Interview: Sam Glassenberg, CEO, Funtactix
The recently launched Moondo "cross-gaming universe" from Funtactix is a intriguing proposition—an online world made of a variety of different games in different genres, in which the player's character, abilities and items are shared between.
To explore this concept fully, we talked to Sam Glassenberg, CEO of Funtactix, talking about his reason for starting the studio, cross-gaming`s benefits, and feedback so far.
Why did you begin Funtactix?
Sam Glassenberg: Funtactix is a small, two-year-old game studio. We wanted to take the core thrills of hardcore action games and share it with friends who aren’t hardcore gamers. Why should someone have to buy a $300 console or a $2,000 gaming PC and a $60 FPS to get the thrills of playing games based on concepts like capture the flag or team death match?
At Funtactix, we tease out the core ‘fun’ of these games and put it in a much simpler package you can play with your friends who aren’t hardcore gamers. There are no 20-key combinations: just a quick point and click entry into short game sessions that provide a colorful and varied multiplayer experience.
And that's Moondo?
SG: Moondo is what we call a cross-gaming universe—which means that for the first time, a casual gamer can bring their character and virtual items with them from game to game and across different genres of games.
For example, a power item that provides speed increases a player’s speed across all games in the universe—racing, shooting, sports—and games that haven’t even released yet. People no longer have to abandon an investment in a game when they to move onto another game.
Moodo doesn’t have cheesy flash games. It provides 3D multiplayer action served up in short game sessions that lets players move from game to game.
It has a very child-like visual design, is that the intended audience?
SG: Moondo actually isn’t exclusively designed for a specific age group, though we do find that our players are primarily in their teens and twenties. It’s a place for gamers of different backgrounds to come together and enjoy the thrills of ‘core’ games in a casual package without having to invest lots of patience and money.
There are a lot of virtual worlds coming out these days, but Moondo is the only one that offers high-production, 3D multiplayer action games in a Web browser, and can take your character, friends, abilities, and virtual items with you between different genres of games.
Can you go into more detail on this "cross-gaming" concept?
SG: Players often invest so much in a game--money, hundreds of hours of play time--but when they want to try something new, they have to throw that all away and start from scratch. Traditional online games are designed to keep users invested in the same fundamental gameplay: grind away to enhance a character. This investment becomes a barrier to trying something new. We wanted to take that investment and turn it from a barrier into a catalyst.
We want people to try something new, and cross-gaming encourages that. For the first time, a person can bring a character and items from game to game, and they provide the same benefit in every game as well as future games in Moondo. We setup our whole studio and built in a whole load of technology so we could release completely different games every 8-12 weeks, and we deeply integrate new activities with existing character and items.
So what do you see as the benefits?
SG: There are quite a few benefits:
Variety – Mainstream gamers and web users are always in search of new activities and experiences. Now you can get the joy of developing a character in a world without having to give up that investment when you want to try something new.
No Grind – We’ve found casual gamers don’t have the patience for the MMO grind. That grind goes away in Moondo—you develop your character by playing fun, multiplayer action games with your friends.
No Wait – We built a proprietary streaming system to get you into the game as fast as possible. After an initial 6MB flash-game-sized download, you can create a character and get into the game with your friends. High-resolution textures and high-quality audio literally stream in the background while you play. It’s all about getting in the game quickly.
Fun – Casual gamers can now enjoy the core fun of hardcore game dynamics like ‘capture the flag’ and ‘team death match’ without an expensive price tag, the long process of downloading, installing and loading a game, and the daunting FPS interface.
How are you going to monetize it?
SG: Moondo is free-to-play, and to support the service and community, we’re going to introduce a number of virtual items for sale to Moondo gamers. We will also have companies and brands sponsor content such as tracks and items.
What are the advantages to the new HD version of Moondo?
SG: With the new HD version, the Moondo games scale up to just about any resolution—as big as you can stretch your browser, including a full screen. I remember when the (formerly) next-gen consoles were flaunting how you could finally game in HD. Those of us PC gamers were like “wait a minute, we’ve been gaming in HD for years!” Somehow with the move the browser, PC games ended up in tiny little boxes on web pages. Moondo’s new HD version puts an end to all that.
We’ve also added cool post-processing effects for higher-end graphics cards. But you can still run Moondo on low-end machines with integrated graphics.
How popular has it been so far?
SG: We’ve seen amazing results on the beta. As it turns out, moving between different game genres with your friends in short game sessions is hugely appealing to casual users with short attention spans. Users play for much longer sessions, and capability to keep a character with the same ability across games really keeps them on our site. We have users from all corners of the earth, in different age groups, and with different gaming backgrounds—We have users in Romania that have formed a racing team with users from Israel and Portugal, for example.
We’ve also gotten lots of feedback from our users that this is the highest-quality content they’ve seen in the browser, and the best thing out there in the free-to-play space. Of course, there’s lots of feedback as well on things we should improve, and new platforms we should support. We’re pulling out all the stops at Funtactix to make it to make these requests happen.
