Facebook Starts Testing Games Only News Feed
Gaming is booming these days. According to mobile app site Fisku, in December a new daily record was reached concerning iOS app downloads as the number of daily downloads peaked at 6.04 million. Even more interesting here is the fact that half of the time U.S. consumers spend in mobile apps is with playing their favorite game.
Facebook wants their share of the cake and started testing yet another way how it promotes, presents and makes games even more social. Games are already massive on Facebook: some titles manage to get nearly 8 million new likes a week. Now the social network is putting even more emphasis on creating a greater discovery of and engaging experience with games on Facebook
Here's what’s new:
- After introducing games stories on mobile, the same is now happening on the Facebook website. Games that are being played by your friends will be displayed in the News Feed allowing you to discover what they are currently playing.
- It is now possible to display on the Timeline which games a user is playing and likes most.
- When a friend sends an invitation to a game, it will be displayed in the right hand navigation in the new “app requests” menu.
- A new activity feed is being tested that exclusively features games related content your friends shared. In the screenshot below is a preview of what it looks like on Facebook:
Try out the new features
To try out those new features, simply go to Facebook and play one of GameDuell's games.
Maya Whiz – a game for those who like playing with fire!
Our developers are continuously working to make your gaming experience even more exciting.
They had a burning ambition to create something different, especially for the newly developed game, Maya Whiz Suddenly, a brilliant idea came to light: Boosts!
Boosts are special options with which you can score extra points by playing in different ways. For each duel with an entry fee, you can choose between 5 boosts at the beginning of the game: select up to 3 of the 5 to help blow up your score!
And here are the boosts:
- Multiplier: : This boost adds an extra multiplier card to your game.
- Extra-Joker: You have not one, but two Joker cards to use in a game.
- Bomb: When a bomb card is eliminated, an entire row is removed simultaneously.
- Fire-Boost: This boost helps you to enter into the fire mode faster, meaning more points.
- Extra-Time: For each time card eliminated, one second will be added to the game time.
Each player can choose up to three boosts per game that best suit their style of play. So you choose the best way to "burn" your opponent!
Are you already on pins and needles? Then come on down and play Maya Whiz For those with a little patience, you can read through the game rules before entering into the fire.
Many Christmas bonuses in GameDuell’s Holiday Special!
A wonderful tradition: the GameDuell Holiday Special!
Were you left off the Advent calendar Christmas list this year? Well, don’t fret! Once again, GameDuell is celebrating the holidays with the popular Holiday Special. You can clear away tons of great prizes. Which one will you choose? How much will you win? It's up to you!
Upgraded players at GameDuell are automatically included in the Holiday Special. It’s really easy: by playing duels with entry fees, no matter which game, win or lose, you collect snowflakes. Your snowflake balance is displayed after each game in your personal snowflake braometer. Once a new stage has been reached on the barometer, a new stand, with more rewards, is opened in the Holiday Shop. You can redeem the snowflakes you collected for festive prizes in the Shop.
Christmas spirit at GameDuell - The excellent prizes that are offered are playful and wrapped with cheer! Whimsically disguise yourself as Santa Claus, a reindeer or even as a Christmas tree to impress your friends or make your opponents jealous. There are also several great backgrounds images to choose from, sure to brighten up your profile picture! In addition, exciting free games await you starting at level 2.
Or would you rather have a game bonus? No problem! Among the awards are also several free bonuses.
The Holiday Special is simple and intuitive. If you would like to find out more, check out the detailed conditions of participation. You can collect snowflakes in the Holiday Special from December 8th through January 5th. The Holiday Shop will conveniently be open one week longer so that you can redeem as many snowflakes as you like. Have fun playing, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!
Stars-Spangled Banner and Many More – GameDuell is also Having Soccer Fever!
All of our offices have been decorated for weeks now. And everyone was really excited when the show finally started. Since our team is very international, we have quite a full arrange of colors on the walls and ceilings. The first flags were orange – even a tricot from Cameroon turned up. We all love soccer and our country colors, and this really shows these days!!!
In the last weeks we have set up a bunch of things in order to offer all GameDuell fans something special. For example, our game “SoccerMatch” is online – here you can swap soccer shoes, cups, whistles and, of course, soccer balls. The more combinations you get, the more goals you score to try to win the game. Really fun!!
Also, in line with this incredible worldwide soccer event, we created the Safari Bonus. By taking part in several GameDuell games you can climb up the bonus ladder. All you have to do then is answer the curious and fun questions that you find in your way, all of them dealing with our beloved soccer ball. And just by taking part you will win because for every correct answer you get, we donate 0,10 € to AMANDLA EduFootball e.V. You can find more information on this charity event here.
Now, all we can do is cross our fingers and root for our home team! Stars-Spangled banner, Black-Red-Gold, Orange, Red and Yellow, Blue-White-Red, Red-Blue…who will win?
NEW GAME: Klaverjassen launched on GameDuell.nl
We've got so
me really good news for all our Dutch fans - Klaverjassen is now available on www.gameduell.nl! The most beloved card game of the Netherlands consists of the two local versions Amsterdams and Rotterdams. Klaverjassen can be played with up to 4 persons and is great fun for all card game lovers. Prachtig!
Casual Connect Hamburg – GameDuell Participates as Platinum Sponsor
GameDuell joined this year's Casual Connect Europe in Hamburg as a platinum sponsor. The three-days games event started off with the keynote panel on Wednesday morning - Kai Bolik, our CEO, evaluated on "New Paradigms for Casual Games - A Look Into How We're Shaking Up the Industry". We've had a great time and we were able to meet quite a few business partners and people from the industry.
Casual Games Association Events are the premiere events for the casual games industry with over 3,500 professionals attending Casual Connect Events each year. Casual Connect Europe brings together the most talented and knowledgeable experts in the casual gaming field to further the casual games industry with the best of networking and learning.
Skat- and Romme Masters Finals in Berlin
For the 5th time, GameDuell has organized the world's biggest Skat tournament. This year, the Skat Masters were accompanied by the Rommé Masters, who celebrated a successful premiere in 2009. In more than 30 online qualification tournaments over the year, 140 people were nominated to participate in the live finals. These took place on last Saturday and Sunday in Berlin.
Despite the freezing winter weather with lots of snow, most finalists made it to the location. On Saturday, everyone tried their best to pass the exciting preliminary rounds to take part in the finales on the next day. The Skat finale on Sunday was played and recorded in a TV studio. The three players, who made it to the last round, were carlito12, frankbi and limbomann. After a well-balanced start, limbomann lost one Grand and was not able to catch up again – frankbi took the advantage of it and is the winner of this year's Skat Masters. Anyone who is interested can watch the TV finale on February 7, 2010 on DMAX. The first Rommé Masters Finale was fought out between three women, anjalu, hasi_liese and rosihexe44 – hasi_liese finished first with the best strategy. Congratulations!
Skat is the most popular card game in Germany and has a yearlong tradition. As GameDuell organizes the Masters together with the German Skat Players Association (“Deutscher Skat Verband” - DSKV), the tournament is held under the official DSKV Skat and Rommé rules. Those rules are explained in a video production: The “Skatschule” (in German) can be watched here: http://gameduell.de/skatschule.
Every year, we inspire hundreds of passionate card players - and we welcome more and more young people, who now participate besides the actual target group aged between 40 and 60. The 2010 tournament starts on February 5th, the exact dates for the finals are not yet fixed. After this successful year, we are all looking forward to a challenging card game season 2010.
www.gameduell.com www.skatmasters.de www.rommemasters.de
GameDuell Christmas Charity 2009
This year, we decided to make a donation for a Thailand primary school. Ban Tungklom School has 220 students aged from 4-12 years. You can get an impression of our visit here or in the slideshow below.
GameDuell Has Moved to a New Office!
After 6 successful years in our Berlin office in the Ackerstr. 14-15, our team has grown to more than 150 people now. So, finally we needed a little more space for all of us. After an extensive search we luckily found a great new office in the Greifswalderstr. 212-213, still in the center of Berlin and just around the corner of the famous Alexanderplatz. The actual office move was a really exciting weekend for all of us and we feel very happy in our new rooms. We will add some more pictures of our beautiful new home once it is all done, however, you can already get an impression of the whole moving event below.
Our new address: GameDuell GmbH - Greifswalder Str. 212-213 - 10405 Berlin - Germany