FunOrb

FunOrb is a casual gaming site created by Jagex Ltd. Launched on 27 February 2008, it is the company’s first major release since their successful MMORPG, RuneScape. All of the games are programmed in Java.

Jagex has announced that this site is targeted towards the “hard casual“, “deep casual” or “time-pressured” gamer market (specifically over-18s) and that it intends to expand into the mobile phone games market.[1][2][3] On 3 December 2009, Jagex released its first mobile phone game, Bouncedown, for the iPhone and iPod touch,[4] followed by StarCannon on 15 April 2010[5] Miner Disturbance on 8 June 2010,[6] and Undercroft on September 23, 2010. [7]

Summary

FunOrb offers single-player and multiplayer games. Multiplayer games allow players to communicate with each other through a public lobby, or through private chat, which can be used to talk to people on RuneScape, and vice versa. In all current multiplayer games, players receive a separate rating for each game, which symbolizes their experience with the games and can rise or fall based on their rated game performance. In all current multiplayer games, with the exception of the persistent-world games Dungeon Assault and Void Hunters, players may play “rated” games, which finds random opponents and adjusts their rating based on their performance, or they can play unrated games with people of their choice, which have no effect on their rating.

The site includes an achievement system which gives awards for completing challenges in single-player and multiplayer games. These include “Orb Coins”, which players are able to spend on a variety of game content including desktop wallpapers, music, icons, and more.[8] Also awarded are “Orb Points”, which can be compared to those of other players.[9] The site has been launched in English, German, French and Brazilian Portuguese, with more languages planned.[10]

Jagex have stated that FunOrb will be updated every two weeks, either with a new game, an update to a game or an updated site feature.[11] Currently, only Jagex games are available on the site, but Jagex have stated that they are considering adding third party games to the site.[12]

 

Cost

Limited versions of all FunOrb games are available for free, with costs covered by advertising. Some games are completely free, with the exception of fullscreen mode. Players have the option of becoming paying subscribers, which gives them access to more ingame content, among other things the option to play games in fullscreen mode and an increased amount of achievements. Subscribers are also granted immediate access to the FunOrb forums, whereas non-subscribers are required to have obtained at least 42 achievements before being allowed to post.[13]

 

Holiday events

From 22 October 2008 to 5 November 2008, special Halloween Achievements were spread across 10 games, with each of those games having a temporary Halloween theme.[14] These were re-released on 28 October 2009, along with Achievements and Halloween themes for several other games.[15]

On 18 December 2008, an update for the game Arcanists was released in celebration of Christmas, in the form of several costumes that players could buy with Orb Coins.[16]

 

Current games

A screenshot showing Geoblox, one of the many games on FunOrb.

Another screenshot showing the game TerraPhoenix.

There are currently 43 games in total:

Name↓ Category↓ Single-player or multiplayer?↓
Ace of Skies Action Single-player
Arcanists Strategy Multiplayer
Armies of Gielinor Strategy Both
Bachelor Fridge Strategy Multiplayer
Bouncedown Arcade Both
Brick-À-Brac Arcade Both
Chess Strategy Multiplayer
Crazy Crystals Puzzle Single-player
Deko Bloko Arcade Both
Dr. P. Saves the Earth Shooter Single-player
Dungeon Assault Strategy Multiplayer
Escape Vector Arcade Single-player
Flea Circus Puzzle Single-player
Geoblox Arcade Single-player
Hold the Line Racer Single-player
Hostile Spawn Shooter Single-player
Kickabout League Sport Multiplayer
Lexicominos Word Single-player
Miner Disturbance Arcade Single-player
Monkey Puzzle 2 Arcade Single-player
Orb Defence Arcade Single-player
Pixelate Puzzle Both
Pool Sport Both
Shattered Plans Strategy Multiplayer
Sol-Knight Arcade Single-player
StarCannon Shooter Single-player
Steel Sentinels Strategy Both
Stellar Shard Arcade Single-player
Sumoblitz Action Single-player
TerraPhoenix Strategy Single-player
TetraLink Strategy Multiplayer
The Track Controller Puzzle Single-player
Thirty-Six Card Trick Puzzle Single-player
Tomb Racer Action Both
Tor Challenge Platform Single-player
Torquing! Platform Single-player
Transmogrify Word Single-player
Vertigo 2 Platform Both
Virogrid Strategy Multiplayer
Void Hunters Action Both
Wizard Run Platform Single-player
Zombie Dawn Strategy Single-player
Zombie Dawn Multiplayer Strategy Multiplayer

References

  1. ^ Leigh Alexander (2008-1-28). “Q&A: Jagex’s Faulkner Talks New Service, Emerging Trends”. Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17136. Retrieved 2009-10-28.
  2. ^ Robert Purchese (2008-2-29). “FunOrb targeting “every demographic””. EuroGamer. http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=93759. Retrieved 2008-05-19.
  3. ^ Christian Nutt (2008-10-24). “Interview: Jagex CEO Iddison On Going ‘Deep Casual’ With FunOrb”. Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20623. Retrieved 2008-12-1.
  4. ^ “Bouncedown – Now available on the iPhone”. FunOrb News. Jagex Ltd. 2009-12-3. http://services.funorb.com/m=news/newsitem.ws?id=2469. Retrieved 2009-12-3.
  5. ^ “StarCannon: now on iPhone and iPod touch”. FunOrb News. Jagex Ltd. 2010-4-15. http://services.funorb.com/m=news/newsitem.ws?id=2840. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  6. ^ “Miner Disturbance for iPhone and iPod”. Jagex Ltd. 2010-6-8. http://services.funorb.com/m=news/newsitem.ws?id=2991. Retrieved 2010-6-9.
  7. ^ “Undercroft for iPhone and iPod”. FunOrb News. Jagex Ltd. 2010-9-23. http://services.funorb.com/m=news/newsitem.ws?id=3490. Retrieved 2011-2-3.
  8. ^ “Orb Downloads”. FunOrb News. Jagex Ltd. 2008-9-24. http://services.funorb.com/m=news/newsitem.ws?id=1427. Retrieved 2008-9-24.
  9. ^ “Orb Points Table”. FunOrb News. Jagex Ltd. 2008-8-13. http://services.funorb.com/m=news/newsitem.ws?id=1363. Retrieved 2008-8-14.
  10. ^ “FunOrb Brazil”. FunOrb News. Jagex Ltd. 2008-11-20. http://services.funorb.com/m=news/newsitem.ws?id=1491. Retrieved 2008-11-22.
  11. ^ “General/Most Popular Questions”. FunOrb Knowledge Base. Jagex Ltd. http://www.funorb.com/kbase/viewarticle.ws?article_id=45. Retrieved 2009-8-9.
  12. ^ Tim Ingham (2008-6-18). “£12,000… all it takes to create a casual game”. casualgaming.biz. http://www.casualgaming.biz/news/27539/12000-all-it-takes-to-create-a-casual-game. Retrieved 2008-6-18.
  13. ^ “Forum FAQs”. FunOrb Knowledge Base. Jagex Ltd. http://www.funorb.com/kbase/guid/forum_faqs#qualifying_free_player. Retrieved 2009-8-23.
  14. ^ “Halloween on FunOrb”. FunOrb News. Jagex Ltd. 2008-10-22. http://services.funorb.com/m=news/newsitem.ws?id=1461. Retrieved 2008-11-6.
  15. ^ “FunOrb Hallowe’en”. FunOrb News. Jagex Ltd. 2009-10-28. http://services.funorb.com/m=news/newsitem.ws?id=2371. Retrieved 2009-10-28.
  16. ^ “Arcanists Costumes for Download”. FunOrb News. Jagex Ltd. 2008-12-18. http://services.funorb.com/m=news/newsitem.ws?id=1581. Retrieved 2009-1-7.
FunOrb
FunOrb Logo
URL www.funorb.com
Commercial? Yes
Type of site Internet/Browser games
Registration Free/Monthly subscription
Available language(s) English, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese.
Owner Jagex Ltd.
Created by Jagex Ltd.
Launched 27 February 2008

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