Hello!
This week’s GOTW is All Talk, an innovative mobile game from Pocket Gems. It was released on iOS and Android in July.
How does it work?
It’s a voice-based version of Draw Something! You and a partner take turns to describe a given word; the other player has to guess what the word is. The descriptions are spoken aloud – so the app records you describing the word, and then plays the recording to your partner. Your partner has to guess what the word is, but you’re not allowed to use certain other words in your description.
For example: in the screenshot below, I’m trying to describe the word ‘bone’ – but I can’t say ‘bone’, nor can I say ‘flesh’, ‘break’, or ‘head’. Once I’ve finished recording the clue, Amanda S (my randomly-chosen partner) will get a notification and hopefully she’ll guess the word ‘bone’. Guesses are made using the keyboard to fill in missing letters, just like Hangman.
Correct guesses build up your collective streak. You each earn a certain number of coins for a correct guess; the number of coins depends on the difficulty of the word.
How does it make money?
There are two ways to spend money on All Talk. The first is to buy the premium version of the app ($2.99 in the US). The second is to purchase keys. Keys are helpful because they enable you to redo answers or skip to a different word if the one you’re given is too hard. You can use the coins you earn with correct answers to purchase keys – but if you aren’t earning coins fast enough to do so, the in-app purchase option is available.
Why is it particularly interesting?
The big difference between All Talk and Draw Something is that you and your partner hear each other’s voices. That might seem like a minor change, but the effect is really striking. This time it’s personal! You really feel a connection (or, in some cases, a lack of connection) with the person you’re partnered with – they’re not just an avatar and a username.
The game has performed modestly so far – it certainly hasn’t matched the blow-up success of some of Pocket Gems’s previous games, like Tap Zoo and Tap Pet Hotel (the #1 and #4 top-grossing apps on iOS in 2011). But those games were basically Facebook world-builders ported to mobile, and All Talk is something entirely different. For me, at least, it points towards a whole new world of natively mobile entertainment products that we can expect to see appearing over the next few years. Watch this space.
Check out the game, and let me know what you think. If you connect to Facebook we can play together. Then again, Amanda just guessed ‘bone’ correctly, so she and I are on a major streak right now. I’m not sure if anyone will ever match the audio-only bond we have made.
Feel free to suggest future GOTWs or people to add to the mailing list. And if you missed any of the previous GOTWs, you can find them all on the GOTW website.
All best,
Todd