Scoreloop is announcing today that it will make it easier than ever for iPhone game makers to put social networking features in their games.
This so-called CoreSocial technology, described as a white label social gaming platform, lets developers insert features into their games such as score leaderboards, achievement medals, cross promotions and virtual currency. Those features get gamers to brag to their friends and stay connected with each other. That makes them stick with the games longer.
San Francisco-based Scoreloop has made this platform available to game developers for a while. But now it is adding the ability to take its features and completely integrate them within a game. So now a gamer can use Scoreloop’s social features within the game’s user interface itself, rather than leaving the game to go to a Scoreloop app. To gamers, the Scoreloop features will seem like they’re built into the game. On top of that, if the developers desire, Scoreloop’s own programmers will do the integration work themselves.
Scoreloop gets paid through the purchase of virtual currency. For instance, if gamers want to challenge each other to a match, they have to purchase Scoreloop Coins. Then they can engage in a multiplayer match. Marc Gumpinger, chief executive of Scoreloop, said in an interview that launch partners for this new service include the publishers of the Parachute Panic and Astro Boy (top) games that are already available on iTunes, and the yet-to-be-released Pee Monkey Jungle Fire game (right).
Gumpinger said the platform is good for developers who don’t want to reinvent social gaming features and instead want to concentrate on making a game fun. Big brands will probably like this kind of platform because it gives them an easy way to get into the iPhone game market.
The company competes with the Plus+ service of Ngmoco and Aurora Feint’s Open Feint platform. But Gumpinger says his company can be viewed as a more neutral party by developers because Scoreloop doesn’t make games itself.
Scoreloop has 20 employees and has raised $3 million in funding from Target and Earlybird.