We recently introduced a feature which allows you to tell somebody else about a game you played and liked on Playyoo. This article shows you how to use it.

1. Sending a game

After you finish a game, and submit the score, you will come to the standard Playyoo “scorecard” section, which is included in all downloaded games. Once the connection with Playyoo has been established, and the data is updated, you will see the main menu. One of the options on the main menu is “send to a friend”:

If you select this option, you will move to the the Send To a Friend screen:

Here you must enter your friend’s phone number, and if you like, you can add a short message. We’re sorry, but for now you have to enter the phone number, you can’t look it up. We don’t have access to your contacts list, and if you think about, you’ll probably agree that that is just as well. However, we are working on an update which will make things a little easier.

You also need to enter the full phone number, including the international code. So, if you friend’s number is 0787 987654321, and she’s in the UK, you’ll need to enter 44787987654321.

After you’ve entered the phone number, and maybe a message, you can click on the Send button, and Playyoo will do the rest.

2. Receiving a game

Ok, let’s be honest here: we don’t actually send the game. We actually send a text message with a link to the game, on your behalf. One reason we do this is that your friend may well have a different phone model to you, and this requires us to package the game differently. Here is how the message looks:

When the message is opened, you can see the link. Accessing the link works a bit differently on various phones. On this Sony Ericsson K850i, it is simply a question of scrolling down to the link, which is then highlighted, and clicking:

The game page is then loaded:

And finally, you friend can play the game:

At the end of the game, your friend is invited to join Playyoo (if she’s not already a member) and add her score - and explore the rest of Playyoo at her leisure!

This is just the beginning. We’re working on some cool new stuff which will allow to track what happens with your sent games, and set up responses and challenges to keep things interesting. Oh, and the tiny little bugs which might just possibly get in your way … well, hopefully we know about them all, and we’re currently making sure they get well and truly squashed.

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We designed Playyoo with a couple of basic concepts in mind, to make mobile games more fun and more accessible. The Game Stream is designed to address the “accessible part”.

The Game Stream is a list of games which Playyoo thinks will interest you, and will work on your phone. Games which will not work on your phone will never appear in your Game Stream.

You can see the Game Stream both on the web, and on your phone. On the web, it is the strip running across the top of each page:

On your phone, each page shows 1 game, ordered in the Game Stream order:

As you play games, they are removed from your Game Stream. The basic idea here is that you’ll probably enjoy the game, but you’ll want to move on to the next one. Playyoo is about casual games, having fun, not deep core gaming (not that we’ve got any problem with that!)

Recently Played Games

Of course, you might actually want to play the game again. No problem - all you need to do is click “Only Show Your Recently Played Games” (web) or “See Recently Played” (mobile), and there it is.

Favourite Games

And if you really, really like the game, and want to keep it bookmarked, close to hand for the next time ? Easy - just click on add to favorites, and you’re done. You can find it just by clicking on “Only Show Your Favourites” (web) or “See Only Favourites” (mobile).

Bookmarking games

You can also use your favourites to mark games you discover while browsing the web site, and would like to play on your phone. You can simply use the flyout menu on the game icon to add it to your favourites - or remove it if you change your mind.

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In the meantime, here’s a little trick you can use, discovered by Ivan, one of our senior techies:

On the web site, click on “configure your game stream” (the link is in the bottom right of the game stream strip), and set all the sliders in “adjust your category mix” to the second level, as seen here:

The result should be that your gamestream is mainly populated with “custom” games, with a sprinkling of the highest rated Game Creator games.

Of course, you can click on the “Games” link in the green menu bar to see the full set of games currently available in Playyoo - and if you find a game which you think deserves more attention, then add t to your favourites, play it on your phone and give it a high rating.

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By the way, we assign a default rating of “3″ to new games. So a game rated 3 is average, 1 is poor, and 5 is excellent. You can change you rating of a game at any time: we only retain your latest rating.

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The point of this feature is to make it easier to login to Playyoo on your mobile phone. Now, rather than having to painfully enter your email address, you can choose a user ID of minimum 4 characters. Note that this has nothing to do with your nickname, and remains private.
The best way to use the short ID is to choose a sequence of letters which can be entered with single taps on your phone keyboard. For example, ADGJ, which is entered by typing 2-3-4-5 (somebody has already grabbed this one, unfortunately. I wanted it!).

Other strategies might be to choose a pattern, or to map to a number. For example, my birthday is 28 Feb (so, still time to buy presents), so I could try AT02.Other easy to remember numbers could be the first 4 of your spouse’s phone number, or your ZIP code.
Let us know how this works out for you, and if you have any suggestions.

Of course, you can also use this short ID to login on the web. And by the way, we’ve also added a third way to identify yourself: just use the mobile phone number you registered with.

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We want to make Playyoo a place where skilled Flash Lite developers - and that means all of you - can show off their talents, attract an audience and build up a great portfolio of games.

After the contest ends, we will be promoting the leading games and game developers, covering at least the top 20, not just the prize winners. We will be featuring the games on Playyoo, we will run interviews with developers on this blog and elsewhere, we will be showcasing their games to commercial partners, and we will be pushing them in general to the Adobe Flash Lite community. The Flash Lite community has got Playyoo off to a great start. Now we can start helping you in return.

We believe that Flash Lite has a big future, and while we hope that Playyoo will play a key part in that, coming from the user generated content side, we also believe there are great opportunities for individuals and small companies to develop a career in this market.

We have big plans ahead for making Playyoo an attractive resource for both hobbyist and professional Flash Lite developers, and we also hope to be able to make introductions to content purchasers.

We would love to hear from you about what you would like to see from Playyoo. Let us know through the developer forum, or contact us directly at support@playyoo.com

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So, if we know this, why did we choose to bet on Flash Lite? Well, Flash Lite allows us to do some very cool things. More to the point, is allows us to let YOU do some very cool things, as you will discover when we launch in December. The only real alternative technology, Java, is simply not in the same league. Sure, people create great games in Java, but they take a huge investment in time and education.

Flash Lite is building a momentum. Adobe is fully behind it – Adobe was a principal sponsor of this year’s major mobile phone tradeshow, 3GSM, and this alone is a clear indication of how seriously they take the market. Back in March, when we decided to go with Flash Lite, maybe 1 in 20 phones in use in Europe and USA were compatible. Now it is closer to 1 in 10. In the Far East the situation is considerably better.

So if your phone doesn’t work, what can you do about it? Well, to be honest, not so much. Phones are not PCs. You cannot, in general add a Flash player to your phone. Note that while you might find a Flash Lite player you can install, doing it this way in almost all cases will not help, because the phone’s operating software will not be aware of it. The only way in which you can upgrade your phone to support Flash Lite is through a firmware upgrade, and let’s be honest, few phone manufacturers bother much with these, except in extreme circumstances, and even fewer customers apply them. And why should they? It’s a phone, not a PC, and only too often they’ve see what “upgrades” do to their PCs.

So what is the solution? Well, the best thing is to check with your operator and see if you qualify for a free upgrade. At the moment, the safest bet is to choose a Nokia phone, but you can also check various resources (see our FAQ) for a list of supported devices. We’ll be adding a lot more resources on this topic soon.

Actually, if your phone doesn’t work, you’re in good company – my personal phone, a very nice Sony Ericsson K810i, doesn’t either! By the time we go live in December I’ll be making sure have a Flash Lite enabled phone – I hope you can to!

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