Boring website? Step on up to the Heyzap Social Games Bar
Heyzap is announcing today that it is launching a “social games bar” that companies can integrate into their websites to add 30,000 games available to users.
The bar is the company’s latest bid to make websites more interesting to users by hooking them with games. Previously, Heyzap made its games available to website owners through an integrated widget or an application programming interface. Right now, more than 180,000 websites are using Heyzap’s games through those existing methods.
So the bar, which sits at the bottom of a website, is a new, less intrusive option to use Heyzap. It’s a little strip that runs across the bottom of a page and keeps track of the virtual currency a user has earned playing games. That currency can be used to buy virtual goods inside a game, or in other games that are cross-promoted on the bar.
Heyzap argues that the games help a website because they keep users on the site and engaged with its content. Website owners simply copy and paste one line of code into their home page and then can give users access to 30,000 Flash-based games in Heyzap’s network.When a user shares a game or achievement to his or her Facebook status update, a link to the game on the web site is created. That, in turn, generates new traffic for the website.
The new announcement is the latest in a steady stream of innovation at Heyzap. Last month, the company announced that it could help developers take a Facebook game and republish it without hassle on any website. And the integration with Facebook fits with a push for more games at that social network. In December, Heyzap announced one in a series of features to make Flash games more social.
Heyzap’s existing network, which monetizes Flash games across the web, includes games from 2,700 developers. The company, started by Jude Gomilla and Immad Akhund, is in the middle of doubling its staff. It has raised funding from Y Combinator and Union Square Ventures.
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About the Author, Dean Takahashi
Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.
