Gamzee Blog

Howard and I headed up to Silicon Valley this week to meet with some venture capital folks.

The interest in Gamzee has been really nice; my theory is that when you combine an experienced team {and Howard counts for 90% of that } and HTML5/cross-platform games, you get a lot of people amped up. And it was nice to see some excitement out of the venture capital community.

The Bay Area was surprisingly warm. San Jose/Menlo Park’s always warmer than San Francisco, but even SF was bright and sunny (we had a meeting downtown, too). Which was a nice contrast to a couple of weeks ago when it was 50 or so. It was also nice to hear the various theses that VCs had on HTML5 and mobile gaming as markets/businesses.

Our theory is really simple:

1) Mobile is going to be huge; mobile social will eclipse regular social due to the larger number of mobile devices than desktop computers. Companies like Facebook and Google need to succeed with social networks on mobile because that’s where all the growth is. If you add in mobile social networks (right now, much bigger in places like Asia than here) and various other Web social networks and unknowns, the potential for growth is insane.

2) HTML5 is great because it lets you make one game for all devices (bonus for developers), and it lets users play games how they want — play on the Web, play on your phone, play on your tablet, or go back and forth from any combination of devices (bonus for consumers).

VCs had varying theories about the market. Some think Facebook will make HTML5 on mobile a smashing success because they have to. Some think it may take them a little while and that Google or Mozilla could pick up the slack. But they all agree that mobile social is huge and HTML5 is huge.

So we’re not as crazy as we seem.

I do realize that I’ve been to the San Jose airport a number of times over the last couple of years, and almost every time I eat at the mediocre Japanese place. Which I did this time, too. And I finally realized there are a bunch of other restaurants there, including a British pub. Apparently, I’m either very preoccupied when I’m at SJC or just not very observant. Or both.

Next time — fish ‘n’ chips. Or Mexican.

Wow, who knew I had so much to say about HTML5 game development?

Gamzee Interview with Inside Social Games

Thanks to A.J. Glasser at Inside Social Games for taking the time to interview me.