Need beta testers: new location/checkin game called Skirmish

[BuddyDave]

Hi everyone:

I'm DaveMac - some of you may know me from the AnythingButiPod.com forums or the Zune Insider podcast - I do business development at Microsoft in the Zune team.

I've also got a few apps out in the Windows Phone Marketplace ("ColorSpill" and "Mastermind Passport" being my others), and am working on a game called "Skirmish" - but I need some beta testers to help me test the game prior to launch.

The concept is simple - imagine Foursquare and the board game "Risk" hooked up and had a kid - that kid would be Skirmish. Put another way - Skirmish is a team sport whereby the goal is to check into as many real-world locations as you can to "take over" those locations for your team. There are ten teams globally, and you compete both globally and locally. While I might be fighting my neighbours for control of the local Starbucks, if I win control of that Starbucks, my team (Team Yellow for example) inches ahead in the global rankings.

I think it is going to be a popular game, and so far our initial beta testing has been very successful. Based on our first beta release, we're going to make some pretty deep changes to our scoring system, and fix a few issues - but with the new scoring system, I'd love to get more eyes on the app.

Skirmish will initially work in the USA, France, Germany, Taiwan, Japan, UK and Australia. Other countries will come online soon.

Interested in playing along and offering your thoughts? I'd LOVE to hear from you! All you need is a WP7 phone and to live (or visit) one of those launch countries. Shoot me an email with your Marketplace login (Live ID email address) to dave (at) buddy (dot) com and I'll set you right up!

Thanks everyone - appreciate your patience reading this far.

Cheers, Dave.

 

[selfcreation]

No canada? sounds like my type of game!

 

[Rhody#WP]

I tried Own This World. It had a similar concept, but requred you to have the app running in a particular location to accumulate resources. That meant you sat there staring at a timer with your battery draining. It was too boring.

The game looks much better. I would be interested in trying it out.

 

[BuddyDave]

I tried Own This World. It had a similar concept, but requred you to have the app running in a particular location to accumulate resources. That meant you sat there staring at a timer with your battery draining. It was too boring.

The game looks much better. I would be interested in trying it out.

One of the reasons we're running the beta test first is to make sure we're NOT being boring. We already learnt that our scoring mechanism needs some changes to encourage the competition - so we're making those changes.

The feedback has been excellent and enthusiastic so far, but the more the better.

Rhody - send me your Windows Phone Marketplace Live ID to my email, which is dave (at) buddy (dot) com - and I'll get you set up.

Cheers, Dave.