>I’ve been using Nike + running shizzle for some time now, but a friend said I really had to start running with Runkeeper and I must say, I think it beats the hell out of Nike +…

Here’s my first run!

Running Activity 6.26 km | RunKeeper

Gamification is ON!

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>Our friends at Distimo, a research company in Utrecht – The Netherlands, just released a 27 pages report about the mobile gaming market. These slides are the highlights, in my opinion. 

It’s interesting to see that more and more games (and apps) are using the freemium model and use ‘micro-transactions / ingame-transactions’ (as described in my book ‘A Brand New Playground‘) to make money. It’s a trend that is apparently evident if you look at the data. 


For more mobile research and consultancy, please visit Distimo’s website: http://www.distimo.com

>Thanks to Peter Warman from Newzoo, an update on the German Market in just 1 infographic, for all my American and English readers. 😉 The US market declined somewhat last year (3%) as did the UK Market (1%).

Thanks for the additional information to Gamasutra!

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For people that never wondered why the birds are angry … here’s the trailer of the original game… A movie is in the making, so that should add even more emotion to the gameplay experience 😉

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So the ‘island’ seems to be a virtual place within Home, but in the beginning is just a new clothing line that is being sold at the ‘in-game Diesel store’ in the shopping mall of PlayStation Home. Don;t let that withhold you from getting the latest, coolest fashion items! – Diesel rules!

>Apple TV meets Wii-U controller functionalities through iPad…

iPlay Mirroring offers great opportunities for innovation! Now go check out the video!

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I still discovered some bugs, but SmartGate the Game 2 has been released. After almost 16 months of talking, looking for the main problems around air cargo and in the offices of all stakeholders, IJsfontein delivered game 2 and my job as a consultant is done!
The first game was all about transporting cargo from shipper to airplane. Game 2 of the SmartGate project takes this a little bit further and brings more detail to the playing field. It let’s you experience the possible effects of your actions in a virtual logistic air cargo game.
My first thoughts at the time where that the ‘final’ game of the SmartGate project would be a sort of RUSE / Sim City / Logistic Tycoon in an air cargo environment where the player needs to build up a solid business (like the game ‘Jones’, if people remember the 90’s).
The main purpose of the game is to manage your air cargo business in a efficient, safe and reliable way. This means that, depending on the sort of cargo, it’s destination and the reputation of the trucker, you make decisions to either do the job or don’t and if there is a risk involved, that you manage that risk to your best ability (e.g. either employing specialist staff or having each shipment checked by Customs).

We also enclosed some minigames in the so-called ‘e-learning’ section where we challenge players on specific knowledge about exceptional situations and dilemma’s.

Besides this, we also included a badges system. The more efficient you are (planes leave the airport 100% full) or if you always check your cargo, you will receive badges and upgrades. The best thing to have in Air Cargo is an AEO status (Authorized Economic Operator) which means you are a reliable party within the chain.

And of course there is a leader board where you can check your score.

I challenge everyone to play the game and let me know what you think!

You can play it here: http://www.smartgatethegame.nl/game2/

RESULTS GAME 1 

The results of the first game where quite impressive by the way. There are about 2.000 people active in the Air Cargo sector around Schiphol airport and almost 1.300 of them played the game! That’s almost two-third of all people in the sector.

Apart from that we had 3.700 visits in four months time and a total of 184.000 page views!

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Just because it’s fantastic…

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What a great way to gamify physical surroundings. A train station in The Netherlands build a slide next to stairs. Go visit Station Overvecht in Utrecht and experience it for yourself!