Spin Valley Post

We've added the ability to add your own custom tracking parameters to app invites. You can use parameters to track in many different ways; you see which user sent the invite, automatically start a new user at a certaint point in a game, conduct A/B testing around the invite itself or use any other contextual information you wish.

In the requestShareApp call, simply pass your own object as the fourth parameter, opt_params. When a user adds an app from an invite, and is redirected to the canvas page, the custom params can be read using gadgets.views.getParams().<your key here>.

Here's a sample snippet of code:

var casino = gadgets.views.getParams().casino; var table = gadgets.views.getParams().table;

var friendId = '6221';inviteParams = {"casino":"Sun Monte Carlo","table":"blackjack123"};var reason = opensocial.newMessage('hi [recipient], join [sender] in the casino game [app]');

var navParams = opensocial.newNavigationParameters();

navParams.setField(opensocial.NavigationParameters.Field.PARAMETERS, inviteParams);navParams.setField('destinationType',opensocial.NavigationParameters.DestinationType.RECIPIENT_DESTINATION);

opensocial.requestShareApp(friendId, reason, null, navParams);

See the App Invite wiki for more details and sample code: http://wiki.developer.myspace.com/index.php?title=App_Invites#Including_custom_parameters

Let us know what you think about the implementation and if you have any additional suggestions. Expect more key improvements rolling out soon!

We’d like to share with you today enhancements we’ve made to the MySpace platform that will increase the discoverability and virality of games on our site. These changes were made to help users better find and experience games on MySpace and also empower developers with tools for better tracking and monetizing their applications.

New MySpace Games gallery

The new MySpace Games gallery is now live at www.myspace.com/games. This is the first of many discovery and viral channel improvements for users to discover the thousands of games that developers have built on the platform.

The new user experience includes:

• Games Notifications & Friends’ Activity – The new Games gallery will be a one-stop shop for discovering new games through friends’ Games installs and activities, and also for responding to Notifications and Invites. Optimizing Notifications and Invites are now as important as ever.
• Personalized recommendations – the new ‘Suggestions’ module recommends to users Games based on what they are currently playing, and also what their friends play.
• Ratings – Users now have the ability to rate Games from the My Apps page, and this in turn will affect the order of search results and enhance recommendations to users.

We’re also excited to have worked with so many great developers to deliver a number of new games to our users, including Fish Isle, Hoop Fever Live, Kingdoms of Camelot, Paradise Paintball, SPP Ranch, Warlords, Wild Ones, and Zombie Revenge.

Analytics API

Developers will be given API-level access to data collected for their applications to help them get better insights on the usage of their applications, conversion success of the viral channels and API usage.  This will allow them to track campaign success, identify ways to improve ROI, as well as manage their application performance.

Groovy, Unity 3D, dimeRocker, and Scoreloop provide support for enhanced game development on MySpace

We have many valuable partners who are supporting our platform to ensure game developers are able to build and monetize games on MySpace.  Developers can now use GroovyCortex, which is a cloud-based solution for onsite application developers, to provide low latency push data for multiplayer games. 

Using the Unity 3D platform, developers can also now build games in rich, 3D-like quality with Unity's powerful 3D engine and allow MySpace users to access the games with a new plug-in. See the game Paradise Paintball as an example. Unity game developers are now able to work with dimeRocker to help deploy, monetize, and grow traffic for their 3D browser games on MySpace.

Social features/functionality are an imperative – not just a choice – for game developers and publishers. And Scoreloop is helping developers make sure games have social as part of their DNA to provide enhanced experiences, drive discovery and community and overall create more interactivity and fun!  Scoreloop helps developers encourage cross-platform competition allowing games on MySpace and other platforms to share the same high scores, achievements, challenges and buddy lists.

Social Networks aren't just for users like you and me; major companies and brands rely on services like MySpace to engage with their customers and acquire actionable feedback. In order to take advantage of these networks, companies need tools to take in and make sense of all the input.

Today Hootsuite, the professional social networking client popular with brands for its ability to send updates across multiple networks, launched their integration with MySpace using MySpaceID. The new integration allows Hootsuite users to sync updates across multiple networks, including their MySpace account. From there, users can see their MySpace friends' statuses and even set a status to be updated in the future, a key utility for brands with a lot upcoming updates.

Here are some screenshots of the new integration:

Hootsuite is proving to be a powerful tool for brands leveraging social networks to engage with an increasingly broad audience, and today’s MySpaceID implementation extends this reach to our highly engaged community. Notably, the new MySpace integration is available for all Hootsuite users, not just companies and brands – so go over to Hootsuite, right now to check it out live!

Cheers,

./BBK

Post to MySpace has been updated to Share on MySpace. Share on MySpace will remain simple to implement – just copy/paste a code snippet – but now shared articles, photos, videos and comments will publish into the MySpace Stream, further enhancing the virality of your content.

Share on MySpace is an easy way for users to share content from their favorite websites with their MySpace network. Content published directly into a user’s Stream will encourage further distribution of your content and will be more relevant and easily discovered.

• Create high-visibility links back to your site within the MySpace Stream when your visitors share content on MySpace
• Third Party partners integrating the MySpace Stream can extend distribution of your content and link to your site around the Web
• Your content can be pushed to Twitter when MySpace users who have Twitter Sync enabled use Share on MySpace to post updates
• Increase revenue opportunities – e.g. pre-roll video ads can play in the MySpace Stream

Learn how to easily get Share on MySpace for your site: www.myspace.com/shareonmyspace. If you are a site that has already implemented the old Post To MySpace, the functionality will automatically update to Share on MySpace and your site’s content will start being shared to the MySpace Stream. However, you should update the buttons on your site – we’ve got lots to choose from here.

Please email us if you have any questions or concerns, developerrelations@myspace-inc.com

The MySpace developer team is gearing up for our "Game Development on Social Platforms" tutorial day at the Game Developers Conference on March 10, 2010.

The day is designed to address building games for social platforms, the business aspects of developing social games, and how developers and designers can tap MySpace's massive and highly engaged audience. Developers and gamers will be able to directly start building or perfecting their games with the help of our technical team and our partners on hand for the event.

We've got some impressive speakers lined up, including Mike Jones (MySpace COO), Eric Eldon (InsideSocialGames Editor), Jeremy Liew (Managing Director of Lightspeed Ventures), Blake Commagere (Indie Games Developer), Ravi Krishnamurthy (MySpace Director of Partner Relations), the MySpace developer team, Unity3D, and more speakers TBA!

Check out more info, the agenda, and sign up here:

https://www.cmpevents.com/GD10/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=10761

We have a great day planned for developers, designers and gamers of all levels, so we hope you can join us!

Agenda: Game Development on Social Platforms, sponsored by MySpace – March 10

10:00 – 10:30am:

MySpace Keynote: Future of Game Development on MySpace

• Speaker: Mike Jones, MySpace COO
• MySpace's COO will discuss the future of game development on MySpace and reveal the MySpace Developer Contest winners

10:30 – 11:00am:

Unity 3D on MySpace

• Speaker: Unity3D
• Hear from Unity3D how you can build 3D-like quality games on social platforms

11:00 – 11:15am Coffee Break

11:15 – 11:45am:

Mobile Social Game Development

• Hear from one of the largest mobile platforms and phone manufacturers about opportunities for developing mobile games and how to integrate with social platforms

11:45 – 12:30pm:

Tricks of the Gaming Trade; Insider Tips and Little Known Secrets

• Speakers: Chris To, senior software engineer at MySpace, OpenSocial representative (TBD)

• Learn from the MySpace developer team about the opportunities and benefits of developing social games using open standards. Also, hear how to integrate with MySpace from your own online destination game, as well as many little-known secrets and tips of game development

12:30 – 2:00pm Lunch

2:00 – 3:00pm

The Business of Social Games Panel

• Moderator: Eric Eldon, InsideSocialGames

• Speakers: Jeremy Liew, Lightspeed Ventures Managing Director, Blake Commagere, Indie Games Developer, Ravi Krishnamurthy, Director of Partner Relations at MySpace, and an avid gamer (TBD)

• Hear from a social game developer, a large traditional gaming company, a venture capitalist, and an avid gamer about what it takes to be a successful game developer on multiple platforms. Learn how people are making money, going viral, and what works in game design on social platforms

3:00 – 6:00pm:

Coding With Pros

• Get started building a mobile game or an OpenSocial game. The MySpace developer and mobile team along with our partners will be there to answer questions and teach you how to build a game. Whether you're ready to learn or need help with an existing game, our pros are standing by to work with you on your game development

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