GameToyz also has their own virtual currency called ‘coins’ that players can earn by playing games. Coins can then be used to redeem prizes like American Express gift cards. [...]

The company also acquired PayOutHub recently, a cash tournament platform that allows developers to monetize their applications.

Read the full article on Social Times.

Visit GameToyz on Facebook to see what all the fuss is about.

Learn more about Payout Hub for developers.

Post sales and specials. It doesn’t matter how low the discount. People love to save money.

Do you have new merchandise or a new service to offer? Facebook is the perfect venue to get out the word about new goods and services.

Just start a dialog. Ask the people on your page what they think about a product or service. Ask them what kind of sale they would like to see. Ask them what else they would like to see your company offer. People love to get involved and give advice.

It is almost impossible to post too much. You need to you keep your company and brand in the public’s eye. With the exception of posting what you had for lunch, all is fair when it comes to posting on Facebook.

Thanks to the guys at Inside Social Games for the write up on GameToyz our FaceBook Arcade sites.  Nice comments for an application that has been out of beta for about a week.  We are making improvements daily but this is a very nice beginning!

Read the Article Here

GameToyz is a Facebook arcade that features the best games we can find online. The games, lottery system and chance map all offer the chance to win GameToyz Coins. Coins earned after testing can be turned in for amazing prizes from the Store or used to enter any of the Coin-based tournaments we run.

All games are fully integrated with our Payout Hub system, so you can enter skill tournaments and compete for real cash and prizes. Keep an eye on this up-coming feature which goes live after initial testing. You’ll be able to see a list of current tournaments right from your home screen.

Since our goal with GameToyz is to provide the absolute best casual games we can find online, we’d love to get your feedback. What games do you love? Let us know in the comments below or send us an email using our contact form. If you’re familiar with our web-based GameToyz arcades, be sure to mention your favorites from those, too.

First they added three new quiz types to the already existing categories. Friend Quizzle lets the quiz taker answer a yes or no question about one of their friends. Who Am I uses the letters in taker’s name to analyze what the future holds in store for them. Five Friend Analyzer answers the important questions like which of your five friends visit your profile the most.

Strategic Design Network also saw other ways to enhance Quizzle’s user experience. Facebook’s recent changes have made it necessary for applications to get permission from users to post game messages to their walls. Applications also need special permission to email users. There should be an incentive to get users to grant these special permissions. With that thought in mind, SDN developed Afro-ticons. Once users go through the four steps to grant permissions they will be given access to the special Afro-ticons. Afro-ticons are special emoticons exclusive to Strategic Design Network and Fo’Shizzle My Quizzle.

SDN realized another trend on Facebook. People love to send and receive virtual gifts. Quizzle installed a unique gift system that enables users to create and send their own gifts. When a user creates a gift they assign a coin value to it. This is how much the gift costs another user to send. When another user sends their gift, the creator earns the coins that the gift cost. The creator also determines the number of gifts available to purchase. They can choose to make it limited and charge a higher price or offer many more and charge a lower price.

The addition of new quizzes and exciting new features will bring more users than ever to Fo’Shizzle My Quizzle. With something for everyone, users are sure to find a quiz just for them. If they don’t, in a few minutes they can create their own.

Come create your own unique quiz or gift today for you and your friends to enjoy!

Fo’ Shizzle My Quizzle

There are many ways to earn money on GameToyz. On the daily lottery game players can win Coins and other prizes with just once click of the game board.  The daily treasure map hunt gives players the chance to click their way to GameToyz coins by locating the prizes on a map of the world. Once a prize is found on the map, it is removed from the map and treasure hunters will not have a chance to find it until the board resets.

Popular arcade games will have coin based tournaments. Players will buy into the tournaments with their Coins. The winners of the coin tournaments will win Coin jackpots. Coins can be redeemed for great prizes like gift cards to iTunes, Amazon and other popular retailers. Coins can also be redeemed for high tech gadgets like an Apple iPod and Apple iPad.

Once players are comfortable with games, they can join cash based tournaments. Players will utilize a Payout Hub account to buy in to cash tournaments. Tournament winners will win cash! Who said you couldn’t make money by sitting around playing games all day? Players can upgrade to VIP and Super VIP status and get free coins and access to exclusive VIP tournaments and prizes.

GameToyz players can challenge their friends to beat their top scores and taunt them from their own Facebook profile. When players challenge their friends they can set a coin wager on the outcome of the game. The coin jackpot goes to whoever wins. Players can keep track of their scores and their friends’ scores on the leaderboards.

GameToyz Arcade brings a new social level to game applications on Facebook. Have you won anything today?

Come check us out  GameToyz On FaceBook

Off the coast of Somalia, a pirate crew took control of an American cargo ship and held the captain hostage for ransom. The world watched and waited for the outcome of the siege not realizing piracy is still much alive and has been active in the Indian Ocean and beyond.

The people behind Strategic Design Network watched the news too, enthralled at the images portrayed on the television screen. That is when the idea came to them. Why not develop a game based on real life current events? And so began the journey of the Pirates of Somalia.

If forced to, one could compare Pirates of Somalia with the masses of X-war style games. There are missions to complete. However, that is where the comparisons end. Pirates bring cool new features social gamers will be talking about.

The very foundation of modern day Somalian Pirates is the ability to capture hostages and hold them for ransom. The only way to ransom hostages is to keep them healthy and well. Corporations and countries would rather pay a ransom for well cared for hostages then try to fight a battle that would cost more harm and casualties towards themselves.

In Pirates of Somalia, players will have the ability to capture, care for and ransom hostages. They will need to build facilities to care for their hostages. Well cared for hostages will bring in more ransom money.

Pirates of Somalia gives social game players the ability to play right along with the real pirates of Somalia. From the start, the game uses research to present the real side. From the beginnings as a poor fishermen to the rise of a full pirate crew, Pirates of Somalia brings truth to the story.

One of the perks of advertising on social networks is the sense of informality it provides. You can converse with your customers and potential customers in a conversational setting. This can bring a feeling of camaraderie between the customers and your company. People will leave the discussion thinking that you really get them and care about them.

The informal setting also brings a new set of problems. It is possible to be too informal. As a professional you should always avoid using text speak and internet slang. Customers want to feel a kinship with you but they still want to know that you know what you are talking about. Using bad grammar and improper punctuation will make a customer wonder about the quality of service or product you provide.

Would you be comfortable giving your business to a company that responds to your Facebook posts with “Thanx 4 UR BuziNess!!”

I spent hours a day clicking this button until the idea hit me that was perfect! I took everything I knew about game design, game mechanic, user experience and I rolled it all up into a nice document.  We sat around at coffee houses and kitchen tables and discussed and tweaked this idea for weeks.  OK it’s done.  Fully fleshed out.  I now hold in my possession the best thing I have ever seen come to life on paper.  Now it was time to go out and make it come to life.  I need art, I need ads, I need payment processors (because I am sure this thing is going to make a million dollars) and I need more than 24 hours in a day.  One quick check to make sure NO one else has had this idea already (and who would, this idea generator only works for me right) and there you have it.  Not only did someone else have my idea, they had art, they had payment processors and they were already running ad campaigns.

So tonight here I sit.  Clicking this button.  Waiting for the next best thing to be thrown at my feet like an offering from the gods above.

The mental roller coaster that comes with the life of being an artist is something I have learned to cope with by now. There are unavoidable times of self-loathing, and doubt that stem from the desire to be a part of something great, and not quite being there. And then there are the highs, when inside I am saying, “Wait until the world gets a load of this…”

Today I find myself in the latter. These are good times and SDN has much to do with it.  Part of that ride I take inside my head, always leads me to ask myself if I’m doing the best thing for my growth as an artist. Should I be directing big budget games? Should I do the Hollywood VFX thing? And right now I consider myself pretty blessed. There’s a wonderful, new opportunity going on to really push the limits of technology’s interaction with society. And SDN is in the middle of it all. The waters will eventually settle, Facebook will go away, but how often do you get to be the one in the center of the storm churning the tide?

“Strategic Design” is quite well stated. I wasn’t with the company yet, when the name was chosen, and I wonder if they knew how fitting it would be for a company that would find itself face first into social media applications. In the design of these games I have an obligation to make them as sociably interactive as possible. Staying up with the trends, creating new ways for people to share with one another…all par for the course, all strategically and methodically thought out. And I can’t help but notice that as much as I am designing for social reasons, I am designing because of them too. So just who is in charge here?

Both sides are pushing the other forward at new speeds.  There is pressure to optimize each technology to its peak in order to better the quality of peoples’ daily lives in return. And so on goes the cycle. Today we are well past any point of return. Every family member, business, and school has their own personal page online, and the amount of daily, social interactivity that technology plays a hand in has soared to unpredictable levels. And I find it exciting.

The best part? Strategic Design Network has a strict mission not to just hang on and enjoy the ride, but rather, to grab the reigns and try our best to shape the way every person interacts. I’m right where I belong.