Quirkat Launches Fantasy Football Game On Facebook

Quirkat Fantasy FootballQuirkat, the Middle Eastern game development studio has announced the launch of a new online ‘Fantasy Football’ game just in time for the South Africa 2010 World Cup.  The game was developed exclusively for the Facebook platform and can be played in Arabic, English or French.

The game offers players the range of features they’d come to expect out of a fantasy football game. They’ve also featured all 736 players from the 32 teams participating in this summer’s World Cup in South Africa in a visual playing environment.

As users play on in the game, their teams are ranked against a number of real-world player events, such as scoring, successful defending, and bonus points for Man of the Match stature.

The game also allows users to create their own leagues in which they can compete head to head against selected friends.

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Quirkat Launches New Music Playing Game ‘Al-Moosiqar’

Al-MoosiqarQuirkat, the Middle Eastern game development studio announced today the launch of its newest online game ‘Al-Moosiqar’ (The Musician), through the company’s online Arabic/English Games Portal, Fuzztak.

‘The Musician’ offers players the chance to reconnect with one of Oriental music’s greatest instruments: The ‘Oud’ or lute as it is more commonly known in the West. The player controls the in-game Musician’s movements to play back classical Oud pieces.

Using a set of intuitive controls, the user can help the in-game Musician hit notes and strum according to the flow of notes on the screen. The Oudist’s facial expressions indicate the success of the playback and successful consecutive notes improve score through multipliers.

‘The Musician’ pretty much follows the same concept as the very successful Guitar Hero franchise, but bringing it to the web and for an Arabic instrument.

Al-MoosiqarAl-Moosiqar

Mahmoud Ali Khasawneh, Quirkat’s CEO, says: “Al-Moosiqar is yet another demonstration of our commitment to building unique gaming experiences generating from our culture and heritage. The Oud is the most important Arab instrument and is nicknamed the Prince of the Instruments. We consider it part of our mission at Quirkat to bring such proud Arab achievements to the gaming world. We hope Al-Moosiqar will provide regional gamers with a unique game experience.”

According to Ms Candide Kirk, Quirkat’s CTO, “Al Moosiqar builds a community layer on top of the existing Fuzztak gamer user base and allows registered users on Fuzztak to upload and annotate their own original musical pieces to the game world for other users to play back — thus the game transforms into a Music Portal of old time favorites and Oud classics, as well as original content from within the user base.”

Quirkat is a Dubai-based company with development studios in Amman, Jordan.

Jawaker Adds To Advertising Options With Game Table Changes

Jawaker

Jawaker, the online multiplayer card games website that was previously reviewed here, and whose co-founder Mohamad Haj Hasan was interviewed here, has introduced some new changes to their game table, expanding the available advertising options on the platform.

The upgrades on the game table aimed to make it more user friendly for users, but also to adapt to the needs of their advertising clients.

Among the major changes on the game table is a re-organization of certain elements like the information bar and chat box, to make it easier for users to see more information in a more convenient way.

But more importantly, in addition to their original ad serving model of branding the back of cards, they’ve introduced the possibility to have a watermarked logo of the brand on the game table itself as well as a text ad on the right side of the table that pushes the message that the advertiser wants to relay to their audience. This text ad has a link to the advertisers target URL.

Jawaker Table

Jawaker currently have the popular cards games: Trix, Trix Complex, Solitaire and Tarneeb; and plan to roll out more multi-player card games in the future.

Kammelna: An Online Multi-player Baloot Card Game Service

KammelnaTaking its first step into the online gaming world, Saudi web company Remal IT has launched a beta of its ‘Baloot’ card game site, Kammelna.

Kammelna is an online multi-player ‘Baloot‘ game, a popular card game played in Saudi Arabia (which is quite similar to the French game Belote), that is built in Flash and runs in a browser.

Being a flash game, the game does not require downloading, and is played directly from within the browser, featuring a simple Arabic interface that is geared toward getting the players started with a game as easily and quickly as possible. 

The game also supports firewall traversal, which will allow players to play the game even from within restricted networks.

Kammelna

Remal IT noted that Kammelna.com basic playing features will be free, and that the site will be supported through ads and extra paid playing features. They also hope to roll out more free online games, geared towards the Arab market, in the future.

Remal IT is a Saudi based Internet applications and services startup that was established back in 2005. It owns and operates a network of social sites and Internet applications, and relies on e-commerce and e-marketing for revenues.

3alaRasi, A Portal For Comedy Entertainment Content

3alarasi3alaRasi is a Jordanian entertainment portal that features a mix of funny cartoons, caricatures, articles, videos, photos and audio.

The portal’s content comes both from in-house productions, as well as content generated and submitted by the site’s users.

The site integrates all the regular sharing and social networking features that allow users to create their profiles, connect with their friends, and share all supported kinds of content with them.

In addition to all the kinds of content mentioned above, users can also upload and share games in Flash and Shockwave format.

The cartoons and animations currently produced by the 3alaRasi team are currently inspired by the Jordanian (Awad Abu Shifa, Jaber Kawanes, 7awa)  and Palestinian (Falla7) society and culture, but there are plans to expand and add Egyptian and Gulf inspired characters and content soon.

The site’s interface is currently in English only, although an Arabic version should be expected soon.

3alarasi

3alaRasi also distribute their content through a number of mobile channels in Jordan and the GCC, and are looking to expand to other countries in the region.

Other distribution channels have been through Jordanian radio station Mazaj FM airing Audio clips from 3alaRasi, as well as Nourmina TV which aired 3alaRasi cartoon episodes in Ramadan. A new deal with Jordanian daily Addustour, will also see a daily cartoon from 3alaRasi cartoonist Omar Abdallat published in the newspaper.

3alaRasi was launched by ERUM Creative Productions L.L.C, which was founded by Amer M. AbuLaila, Omar Abdallat, Rajai Qawas, and Fahd Oweidat.

3alaRasi

Maktoob Unveils ‘Khan Wars’ A Free Online Strategy Game

Khan WarsMaktoob.com, the world’s largest Arabic online community with over 12 million unique users, has unveiled ‘Khan Wars‘, a free, strategy-based online game played directly through the Web browser. The Arabic-language game was launched at the first Dubai World Game Expo, which opened yesterday at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre.

Available exclusively on Maktoob.com, ‘Khan Wars’ is designed to recreate medieval times, bringing to life epic battles of an ancient era by leveraging war simulation technologies. ‘Khan Wars’ can be played from any computer with just a Web browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, and doesn’t necessitate downloads. Gamers can register for the free, browser-based game by logging on to http://khanwars.maktoob.com.

With the launch of ‘Khan Wars’, Maktoob.com becomes one of the pioneers to bring Arabic-language online gaming to a mass Arab audience through its extensive online consumer reach, which includes hundreds of thousands of tech-savvy young gamers in the 13-24 age group.

“We are confident that Maktoob.com’s substantial youth demographic, combined with the non-stop action experience that ‘Khan Wars’ offers gamers, will make Khan Wars a sure winner with the burgeoning gaming community in the Arab world,” said Sohaib Thiab, Product Manager, Maktoob.com Games.

‘Khan Wars’ is designed to offer gaming aficionados a fast-paced, non-stop action experience that far exceeds the excitement of casual gaming by appealing to the players’ imagination and challenging their tactical acumen. The game requires players to rely on tactics and positioning, think up new strategies and maneuver artfully.

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