Edmonton, Canada (PRWEB) March 4, 2008 — PlayPond, a leading developer of casual games, today announced the launch of DragonStone™, a new puzzle action game. DragonStone brings together elements of fantasy role-playing, adventuring, and puzzle action for a unique game experience that appeals to all ages. DragonStone carries a retail price of $19.99, and a free demo of the game, with no time limit, is available for immediate download at PlayPond Games. Under development for more than two years, DragonStone is PlayPond’s most ambitious and largest title to date.
DragonStone brings to life a world of fantasy and enchanting visuals in an action packed game. Players take on the role of Baldric the Knight on his perilous quest to recover the DragonStone. Players will have to overcome puzzles, interact with strange inhabitants, and use the gold they collect to buy character upgrades as they journey across 8 different lands.
Game play consists of color-matching, puzzle-solving, and action. A bow located at the top of the screen is used for dropping stones or firing arrows into a scrolling playfield. Each playfield is made up of numerous puzzle obstacles and enemies that float on top of platforms.
Puzzle elements are overcome by matching them with similar colored stones while enemies can be dispatched by shooting them or by using one of the game’s power-ups. Players will also win Honors for completing specific tasks within the game, such as defeating 25 enemies. The unique blend of puzzle elements, rewards, and unfolding storyline gives players a great sense of progress and accomplishment.
DragonStone Key Features include:
* Adventure and Puzzle Game Modes
* Unique Action and Puzzle Elements
* 80 Original Levels
* Multiple Game Endings
* Unlockable Honors
* Upgrades
* Incredible Visuals and Sounds
About PlayPond:
PlayPond develops games that are fun to play and have mass market appeal. The company is owned by pixelStorm Inc. and operates www.PlayPond.com offering game downloads across multiple genres including Hidden Object Games, Arcade Games, Puzzle Games, and Simulation Games. In 2005, the company released Bankshot Billiards 2, a billiards simulation game, for the Xbox 360 Live Arcade. The company has also developed casual games for Microsoft and Electronic Arts.
PlayPond, pixelStorm and DragonStone are trademarks of pixelStorm entertainment studios Inc. and may be registered in some countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners and are used for the benefit of those owners.
Dresden, Germany (PRWEB) December 6, 2007 — As ackBytes has announced today, the arcade action video game Marble Sheep is ready and available for download on the Marble Sheep website.
Marble Sheep is an arcade game in which the player must help a little sheep to complete a total of 30 arcade-style levels packed with tons of different enemies, power-ups and logic challenges - each to be solved in a given time.
Do you remember those times sitting in the sandbox playing with glass marbles? Now you´re trapped inside one of those marbles. Ready to roll!
Ulf Ackermann, the developer of the casual game, said “Do you remember those times sitting in the sandbox playing with glass marbles? Now you´re trapped inside one of those marbles. Ready to roll!” This is great fun for players of any age.
“Marble Sheep was made to capture the best classic arcade gaming elements from different genres such as jump & run, racing or logic puzzle games.” The experiment did work, players have lots of fun racing down platforms, tubes or loopings. Evading dangerous obstacles such as flesh-eating plants, slime monsters or scarecrows is a blast. As in racing games, players have limited time to beat a stage. But this only works if they make wise use of the power-ups scattered in the levels and solve some physics riddles on the way to the exit.
Marble Sheep features a colorful, comic-like environment divided into three themes. Passing grassy hills, snowy mountains or deep dark jungles is the only way for the cute little sheep to find the good magician “Mumpelwitz”, who can get him out of the marble misery. Fortunately the game is free of violence, thus it delivers fun to a very wide range of gamers. A kid will be able to learn to control the mouse better, while casual gamers can just relax from work by exploring the challenging setting. Hardcore gamers may try to beat the latest online highscores.
Marble Sheep is currently available for PC download (14,95 $) and runs well on older hardware, too. The free demo features 4 levels of the full version.
For more information visit the ackBytes website or the ackBytes gamedev blog.
SEATTLE, Sept. 4 /PRNewswire/ — PopCap Games, the leading developer and publisher of casual games, today unveiled the results of a survey targeting “white collar” workers who play casual video games. While white collar workers’ consumption of casual games at home mirrored the overall casual gamer audience fairly closely, the survey revealed some surprising facts about the playing of casual games in the workplace — and the motives behind the activity. Among the 7,102 consumers who answered the survey, 40% were identified as “white collar” workers. With conservative estimates pegging the casual games market at over 200 million people, this representative sample suggests that as many as 80 million white collar workers play casual games. Of those white collar workers surveyed, nearly a quarter (24%) said they play “at work” — with fully 35% of CEOs, CFOs and other senior executives saying they play at work.
“It’s not surprising that today’s business professionals are casual video game users,” said Carly Drum, a recognized expert on workplace issues and Managing Director of Drum Associates, a leading executive recruitment firm. “The face of today’s executive workforce is definitely changing: we’re seeing employees who are much more technologically savvy and familiar with all forms of new media from social networking to blogging and beyond. So, it’s natural that some business executives would also look to casual videogames that they can play on their PC, mobile phone or BlackBerry during a work break, as a way to quickly relax and recharge their batteries, so to speak.”
The survey identified 2,842 of the respondents as white collar workers — employed in management, executive management, sales, accounting, medical, technical, consulting or administrative capacities. Of all 2,842 white collar workers surveyed, 98% said they played casual games at home and 24% said they played during work hours. Of all white collar casual gamers, 65% indicated they earn $50,000 or more in annual income (compared to 53% of casual game players overall), 22% said they earned $100,000 or more per year, and 58% indicated they had a college degree (compared to 46%). 91% of white collar gamers are age 30 or older, 68% are 40 or older, and 39% are 50 or older.
Playing At Work: Of those who said they played during work hours,
— 14% admitted they had played casual games during business meetings or
conference calls, with two thirds (65%) of those saying they did so at
least once a month.
— 61% said they play during lunch or other official break periods.
— 52% said they play “during my work day, when I need a short break.”
— 19% said they play “at the end of my work day, to unwind.”
— 11% said they play “at the beginning of my work day before I get
started.”
In addition, those who said they played during work hours said they do so with considerable frequency:
— 53% said they play at work at least once a day.
— 79% said they play at work several times a week or more.
— 84% said they play casual games at work for between 15 and 60 minutes
each day, on average.
— 11% said they played casual games at work for an hour or more each day
As to the effects of playing casual games at work, those who do so acknowledged the following effects after taking a short game break at work:
— 84% said they felt “more relaxed and less stressed out.”
— 52% said they felt more confident, more energetic, more productive
and/or more mentally focused.
Senior Executives Have More Fun
Of all white collar gamers who participated in the survey, 241 (slightly more than 8%) were identified as “senior executives” — CEOs, CFOs, presidents and other C-level executives. Compared to white collar gamers overall, these senior executives indicated a considerably higher frequency of play, including playing at work:
— 35% of senior executives said they play casual games at work, vs. 23%
of other white collar gamers.
— 70% said they play “during work, when I need a short break” — vs. 49%
of other white collar gamers.
— 61% said they play once a day or more frequently during each work day,
vs. 51% of other white collar gamers.
— 71% said their typical game-play session at work lasts 15 minutes or
longer, vs. 62% of other white collar gamers.
Drum says that today’s workers are very interested in employment that offers work-life balance — and employers need to be sensitive to this. “It is a highly competitive job market and combating stress is a big part of maintaining a high level of productivity for all employees — and providing a less stressful environment can equate to higher employee retention. Any way a worker can alleviate job stress through exercise, diet, increased sleep, or relaxing with a book or casual video game is a good thing.”
Among all white collar gamers (not just those who play at work), when asked to choose the single most important reason for playing casual games, 72% chose a reason related to improving their mental state, while 24% chose “entertainment.” As Cynthia Whitehead, a lawyer from Oakland, California, puts it, “After a long day of writing laws for formerly communist countries, the siren song of Bejeweled will beckon and I’ll find myself unwinding with a few levels of gem-swapping.”
Nearly half (48%) of respondents who said they play casual games at work indicated that they supervise other co-workers. Of those in supervisory roles, 79% said they encouraged their staff to take brief mental breaks during the workday, and 29% said that more than half of the employees who reported to them played casual games during the workday.
Fully 21% of all survey respondents said that at least some of their casual game playing occurs on their mobile device (cell phone, BlackBerry, Pocket PC, PDA, etc.). Of those who said they played on a mobile device, a whopping 68% said they had downloaded and purchased a game for their mobile device, roughly six times greater than the number for consumers overall.
Of all white collar workers who said they play casual games (not just those who play at work), 87% have been playing casual games for three years or more, and 58% have been playing for six years or more. In addition, 93% play at least once a week, 85% play twice a week or more, and 46% play every day. Three quarters (75%) said their casual gaming activities consume three or more hours of time per week.
Survey Methodology
This international research was conducted by Information Solutions Group (ISG; http://www.infosolutionsgroup.com) exclusively for PopCap Games.
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