Hi, thanks for dropping by. If you are interested in a lively community around mobile casual games why not register to play, score and make friends. Please go to http://www.playyoo.com/common/registration.html

One of the more challenging games submitted to the Playyoo launch contest was Think Fast by Izam. It’s an educational game that challenges players to solve math questions, quicker answers are rewarded with more points. Our initial reaction was "What a great idea!".

Now, according to ReadWriteWeb, a book has been released by MIT professor and director of MIT’s Scheller Teacher Education Program Eric Klopfer which makes the case that mobile games can augment other education tools.

Adobe has announced its “Open Screen Project” aimed at ensuring a consistent rich internet experience across a broad range of digital screens including mobile devices. Part of this announcement reveals that licensing fees for Flash will be removed in the next major releases. Adobe expects this to cut a year off it’s previous forecasts to get Flash Lite penetration to one billion devices, now by 2009 instead of 2010.

According to my calendar 2009 is next year……

Playyoo, the mobile games community where mobile game players and game creators meet to freely exchange mobile games, is seeking to hire a Java/J2EE Engineer for the development of its social mobile games platform.

In a young and dynamic environment, the successful candidate will work on a highly creative and challenging project where her/his contribution can influence the overall company’s success.

The candidate must have a proven track experience working as Java/J2EE engineer on complex Internet solutions in multitier architectures. A plus is the experience working on mobile applications.

Job description

As a Java/J2EE Engineer you will work in a team to develop and provide technically advanced (mobile) Internet solutions at the cutting edge of technology.

Qualification

• Knowledge of Java 2 Enterprise Edition
• Deep knowledge in JSF, Facelets , EJB 3.0, AJAX, Servlets, JSPs, Struts 2.0 and Java Beans technologies
• Knowledge of the ImageMagick software suite is a plus

We appreciate

• Experience in rich internet applications based on Flex/Flash/Flash Lite
• Experience in using the Glassfish application server
• Experience in using the PostgreSQL ORDBMS
• Experience in developing with the NetBeans IDE

Technical background

• A degree in Information Sciences, Software Engineering or similar.
• Excellent OO Java software development skills including the ability to select and apply well-known OO design patterns
• A good knowledge of the UML object modeling and specification language
• Skilled in Internet solutions and multitier architectures

Other skills

• Ability to work in heterogeneous teams
• Expertise to take initiatives and decisions and to shoulder the responsibility
• Good knowledge of the English language, both spoken and written

Playyoo SA is based in the lakeside city of Lugano, in the Italian speaking canton of Ticino, in Switzerland. The location offers an excellent quality of life, less than an hour away both from the Swiss Alps and the city of Milan.

For the successful candidate Playyoo SA will manage all the local requirements for the issuing of the required work permits as well as assist with relocation requirements.

For further information on this position or to submit applications please contact ivan.stefanini@playyoo.com .

Playyoo has a wide mix of games available, all created by its members. Some of these games have a very wide appeal. Some only make sense to a few people. And some are maybe a first attempt at using the game creator, and a bit repetitive. Playyoo uses the gamestream to deliver games to you that you should like. Frankly, this still needs some work - and it is being worked on. As we get more and more members, it gets trickier to handle. In the next major update to Playyoo, we hope to introduce some extensive improvements in this area.

In the meantime, here’s a little trick you can use, discovered by Ivan, one of our senior techies:

On the web site, click on “configure your game stream” (the link is in the bottom right of the game stream strip), and set all the sliders in “adjust your category mix” to the second level, as seen here:

The result should be that your gamestream is mainly populated with “custom” games, with a sprinkling of the highest rated Game Creator games.

Of course, you can click on the “Games” link in the green menu bar to see the full set of games currently available in Playyoo - and if you find a game which you think deserves more attention, then add t to your favourites, play it on your phone and give it a high rating.

Game Creators seem to be all the rage lately. We recently found Dick Dynamite over at gotoAndPlay(), this game allows users to create their own levels in an arcade style game reminiscent of 80’s games such as Pacman and Atomic Bomberman.

Sploder’s Game Creator is another we’ve been playing with and it provides a lot more flexibility in creating its space shooter. It allows users to shape the playing arena, add a variety of goodies, baddies, health and weapons.

As with most Game Creators it’s a joy to see the creativity unleashed when users have access to easy to use game creation  tools.