Voxeo’s 10th floor co-working space is home to a number of innovative startups, including Row Sham Bow, a game studio founded last year by a group of industry veterans who are on a mission to create direct-to-consumer games that are compelling, easy to play and downright fun, regardless of platform or technology.
Their first game on the Facebook platform, Woodland Heroes, is extremely popular, and Row Sham Bow recently announced their partnership with industry juggernaut Zynga as one of the inaugural partners in Zynga’s publishing-partner initiative, giving them an even larger audience for Woodland Heroes and the ability to focus on creating an even better in-game experience.
Row Sham Bow cares deeply about audience engagement, and in addition to in-game measurement and analytics, they recently put out a call for volunteers new to Woodland Heroes to spend a half hour playing the game and provide their opinions. Several Voxeons volunteered – including me, and I’d never played a social game before, so I was excited to check this one out. I spent a half hour getting started with Woodland Heroes, and Row Sham Bow created a video of my in-game experience and asked me a short series of questions afterwards – all information they can use to make the game more immersive and engaging for new users.
The mission in Woodland Heroes is simple: You’ve been pushed out of your woodland home by the evil Bear King, and the animals are counting on you to save them!
This trailer video gives you an idea of the game’s setup and style:
In getting started with Woodland Heroes, the first thing I noticed is that Row Sham Bow has built in all of the training for basic game play, and basic strategy, into fun, simple lessons that build the storyline. You’re immersed in the storyline immediately, even while still learning how to collect resources, aim weapons and keep your town in good order. Your character, and your city are immediately personalized. Additionally, social opportunities are built into the game in numerous ways – accomplishments can be easily shared and friends can be invited to join the game. The battles are highly reminiscent of Battleship, and a wide variety of weaponry allows you to exercise strategy even in the early levels.
Overall, Woodland Heroes is a cool game and we’re lucky to have such creative neighbors!
To learn more: check out Row Sham Bow’s website or give Woodland Heroes a try on Facebook.
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