Casual gaming is becoming a big thing, I’m sure we can all agree that Zynga creators of the annoyingly popular FarmVille (just a personal opinion), and it’s growing array of *ville games, has proven this. Worthy of note here is that the platform for a lot of these games is Facebook. With the links that these games ask to put out from time-to-time, I guess we could say that it’s more “Social Gaming” rather than “Casual Gaming”.
I recently came across an offering from Soshi Games, a fairly new company based in the UK. Their offering takes on a somewhat different spin to most other Facebook games I’ve come across, in that it truly has a social side. Soshi Games have partnered with organisations such as Kiva, Fair Trade USA and Keep Britain Tidy, in order to raise awareness, as well as funding for the organisation. Needless to say, the idea intrigued me, and I checked out their first release – Village Raffles – on Facebook.
The game is simple, and can get surprisingly addictive, but more than anything, it’s nice to see a fresh take on things. I’m sure everybody has a ‘feel good movie’, those ones you watch to put a smile on your face and generally cheer you up. Village Raffles felt almost like a ‘feel good game‘, you enter the raffles for venues in your current location which add to a total required to complete ‘Appeals’ for that location. There is also a link from the game to some of the charitable causes being helped by the game. The idea is a good one, and I look forward to seeing more things from Soshi Games, who I’ll be following throughout 2011 – supporting a good cause is never usually a bad thing 