Famigo Focuses on Gaming to Bring Families Together
Austin Company Launches Family Game Platform, Famigo Family Gaming Account, and Family Dots, the First Famigo Game
Austin, TX (PRWEB) September 9, 2010
Just in time for back to school, Austin-based Famigo (www. famigogames. com) officially comes out of stealth, and details its focus on gaming that brings families together. Today, Famigo launches its Family Game Platform, an open platform for developers to build and deliver family-focused games (see separate release, also dated September 8, 2010). Famigo also launches its Famigo Family, a gaming account that serves as the online “place” for everyone in the family to play, share, and chat. And today, the first iPhone game on the Famigo platform, Family Dots, is live and available on the iPhone app store at http://bit. ly/a0tySA (http://bit. ly/a0tySA) for $1.99.
Famigo formed a year and a half ago by entrepreneurs focused on the growing need for families to connect and interact, and the reality that most members of a family, especially children, are doing more and more things independently, solitary interactions with the different screens in their life, whether computer, TV, or cell phone. Famigo’s mission is to use today’s technologies to promote and encourage play among all ages in order to bring family members closer and make individuals healthier and happier.
From its incubation as one of five of the first class of companies in Austin’s Capital Factory incubator, to today’s launch, Famigo has been focused on building three important aspects of its company:
First, a rich, open platform, the Family Game Platform, that lets developers, particularly the rapidly growing group of iPhone developers, express their creativity and build and deliver family-focused games. Next, the Famigo Family gaming account that will serve as the modern family’s “home in the cloud,” the online destination to easily stay connected with core and extended family and friends. Like a virtual living room, Famigo Family allows users to invite, share and chat with the people closest to them, while playing fun, fast, simple games built on the Famigo Family Game Platform. It’s easy to sign up, and it’s completely free. Just go to: www. famigogames. com. And finally, Famigo today officially launches the first of many games families can play. The premise of Family Dots is that classic, timeless, age-less game everyone knows, literally connecting a grid of dots into individual boxes and he with the most boxes wins. But Family Dots brings the dots and boxes online, to the iPhone screen, and takes it up a notch to enable up to 6 players, located anywhere, with multiple games happening at the same time. Famigo’s in-game chat tab lets you comment on people’s moves, cheer them on, or heckle if you prefer. Family Dots is available today in the iPhone app store. “We are an interesting combination of years of experience with children’s entertainment properties like Nickelodeon and a PhD in neuroscience,” said Famigo founder, Q Beck. “Put the two together with our tech background, and the gaming and iPhone explosion, and we knew we had to build a company around the idea of using technology to bring families together, to acknowledge our belief in the need to play, to laugh, to have offline experiences that connect to the masses of online time people of all ages will continue to spend.”
About Famigo:
Austin-based Famigo was founded during University of Texas’ 3 Day Start Up in April 2009, and the company was built during the Summer of 2009 as one of five companies selected for the inaugural class of Capital Factory, an Austin incubator. Famigo’s mission is to bring families together with fun, interactive games for all ages, from toddlers to great grandparents. Current games, and online activities in general, are individually focused, reducing real-world family interaction. To answer this problem, Famigo delivers the Family Game Platform, an open API and toolset that help developers build and deliver a wide variety of family-focused games. Famigo brings families these games, and more, via its Famigo Family gaming account, that let people play games, as well as connect and chat with those closest to them. Famigo executives comprise a unique blend of experts in child entertainment as well as family behavior, giving it a unique ability to build compelling – and fun - products designed specifically for families. Famigo can be found on the web at www. famigogames. com, and on Twitter @famigogames. For more information, contact: info(at)famigogames(dot)com.
# # #
