When it comes to the online world, the concept of viral marketing is very well established and centers mostly on Facebook, email, Twitter and other social media channels. On the flip side, with mobile devices being at the core of social communication, you would expect to see the same or even better viral distribution channels. The fact is that, for the most part, when it comes to mobile app “viral marketing,” it’s tied to a physical experience.

App users show their newly downloaded game, entertainment or photo sharing app to a friend who then downloads it, if they like it and may show it to a few more people. On average, users might show the app to 5 friends, tops. So much for a viral factor…

We all know by now that developing a high quality app that delivers true value and is insanely easy to use makes any app marketing process infinitely easier, however there are other ways to gain more eyeballs and potential users. Piggybacking on an established network of users for example is a great starting point. With this post, I’ll round of a few of the best platforms you can utilize to increase your apps discoverability.

 Facebook / Twitter Integration

Creating and building up a fan base from day one for your app is no easy task. Luckily integrating Facebook and Twitter social graphs simplifies the process. Integrating Facebook or Twitter allows your app’s users to connect with their friends, invite them to join, share scores and so much more. Give your app users the gift of social gab.

Game Center

Game Center lets friends and random mobile app gamers get in on the action. Send friend requests, start playing games, compare scores or start online multiplayer sessions. Some games may feature achievements, where for completing a certain task, the player is rewarded points and a medal. Depending on the game, a leader board may be present where you can compare your score with your friends or the world.

ngmoco Plus+

Developed by ngmoco in June 2009, Plus+ connects your app user with a community of gamers across a growing array of games. It’s a social network developed for the iPhone, iPod touch & iPad. Plus+ is very centered on gaming, and allows users to compare scores, be rewarded for in-game accomplishments, follow leaderboards as well as broadcast their scores through the leading social networks.

OpenFeint

OpenFeint is currently the largest mobile social gaming platform for iOS. Their global gaming ecosystem consists of over 100 million users. In a nutshell, OpenFeint is a ‘social platform’ which allows developers to easily add social networking aspects into their game with minimal additional programming. For example, it lets you add friends, see what your friends are playing, view leaderboards, forums and live chat, and more. It also serves as a platform to advertise other ‘OpenFeint enabled’ games.

Crystal

Developed by Chillingo, the Crystal SDK is very much like OpenFeint and lets you integrate social gaming elements into your app. Note: at the time of writing this, the link on their website redirected back to the homepage.

We’d like to hear it from you. Have you integrated social gaming or viral elements in you app that have helped you reach a wider user base? Share them with our readers in the comments or let us know about them on Twitter @W3i and @OrenTodoros

W3i continues to innovate in the mobile space by announcing availability in its Games Platform beta project. The project responds to some key challenges iOS games developers face when embarking in freemium game development.

Interviews with a number of games developers revealed common challenges with freemium game development include: server set-up, maintenance and security, the development of a storefront, and actionable analytics.

Server Headaches

iOS game app developers come in all sizes. Many are independent hobbyists to burgeoning development shops. For these small-shop developers, funds and resources are at a premium. Most would prefer to focus on developing a highly interactive, quality game rather than worry about hardware and software procurement needed to support the game infrastructure. However monotonous it might be, most recognize that server setup, maintenance and security should not be taken lightly. Developers know they need a system that provides solid uptime and strong security.

Storefront Development

Another time sapper when it comes to freemium game development is creation of the storefront. Developers get more excited about what to place into inventory and more importantly, interaction of the goods with gameplay than they do about managing the inventory and presenting it in a compelling manner.  Other important details that eat up valuable development time is creating a system that is easily re-usable across many games and if they develop under contract from a publishing house, one that provides easy access to the inventory to edit the attributes.

Inventory Analytics

One of the last things on Developer’s minds (especially new developers) is analytics. The importance and value of strong data to help make inventory optimization decisions is often overlooked yet is highly critical. When first starting, most iOS developers will integrate Flurry or simply use Apple’s iTunes connect to get basic information (e.g. DAU, MAU, retention, etc.). However, this is not enough information to make sound inventory decisions. For example, although iTunes provides you with revenue data, it does not breakdown that revenue by item. Nor does it provide any segmentation to facilitate targeting.

What’s The Solution?

So what are developers doing today to manage all of these challenges? Unfortunately, most are bearing the expense in dollars and resources by themselves and for the analytics, they are simply doing without. W3i can remove these burdens for developers that choose to participate in their beta program. In exchange for feedback on the system, these beta participants receive the service at no charge. To request access, visit http://www.w3i.com/gamesbeta/, complete the form and a team member will contact you with details. The number of available openings is limited so act soon!

By now it’s become clear that vast majority of time users spend on the app store occurs in the games section, which in turn hosts the most apps in the app Store. Hence, Apple created subcategories for different genres of games namely Action, Adventure, Arcade, Board, Card, Casino, and so on… That being said, deciding upon what category to place your app in isn’t so cut and dry.

Much like your app’s icon, screenshots and description, the category you place your app in can make the difference between users seeing your app or having it fall into the bottom of the barrel.

The first thing you need to know is that when you submit your app, you are allowed to choose a primary and secondary category that your App will be listed under. This gives you the freedom to choose where you think your app fits best, but gives also gives Apple the final say on where it will really go live. A perfect example of this is a “learn a new language” type app, which can fit in several categories such as Lifestyle, Travel or even the Reference category.

A lot of your success is riding on how easily your app is discovered within any of these categories, which makes it essential to understand who you’re competing with and how they got there in the first place. One way to figure this all out is by reading the descriptions of top apps. If they were featured within other apps or websites, chances are they’ll mention it in the description.

To understand where your app fits into the grand scheme of things, I’ve put together an overview of the app store’s categories. Refer to it as a primary guide, but keep in mind that the only real way to know for sure how well your app performs is by researching and testing.

The App Category Smart Guide

• Games – The most competitive category in the App Store. If you app is geared towards kids, make sure you focus on Kids as a sub-category.
• Entertainment – Mostly for novelty type apps. Notice that most of the apps in this category stay in top spots for a very long time.
• Utilities – Perfectly suited for alarm clocks, eReaders, and browsers.
• Social Networking – Mostly for extensions of social media services.
• Music – This app is pretty self explanatory, music apps belong here as well as any DJ type apps.
• Productivity – If your app helps users be more productive or works in-sync with other productivity services, choose this category.
• Lifestyle – Any new age, lifestyle, fashion or niche type app will do well here.
• Reference – Does your app help users make better or more informed decisions? Choose this category.
• Travel – Travel companion apps, maps, tourist guides, localized information apps go here.
• Sports – Sports doesn’t only have to mean scores and highlights, if you have a sports game type app, try this category.
• Navigation – Perfect for GPS, Maps, Location finder, tourist information and any other navigation apps.
• Healthcare & Fitness – Health reminder apps, exercise, run trackers and generally any apps that improve well being.
• News – News apps and general resource apps are perfectly suited here.
• Photography – Keep in mind that the photography category is extremely competitive.
• Finance – Created an app that helps the user keep their pulse on the finance industry? Go with this category.
• Business – One of the most “open” categories as truthfully almost all apps can fit here.
• Education – All apps that increase the user’s skill set belong in this category.
• Weather – Another self explanatory category.
• Books – Books are doing exceptionally well in the App Store. Interactive or not, all ready material should go here.
• Medical – If your app focuses on medical issues go with the Medical category.

Prices per Category

Categories have a direct impact on the amount users are willing to pay for your app. Business, Healthcare and Finance topping off the top 3 most expensive app categories. Keep this in mind if you’re going to be charging a hefty fee for your app.

Credits: iPhonealley.com

In conclusion: One of the latest trends to hit the App Store are apps that act as mini app stores “aggregators” themselves. There’s no doubt that as the App Store evolves and becomes increasingly crowded, developers will start looking to alternative channels to increase eyeballs for their app.

Turning it back to you: Have you tried out different categories for your apps? Which has been the most effective? Share your story in the comments or reach out to us via Twitter @W3i or @OrenTodoros

Published in syndication with MobileOrchard.

You can have 20 million users download you freemium application, but if only 2 of them spend more than 30 seconds in your app you have a problem! This week we will look at the ways currency can be introduced and the best way to introduce users to your games virtual economy.

Dad to son: “Don’t spend it all in one place”

I remember as a child, although infrequently, receiving money from my parents for a number of reasons. Monetary reward would come from performing chores, good grades and birthday events. Receiving this fine coinage would always be accompanied with the phrase “Don’t spend it all in one place!”…. and while my father’s intentions really weren’t for me to spread my cash across multiple places, he did attempt to warn me against spending my money foolishly. Growing up my father was always delivering sound bites on money management regardless of how much they were ignored, but the point was eventually digested and I soon better understood how to spend my money. In the way that my father educated me, we as game developers need to educate our users on how to operate or “spend” money in the virtual game economies that we create.

Currency introduced through gameplay

The best way to teach is through action. Encourage your user to take action that requires spending virtual currency. Always reinforce the spending with a positive experience so that a user knows spending money is valuable. All successful simulation games on the mobile market today introduce currency as unique steps in their tutorial… or at least require it be used within the first few sessions of gameplay.

Quarters, Nickels and Dimes

Many games these days have multiple currency types know as premium (primary) currency and secondary currency. Primary currency typically is defined as being rare and tightly tied to real dollar value while secondary currency can be easy to earn and readily accessible. Depending on the game, you can choose to charge real dollars for both premium and secondary currencies or simply just premium. Make sure to introduce both currencies during game but do so separately. Be careful to introduce users to your currency all in one step or action. Spread out the introduction over a series of steps so that they can fully grasp how the decisions they make regarding their purchases affect gameplay.

Missions vs. Tutorial

Next week we will talk about the differences of missions vs. tutorials and the value each play in a mobile gaming environment.

Do you have a question about freemium gaming or a topic you’d like us to explore? Let us know in the comments or catch us on twitter @rechargestudios or @w3i.

Learning Agile

At W3i we utilize the Agile software development method. Prior to coming to W3i I was unfamiliar with this method but recently read the book Practices of an Agile Developer.

A Lesson for Everyone

After reading this book it seemed that there are some key concepts that really go beyond Agile. In my opinion they apply to any software development methodology and to take it a step further, apply to almost any aspect of life in which there is human interaction. The sum of all of these concepts really comes down to one idea, Effective and Efficient Communication. Alot of struggles during software development and in the world in general are due to some sort of communication issue.

Communication Guidelines

There are three concepts form the book that kind of all fit together

• Keep others informed
• Schedule regular face time
• Frequent feedback

All of these really boil down to establishing some sort of guidelines for communication. In these guidelines you want to make sure people understand the expectations, such as when and how they should communicate with each other. If people are over/under communicating make sure you make them aware and give them guidance on how to correct it.

One of the processes used in Agile is a daily Stand Up meeting. This meeting typically takes place near the start of the day and is a way for everyone to share their commitments, their progress, and any obstacles that may be in the way of achieving those commitments. This type of meeting really should be used by all software development teams regardless of the methodology being used. Software development is too volatile to not have this level of communication and team work. Again, I would even encourage people outside of software development to use the Stand Up meeting as a way to keep the team informed and committed.

Respect Others

There are a couple other concepts from the book that also fit well together

• Listen to users
• Criticize ideas, not people

Communication isn’t always about talking. Someone always needs to be there to listen. If you take the time to “respectfully” listen you will find that everyone has their own perspective to bring to the conversation. Whether their idea is right or wrong isn’t as important as making sure that everyone gets the opportunity to share their perspective. If you let people speak openly, you will find that there may be more to consider than just what you have observed or understand. Sometimes it may seem inefficient to let someone else ramble on about something you don’t deem important but if they aren’t allowed to finish they may have one key thing to mention that may make all the difference.

The other part that goes along with this is working as a team to come up with solutions to problems. This is where the concept of Criticize Ideas, Not People is important. When criticizing, whether you directly attack the person or their idea, the resulting net effect is the same. You discourage that person from wanting to contribute or you make them no longer feel welcome in the discussion. This concept is more about encouraging that person to solve the problem even if you have a better solution. The idea is that instead of telling the person the flaws in their idea, you address those concerns in the form of questions. You challenge them to come up with better solutions. This has a twofold effect. One is that this person feels like they have contributed, that their ideas are welcomed, and they will be more inclined to continue to participate in the future. The second is that they may come up with a solution that was even better than what you came up with.

Final Thoughts

If we want what we do in life to be more effective and efficient, we need to start with the way we communicate with each other. If we openly establish guidelines and expectations with each other and we make sure that we respect each other, we will find the interactions that we have with each other will be much more enjoyable. We will feel like we are working together as a team and not as enemies.

Jeff Smoley, Software Architect, W3i, LLC
Jeff ensures that the W3i development team produces quality solutions and maintainable code. With more than 11 years of software development experience, Jeff also sees that W3i follows security best practices.

It’s been a couple weeks since we’ve done a weekly round-up on all things app. But anyone monitoring the stories related to apps, social and mobile will recognize one strong and common theme in the last couple weeks. Brands are finally getting it. We saw a lot of press regarding brands integrating mobile social gaming into their strategy. Here’s a couple of our favorite.

Salut! Middle Sister Wines Push Into Mobile

Full and complete disclaimer, absolute HUGE fan of Middle Sisters wine so when I saw their brand pop up in my weekly research pertaining to mobile it clearly perked my interest. It seems the winos over at the Canopy Wine Company added the Middle Sister brand to the social game VinPass. “The interactive game brings the vast digital wine community together to win badges and bragging rights each time they review, rate or save participating wine brands.” Think foursquare for us wine connoisseurs. Read all about it on PRWeb.

A Hoot to Boot

Aside from being yet another piece on the power of marketing with games and mobile, b-to-b  grabbed my attention simply with their headline. Social gaming: A marketing phenomenon, and a hoot to boot. The article talks all about the potency of social marketing in games.

Go free or go home

MobileMarketer has a great piece this week why the best price for apps is free. While the free vs paid debate will likely rage for sometime you don’t wana miss this. Check out Why apps must be free.

Ryan Ruud, PR Manager, W3i, LLC
Ryan is a new media communicator with a decade of traditional and emerging mass media experience. Ryan leads W3i’s relationship outreach and uses his passion for apps and connecting people to tell the W3i story.

originally posted on ClickZ

Are you interested in promoting mobile content, such as mobile branded apps? Or maybe, you’re a performance marketer who is tired of the high price points and low return of search engine marketing. Mobile advertising, with its low entry prices and unique capabilities, can be a great alternative.

A shift in mobile advertising is beginning to take place and it’s happening quickly. According to Gartner’s PC-installed base forecast, the total number of PCs in use will reach 1.78 billion units in 2013. By 2013, the combined installed base of smartphones and browser-equipped enhanced phones will exceed 1.82 billion units and will be greater than the installed base for PCs thereafter. Mobile marketing is also moving quickly from SMS on feature phones to display and search ads on smartphones. You can get in on the ground floor with this new media; and here are some tips on how to make your campaigns more effective. Yes, it may be messy and take additional planning; however, the shift has begun and the brands that learn early will have an advantage.

Effective Creative Must Be Device-Specific

Mobile phones are not the stepchildren of the Internet. To be effective, your creative and calls to action must take advantage of the features of the device. In other words, you must leverage the creative “limitations” of the device. For example, creatives on tablets can be a much richer and engaging experience. In my previous column, “To App or Not to App? Branded Apps Drive User Relationships,” I discussed some of the nuances and how branded marketers are developing more sophisticated apps to take advantage of the features of various devices. This also applies to ads and promotions on mobile devices.

Mobile advertising is very effective in cross-media advertising. For example, “calls to action” of traditional media campaigns – like TV, print, and even event marketing. The winner of the 2010 Global Mobile Awards was Turkey’s Cornetto Ice Cream, which used a multi-player, interactive game projected on a building in Taksim Istiklal Avenue in Istanbul, Turkey, activated by mobile phones to promote its ice cream. Run for two weeks for two hours daily, Cornetto had more than 3 million unique views, 3,500 players, and instant word of mouth, creating major brand awareness and trial for its ice cream. The mayor even stopped in for a viewing.

Take Advantage of Device Targeting

In mobile, a host of new options are available, including the ability to target a specific device. You can target an entire OS, such as iOS, Android, or BlackBerry. You can also get very granular and target an individual device or feature like video support. Campaigns that target the iPod touch are effective if you want to reach young people, whereas targeting the iPad is a great way to reach high-net-worth individuals. For example, according to Jumptap, smartphone owners skew older and wealthier than feature phone users, and are typically heavier mobile data users. This may explain why older, more affluent users had higher ad interaction rates on Jumptap’s network. Jumptap shows that older, more affluent consumers are more apt to interact with ads than younger mobile users who are less well-off. Those 40 and over were almost five times more likely to engage with an ad than people below that age, and those making more than $50,000 were twice as likely to do so than people making less.

Most mobile ad networks will optimize your campaign on the fly. Because the number of parameters that are being tracked is so large, most networks have developed auto-optimization for campaigns.

Volume in Creative and Messaging Helps

In mobile, the amount of advertising real estate is even more limited than on the PC. For advertisers, this means that breadth-over-depth has a noticeable impact. Creative burnout seems to happen faster than burnout on the PC. Updating and changing your creative frequently as well as constantly testing new ideas is recommended.

Experiment With Mobile-Specific Calls to Action

In mobile, advertisers have a number of unique calls to action that they can take advantage of. For example, it’s possible to run click-to-call campaigns that initiate the mobile phone’s call function after the user clicks on the banner ad. This works great for many performance verticals. There is also a click-to-SMS functionality that can be combined with a number of techniques, including the ability to SMS back to the user a mobile web link. Click-to-download is another mobile-specific choice that is popular for app download campaigns. This call to action takes the user directly to the app store where they can download the advertised app onto their mobile device. Another example of a mobile call to action would be the use of QR codes.

Quaker Oats used mobile advertising to promote Chewy Dipps with a sweepstakes and a simple call to action appropriate for mobile phones.

AppAllStar, one of the properties I am affiliated with, delivers users directly to the App Store page for installation of a “free game of the day.” AppAllStar uses a push notification on each user’s iOS device to drive them back to the daily featured promotion.

Minneapolis-based Parasole Restaurant Holdings used QR code technology in its billboard to transmit deals, ads, and a video for its trendy Chino Latino restaurant.

The QR code for Chino Latino contributed to 7,581 website visits over the past 90 days. Based on this ad’s success, Parasole used a QR code as part of its Burger Jones grand opening contest, which also performed well, with as many as 349 scans in one day. Here is a link to the company’s current Burger Jones contest.

This was the first use of QR code technology in a billboard in the U.S. outside of New York or LA. “Our clients are achieving the best QR code results when they integrate embedded video, contests, coupon for free item in-store, and e-newsletter opt-ins. Marketers are further boosting results by using the same mobile-friendly content with social media and email campaigns as well as QR,” says Lisa Foote, co-founder, MixMobi, which worked with Parasole to put together the ad.

“For performance advertisers, mobile can be an excellent alternative to SEM and PC Web display. Mobile advertising’s low cost, when combined with mobile specific advertising strategies, like click-to-call campaigns, can create a superior value proposition that is hard for good marketers to ignore,” comments Gregory Kennedy, director global marketing, InMobi.

Early adopters will see major payoffs with mobile advertising. Take advantage of this quickly emerging media and make it work for your brand. If you have any advice on how to make mobile marketing campaigns more effective, please add a comment, and thanks for the tweets.

Rob Weber, Vice President and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over ten, profitable years evolving W3i in the consumer application industry.

Let’s shift gears this week and talk a little bit about freemium content. It’s safe to say that in a world of copycat engines and concepts it’s hard to stand out. Sure, you can create new themes built on a proven game engine, but if the content doesn’t resonate with the users it simply won’t work.

There is a movement in the freemium game world that we call the “Cuteness” movement. No longer does targeting a specific demographic guarantee a success in a specific category. Today’s freemium games target a broad base of users and leave no stone unturned. Many top social game companies found success in this broad target by going cute.

Going cute with your freemium game will ensure that you can attract young and old alike. You might not necessarily “appeal” to a core gamer… but c’mon, who doesn’t love cute penguins or playful dolphins?

And freemium/casual games have turned into just that “casual”….

Gamers are better off to have a relaxing enjoyable experience with a bunch of cute elf-like, hobbit-like creatures vs. hard core death ridden monsters. Don’t believe me that going “cute” works?

Take a look at some of the top grossing freemium titles as of 5/17/11, every single icon screams “cute”.

So what does this mean? Unless you’re going after a specific demographic with a unique genre of content, stick to cute!

Make it as freakin’ cute as possible.

Do your best to get as many 45 year old males to go goo-goo and gah-gah over your content and your app is sure to be a hit.

Do you have a question about freemium gaming or a topic you’d like us to explore? Let us know in the comments or catch us on twitter @rechargestudios or @w3i.

Freemium Game Blogs are published in partnership with the series on W3i’s corporate blog.

Apple has just announced that they’ve made a few algorithm changes on the App Store for the way apps are ranked. To put it simply, this recent change shifts how apps make it into the top sections of app categories. In regards to this change, several apps such as Facebook, Netflix and Pandora made a drastic jump, without publishing any major updates. W3i picked up on these algo changes about a week ago, but campaigns flowed through as expected and continued to break into the top 25 categories.

With App Store real estate constantly on the rise, content can and should be optimized to make it more visible for end users and more profitable for developers: Here are a few App Store Optimization Tactics to give your app the upper hand.

1 – Getting Approved

This goes without saying, but I felt it needs to be mentioned regardless. In order for any of the App Store optimization tactics below to have any effect, your app needs to be approved. Make sure you follow Apple’s developer guidelines to a T. Hopefully one day, Apple will be a little more transparent by not using cryptic messages such as: “We will reject Apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line. What line, you ask? Well, as a Supreme Court Justice once said, “I’ll know it when I see it”. And we think that you will also know it when you cross it.”

Once you’ve made it past the approval process, you’re good to go with the following 5 tips to give your app a little added advantage.

2 – App Title:

One of my all time favorite titles and best examples of an app title done right is: Doodle Jump – Be Warned: Insanely Addictive. I don’t know about you, but when I read the words “be warned,” I’m the first one in.  Don’t be afraid to take a little risk with your app’s title, try spicing it up and make it more eye-catching; but you don’t want to go too far so that it’s difficult to find it with search. Another tip that should be mentioned is that early on in your app’s development process, you might want to search for the title you have in mind; just to make sure that it isn’t already taken.

3 – App Description (And Keywords):

You’re app’s description offers a prime opportunity to let your app shine. Remember, that just like in the App Store, less is more. Start by writing everything you want to say about your app and then strip it down to the bare minimum. Focus on the need your app solves instead of its features. If your app helps keep the kids quiet, say it. If your app will save users thousands of dollars, focus on that. Ask yourself what the main need is that your app solves and write a paragraph or 2 around that.

4 – Screenshots & Icon Design

Far too many app developers choose an image from their app’s settings menu or one of the textually heavy sections of their app as the app’s screenshots. Doing this is really shooting yourself in the foot. Most app users skip straight to the app’s visuals to get a glimpse of what it’s about before choosing to download. Give them something pretty to look at. Look for the most eye-popping sections of your app and use those as your screenshots. Remember, screenshots can be updated regularly, so don’t be afraid to mix it up. Change your screenshots over time as you upload new features for your app. keep it fresh!  Going back a step, your app’s icon is literally the face of you app on the App Store’s shelf. Even with great screenshots and killer description copy, a bad looking icon will turn people away from downloading it because they may assume the rest of the app is just as carelessly done.

5 – App Reviews

Popularity is a big component of how apps are ranked in the App Store. User reviews are a central part of app popularity. High user ratings encourage new users to not only download the app but also share their own reviews as well. As a side tip, your app should offer users an easy way to share a review in the App Store.

6 – Link Building

I can and will do a complete blog post on link building for apps, but to keep it short, let me give you a few highlights. If you have any web presence what so ever “and unless you’ve been living under a rock, almost everyone does” you should use it to promote your app. From Facebook and Twitter to LinkedIn and Forums, visibility is the name of the game. Increasing exposure to your app isn’t only about links; it’s also videos on YouTube, Viddler, Vimeo and all the other video sharing services available at your disposal. Don’t forget that videos offer space for descriptions where you can place a link back to your app in the App Store.

I’m turning this post back over to you, we’d love to hear your App Store Optimization tips and credit you in an upcoming post.  Share your comments bellow or reach out to us over Twitter @W3i with your thoughts on this post or anything you feel I may have missed!

Recharge Studios’ New Diner Rush Offers New Social Gaming Features For Mobile Gamers

Minneapolis, MN. April 13^th, 2011. – Recharge Studios’ latest game, Diner Rush, allows gamers to rule the restaurant world and build their dining empire. Diner Rush lets gamers compete against friends and race to become the mayor of each other’s restaurants.

The latest social mobile title from the investment fund utilizes Facebook’s single sign on. The game allows gamers to check into their friends virtual restaurants in exchange for experience points (XP) as they race to achieve the title of “mayor.”

Additionally, Diner Rush provides gamers: international food, profile customization, dozens of characters and hundreds of upgradeable items for countless hours of entertainment.

The game is coming soon to the Apple App Store ℠, free for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

About Recharge Studios: Recharge Studios collaborates with indie developers, IP owners and publishers to bring great social games to life on iOS. As an investment fund, capitalized by W3i, Recharge Studios assists its partners in developing and marketing their games while giving partners full ownership of the IP.

Press Contact:

Ryan Ruud

Marketing Communications

Office: 320-257-7618

Mobile: 612-799-0803

ryan.ruud@W3i.com

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