggested something lame like, “lets get this party started!”

Except no one got up.

They kept playing. And playing. And playing.

And playing.

Now, I’m not adverse to game playing at any time, as it is my occupation, however I wrote Rewind 2006 and it wasn’t exactly like I could participate knowing all the answers as I did.

So I sat at the back. Alone. For hours.

Happy Frikin’ New Year!

Now, the reason I’m relating this is two fold: First, if you are looking for a GREAT New Years Eve game for groups large or for small, the Game Wave is kinda perfect.

And the second is for my friends. Don’t even think about it, okay?

Have a Happy New Year Everyone, and here’s looking forward to a fabulous 2008!

Cheers - Gavin

The 20th - The most important day of December

Well, for us anyway…

That is the absolute drop-dead date for ordering a Game Wave or a Game Wave game – if you want it under your tree for the 25th that is.

And even that day is pushing it if you ask me. Most places stopped guaranteeing orders last week, but not us.

How do we do it? I have no idea.

Two weeks ago I asked our operations manager what was the final possible order date and after talking to our facilitators and shipping folks that was the date he came up with.

Just in case, I asked him a few days later as well, just to make sure he hadn’t been over imbibing on the eggnog, and once again he insisted the 20th was in fact the date.

So, you only have a few days left to get your order in if you need a Game Wave for Christmas.

Order here.

Of course you could just hold off a bit because the Game Wave is also the perfect New Year’s Eve game as well.

And there’s no rush for ordering for that – until there is.

Let's go Club-ing

Groucho Marx said, “I would never want to belong to a club that would have me as a member.”

Well, I hate to say it, but in this case, Groucho is dead wrong.

We’ve just introduced the Game Wave Club for all registered Game Wave owners.

It’s an exclusive-to-you club because we want to show our appreciation for how far we’ve gone since introducing the Game Wave about this time last year. From a kernel of an idea from a board game inventor named Richard Fast, (He also came up with MindTrap to name one of his more famous titles), to where we are today, we couldn’t have made it here without you.

So - what is the club about? From time to time, like now for example, we’re offering great insider deals to all Game Wave Club Members. For this holiday season, we’re giving away FREE games to all Club Members who take part in a holiday promotion. You can learn more about it HERE.

So – as a Game Wave owner, how come you’ve never heard about the thing? Well, we sent out a mass e-mail to all registered owners on November 21st. If you didn’t receive yours there are three probable explanations:

1. The e-mail you registered with is kaput. If that’s the case you can reregister with your new address and you will be added, once again, to our e-mail list.

2. You haven’t registered your Game Wave. If that’s you, simply go HERE and you’ll be added to the list.

3. Your e-mail program decided we were spam and sent the club invitation to the trash. To avoid that in the future, you can try one of these options:

Microsoft Outlook users: Follow these instructions to ensure that your Game Wave e-mails are always delivered to your inbox.

For Outlook 2003: (Other versions such as Outlook 2007 and Outlook Express may vary slightly)

From the Tools menu, select Options
Click the Junk E-Mail button
Click the Safe Senders tab
Click the Add button
Enter zapitgames.com in the text box provided, and click OK
For more help, see the Outlook help site.

Hotmail and MSN Users: Follow these instructions to ensure that your Game Wave e-mails are always delivered to your inbox.

Login to your Hotmail or MSN account
Click Options
On the left side of the page, click Mail, and then click Junk E-Mail Protection
Click Safe List
Enter zapitgames.com in the field provided, then click Add
For more help, see the Hotmail/MSN help site.

Gmail users: Follow these instructions to ensure that your Game Wave e-mails are always delivered to your inbox.

Login to http://www.gmail.com/
Click Contacts along the left side of any Gmail page
Click Create Contact
For E-mail, enter info@zapitgames.com
Click Save

Check out the Game Wave Club if you have a chance. It’s our way to give back to you, and for you to score some free swag along the way.

And isn’t that what the holiday season is all about?

Cheers

Where to Buy

You may have noticed a new button on the PlayGameWave.com website.

It’s all about “Where to Buy.”

Sure, we may have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars developing our state-of-the-art online shopping cart, but we still have to put our stuff in old fashioned bricks and mortar stores, because apparently there are some folks who remain gun-shy about this whole Internet e-commerce “fad.”

Me? I’m more of a sit-on-my-butt-and-order-via-keyboard-and-get-it-delivered-to-me kind of guy.

Going to stores means shopping and that invariably leads to me standing in a packed change room in a woman’s clothes store, suffering withering “is that guy a pervert” glances from ladies exiting and entering their cubicles, while my wife tries on 11 pairs of jeans requiring me to pass judgment on which of them makes her look less “fat.”

There is absolutely no good answer to that question so I try to avoid it like a paper cut.

But there are those who revel in the whole “got to feel it with my hands” tactile shopping experience.

For those folks, we’ve built this cool page with a map of North America allowing them to click on their state or province for the nearest store that carries the Game Wave.

Give it a go Here.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go do some of that type of old-school shopping myself.

Flowers.

My wife might have read this….

Tales of a vegetable matter

So, what do Madame Bovary, Rocky, The Mikado and King David's encounter with the Philistine Goliath in First Samuel have in common?

They are all suitable subject matter for the next game we are going to release, Game Wave VeggieTales.

If you aren’t familiar with VeggieTales, which means you are also not familiar with having kids, they were first introduced in 1993 becoming the first ever completely computer generated “cartoon” series ever made.

Since then, and 50-million copies later, VeggieTales has grown into a Saturday morning staple and a major family favorite especially appreciated by kids of wee variety.

It’s a perfect pairing for us, as our current suite of games has a decidedly older slant to it. We've been working on this for a while, trying to find the perfect licensing partner to address that hole in our library. Who knew kids could be so tough! And the moral VeggieTales stories are a perfect fit for our family first, last and always philosophy.

However, perhaps the biggest bonus is how hilarious it is seeing all of our guys up to their ears in Bob the Tomato and Archibald Asparagus animations. It’s hard not to giggle during the sometimes heated meetings discussing staying "true" to the character of Larry the Cucumber.

But that’s the nature of the gaming business. We’re taking play very seriously around here, especially since the folks who are going to be playing the thing will be our own kids.

We’re thrilled with this partnership with VeggieTales, and I hope you are as well.

More details to come of course but for now you'll have to make due with the official Press Release.

What every dorm room needs

Got kids in higher education? I’m sure you are trying to convince yourself that the burgeoning scholars you just sent off to that psychotically expensive college are studying every waking minute they are there - and dreaming serious scholastic thoughts while asleep.

After all, that would be the only sensible thing to do, considering all that cash you just forked over.

But ummm…you probably went as well right? After my first day, I woke up the next morning with a lampshade on my head - and no idea how it got there.

Suffice it to say, things haven’t changed all that much when it comes to life at University.

Now, this may sound like a bit of a sales pitch, and in truth, it is. But I have to tell you about some of the feedback we’ve been getting from the college age crowd, and their Game Wave nights.

“We’re not nerds! Just had to say that up front, but I’d like to thank you guys, and my mom, for the Game Wave. We’ve been holding tournaments after class a couple of times a week, and everyone is going ape___ over the thing. We’re thinking of going to our house head and seeing if she can set up a college wide championship…”

Kids staying in dorm rooms to play educational games? It actually happens. So, if you’re thinking of dropping by the little Einstein to see how they are doing, why not bring along something that they will not only enjoy, but could also keep them out of the pub.

Well, not all the time.

Here's the promo we were too chicken to let fly

Last Christmas we wanted to make a splash in papers while all the Wii and PS3 frenzy was underway. Their consoles were dominating the press and we could hardly get a word in edgewise so the thinking was, we need to make some noise on our own.

This was the design for a flyer that was going to be released in major markets across North America at the height of the Christmas shopping season, but in the last minute, there was an internal mood swing and we collectively wussed out. (You can click on the image for a larger view)

Well, I have to admit, I didn't. I thought it was an awesome promo, but the powers that be ended kiaboshing the thing at the 11th hour.

I have no idea if it was a good decision or a bad decision, but I'd like to hear what you would have thought if you heard a gaming company suggest to you to "Beat Your Kids!"

Too much chocolate

The thing about working at a games development company is that it is all fun and games - literally. We work on games. We think about games. We talk about games. At lunch, occasionally we even play games.

Sounds like fun, and it is. However there are times when it’s a little bit too much of a good thing. And one of those times is now.

Whenever a game is set for release, it has to go through an extensive quality and assurance regime so when you buy a copy of the thing, when you get it home you’ll be able to play it uninterrupted by crashes, glitches or booboo’s. I would bore you with the gory details of what all that entails, but it basically breaks down to these two simple rules:

Play the game.

A lot.

Now, I like playing Sudoku. I would even say on a Sunday morning watching Meet the Press with a Sudoku puzzle in front of me is one of my favorite weekly rituals.

But when you are involved in the QA process of a Sudoku game, like we all are presently, I suspect the guy who originally came up with the Sudoku game concept back in 1979, a feller named Howard Garns, would say, “No more! I beg you, just a little chess. Please!”

And it’s not just about those of us who work here at ZAPiT Games either. You should try living with us. We’re so busy doing on our own things during working hours, that the QA process tends to get shoved to home time. That means when a game is set for release, connubial bliss is strained to the max by almost endless playing of the game in an attempt to break it. No where in my wedding vows was, "for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, for playing games eight hours a night, for seemingly weeks on end..."

And that heavy-duty call to game playing arms stretches to the extended family and friends as well.

Me: “Hey, you guys busy on Saturday night? How about a BBQ?”

So called friends: “Nice try. We know you have a new game coming out. We’re not going through that again!”

Slackers.

The plus side of course is, we will all end up being pretty much Sudoku gods when all this is over, and when you get your copy hopefully we’ll have caught everything.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go get my wife Leslie out of the bathroom. For some reason she’s been in there for hours!

Raising money - the fun way...

If you have ever been involved in any type of fundraising venture in your life - you most likely know the deep dark secret that is kept quite by everyone who has held any kind of a charitable event.

No one talks about it afterwards because, like childbirth, the endorphins that kick in from producing the thing blank out most of the negative memories. But not all.

The deep dark secret truth about fundraising events is, for the most part for those involved in putting on the show, they are about as much fun as rope burn.

From no-showing volunteers, to weather problems, to last minute money fiascoes, during the events themselves the stress level is at about 11.

So - why do many of us put ourselves through this voluntary hell?

Well - because if we don't no one else will I guess is the easiest answer.

I've had a ton of experience in fundraising for a bunch of different causes, so last year I was pretty excited about being handed off a fundraising project by my boss. I was to build a Trivia Night Kit with everything anyone would need to hold their own fundraising event contained in a nice tight little package.

The purpose was two-fold. First, fundraising is nice. And second, frankly it would be a good marketing vehicle for our family friendly gaming system.

So build it I did - and then – pretty much nothing. We got so tied up with a bunch of other projects, like building actual games for the Game Wave, my little Trivia Night Kit fell by the wayside.

But I haven't given up on my little pet project that could. I've managed to get about half a dozen of these trivia nights held thus far and each has been an unqualified success.

And the thing is, unlike most other events I’ve been involved with, the way the Trivia Night Kit works is actually fun for both the participants and the suckers volunteers.

The content is great. The game itself is simple to operate - it runs in a regular DVD player - and the fundraising tips have been very well received.

It's everything you need to hold a fundraiser, all in one little DVD case.

It's crazy to hold a fundraiser really. You'll never work harder in your life - all for no money, and not enough satisfaction. Give youself a break and drop me a line if you want to at least avoid the rope burn.


Cheers - Gavin

Giving is Good

Ever heard this before? You’re at a party and some guy is whining about his job – a job that sounds completely awesome to you - yet he’s endlessly complaining saying something like, “it’s not all fun and games you know.”

Well – my job is. Literally. Fun and games is just about all I do around here, and recently it’s become even more fun – ‘cause I get to give stuff away.

I’ve discovered that, as in life, giving in business is good - which is not exactly Gordon Gecko of me. The morning ritual of dealing out the hardware to the winners of the Daily Trivia contest has added a wee bit more joy to an already too-much-fun occupation.

And today positively rocked because I was away all last week so, by catching up it was a virtual charity-oh-rama!

We changed the contest while I was away from awarding a Game Wave itself, to one of the Game Wave game titles instead. The reason for this is rather simple – and not one that you would immediately suspect.

It’s not because we don’t want to give any more Game Wave’s away. It’s because at about the same time, we introduced this killer guarantee to new customers.

Let’s say you win the Daily Trivia and you already have a console. It’s nice to get another one to give as a gift I suppose (after all - giving is good) but it’s actually better for you personally if you can get another game gratis to play with at home.

If you don’t have a Game Wave – we’ll ship one out to you for free for a month – and you get two games to play with. If you don’t like it, give us a shout and well have it picked up – all at no charge to you.

That’s how confident we are about the Game Wave. And I can guarantee one other thing:

No other gaming console company would ever do this.

Which either makes us special, or especially weird.

Upon further Review…

If ever you’ve wanted to be a critic, here’s your chance. We’re looking for some serious rants (but preferably raves) about all of our games.

If you’ve played ‘em, you’ve got to have an opinion and we’re dying to hear just what that opinion is.

We need your input for a couple of reasons: First – we’re making a bunch more games and we need your feedback on what we’ve been doing right, but more importantly what we’ve been doing wrong.

And secondly, shameless self promotion!

We’ll post them on the actual game pages for all to see, so get busy and get raving - especially about all the Rewinds. My boss will read them you know…

We look forward to hearing from you. Submit yours Here

When graphics guys have too much time on their hands...