It’s well known that casual games are popular among mainstream Web users. However, when you’re a publisher maintaining a community, you want to go beyond engaging each user separately and increase total engagement in bulk by connecting users with each other. Enter multi-player casual games.Israeli startup Come2Play, which we’ve described as the Ning of social gaming networks, has provided this part of the equation since its founding in mid-2007. It’s now keeping up with the zeitgeist by adding a virtual economy in a box that could prove compelling to community sites.

Is there actual money being made? Indeed there is. Come2Play’s CEO, Alon Barzilay tells me that every 1000 users who visit Come2Play’s token store (via any of its games) generates $45 in revenue, split 50%/50% between publishers and Come2Play, and that is after developers get their 30% share off the top. This mind you is beyond the ad-rev share that extends across the same entities.

On the face of it this sounds very much like HeyZap’s recently launched payment platform. There are some key differences however, beginning with the fact that HeyZap focuses on single player games and only a fraction of its 12,000+ games are payment-enabled.

Come2Play’s game catalog is only 35 games deep, but all are multi-player and payment-enabled. The games can be embedded individually or as a channel/portal that includes social features such as game rooms, chat and leaderboards—features that are not available in HeyZap’s single player games.

The games encourage users to buy tokens ($1=1000 tokens)—via Paypal, Social Gold, Zong, credit cards or CPA offers—by allowing users to challenge one another with the winner taking the token bounty. Players can also use tokens to redeem rewards, such as game badges. Come2Play maintains a wallet-like account for the user which can be used in any game on its network, at any publisher site.

Come2Play built its virtual economy platform themselves and has gone ahead and integrated it into its open source multi-player API it released a year ago. Developers wishing to distribute their games through Come2Play’s network will need to integrate with this API, and the token monetization will come included. Since the monetization comes as a sort of wrapper around the game, developers won’t need to make any in-game code changes.

This post was originally posted on TechCrunch.com where I cover the Israeli startup scene.

As the concept of the “social graph” began to gain focus and attention, a buzz around the notion of multi-player social games began to grow as well. How cool would it be to play a game of pong between two users of a social network, right? And yet most multi-player games are limited to Chess, Checkers, and Poker. It’s not that there’s a shortage of companies developing casual games—in fact, money is being poured into the space in truck loads. Yet the multi-player games we were teased about have failed to materialize so far. Don’t despair though because salvation is upon us and it comes in the form of Come2Play’s multi-player API.In my initial review of Come2Play I dubbed them the “Ning of social gaming networks“. Today they are upping the ante by putting out an open source multi-player API aimed at allowing Flash game developers to create real multi-player games.

The logic behind Come2Play’s move is to free game developers from matters revolving around the infrastructure necessary to drive multi-player games. The company believes it can catalyze a multi-player casual game revolution by removing this barrier and doing all the heavy lifting itself, specifically: hosting the infrastructure, providing emulations, and delivering distribution and reporting.

Released under the GNU Lesser General Public License, the API currently supports two players and will be gradually ratcheted-up to include a theoretically unlimited number of players. Developers will be able to create multiplayer games using ActionScript 2/3 which they should feel more comfortable with than server side scripting languages such as .NET, Java, and PHP. Social features that can be leveraged through the API include: Game rooms for up to 60 players, chat, leader board, ranking system, tokens, reward system and an ad-space-sharing mechanism.

Come2Play’s API could be perceived as a “honey trap” for several reasons. First, game developers can focus on developing games, rather than developing and maintaining infrastructure. Second, they get to keep all in-game ad revenue. Third, the developers get instant game distribution through Come2Play’s publisher network. Plus, all games can be automatically ported to Facebook and OpenSocial apps.

And now comes the trap (it is not as bad as it sounds). First, games built upon the API must be hosted on Come2Play’s infrastructure. Second, the games will be published in Come2Play’s game galleries and channels by default. Third, Come2Play reserves the right to display ads in the game wrappers and in the pre-game loading screen. The company splits this revenue 50/50 with publishers. CEO Alon Barzilay indicates that the company is open to flexible options in regards to the last two points. However, this will have to be done on a business development level.

So no more excuses… Can someone please develop multi-player pong for me…?

This post was originally posted on TechCrunch.com where I cover the Israeli startup scene.

A few months ago in a Globes interview (Hebrew), I commented that Israeli startups may have missed the window of opportunity in casual gaming. Shortly thereafter the CEO of Kampyle told me that a sister company in Yossi Vardi’s portfolio called Come2Play is doing some interesting things in this space and I have to check it out. He was right!Come2Play is the Ning of social gaming networks. Meaning that, unlike the new generation of gaming networks (SGN, Zynga, etc.) whose games are the formation of branded networks, Come2Play is a white label solution for anyone who wants to create their own gaming network. The true “Ning-ness” of Come2Play’s offering is its platform’s granular customization.

Come2Play’s fully functioning casual gaming channels can be integrated by any sized publisher within minutes. The games are all Flash-based and are social by definition, i.e. two players and up. There are 22 games “out of the box” (Chess, Backgammon, Simon, etc.), but this number will grow as Come2Play develops more games itself, as well as through 3rd party game developers who will be given 100% of the ad revenues their games generate.

From the functionality perspective, a typical Come2Play channel includes a game gallery, play rooms supporting 80 players per room, private/public chat, gamer profiles, leaderboards, and tokens that are redeemable as virtual gifts.

Literally everything can be customized. This includes high-level aspects such as look and feel, language and even integration (iFrame or XML)—this is true for both the entire channel and even individual games. More granular customization can affect the tokens, avatars sound effects, and the game boards themselves. Publishers can also determine whether the game play can take place with users across Come2Play’s entire network, or specifically within the publisher’s own channel.

All games are individually portable as widgets and include link-backs to the channel of origin. As an example of the portability and customization, checkout this TechCrunch-branded version of Checkers (see screenshot on right) available as a Facebook app, a MySpace app and an iGoogle Gadget.

The core of Come2Play’s business model, unsurprisingly, is advertising. Based on nearly 39 million games played, Come2Play is averaging 8 minutes per user, per game. Add the ability to integrate ads—pre/post-game, in the game window and within the game—and you get an offering that could have advertisers and publishers lining up. Come2Play splits “game play” ad rotation 50/50 with the publisher, where each party is in charge of its own monetization.

It sure looks like Israel has a serious player in casual gaming.

This post was originally posted on TechCrunch.com where I cover the Israeli startup scene.