Sci/Tech

Basque firm Ideateca, which specializes in the development of video and on-line games, has extended its catalogue of videogames with a brand new application, ‘Slide Soccer’. Ideateca’s latest gaming innovation has already entered Apple’s Top 10 of most downloaded applications less than a week after its launch. In total, more than a million people in 115 different countries have played ‘Slide Soccer’, a kind of virtual take on Subbuteo.

The new videogame, which can be downloaded from Ideateca’s games website ludei.com) is principally aimed at Apple products (such as the iPhone and iPad) though will shortly be available to download via the Android network.

According to the firm, the game includes a whole range of levels and can be personally customized to each player, allowing you to change the type of surface, ball etc.

Ideateca’s chairman, Eneko Knörr, says “Slide Soccer is notoriously addictive.

“It allows you to play against your own (Apple) device, two people to play on the same device and even allows you to play in real time against other players based anywhere else in the world, thanks to Game Center’s multiplayer system.”

Following up on the hugely successful ‘iBasket’

With their latest application, Ideateca hopes to repeat the success of the award-winning video-game ‘iBasket’, which has been downloaded by more than 13 million Apple users around the world.

When Eneko Knörr set up Ideateca he strongly believed in his vision. In the last three years, that vision has paid off. Several of Ideateca’s videogames have since made it to American iTunes' list of Top 10 downloadable applications. Thanks to this huge success, earlier in 2011 the Basque company opened up brand new offices in the US’s famous Silicon Valley, where the entrepreneur now spends most of his time.

The Bilbao firm has successfully judged that simplicity is key to achieving success with mobile game applications. A number of their games have occupied spots in the Top 10 in over 50 countries. As well as iBasket, which exceeded twelve million downloads, the firm also won the AppCircusMadrid prize for best mobile application of 2011 with VideoPuzzle.

Another of the Basque firm's on-going projects is the development of html5 technology to enable the same game development to work on a range of systems, such as iPhone, Android, the Internet and Facebook.

Among the novelties foreseen for 2012, Eneko Knörr plans to organize an iPhone Devup in Bilbao at the beginning of the year. Held especially for iPhone developers, Ideateca organized a similar event in Barcelona earlier this year, which enjoyed huge participation and success.

Eneko Knörr believes in the current trend for monetizing applications. Ideateca always offers two versions of all its applications, one which requires a payment usually of around 79 euro cents, and one which is free but contains advertisements.