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Thursday Apr 22th, 2010
Dear Customer,
2010 continues to be a great year for us here at CyberArts. We've listened, and in response, have not only improved our core, enterprise-class software, we've added to our list of games, expanded our large feature set, and continue to bring our customers the tools they need to succeed in the fast-paced gaming industry.
Below is a brief overview of what we've accomplished in the first quarter of 2010, as well as what we're working on for the second quarter of this year.
Our engineering team continues to improve our world-class gaming system, so that you're always a step ahead of the competition.
The following are some of the recent under-the-hood improvements that we've made:
- Further support for automatic in-client updates, including the ability to run an update in the background or foreground.
- A more efficient internal notification system that reduces internal network bandwidth usage and ILSPP server loads.
In addition, lobbies, messaging and chat are more robust. We've incorporated several new features to our platform, including:
- Express play, which allows a user to play a game with the click of a button.
- Flash modal dialog support.
- Ability for an operator to direct a user to a particular game lobby upon log in, bypassing the main lobby.
- Expanded messaging capability. The system now has the ability to send messages—including popup messages—to all players at once; we've also added support for messaging players in Bingo rooms and Teen Patti tables, as well as Poker tables.
More of the features we're capable of are discussed in the Customization Corner section.
The reality is, our Foundation Platform is powerful enough deliver what you, as an operator, need.
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We're moving forward with an expanding suite of games. Below are some of what we have in the works for our customers.
Victory at Sea is modeled after the traditional game, battleship. Two players are pitted against one another, in a battle to see who can sink the other player's fleet first.
Before the game starts, each player chooses their fleet layout from a pre-populated selection field, or has the computer choose one at random. Bets can be simple (e.g. based on who wins), or more complex (e.g. based on what ships survive a battle)—with the added ability to make multiple bets, not just one. In addition, players have the option of betting against themselves.
Once the game starts, players launch bombs simultaneously, and progress through rounds with no pause. This ensures a fast-paced game for the player, and more opportunity for an operator to collect revenue.
Super Goal is a game based on the penalty shootout in football. In the game, a player chooses his or her kick placement from a pre-populated selection field, or has the computer choose one at random.
Once the player is ready, he or she proceeds to the shootout, at which point an animated penalty contest is displayed on their screen. Each side takes five kicks, in sequence. Goals and misses are tallied as they occur, until the five rounds complete. Ties are resolved in sudden death rounds.
Teen Patti is a card game that originated in India, and is known for its many variations—reflecting its pervasiveness. Also known as Flush, Teen Patti resembles the British game, Three Card Brag.
Cards are ranked in their usual order, from ace down to two. Players are initially dealt three cards. Players bet on who they think has the best hand.
Each player can either look at their hand (play "seen") or leave their cards face down (play "blind"); players who play "seen" must bet twice as much as those playing "blind."
Play continues until all but one player has folded, or until the game winds down to two players. In the final hand, one player pays for a show.
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Foundation is the most customizable gaming system available. In the last quarter, we've customized several aspects of our UI and software, at the request of our customers. Many of these customizations require very little engineering.
Here is a sample of what we've done recently:
- Enhanced Facebook integration, including automatic retrieval of a Facebook member's profile picture for use as a player avatar. (See the Social Media Integration section for details on additional social media customizations.)
- Text separated from button art, which allows for easier translation.
- Ability to change the text displayed on buttons, based on the selected player preferences. This feature can be further customized to change the text on buttons based on other system settings, as desired.
- Player preference that changes the currency indicator displayed for a virtual currency.
- A "Play Now" button that takes the player to a random table—a Poker table if clicked in the Poker lobby, a Teen Patti table if clicked in the Teen Patti lobby, etc.
- Custom lobby "theme" backgrounds that can be changed via a player preference.
- Player balances listed in both the lobby and on game tables.
- Player, dealer, and system transcripts, such as player chat, may now be shown in separate windows, if desired.
- Ability to customize the background color in the chat window.
Remember, providing unique customizations is business as usual for CyberArts. If you are interested in adding similar features to those listed above, or if you have an idea for a new customization to your existing Foundation system, please contact us!
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Admin 7.2 will be our last iteration of Admin, before we unveil Foundation PAM. This superior back office system will expand from a game management utility to a full-featured player and game management tool.
We're working on an overhaul to the UI, and are introducing several new features, including:
- Improved reports suite.
- Payments integration.
- Affiliate management software and affiliate network integration.
- Next generation API server.
- New player portal.
- Improvements to navigation, and the overall look and feel.
The above is just a glance of the features that will be available in the new back office system. More information on PAM upgrades will be shared with you in the coming months!
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With social networking sites like Facebook, and the proliferation of OpenSocial web applications, the opportunity to connect with internet users is boundless. We've already integrated Facebook Connect—the ability for a user to register to your Foundation installation with their Facebook credentials—into our products, and are moving towards further social media integration.
Here are some of the key features we've already implemented:
- Further development of our Find-a-Friend feature, incorporating the ability for a player to find his or her Facebook friends on your Foundation site.
- List of Facebook friends displayed in the lobby and elsewhere, with the ability to click on a friend in order to go directly to the table or room where the friend is playing.
- Use of a Facebook profile picture as an avatar.
- Ability to use a Facebook first name as a display name, even if the name is not unique.
- Facebook status updates based on player actions.
- Ability for an operator to run multiple portals, e.g. Facebook, OpenSocial, etc., with a shared liquidity pool.
We're working to bring these such integrations to many of our games, with Foundation Poker and Facebook integration coming sometime in June.
In addition, we're integrating Foundation with OpenSocial, so keep a look out for that, and let us know if you have any ideas or needs.
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Our world-class poker software continues to expand its impressive feature set. Here is just some of what we've added in recent months:
- Graphical player notes, which function as visual labels that a player can use to easily identify other players (e.g. a shark fin to identify a shark, or a halo over an avatar to identify a friendly player).
- Current hand indicator, which shows a player their best possible hand.
- Ability for a player to automatically register for a Sit-n-Go tournament, and sit at a table, by simply double-clicking on the tournament in the lobby.
- Wait for next hand indicator, which displays a message when the player must wait to be seated at a table.
And as mentioned in the Social Media Integration section, we're working on further integrating Foundation Poker and Facebook in the coming months.
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Bingo is the way of the future in the internet gaming world. According to eGaming Review, bingo is the fastest growing segment of the online casino market. Much of that—like social networking sites—is tied to the communities that users develop on the internet.
Here are some of the features we've implemented so far this year:
- Icon-based lobbies, demonstrating our impressive skinning ability.
- Further third party side-game integration.
- Versatile chat features, including the ability to have multiple chat panes.
- Affiliate support.
- Further progress on stability and scalability.
There are many more Bingo features to come, so stay tuned!
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Flash is the platform of choice for developing rich online gaming environments—across multiple web browsers and operating systems. We've rebuilt our Flash Client from the ground up, and are taking advantage of everything the Foundation Platform has to offer.
Here are just some of the things we've accomplished in recent months:
- Development of an efficient and visually appealing UI.
- Ability to play, and fully interact with, Flash movies within the game environment.
- Modal dialog boxes, rather than a tab-based UI.
- Flash progress bar.
- Ability to send messages to an embedded web page.
- Support for arbitrary transformations, e.g. fade, flip-in, etc.
- Support for a static background that can seamlessly underlay all Flash transformations and animations.
And here is just some of what we have in the works:
- Support for a Flash loading screen.
- Incremental asset loader that speeds up the overall loading process.
- And much more!
With our Flash Client, you can seamlessly integrate our software with your online presence.
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Our demonstration site will be undergoing an expansion to better showcase our current and upcoming products.
- First to come will be an improved web portal, with better access to our Windows and Flash clients.
- Next, we'll offer demo access to our new back office modules as each one comes online, along with additional client skins that showcase our flexible customizations, such as multiple currency and language support.
The demo project will, over time, culminate in a full-featured site showcasing all the components that a real operator would implement, such as a web portal for all players, fully-formed and integrated HTML pages, sample affiliate management, and much more.
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We hope this newsletter finds you well. Please contact us if you have any questions.
Best regards,
Mike Reaves
SVP Products & Services
mreaves@cyberarts.com
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