Check out my videogame startup, Playtiva!

Hey guys, for those of you who've been wondering what I've been doing the past 1.5 years, it's http://www.playtiva.com.

(For those of you who don't know me, I was one of the founders of VFDC and have been playing VF for nearly 15 years.)

Anyway. I love games and have always loved games, and I tired of my professional middle management life, so I took my savings and partnered with a couple buddies to start Playtiva.

Our mission at Playtiva is to combine the narrative of TV, the interactivity of games and the social nature of the Internet to a create a newish, hopefully awesome type of new experience. 1.5 years later, and much blood and sweat, the result is http://www.playtiva.com

We have three games so far:

21:15 - http://www.playtiva.com/2115

21:15 is a murder mystery game where you collect clues, talk to people, explore the environment and solve puzzles to crack the case.

We modeled 21:15 after classic who-dun-its and especially those dinner-party murder mysteries. For those of you who enjoy murder mysteries, you will like this one.

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Blind Date - http://www.playtiva.com/bd1

A romantic comedy game where you and your friends get to role-play a blind date between two characters, Joe and Sarah. Friends play by voting on what their character should do on this blind date. Your choices will decide whether the date turns out to be a success or a disaster!

Remember those old "choose your path" adventure books? Blind Date is effectively a multiplayer choose your path story, but with mini-games thrown in.

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The Break-Up Game - http://www.playtiva.com/bug

The Break-Up Game is a game show where couples collaborate with each other and compete against other couples to win. There are two types of events in the game: quizzes and challenges.

* In quizzes, couples are asked questions about their past, present and future. Learn something new about your partner and other couples!

* In challenges, couples compete in mini-games. Partners must work well together to win!

The Break-Up Game is inspired by TV quiz shows - if you have a significant other, this is a great game to play together! Our goal is for couples to have fun while learning something new about themselves in the process.

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As you can tell from the above descriptions, we are not really targeting the hardcore gamer segment. Our games are really easy to play (point-and-click), short as they can be completed in less than an hour, and don't require any special software other than Flash to play. I always wished I could play games with my "mainstream" friends, and especially with my girlfriends - I hope I've achieved that with Playtiva.

We are hoping to earn money by charging a subscription -- $20 gets you access to all our games and all future games we release over the year -- though we also have free versions of every game.

Anyway, I'd love it if you guys can check Playtiva out and give me some feedback. We just launched our beta a few weeks ago so things are still a little rough around the edges. Plus, in trying to do something different, we made a ton of mistakes. We know we can improve so your feedback would really help make our second generation of games better.

Since VFDC readers aren't really our target market, once you create an account, just drop me an email at ice-9@playtiva.com and I'll upgrade your account to a subscriber account. Just mention that you heard about Playtiva through VFDC and that'll do it.

Once you're a subscriber, you can invite your friends to play games with you for free - even the subscriber versions - so it's a cool perk. So yeah, your girlfriend won't need a subscriber account to play The Break-Up Game with you. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

But do let me know if you have any comments, suggestions or questions, and I'll be happy to receive them here or by e-mail.

Cheers,
Jeff

 

I just tried the 21:15 trial and I liked it. I do enjoy point and click games, and murder mysteries are fun too.

I'll sign up at some point soon so that I can finish the game. I'm not too interested in the other two, but if you make more games like 21:15, I'll definitely be interested in them.

I also wish you and your friends the best of luck in your venture. I hope it goes well for you.

 

Thanks for the kind words Ash_Kaiser!

If you want to play the full version of 21:15, just let me know and I'll hook you up with a subscriber account.

We're working on the spiritual sequel to 21:15 right now and we're having a ton of fun developing it. Look out for it in August!

 

Nice job on the site. Are you still in Singapore?

 

Hey Dobi, thanks for the props and yup, still in Singapore. It was a hard decision between starting this in Singapore vs. Cali, but family was the deciding factor.

 

Hey Ice!

I definitely plan on trying this out with my wife, I think she'll love it (all three games, even)!

 

Yeah I checked it out cause the woman is interested in stuff like this. Keeps her busy when i'm playing on the computer /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

I watched the trailer for 21:15 and made a free account, gonna try the trial version of 21:15 later see what it's like.

 

Sweet! I upgraded your account to a subscriber one Feck.

Chanchai just let me know when you register and I'll do the same.

 

I just signed up, same name as here.

I'm willing to take advantage of the subscriber upgrade if that's alright by you.

 

Done. Thanks and help us spread the word!

 

I already got the girlfriend to use the link to share it on her facebook account /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif I would have done it on mine too but I haven't got enough friends haha.

Maybe I can link to the site in my sig on the other forums I visit if that's ok with you?

 

That's more than OK, wow thanks mate!!

 

I like the site! All I have to do is find more friends and spread the word. It's a shame some people keep those dirty secrets. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

It's awesome. I have something else to do now. I am now a dating master! /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif

 

Sweet, thanks! As I said in my original post, if you need me to hook you up with a subscriber account just e-mail me.

 

Hey guys, I received a lot of requests -- thanks! To make things easier, we created a coupon code that you can use to simply get a free subscriber account.

Go to http://www.playtiva.com/1/coupon/

First, create an account and submit.
Second, input LNO9R1X4 when prompted and voila, that should work.