Ad-supported Mobile gaming portal Cellufun is best known for its MobilePet series, including MobilePet myPhone. However the company recently released Space Wars, a massively multiplayer mobile game (MMMG) for up to 120 other players. Games On Deck talked to CEO Arthur Goikhman about the company and its latest titles.
Games On Deck: Let's begin with a little bit about you. Did you start the company?
Arthur Goikhman: Cellufun was started in January of 2005 by three founders: myself, Steve Dacek, who is our COO/CTO, and Cary Torkelson, our VP of Research. The three of us have worked together in a variety of endeavors for well over a decade.
GOD: Why Cellufun, why now?
AG: Billions of people are walking around with a connected game console in their pocket. Yet, at the time we were starting Cellufun, Tetris was taking over - from Snake, no less - as the most compelling game offering for the phone. Something had to be done about that. Today, Cellufun is the largest mobile entertainment community, built mainly on the understanding of three important factors:
- 1. When you roll out a mobile game, it has to work on today's phones, not on a phone announced for two years out.
- 2. A game has to first be fun; you can extend that by downloading additional features and providing multiplayer support. But, the game has to play well with spotty, or no, connectivity.
- 3. The cell phone is a global phenomenon, so you have to address a global market.
GOD: What inspires and motivates you?
AG: Few things are as rewarding as seeing literally hundreds of thousands of people, from all corners of the world, play our games every day. But I also haven't given up on being able to sponsor an X-Prize at some point! I love the process of invention, of figuring out how to make the world better through the use of technology.
GOD: Tell us about Space Wars.
AG: For all of us at Cellufun, Space Wars was about recapturing the sense of fun we had when text-based MMGs ruled college campuses. This is before, I'm sure, many of your readers were born. The cell phone is such a perfect channel for a game like this; we simply had to do it. The key elements were that users should be able to play at any time, be able to play on even the most basic handsets and, of course, have it be available free of charge.
So, with Space Wars we created something that falls into a new category of massively multiplayer mobile game (MMMG), which means that a lot of people can play the game at the same time. In the case of Space Wars, users can compete in real time against up to 120 other players via the mobile Internet.
The game is set in a virtual galaxy, and the goal is to dominate the universe by building up fleets, forging alliances using "subspace" chat, dispatching spy probes and developing new technologies that will help you win the game.
One of the most inventive features of Space Wars is the ability to "play" the game when not playing the game. This means that users can schedule activities to happen during non-game play; for instance, when they are sleeping, working, or doing other activities. The game also takes into account social aspects and what it considers great rules of the universe, such as keeping your population happy via religion in order to avoid revolt.
Additionally, Space Wars allows users to calculate when their fleets will reach specific destinations, which may take minutes or hours depending on the distance. This way, the game avoids time zone issues by allowing players worldwide to engage in the same game play throughout the day, with no real disadvantage.
