At our Startups in Asia conference I briefly met up with Juha Paananen, who heads up GamesMadeMe, a Finnish-Singaporean gaming company which focuses on ‘cross-browser’ HTML5 games. Juha told me a little about the company’s goals in the gaming space:
Our main focus is uniting gamers from different devices and platforms. So far too many games are just divided into silos in terms of devices (like iPhone) or social networks (Facebook). Just take a look at all the disclaimers Zynga has on their Cityville game for iPhone; gamers are frustrated they can’t continue building the same city they have on Facebook.
Their first title, Dollar Isle, has been in open beta for a while now, and despite my aversion for casual browser-based games, I decided to give it a try [1].
Dollar Isle puts you in a bit of a boring role from the start. You aren’t a ninja, a super-hero, or an Italian plumber — No, instead this game puts you in the role of a real-estate developer, who has to build upon a given portion of land (and sea), completing goals to level-up and expand your area.
I initially had to force myself to come back and play this game. As a HTML5 game that lives in the browser, there is no reminder to come back as there is with an iOS title. While I was playing the game in the browser on laptop and on iPad, Juha also pointed out to me that Dollar Isle also exists as a Facebook app [2] – and I could use the same credentials for both, which was nice. Switching between the various platforms I got to see what Juha called their “NONSTOP technology platform,” as I could pick up where I left off on any platform, as could any other player, regardless of device or platform.
 Playing at dollarisle.com |
 Dollar Isle on Facebook |
Despite my distaste for these types of city building games, I found myself coming back and to play Dollar Isle more than I wish to admit. I’ve built up a pretty expansive empire of hotels, and I’m really hoping that maintaining it doesn’t become more of a habit than it already is. I won’t get any work done…
Juha explained to me that while the company will continue to build Dollar Isle further, there are some other games in the pipeline that will implement all the things they have learned on this one.
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