Wild Pockets

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Oct 5, 2009— Wild Pockets, the 3D game development platform created by Sim Ops Studios, today announced the winners of its Second Annual PA Game Jam. Independent game developers converged over the October 3rd weekend to compete to create the best game using the Wild Pockets platform within a 24 hour time period. After two days of nonstop programming and creative design efforts, 11 game entries were submitted by teams ranging in size from 3 to 5 members. Teams were competing for a grand prize which includes $2,500, J.Fold merchandise and future distribution.

First Place – Short Circuit by Bobby Sims, Aaron Kilcoyne, Abdoulaye Camara, Anthony Ortega and Giovanni Acosta.

http://wildpockets.com/view/pocket=lilbro1062000%252FMlevelone

Second Place – Space Boxes by Gregory Eng, Ki Kiser, Chung-Oak Lee and Jan Stec

http://www.wildpockets.com/view/pocket=team12%255Fbvw%252Fround3

Third Place – Labyrinth by Anthony Abrams and Shay Abrams

http://www.wildpockets.com/view/pocket=TeamAbrams%2Flabyrinth

“The bar continues to rise for the quality and polish of 3D games. I was blown away by what these teams accomplished in just 24 hours,” said Shanna Tellerman, CEO of Wild Pockets. “The race was tight and the top three winners came out only slightly ahead of the other eight games. Our game jam events have proven that it is possible to make both sophisticated and fun games in a very, very short amount of time.”

The Wild Pockets platform is open to all developers to create 3D, Web-based games for free. The platform is hosted offering developers everything they need to build and distribute games including easy embed links, monetization with Wild Pockets Virtual currency, and the use of a content builder that can be accessed from almost any browser. The open environment enables collaboration among developers, which drives innovation and speeds time to market. Wild Pockets is currently in Beta with over 3,000 registered developers.

“Wild Pockets is making 3D game development accessible to a much broader set of developers and is simultaneously raising the standard for casual games on the web,” said Jesse Schell, CEO of Schell Games and a judge for the PA Game Jam. “Open and free access to the tools via a web-browser makes Wild Pockets an ideal platform for any developer seeking fast prototyping and 3D game development for the web.”

The PA Game Jam was held simultaneously at Carnegie Melon University’s Entertainment Technology Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Harrisburg University of Science and Technology’s Center for Advanced Entertainment and Learning. Judges for the event included: Jesse Schell, CEO of Schell Games, Design Director at Sim Ops Studios and a professor at CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center; Gabe Sabourn, Game Artist at Schell Games, Professor at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh; Ricardo Washington, Professor at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh; Fred Gallart, President/CEO of Electric Owl Studios; Ben Smith, Creative Director at SilverTree Media; and, Kenneth Hendrata, entrepreneur focused on virtual worlds and games.

All game submissions from the PA Game Jam are available at http://www.wildpockets.com/pagamejam.

2009 BAY AREA GAME JAM WINNER LAUNCHES NEW GAME USING VIRTUAL CURRENCY

Cement Tower, developed by the winners of the 2009 Bay Area Game Jam winners, is the first commercially available game to take advantage of the Wild Pockets virtual currency engine. Cement Tower is a 3D puzzle game that challenges you to stack blocks to construct a tower to the stars and "cement" your tower in place if it becomes unstable or to help you avoid floating bombs that can destroy your tower. The Wild Pockets virtual currency system collects money from transactions through Paypal, Visa, MC, AMEX or Discover for as little as $3. Three dollars is equal to 3,000 Wild Pockets Coins and game developers charge gamers by the coin for access to certain elements of a game. For example, the first level of the Cement Tower game is free, additional levels can be purchased for 1,000 coins or $1.

ABOUT WILD POCKETS

Wild Pockets is a spin-off from Carnegie Melon University. Founder and CEO Shanna Tellerman and a team of engineers and game developers, created the Wild Pockets platform to simplify the creation and delivery of 3D content through a Web browser.

Wild Pockets is headquartered in San Francisco, CA with development offices in Pittsburgh, PA. http://www.wildpockets.com

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Media Contact:

Lisa Hempel

650-823-5410

lisa@hempelconsulting.com