OMGPop

OMGPOP

Type of site	Social network service, online games, chatrooms
Available in	English
Created by	Charles Forman Dan Albritton
URL	omgpop.com
Commercial	Free, except for paid registration (star access)
Registration	Optional

OMGPOP (formerly i'minlikewithyou or iilwy) is a casual online multiplayer gaming website built entirely in Flash. OMGPOP states on its homepage that it is "a place to hang out, play free online multiplayer games, chat and make friends."

The OMGPOP team is based in SoHo, in New York City. The site was founded by Charles Forman. Dan Porter is the CEO and E.J. Mablekos is the CTO. OMGPOP is funded by Spark Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Baseline Ventures and Betaworks, as well as angel investors including Ron Conway, Kevin Rose and Marc Andreessen.

OMGPOP is on TIME Magazine's 50 Best Websites of 2009.

OMGPOP Arcade/Community

OMGPOP currently has fourteen games (available to people without star access): Blockles, Dinglepop, Draw My Thing, Gemmers, Hamster Battle, Jigsawce, Balloono, Putt Putt Penguin, Letterblox, Ballracer, HamsterJet, Tracism, Hit Machine, Hover Kart Racing, Hover Kart Battle, Hover Kart Party and more coming. Three new games were released on December 23,2009 (Booya, Checkers, and Fourplay).

All games can be visited through the main site but also through shortcut pages.

Community

Because OMGPOP is also marketed as a social networking site, it offers features in which users can interact with each other to discover friends such as customizable profiles and chat. In mid June 2009, the site launched live group chat. Users must be level 5 or above to chat and there are multiple live chat rooms at any time. Voice chat is also available for STAR members.

OMGPOP Shop

The site introduced its own shop where a user can spend coins they earn on the site to make their profile stand out, and get upgrades and power ups for different games. Some of the games which you can get upgrades and/or power ups in currently include Hover Kart, BallRacer, Draw My Thing, Blockles and Balloono. In Hover Kart, a user can spend their coins on different karts, drivers, paint jobs, different power ups and certain kits. With Draw My Thing, a user can spend coins on power ups, different styled clocks, and types of pens. With Ballracer you you can spend your coins on a new pet a globe for your pet and a charm on a string sticking out. For Ballono you can decorate your monkey with a new face,shoe,eye,clothing,hat,head, glasses and power ups. Later on the site plans to have more items available to be bought at the shop which may be included with their other games. A user can earn coins by logging in regularly, playing a game everyday (up to three to get coins), and earning achievements. The site plans to create other ways in the future. The games will stay free, but users can buy Coins with a credit card and other methods. Star is no longer purchasable in the shop, and is instead free to those level 100 and higher on the site. A person can purchase coins that can give Star temporarily to help them level.

STAR

STAR is a premium account on OMGPOP, which comes with new features such as starting games instantly, getting 50% more experience, and voice-chatting in the chat rooms. You can buy STAR through shop.omgpop.com, or earn it by reaching level 100 with experience points.

Current Games

Balloono

This game is closely based on the game Bomberman, with very few minor differences and is currently the most played game on OMGPOP in terms of time spent by players. The concept of the game is to control the player's monkey and place water baloons that when explode knock out walls and other monkeys, who ever is last standing wins. There are three upgrade items; speed (increases the speed of the monkey), splash (increases range of bomb), and bombs (increases the amount of balloons the player can place without waiting for others to blow). The game can have up to six players, but may also be played alone. Balloono surpassed Blockles in plays on July 21, 2009.

In November, Balloono was updated with new graphics and gameplay. The player can now customize their character in the shop with outfits, bodies, and temporary power-ups in-game. Also, unlike the original first game, when the player get splashed, you get trapped in a bubble, if anyone touches that bubble, you die, but after five seconds, and no one touches that bubble, the player goes back to their original form. The player can purchase a pin with coins to release them from the bubble prematurely. The former Balloono game is available to stars only.

BallRacer

Ballracer is a racing game similar to the SNES game Uniracers. Coins and speed boosts can be picked up along the track to influence your time to get to the destination in the various amount of levels. It was released to the public in May 2009.

Blockles

Blockles is the oldest and 2nd most played game on OMGPOP in terms of time spent by players. It originally was very similar to the classic game Tetris, but has now been tuned down from its previous 'Tetris' format due to a legal dispute.

It is now a two block, multi-colored game (the longer Blockles is played, the more colors that appear such as purple, green, blue, yellow, red, and black) similar to Puyo Puyo. When 4 or more blocks of the same color are physically arranged next to each other, they disappear and can reappear on an opponent's screen as blank blocks when combos of more than 4 blocks are cleared at the same time. If a player fills up the screen with blocks, he or she loses. Items such as swaps, flips, and adding lines can be obtained and used but are optional. One of the most interesting features of this new format of Blockles versus the old 'Tetris' format is the ability to spend coins in-game to clear one's own screen of blocks.

Booya

A card game nearly identical to "Uno". The rules are similar to the actual "Uno" card game, but not exactly the same (i.e. in Uno it's illegal to lay down a Wild+4 if you have another card to be used in its place (penalized by drawing 4 cards if caught) while in Booya it's perfectly legal without penalty). You can bet up to either 5,20,or even 50 coins. Up to seven players can play a single match. The objective is to get rid of all of your cards before your opponents

Checkers

Bet up to 5,20,or even 50 coins in a regular match of this Checkers game. The rules applies to the real Checkers game on a real Checker board except for the betting.

Dinglepop

A game very similar to Puzzle Bobble, Dinglepop is a multi-player variant in which players are able to send "dingles" to other players. The objective of the game is to clear one's own screen by matching 3 or more of the same colored dingle and to send dingles to other players by dropping groups of dingles. The game also features optional item play with items to raise or lower a player's screen, add or clear dingles, and more. If a player's screen is filled up with dingles, he/she loses.

Draw My Thing

Draw My Thing was launched early in 2008. It is similar to Pictionary. It was the third game launched by OMGPOP and is the 3rd most played game in terms of time spent by players. You have 60 seconds to create an image based on a pre-selected word for up to 7 people to correctly identify, although the time can be increased to a maximum of 90 seconds by buying upgrades in the shop. If you are not able to convey the message, no points are awarded to anyone. You will receive one point for drawing a correctly guessed word and two for guessing correctly.

Fourplay

A classic "Connect Four" game. The player can bet 5, 20, or even 50 coins. The rules in the game applies to the real "Connect Four" game except for the betting.

Gemmers

Players try to clear their own screen by clicking on groups of gems of the same color. Gems are added to the bottom of each players screen and if gems manage to reach the top of a players screen before he/she can clear them, the player loses. Item play features items that can lower or raise players screens, clear screens, and more.

Hit Machine

Hit Machine is a music rhythm game similar to DJMAX and StepMania with a wide variety of music genres, where the you hit notes when they reach the bottom of the play area using 6 keys on the keyboard (A,S,D,J,K,L). Points are awarded for correctly timed hits. The corresponding licensed music video plays in the background. It supports up to 6 other players in the same game, trying to beat each others' score. At the end of each round, users can vote on the next song. This game was available to the public for a few hours after the initial launch on August 14, 2009 but had been restricted to star members afterwards. The game was made available to all users on August 25, 2009.

Hover Kart

This racing game is very much like Super Mario Kart, in which you attain items such as boosts and homing bombs. Hover Kart is one of the few games where players can buy upgrades such as racing kits that provide different levels of drift, acceleration, and top speed, to give players an advantage in the game and not just a stylistic change. The beta was released to stars on May 15, 2009 and the game was released to all users June 8, 2009 and is currently available to the public.

Hover Kart Battle

This new Hover Kart version is similar to Hover Kart except you must battle with other players using items that you get by driving over square smiley faces. It is very similar to the Battle Mode found in Super Mario Kart. The objective of the game is to be the last one standing. At the start of the game you are given 3 lives. If you waste all 3 lives then you die. The game opened to everyone October 2, 2009.

Jigsawce

In this multi-player puzzle game, players compete to solve one jigsaw puzzle. Players gain points by correctly connecting pieces to form a picture and the player with the most points when the puzzle is complete wins.

Letterblox

Launched in March 2009, it is a game similar to Jumble where users are presented with 6 letters. The users can type in combinations of letters to score points, and is calculated by a (Number of Letters) * (100). Every game there is always a 6 letter word available. Letterblox is a clone of Text Twist.

Putt Putt Penguin

Similar to an online version of miniature golf, players putt penguins on ice-based levels with hazards such as water, bumpers, and cones. Once one player has managed to putt his/her penguin into the hole, other players are given a time limit to put their own penguins into the hole. Each round consist of four holes and the player who uses the least number of total putts wins.

Balloono classic

This version of Balloono is the same as the old Balloono before it was updated, and currently avalible for STARs only.

Discontinued Games

Discontinued games are ones that have been removed from the main menu but can still be accessed through the "switch game" menu or from shortcut pages such as tracism.com or hamsterbattle.com.

Hamster Battle

In September 2008, OMGPOP launched their fifth game called Hamster Battle, a free for all 3rd person platforming/shooter game. Players play as hamsters attempting to "Lovekill" other players. Weapons range from machine guns to "LoveRockets". Because this game only has servers inside of the US, and because the game requires very low ping times, those playing outside of the US experience lag. Those whose internet connection speeds are too low are kicked from the match.

HamsterJet

Hamster Jet features up to four players/hamsters strapped with jetpacks, all fighting for a flag to deliver to the top of the map. Once in possession of the flag, an opponent chases the flag bearer and hopefully hits the player so the flag drops. Floating pieces of land act as obstacles. This game also can't be played by everyone due to a fast internet requirement. If your internet connection is too slow, you will be kicked from the match. It has been confirmed by the OMGPOP crew that they are fixing the game up for re-release.

Tracism

In early November 2008, Tracism was launched. It is a game where you travel around the universe in a spaceship, similar to Pac-Man, coloring the dots in your path. The objective is to color the most dots at the end of the game. On your path, you can collect items, one of which are bombs, which blow up the spaceships and color the dots within the explosion. It was removed from the menu at around midnight EST on August 6, 2009.

Games in Development

Games that are in "beta" can only be accessed by stars and/or developers depending on the development progress of the game.

Balloono Party

With the retirement of Tracism, OMGPOP is planning on releasing a modification of Balloono called Balloono Party that will have similar gameplay to Tracism.

External links

• OMGPOP's official site
• OMGPOP's official Facebook page
• OMGPOP's official Justin.tv channel
• OMGPOP's official Twitter
• OMGPOP's official Feedback/Support site through GetSatisfaction