What the eff is a Moondo? Developer Funtactix describes it as “the Web’s first high-definition cross-gaming universe for the PC”. Essentially, it is a free-to-play online version of a party game like Fuzion Frenzy, except Moondo features persistent characters across all games — you level up, get faster and more powerful, and you get to customize your avatar instead of using some pre-selected douche like in those other games.

I actually had the opportunity to sit down with the head of Funtactix, Sam Glassenberg, and he discussed the games with me a bit more and took me on a tour of Moondo. Join us, won’t you?

Dan: The first thing that I thought about the whole ‘casual games’ and free online games is that I didn’t really notice any advertising on the site, and I was just curious how exactly do you keep something like Moondo going?

Sam: Well, basically, we’re just now coming out of beta and launching this, and we’re going to be supporting the service and the community through virtual item sales. One of the unique things we have in this universe is the fact that this is the first time you will have a character that moves with you from game to game and have virtual items move with you as well.

Say you get a power item that gives you speed or sunglasses that make you look snazzy, and it actually works across all games. So if you’ve got an item that increases your speed, you will be faster in the shooting game, the racing game, the sports games, and games that haven’t even come out yet.

What we’re going to be doing is offering some of these items up for sale and that’s going to support the community. Longer term, what we’re looking at is corporate sponsorship because we want to get more free content to the users. So, for example, we can have brands and so forth sponsor a track or an item.

Like the Bridgestone Arena or something like that?

You got it, exactly… but Bridgestone hasn’t committed.

(laughs) For these pay-for items, would you be able to earn something similar to it without paying, or do the pay-for items offer an advantage over people who never buy anything?

Well, we’re totally going to make sure that there is an awesome free-to-play experience for players that never pay for a thing. We’ve got some super-avid gamers who have been with us through the beta and, you know, I don’t know if all these guys are going to want to pay for things, but we’re going to make sure that people like that continue to have an excellent free-to-play experience.

There’s going to be some items that you’ll be able to get ahead, things at the very top that will be pay-for only, but we’re mostly making vanity items and stuff like that that’s only available as paid items to support the system, but there’s going to be an awesome free-to-play experience that will continue forever.

Okay, cool. Now, earlier today I played a game of Boost, and I came in second place and leveled up. And, um, I got 60 crystals… but I don’t know what any of that means to me.

Gotcha, so I guess let me fill you in on all of that stuff. Leveling is one of those features that works across all of the games. Leveling unlocks new items and eventually will unlock new content. Basically, your attributes like Speed and Power (and there’s more coming out) will work across all games. That’s what leveling does.

Crystals are your in-game currency. With those crystals, you can go to the store — we’ll demo all of this in a minute — you go to the store and you can check out all of the cool items to soup up your character or your car.

Awesome. So, when you say it unlocks additional content, um, are there going to be more games… like, are there more games now that I just don’t have access to because I’m not high enough level, or is that future stuff?

Okay, so right now we’ve got, you know, we’ve got racing, shooting, and sports genres. The whole company is basically, I mean the whole sort of design point of everything we do is to provide variety. So, the company produces a new 3D multiplayer action game and it gets integrated into this universe with the same character and items, and we produce these types of games on eight to twelve week cycles.

Every eight to twelve weeks we can release a new game in a different genre that supports your character, stats, and your different items in the universe of Moondo.

And what all genres do you have planned?

What we’ve announced so far, which is going to be the next game and that’s probably part of the Moondo Eclipse release party as a sneak-peek, that’s going to be vehicle combat. Beyond that, we have a roadmap of genres that we want to incorporate, although what’s really gonna drive what we do is feedback from the community.

We’re very much different from the traditional game release model, at least the one I’m familiar with and most folks are familiar with, in that we’re not going to be working for two years on some monolithic engine and then release a game in a different box. The model here is that we made a big up-front investment so that we can ship games on this rapid cycle.

Part of that is that we can put games out there and run it by the community and get feedback: what they want, new content, new features, or new genres that they’re interested in. Basically what we do is look at hardcore action games and we try to tease out the core fun and the core thrills of that and put it in a much more casual package.

We’ll show some examples of that with capture the flag and team deathmatch and that sort of thing, distilled down to its most core fun so you can just jump in and play with your friends.

Cool. Sounds awesome. Okay, so for the future, are you planning any games that allow you to hop on goombas?

Hop on goombas?

Yeah.

Well, um… I guess we’re not going to have goombas per se due to trademark issues, but we certainly are looking at the vast variety of games, and based on the feedback we get from our community, that will dictate it. We’ll put in your vote for jumping on goombas.

(laughs) Awesome! Make it two votes because, uh, my fellow writer Jonathan Zungre is all about hopping on goombas.

Awesome. (laughs)

At this point Sam and Community Manager CitizenD run me through a demo of one of the games I had not played yet: Crystal Run. Regardless of its casual nature, Sam was right in that these games really are boiled down to the core fun. The game was incredibly simple to play, it was fast, it ran smoothly on my PC, and it’s completely free.

They then showed me the community features and the store, running me through the process of buying stuff and how it can affect my character. They also showed me my personal avatar’s homepage that showcases all of my stats, achievements, and medals I’ve earned. This is something anyone can look at, so you can easily show off to your friends.

Sam: The fundamental idea here is that now for the first time, the investment that you are making in one game, the investment in your character, is sort of no longer limited to a single game. It’s an investment that continues to serve you as new games come out. So it’s no longer like every game is in a silo and you have to give it up any time you want to try a new activity or game genre. Here, the whole idea is that the investment you are making in your character is now a catalyst to trying new action games instead of a barrier.

Nicely said. Moondo currently only supports Internet Explorer, but the team is working to get Moondo up and running on Firefox and Mac. The platform launches today in HD, and an in-game release party is going on for the next 10 days, dubbed the Moondo Eclipse.

Here is the official word on Moondo’s launch via their press release:

Starting today, casual gamers can test their skills against competitors from around the world at Moondo (www.moondo.com), the Web’s first high-definition cross-gaming universe for the PC. To celebrate the launch of the colorful moon-themed universe, casual gamers are being treated to a Moondo Eclipse, a ten day celebration event complete with tournaments, the introduction of cool avatar items and power-ups and more.

The cross-gaming dynamic in Moondo allows casual gamers to bring their character and power items with them between a variety of gorgeous multiplayer action games in the universe. The more time gamers spend playing Moondo games, the more cross-game items they can earn, which improve their character’s stats (i.e. speed and power) across all games in the world.

The free browser-based games work on a proprietary technology that allows gamers fast access to the action by streaming graphics and audio data to their PCs instead of requiring large downloads. The crisp HD images and ability to scale to up to accommodate any size screen ensures one of the most immersive online game experiences available.

“Many mainstream gamers do not have the time to invest in MMO games or the budget for a high-end console,” said Sam Glassenberg, head of the game studio that created Moondo. “The beauty of Moondo is that anyone can jump into one of its free online games and experience 3D visually intense, action-packed game sessions unlike any other casual game on the web. We welcome any gamer who feels they have skills to check out this exciting new universe of games.”

The Moondo Eclipse tournament will reward prizes to gamers who earn the most crystals in cross gaming competition. Besides the tournament, highly-customizable Moondo outfits and power-ups will also be available to players. Gamers can show off these new items in the Moondo Eclipse fashion show that will run throughout the eclipse.

Moondo currently offers shooting, racing, and sports games. Moondo games bring the core ‘fun’ and thrills of multiplayer action games to more casual audiences – with a bright and vivid look, simple controls, and short game sessions. Screenshots of Blaze, Moondo’s upcoming action game where players battle each other in fast-moving vehicle combat, will be available to players as a sneak peek during the eclipse.

You can check out the Moondo experience for yourself by heading over to their website.

Tags: casual games platform, CitizenD, Eclipse, Funtactix, Moondo, Sam Glassenberg

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1 Comment » Tomonoatmeal Cookigaki on November 6, 2008 6:48 pm Cookigaki would also enjoy hopping on goombas. That is 3 votes. My question to you, Daniel-san, is whether you can wear indoor shades and if any games feature ninja sword. Also, are any of the outfits made of leather? RSS feed for comments on this post. Comment Now Note: Commenting on Ripten does not currently require registration, however to be eligible for contests on the site, you must be a registered user. Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Commenting Rules: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Ripten reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. Thanks. Notify me of followup comments Tired of the Goomba? Upload your own custom comment avatar.