Baseball Game Homerun Heroes Goes to Bat on Facebook for 6waves Lolapps

6waves Lolapps has teamed up with developer Game Ventures (Howzat Cricket) for Homerun Heroes, a new baseball game for Facebook. The game combines arcade-style batting mechanics with league-based play, power-ups, and training options. According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Homerun Heroes currently has 5,000 monthly active users and 300 daily active users. Homerun Heroes lets players choose the name and colors for their imaginary team before heading out onto the field. Rather than play full games, the title has them meet specific requirements to win, such as scoring a certain number of runs without striking out more than an allotted amount. Gameplay unfolds from a viewpoint over the batter's shoulder, with a clearly defined strike zone and an indicator of where players are aiming their swing with the mouse. Swing types can be switched between center (easiest), left or right field (harder), and power (most difficult to connect). The pitcher throws automatically and players can see where the ball is heading inside or outside of the strike zone a moment before they must swing. If players are able to hit the ball, they'll take their base automatically and the computer-controlled fielders will do their best to get them out. Players only control their team when they're at bat; there's no fielding gameplay. Players can't steal bases, but can tell their runners to go home if they think they can make it, but there's a risk of being tagged out. Playing a game requires one challenge point. These recharge over time, and the maximum amount of them the player can have increases as they level up. Challenge points can be purchased should players not wish to wait for them to refill automatically. Coins and Glory Points are also awarded for winning games. Coins can be spent on buying new equipment to help their teams play better (one-game use) and on training to restore stats for tired teams. Training takes time, and players can't play a game while training, but can hurry up the process using Facebook Credits. Glory Points count towards players leveling up. The game is structure such that there are various tournaments players can enter into that become progressively more difficult and contain a varying number of match-ups. When players have completed all of the games in one tournament, a new one opens up. Homerun Heroes lets players add their friends so they can compare scores in a real-time leaderboard a the bottom of the screen. It's also possible for players to share stories about games they've won and other activity via viral channels. The game is monetized using Facebook Credits, which can be spent to purchasing the soft currency, coins, which are then used on power-ups, training, and Challenge Points. Facebook Credits can be used directly to speed up training. Speaking to Inside Social Games, Game Ventures Founder & CEO Zaki Mahomed explains that the developer hopes to satisfy what he feels is the under-served sports game fan community on Facebook, mobile, and other social networks and web games portals. The management sims that currently dominate the sports game genre on Facebook, he says, have a limited appeal and a lack of intensity. In 2012, Mahomed hopes to see Game Ventures launch five sports games on Facebook and at least one for Android (and possibly iOS). The developer raised a bridge round of $800,000 from investors Neoteny Labs, Digital Garage, IIPL and from the NRF Singapore fellowship program, bringing their current funding up to about $1.1 million. You can follow Homerun Heroes' progress using AppData, our traffic tracking service for social games and developers.

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Baseball Game Homerun Heroes Goes to Bat on Facebook for 6waves Lolapps

Randy Nelson

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