We brought our arcade expertise to the main stage, and we went all-out!

Game Toyz on Facebook is the cream-of-the-crop of arcade sites. It focuses on competitive, fun play with tons of ongoing tournaments and challenges between members. Play for fun, play for our game toyz coins virtually currency, or challenge your friends for real cash!

There are many quiz apps out there that do something well. Quizzle does everything well. More options, more sharing, more quiz types, more fun.

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.

Players looking to try their luck can find a variety of fun card games at Card Game Toyz. Popular games include poker showdowns and a large variety of solitaire style puzzles.

Features

• Rating System
• Review System
• Comment System
• Real Time Now Playing Display
• Real Time Latest Score Ticker
• High Score Displays

Players with a need for speed can find their favorite games on Driving Game Toyz. Players can zip around race track, run through war torn battlefields and cruise the city streets in police chasers. Features

• Rating System
• Review System
• Comment System
• Real Time Now Playing Display
• Real Time Latest Score Ticker
• High Score Displays

Shooting Game Toyz is a specialty site developed to host the best shooting themed, free online games. Shooting games vary from war themed games to zombie shootouts and sniper take downs.

Features

• Rating System
• Review System
• Comment System
• Real Time Now Playing Display
• Real Time Latest Score Ticker
• High Score Displays

Girl Game Toyz is a niche site designed with a younger player’s experience in mind. It highlights the best girl themed, free online games in categories like Sim Dating and Dress Up.

Features

• Rating System
• Review System
• Comment System
• Real Time Now Playing Display
• Real Time Latest Score Ticker
• High Score Displays

Some days you just really need to take out the undead. Zombie Game Toyz provides games that have you rescuing survivors stuck in cities overrun with brain eaters or taking zombies out one by one as they advance on your hideout.

Features

• Rating System
• Review System
• Comment System
• Real Time Now Playing Display
• Real Time Latest Score Ticker
• High Score Displays

Payout Hub allows any developer of skill-based games to seamlessly integrate cash tournaments into their user experience via the Payout Hub API. This innovation opens new revenue streams for game developers as well as novel methods to engage all players.

Strategic Investment Underscores the Global Promise of Riot’s Game Quality,
Publishing Platform and Goods-Based Monetization Strategy

Los Angeles – Aug. 9, 2009 – Riot Games, a leading independent developer and publisher of premium online games, has closed a round of financing with the top venture capital firms, Benchmark Capital and FirstMark Capital, and the Chinese online services company Tencent. Tencent is the leading provider of internet value-added services with more than 400 million users and the largest digital goods company in China, which operates a fast growing online games business. The investment of these strategic players signals Riot’s leadership position as an emerging leader of next generation games based on a digital goods economic model.

Although still nascent in western markets, Riot’s session-based, free-to-play, virtual item-based business model is by far the most popular business model for monetizing games in Asia. While most North American and European publishers continue to prioritize a packaged goods model, Riot has embraced the “games-as-service” model, which it believes is undoubtedly the future of games and a major global opportunity.

“Riot is fortunate to have such a strong and diverse group of investors who support our vision of combining triple A quality gaming content with the emerging free to play business model,” said Brandon Beck, CEO, Riot Games. “With our focus on delivering and operating core games as premium, live services that constantly adapt to our customers’ needs, we have a unique opportunity to build global franchises. This new investment comes as Riot prepares the worldwide launch of its flagship League of Legends title, and further positions the company as a leader in next-generation online games.”

Riot Games’ first free premium game League of Legends is slated to launch in North America this Fall. Earlier this year, Riot Games and Tencent announced a distribution partnership for Riot’s “League of Legends” in the Chinese market. For more information, please visit www.riotgames.com

About Riot Games

Riot Games, Inc. is an independent Los Angeles-based video game online video game developer and publisher, funded by venture capital firms Benchmark Capital and Firstmark Capital as well as China’s largest internet and online gaming company, Tencent. The Company was established in 2006 to develop innovative online next-generation titles for consoles, mobile devices and the PC. Comprised of industry veterans with a shared passion for creating fun, innovative gameplay, the company is currently developing a cutting-edge online gaming platform. Riots’s first title, League of Legends combines the best elements of the action role-playing and real-time strategy genres into a uniquely replayable and competitive multiplayer experience.

About FirstMark Capital

Based in New York City, FirstMark Capital, has established itself as a venture leader with a strong, international reach over its thirteen year history. FirstMark invests in companies that are creating new markets with innovative technology solutions or disrupting existing markets by applying a novel business model. With nearly $2 billion in capital commitments, FirstMark’s team of investment and operations professionals have decades of real-world experience and leadership in core technology markets, making the firm uniquely qualified to offer industry insight, relationships and the operational expertise to partner with entrepreneurs to build lasting businesses. Select historical investments include: Netgear, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTGR); First Advantage Corp. (NASDAQ: FADV); StubHub, Inc (Acquired by eBay, Inc.); Netegrity, Inc. (Acquired by CA Inc); Flarion, Inc. (Acquired by Qualcomm, Inc.); OutlookSoft Inc. (Acquired by SAP AG); Analex Corp. (Acquired by QinetiQ); Vallent (Acquired by IBM); Syndesis (Acquired by Subex) and Navic (Acquired by Microsoft). For more information, please visit www.firstmarkcap.com.

About Benchmark Capital

Benchmark Capital, a leading international venture capital firm, was founded in 1995 to help talented entrepreneurs with original ideas build successful technology companies. Benchmark’s general partners take a team-oriented, labor-intensive approach to venture investing to deliver a superior level of service to the firm’s portfolio companies. Benchmark’s portfolio includes high-profile start-ups like Infinera, MySQL, OpenTable, Second Life, Tellme, Yelp, and Zillow, and franchise companies such as eBay, Juniper Networks and Red Hat. The firm manages nearly $2.8 billion in committed venture capital. For more information on Benchmark Capital, visit its website at www.benchmark.com.