Booyah!

Real-World Gaming: The Blending of the Real World + Digital World

Today our CEO, Keith Lee, spoke about ways to apply game motivators to real-world activities and locations in order to build fun and successful games. Keith outlined the benefits of creating a game with real-world incentives and expanded upon the many challenges and opportunities that have arisen from his experience in this space. He closed by giving advice to those in the audience. That advice was that too often companies begin with the mindset of needing to do everything in a game; instead, Keith believes that companies should be "laser-focused" and simply excel in one thing.

Adding real-world aspects to a game has been a proven formula for success. Whether you have real-world goals, such as losing weight (Wii Fit, Fitbit, Nike+), real experience, such as interacting with the an actual world rather than a virtual environment (Tonchidot, Gunman, and other Augmented Reality games), or real world rewards, such as those MyTown offers with our recent H&M and ZonePerfect campaigns, the one thing that is constant is the need to have in-game incentives to achieve these goals. In MyTown, we incorporate real-world validations (you get points from proximity-based check ins), and real rewards (incentivized deals), among others, into our game in order to give the best experience possible to our users.

Many of our own struggles came from figuring out how to tackle the conundrum of incorporating the real-world into our game. Our first attempt, Booyah Society, was a dismal failure. However, it was because of this failure that we were able to improve and come out with what we think is an amazing game in MyTown. Keith stressed that developers must look inward and decide what a team's strengths are, and then capitalize on those different strengths.

The last piece of wisdom that Keith imparted upon the audience (this piece came from the Disruptive Innovations panel) was that developers must figure out where they want to be in 6-8 months from now, and pivot immediately. In other words, if you're reacting to changes in the market when they happen, you're too late.

Today was the last day that anyone from Booyah will be speaking, but we'll be around for the rest of the week enjoying the conference. We've loved our interactions with those who have introduced themselves to us thus far, so don't be a stranger and come say hi!

A Day In The Life Of A GDC First-Timer

As I walked into the Moscone Center this morning for the Game Developers Conference, a feeling of bemusement permeated throughout my body. Literally hundreds of people, approximately 95% male and 5% female (who would've guessed, right?), were bright-eyed and anxious to enter a room at 10 AM where an hour-long lecture was about to commence. Surely I couldn't have been at the right venue. I knew that there were going to be lectures at the GDC of course; but I expected to see plasma screens plastered wall-to-wall, and have all the coolest new games on display. This is after all, a convention for game developers. There were a few sponsored stations with Xbox's and gaming computers, but for the most part these were vacant. Instead, people seemed to be drawn to the various talks of the industry that were being held. Gradually I eased out of my confused state and welcomed the wonderful vibe that everyone in the building seemed to share: excitement. It really is an amazing thing to see so many dedicated individuals excited about the things they do, and I was happy to be a part it all.

The first talk that I attended was keynoted by Gareth Davis, the Platform Manager for Facebook. The lecture was loosely based around the principle that the inclusion of friends changes the entire gaming landscape. While we here at Booyah definitely agree with this sentiment (as you'll see with our social additions to our next version of MyTown due in mid-March), it seemed that this talk quickly devolved into a talk about how awesome Facebook is, and how everyone should use them. Not that I don't agree, Facebook is an extremely powerful platform, but I had hoped for a more focused talk. This is not to say that I didn't take anything away from this speech or the others I attended after; the knowledge that Facebook will be deploying a cross-device platform was very intriguing as was listening to industry experts, but it didn't compare to what I learned from simply talking to the attendees of the conference. It became apparent very early on that everyone here is in the same boat. We're all working on ways to create games that people, like you, love. As such, everyone was ready and willing to give constructive feedback to each other. 

I ended my day by going to a talk about ways in which to innovate in a crowded space. This really resonates with Booyah as we are always trying to find new ways to engage our users and to create a truly unique experience. From Booyah Society to MyTown 2.1, we have constantly tried to stay ahead of the curve so that our users will reap the benefits.

Tomorrow our CEO, Keith Lee, will talk about the implications of real-world gaming as well as speak on a panel regarding Disruptive Innovations. We'll write a summary of all that happens so make sure to check the blog again tomorrow!

Gearing Up For GDC

The office is abuzz with excitement in anticipation for the five-day Game Developers Conference (GDC) beginning tomorrow. A contingent of Booyah employees will be attending the event to monitor the happenings of our highly-evolving space. We'll all be sporting our kick-ass new Booyah t-shirts, so if you see any of us, make sure to stop and say hi! If you aren't able to find us in the venue, tweet at us saying where you are and make sure to use the #MyTown hashtag. We'll do our absolute best to navigate our way to your location!

Our own CEO, Keith Lee, will be speaking on the varying aspects and implications of real-world gaming on Wednesday at 11:45 AM as well as participating on a panel regarding Disruptive Innovations on Wednesday at 2:15 PM; more info on the latter here. If you want to know about our future plans and how we hope to continue giving you the best experiences possible, then head on over to these panels; they're definitely talks you don't want to miss!

If you can't make the event, don't fret; we've got you covered. We'll make sure to give you a summary of all the happenings at the GDC in a blog post and we'll be tweeting from the event the whole time. If there's something you especially want to hear about, just let us know and we'll do our best to accommodate.

Hope to see some of you there!

The Booyah Team

MyTown Mogul Contest Winners Revealed!

Our first official contest has closed and we are excited to announce the winners. Congratulations Legati on owning the highest net worth town in all of MyTown! With a net worth of over $101.5 billion (that's right, BILLION), Legati edged out his closest competitor, S. Calos, by $2 billion (which by the way is the average net worth of a town for a level 40 player!). As a reward for his efforts, we will be sending a $250 iTunes gift card his way. Those who rounded out the top 10 of net worth towns will be sent a $100 iTunes gift card. A complete list of the winners is below.

We're also sending out 50 t-shirts to those who owned the highest valued single property in a state. We decided we wanted to spread the love, so if someone owned multiples of these, we chose the runner-up. Similarly, if an owner of one of these properties is on the top 10 net worth towns list then the shirt will be going to the next person in line. At the end of the contest, the highest value property in all of MyTown was the Galaxy Salon in Nevada, coming in at $627,660,000 and owned by Chizz Bit. Interestingly, CVS Pharmacy and Buffalo Wild Wings had the most locations on the top state list with three each.

As with all games, there are cheaters in MyTown. This is an unfortunate circumstance that all games have to deal with. To make this contest fair to the majority of our users (99.9%), we banned those who we believed cheated from reaping any of the aforementioned prizes. The brainiacs over here at Booyah! figured out who cheated by doing a few mathematical analyses. We took the price of the highest valued property and multiplied that by 25 (the maximum # of property slots) to get a "perfect" town. Then we calculated the optimal amount of cash on hand (collecting rent every 30 minutes on the dot for 24 hours) that a person could get from these properties, and added that to the "perfect town." Basically this number gave us what a robot could do if he played all the time and traveled around the country to buy the highest net worth properties. We also threw out the towns of those who were spoofing packets and hacking the game (we're flattered they took the time, it made us smile, but we can't reward them for this).

Any town that had a net worth above this number was disqualified from the competition. This was the only way (and best in our mind) to still reward our power users while disqualifying the cheaters. We believe this was the best solution.

The MyTown Mogul Contest was just the first of many competitions we will be holding. Make sure to follow Booyah! on Twitter and on Facebook as some contests will be exclusive to our fans who follow us on these platforms.

Thanks again guys for your continued support and congratulations to the winners!

For your pleasure, the winners are listed below!

Highest Net Worth Towns:

1. Legati, $101,541,083,381
2. S. Calos, $99,423,684,699
3. Swimatm, $90,545,894,734
4. MOSES, $82,983,490,435
5. Mike, $77,448,616,174
6. Brian, $72,648,508,497
7. Mike 228, $69,905,058,702
8. ?Raleighs, $57,814,945,243
9. Kevin, $53,783,485,674
10. Elif, $52,397,753,473

Highest Valued Single Property By State:

• Alaska: Farmer CEB, Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts, $571,543,500
• Alabama: Sean, Sheraton Birmingham Hotel, $524,851,250
• Arkansas: Nick, Baymont Inn & Suites, $460,362,000
• Arizona: William, Olive Garden, $569,807,500
• California: Marcus, Buffalo Wild Wings, $579,493,000
• Colorado: Thejeffy21, Uptown Salon, $539,291,500
• Connecticut: Axl, Sheraton Bradley Airport, $503,867,000
• Delaware: Brenna, Buffalo Wild Wings - Newark, $531,786,000
• Florida: Pinky Toad,  One Eyed Jack's, $588,035,000
• Georgia: Paul Hsu, McDonald's, $579,317,500
• Hawaii: MzDonna, Jamba Juice, $547,816,500
• Iowa: Bob, State Farm Insurance, $559,143,000                 
• Idaho: Mackinley, Jamba Juice, $409,620,750
• Illinois: Kim taewan, Supercuts, $571,102,000
• Indiana: Chad, KFC, $599,130,000
• Kansas: Jesse, CVS/pharmacy, $468,766,500
• Kentucky: Big Mak, Kumon, $548,509,500
• Louisiana: Asherdale, CVS/pharmacy, $587,242,500
• Massachusetts: Dylan, Pizza Shuttle, $586,265,000
• Maryland: #26, Thai Heaven, $572,977,500
• Maine: Diego, Heaven & Earth Wellness Center, $374,893,750
• Michigan:Banjerd, Subway, $567,830,250
• Minnesota: Jonathon, Miami Ad School Minneapolis, $540,082,250
• Missouri: Zero, Forest Park, $541,106,750
• Mississippi: Craigory, Buffalo Wild Wings - Ridgeland, $402,645,000
• Montana: Sigue, Steiner's Kit Kat, $268,233,750
• North Carolina: Tito, All About You Salon & Day Spa, $564,952,500
• North Dakota: The ****, Dairy Queen, $343,023,000
• Nebraska: Joe, Pepperjax Grill, $548,528,750
• New Hampshire: Rob, Holiday Inn Concord, $347,177,250
• New Jersey: Ashish ;-), Club Tru, $584,680,500
• New Mexico: Chris H, AT&T Mobility, $576,940,000
• Nevada: Chizz Bit, Galaxy Salon, $627,660,000
• New York: Roci, Smith's Tavern, $607,055,000
• Ohio: Cdog, Starbucks, $586,686,750
• Oklahoma: A-ROD, Sky Limited Hair Designs, $579,317,500
• Oregon: Schrader, Slice Of Heaven Pizza & Pasta, $538,900,000
• Pennsylvania: Ron Balla, The Klein Company, $574,562,500
• Rhode Island: Mattchew, CVS/pharmacy, $ 423,021,750
• South Carolina: Stephanie, Annie's Inn Bed & Breakfast, $551,580,000
• South Dakota: Chantel, Holiday Inn Sioux Falls-City Centre, $448,497,000
• Tennessee: Sasha, Germantown Cafe, $557,216,000
• Texas: EnterName, Taco Bell, $605,470,000
• Utah: KingCrawl, Slc Ink, $559,505,000
• Virginia: ??Erik??, Arby's, $601,317,750
• Vermont: Green Mountain Suites Hotel, $496,427,250
• Washington: Suzanne, Panama Hotel Tea & Coffee House, $572,865,000
• Wisconsin: Aaron, Clarion Suites Central, $542,862,500
• West Virginia: Johnna, Sam's Hot Dogs, $451,524,000
• Wyoming: Kong, OfficeMax- Printing Equipment & Supplies, $254,120,250

Meet Our Team: Tracy Espeleta

Tracy Espeleta is a producer here at Booyah! Her main duty is to make sure that each of our releases go over as smoothly as possible. A self-professed girl-gamer, Tracy has already asserted herself as a force to be reckoned with. Don't let her charming demeanor distract you when playing video games with her; she will destroy you, and you will cry afterward (trust us). Prior to Booyah, Tracy worked at EA and worked on titles such as Dead Space and Dante's Inferno.

How’d you get into production?
I got into production while I was working at EA. I had the awesome opportunity to work on pretty big scale projects and then decided I wanted to switch gears into a hot, new market! I'm lucky most of the folks here at Booyah come from gaming backgrounds - it makes the transition not at all difficult.

Current favorite apps?
Plants vs. Zombies! I've almost missed my train stop because of it.

What games have you played recently?
I just played through Heavy Rain....and loved it. It's hard for me to recommend because it's not a "game" by any traditional sense...but if you like point and click adventures, a good drama, and can get over bad voice acting - then this is the game for you!

What do you do in your free time?
I play games and buy shoes...in no particular order.

What’s in your recently played list?
Ok Go - This Too Shall Pass....just because they released a pretty awesome new video for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

What cool things are you working on right now?
Working on the latest release for MyTown where we're focusing on social features! Every time we wipe our test database, I get sad and lonely without any friends...

What properties do you have in MyTown?
My home away from home - Stanford Shopping Center (see shoe vice noted up above)

MyTown Contest Comes To A Close

Greetings aspiring magnates,

The MyTown Mogul Contest has come to a close, and in just two days (Friday 3/5/10) we'll be crowning the Donald Trump of MyTown. We've taken a preliminary gander at some of your towns and suffice to say, we're blown away by what many of you have accomplished. The enterprising individual who amassed the highest net worth town--the sum of their property values and cash on hand--out of over 1.2 million users will be the recipient of a $250 iTunes Gift Card. The nine runners-up in this contest will be given a $100 iTunes card as reward for their outstanding efforts. Winners will be contacted through the email addresses linked to their MyTown accounts (so hopefully you all gave valid addresses!).

In addition to rewarding those with the highest net worth towns, we are honoring those who own the highest valued single property in each state. These 50 property owners will have a limited edition vintage Booyah! t-shirt sent to their house and will be given our eternal gratitude (value of said gratitude is being hotly debated by industry analysts...but we think it's worth a lot).

As always, we'd like to thank all of our dedicated users for making MyTown what it is today. We appreciate all of your support and we continually strive to give you the best experiences possible.

To be the first to hear about the winners, as well as news and future contests, make sure to follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.

MyTown News: Video on Revision3; Partnering with H&M!

Hey folks,

Over the weekend, we had a cool video review of MyTown on Revision3 and Blip.tv.  Definitely check it out HERE.  They explained it way better than we could have :)

In other news, starting last week, we signed a partnership with H&M that drops in-game virtual items based on proximity to their 200 real-life store locations! Head to a nearby H&M store to get some of their latest pieces -- plus you might get a special H&M lottery ticket.  Here are some recent articles from VentureBeat and Ryan Spoon.

Expect more cool partnerships in the upcoming weeks.  And let us know what you'd want! As always, we love to hear your feedback! Drop a comment or send an e-mail to feedback@booyah.com

Variety is the spice of life after all...

We’ve been hearing a lot of feedback regarding our new building design and wanted to take the time to address some of the concerns people are having about the new look of their buildings. Also, we wanted to give you a sneak peek of what to expect in the future!

Our plan is to make sure our fans can have a town that’s full of diverse buildings. We think a lot of our fans have some level of emotional connection to their town, so we’re looking at ways to help personalize that experience even more.

Just to name a couple of upcoming features - we’re planning to tie the look of each building specifically to what kind of business they are... i.e. you’re favorite pizza place down the street will look like a restaurant, that favorite shopping destination you bought will now look just like a store, and so forth. We’ll give you control of how your town will come together! We’re also currently looking at different ways people can customize their town with sweet decorations and awesome landmarks.

We understand the challenges of having different buildings too. Namely, it’s hard to visually compare the levels of your buildings across the variety. We’re on it! We’re planning on delivering a unified visual update to help clearly distinguish the levels of each of the buildings.

We’re getting there, so we hope in the meantime our fans can appreciate some of the diversity we introduced in the latest update. After all, there’s not a lot of real towns where all the buildings look the same.

...maybe except Vancouver.

As always, we love to hear your feedback! Have other ideas? Think we’re crazy? Let us know! Drop a comment or send an e-mail to feedback@booyah.com

MyTown Contest: 5 more days to play and win!

Hey MyTown fans!!

First off, the Booyah team would like to apologize again for the disappearing properties and overall bugginess that you've been experiencing with the new update.  That said, we hope you're enjoying the awesome new features and local deals being offered! For example, try checking-in to an H&M store for a surprise :)

Have any of you visited Weebo's home planet yet? If not, you can do so by purchasing the Sci-Fi Theme Pack from the MyTown store! If you look carefully, you can also see little baby Weebos, LOL :P

In light of the past few days, we've decided to give everyone 5 more days to keep building their towns and raising their values before we name the winners of our contests. Just to give you a sneak peak on some of the prizes we're giving away, check out Morgan below! Morgan is one of the lead designers on MyTown by the way! 

 
So the contest will officially end on Wednesday, March 3rd. The winners will be notified by March 5th, so make sure you have a valid email address linked to your MyTown account so that we can notify you if you are a winner. 

Good luck everyone!!!

MyTown 2.1 Bug Update - Lost Properties

Hey folks,

We've found a bug that has the possibility of deleting your properties.  This happens only if you bought properties in MyTown 1.0 or before January 20th -- your properties can disappear after your latest update.

However, don't fret!  Your properties are not permanently lost.  All properties are saved on our servers and they will be updated in the next few days.  The value of your properties is currently converted into your cash in MyTown.

We are *REALLY* *REALLY* sorry about this bug.  Thanks again for being so patient with us. This bug does not affect the contest. 

You can follow us on Twitter @BooyahTeam for the latest updates on this matter.