With our team’s increasing enthusiasm to create innovative applications, Web Sketchers has evolved as a developer of social and casual games, and interactive applications for the internet. After this little strategy shift, we decided to update our website. While doing so, we thought about our loading screen and decided to make it a little fun. Waiting for a website to load is usually boring and it drives people away.

So we thought of what we usually do to pass a few boring minutes in our daily routines (and what we used to do in school during history lectures ). We already had a pencil attached to the mouse on the loading screen. So thinking on these lines, we came up with a very simple idea, Tic Tac Toe! It’s one of those games that take seconds to play, is popular all over the world, and to add to that, it can be played with a pencil. Yayy!

User engagement is one of the most important factors for any web product. We’ve seen that majority of people who abandon an application on first use, do it because it’s either difficult to use, or they don’t want to wait for it to load.

On our site, upon arriving, more than 80% of the visitors play the game. And out of those who win, 35% share the game on a social network.

This is how a simple, yet interactive application, put together with social media, can add value to what you’re putting out there for your customers. Tic Tac Toe on our loading screen, now gives our visitors a glimpse of who we are, and what we do, even before the website is loaded.

Some people who visited our website wondered why a pencil is moving around with the mouse. Now you know why it had been there all along!

The day is finally here. This morning our first internal application is out in public. Champions is a cricket application that gives you the power to get up-to-date game information quickly and easily. Our aim was to provide easy to use interface and  a fun interactive way to see and follow your cricket.

So what does Champions do?

• Easy to read summary panels
• Games schedule
• Ball-by-Ball coverage
• Full scorecard

Why did we build this?

Frankly, there are a few cricket applications on Appstore that provide somewhat similar functionality but all of them lacked one  thing – usability. I have written a complete review of Cricinfo’s cricket application on iPhone and you can read my frustration there. We wanted to build an application that will make cricket easy and fun to follow. So this is our first step towards that.

One of the main design decision that went into this application was the “summary panels”. We wanted to allow our users to quickly look at the game summary without scrolling or tapping too much. So we decided to create “summary panels” which give you a quick summary of the game and allow you to view full scorecard or ball-by-ball coverage of the game quickly and easily.

This is just version 1.0, we hope to add many features in our next release.

Give it a try and tell us what you think. If you like the application please leave a review.

Hi there!

Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend. Web Sketchers has recently ventured into online game development. This has only been a natural progression for the company, and has added a completely new dimension to our growing portfolio.  To this end, we have launched a new division that will specifically work on developing online games. We call it Wesga, or Web Sketchers Games to be more precise.  Infact, you’ll be happy to know that we launched our very first web-based 3D game on Facebook last week!  The game is called Fly By. The game can be played on Facebook at:  http://apps.facebook.com/flybygame

The basic theme of the game is the flight of an aircraft through the city centre. The aircraft is flying low, and has to evade the numerous skyscrapers and hot air balloons that encroach in its path. The player has to maneuver the aircraft through these obstacles. As the player progresses, points are earned and newer levels of play are attained during game play.

Fly By is a highly inticing and adventurous game, and already  it has attracted more than 800 users from all over the world.  The game is visually spectacular, rich in colors, and encompasses eye-catching 3D modeling. We intend to add a number of new features to the game in the near future based on the feedback we receive from the users. We feel that further development of the game should take its due course keeping in mind what the players want to see and experience.

Fly By happens to be the first web-based 3D game on Facebook to have been developed in Pakistan. We are very proud of this fact. We’re also happy that we have stayed true to one of our original objectives of undertaking highly innovative projects, which include the use of state-of-the-art tools and practices. Web Sketchers intends to launch a number of new and exciting games in the near future under the umbrella of our new brand Wesga.

We would like you to post your comments on Fly By and our newest endeavour in the shape of Wesga. We would also like you to suggest what features you would like to be added to Fly By. Thank you and please visit Web Sketchers’ Blog and website regularly for more exciting updates!

To become a fan of Fly By on Facebook, please visit:

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=325631008274&ref=ts

Follow Fly By on Twitter at http://twitter.com/flybygame

People who think their startup’s success is going to follow from their immensely valuable secret idea are disproportionately likely to have bad ideas.

Paul Graham – YCombinator