Welcome to the fourth of edition of your monthly 8 Ball Pool updates! As with the previous three updates, we’ve got everything you’re going to need to get up to speed with the latest news and updates from the game. This month we’ve got a ton of 8 Ball Pool news to tell you about, so we’ll get straight into the update.

Introducing Pool Cash

Earn Pool Cash as you play, or top up in the Shop.

As you may know (and we mentioned last month), Facebook is discontinuing its Facebook Credits this September. In anticipation of this we’re shortly going to be removing Facebook Credits from 8 Ball Pool on Facebook. This offers us the opportunity to unify currencies in Pool on different platforms, and in order to achieve this we’re also going to be phasing out Miniclip Credits in 8 Ball Pool on Miniclip.com. Coinciding with Miniclip and Facebook Credits making their exit, we’re also going to be introducing a new currency: Pool Cash. Pool Cash will be available alongside Pool Coins across all platforms: Miniclip.com, Facebook and Mobile, giving you one “wallet” across all versions of the game. Pool Cash will be available initially on the web, and we’ll then be bringing it to mobile. We’re going to be giving everyone some Pool Cash to get them started, and you’ll also be able to earn Cash whilst playing; you’ll be given Cash when you level up, for example. If you’ve got Miniclip Credits you want to convert to Pool Coins, please do so as soon as possible. Once Pool Cash has been introduced, converting Credits to Coins will no longer be available. Some items currently available for purchase with Pool Coins and Credits may in future only be available with Pool Cash.

Updates keep on coming to mobile

Tournaments are out now on mobile!

As you’ll have seen if you play 8 Ball Pool on iOS or Android, at the start of the month we (finally) launched tournaments on mobile. Three tiers are currently available: London, Sydney and Moscow, with prizes of 1,000, 18,000 and 30,000 Coins in each tier. Enjoyed playing tournaments? Click to tweet the good news! We’re continuing to work on updates for 8 Ball Pool on mobile at a rapid rate, and the next major update to Pool on mobile is going to introduce calling pockets on the 8 Ball in certain tiers, a feature currently only found in the web version of 8 Ball Pool. Look out for this in the next couple of weeks. After the success of Spin & Win, the next mobile update will be introducing “Scratch & Win”, a scratch-card style minigame, where — as with Spin & Win — you’ll have the chance to win some awesome Coin prizes. Finally on mobile, 8 Ball Pool is very shortly going to be making its way to Amazon’s Appstore! Kindle Fire owners are going to be able to download Pool onto their tablets when the game hits the Amazon App Store. Follow @poolbyminiclip on Twitter to be the first to find out when the game is available.

We’re on Twitter! Are you?

Also of note

• The 8 Ball Pool Facebook page passed the huge milestone of seven million likes! Thank you to everyone who takes part in our community on Facebook
• We’re pleased to report the server-side security improvements mentioned in last month’s update are continuing to work effectively. We’re continuing to improve security to combat new exploits.
• The Pool Twitter community is continuing to grow, with our @poolbyminiclip account passing 10,000 followers recently. Make sure you’re following us for the latest Pool news, updates and awesome content from the Pool community.

That’s all your info for this month. For queries and discussion, head to the comments below — we love to hear your thoughts and feedback.

Nine teams in a free for all battle to build absolutely anything. No limits. Two days to build a game, develop a tool or get creative with anything in the office.

Last week the Miniclip Mobile team in Portugal hosted their first hackathon, with the task of building a game, developing a tool or working on any creative idea they wanted. There were no limits, besides from the two-day timeframe.

“A hackathon is an event in which computer programmers and others involved in software development collaborate intensively on software projects.”

Split into nine teams, each group could power-up itself with Programmers, Artists and Game Developers to ensure it was suitably equipped for the creative and development challenge it was tackling.

We’re reliably informed a request for cheerleaders to provide moral support was politely declined.

The teams had been throwing around ideas since the hackathon was announced, ~three weeks before the event took place, and ideas were finalised before the first day of hacking began.

With no obligation to stick to their original ideas, some teams kept to their gameplan, whilst others pivoted mid-way through. One team even worked on two games and finished them both! That’s all the more impressive when you find out they only had two team members.

“AWESOME!! Two exhausting days of intensive prototyping, in the end we learnt a lot, different technologies were explored which opened some interesting options for future projects.”

The hackathon resulted in some really exciting ideas, tools and games being created, with games ranging from classic Tag to “Mexican Wrestling Match”. Everyone tried doing something new, worked with programs and software they weren’t familiar with and had a whole bunch of fun in the process.

Over the coming weeks, Miniclip will be looking into all the ideas and games which were created and some of them may even end up on an App Store near you in the future.

“By organising the hackathon, we wanted to give our employees a chance to choose what they want to work on, from learning new technologies to trying out innovative game ideas.

It was great to see everyone using their creativity to the max while learning new things and having tons of fun. It is amazing to see what was accomplished in only two days!”

Free Running 2 is the bigger, bolder and better sequel to our incredibly popular Parkour game Free Running. It’s a race across rooftops to get to the finish before the clock runs out – and it soon gets tricky!

We’ve put together some tips to help you keep your cool under pressure. Ready? Let’s go!

1. Look out for Powerups

The green clocks give you a whopping 15 seconds of extra time to complete the course, which can be gold dust when you are only given about 2 minutes on each level. Look out too for red cameras that are launch you into a freestyle flip, which gives you 500 points – and is also really cool!

2. Know the signs

Before each special obstacle, of which there are many, there will be a yellow caution sign that will tell you what’s coming. If you look out for these, you’ll be able to ready yourself to react quickly. For example, some platforms will spontaneously drop, whilst others will continuously be moving toward and away from you.

3. Time that jump

This game is hinged upon your ability to time your jump to perfection. Jump too early or too late and you’ll plunge to your demise! This knocks a crucial 5 seconds from your allocated time, so concentrate and don’t just button-mash!

4. Be patient

Later levels have more complex path choices, but don’t panic! Even though you are against the clock, there is still time to assess the situation and decide where to go, instead of charging ahead without thinking.

5. Beware of explosions

Some of the obstacles will start to vibrate and explode under you feet as you run on them, whereas others will just shake and spark but stay solid until you reach the very end of the path. Not all sparks and explosions are the same, but instead they follow a pattern that you’ll need to find out for yourself!

6. If in doubt, follow the lines

In each level, there will be highlighted paths signalled by the lined paint on the obstacles. These make it very easy to identify a particular path to take. However, these may not be the easiest route, let alone the most rewarding!

7. Smoke signals

The end of the level is always signified by the burning barrel which gives off a huge trail of smoke up into the sky. If you can spot this near the end, you will be able to either try to collect as many points as possible or look for the shortest route possible, depending on your time remaining.

8. Get the high scores and awards

These Free Running 2 tips and tricks should improve your game and let you beat all the levels with high scores. You need 80,000 points for the gold award, so make sure you follow these tips to get maximum points!

Time to get running! Good luck, and don’t forget to share your own tips in the comments!

It’s the zombie apocalypse. The dead are rising, walking the streets in search of human flesh. There’s nowhere to hide. Nowhere. What would a zombie killing expert want in his hands in this situation? “A box of pencils,” he tells us. “And some sheets of paper.” Oh. Um. Okay. “To avoid boredom.” And here was us thinking that the only danger was having your brains eaten out.

Our zombie expert is none other than Russian game developer, Yuri Shapkin, whose action-puzzler Zombality was released on Miniclip earlier this summer. The game sees your character shoot, dodge, and bash his way through a building packed with the undead, drooling at the thought of sinking their teeth into you. You wouldn’t even want a crowbar to defend yourself, then, Yuri?

“Okay, maybe a zombie survival guide.” That’s more like it.

Before tackling zombies, Shapkin started out as an artist and Flash animator, and his roots are clear in Zombality: a lot of care and attention has gone into the game’s unique style and character models. As you progress through the game, your character unlocks a range of costumes: you’ll end up smashing zombies while dressed as a ninja turtle, our very own Gravity Guy, a cool dude in green shades… even something that looks suspiciously like Jedi Master Yoda.

Shapkin picks out the ninja turtle suit as his favourite, and it does beg the question which Zombality outfit one would wear to a fancy dress party. Other costumes that were considered for the game were Iron Man, Pikachu and SpongeBob SquarePants – the latter two perhaps ditched for their lack of zombie-killing prowess. Although that’s definitely a mash-up we’d like to see.

Zombie killers or a fancy dress contest?

Other costumes that were considered for the game were Iron Man, Pikachu and SpongeBob SquarePants.

Shooting the undead while dressed as Yoda is, to say the least, a somewhat surreal experience. Where did the unique art style of Zombality come from?

“I began making cartoon films in 2006”, says Shapkin, who won an award for his 2007 film One Actor Show in the Russian Flash animation contest Penguin Flash. That landed him an invitation to work as an artist and animator with developers Playrix, although he soon began making his own games as a hobby. From that point came his biggest creative move. “I create all my games and cartoons in my own art style – I developed my own little universe which I call oOpstopia.”

Yuri Shapkin’s fictional world of oOpstopia

oOpstopia can be seen in all of Shapkin’s work – a colourful, cartoony world used to portray a slightly comic and satirical series of stories. It is vibrant and lively – Shapkin describes it as “his dream” to see his work appear on high-def mobile devices, as well as the web. One of his other oOpstopia projects, the YouTube series Tankville, is hugely popular back in Russia with an audience of over 500,000 regularly tuning in for each episode. To those who know oOpstopia through playing Zombality, it’s strange to see the art style in use without any monsters running across the screen – what was it that made Shapkin want to lend his unique designs to an undead adventure?

“Everyone can become a zombie. It can be someone from any time, age or profession.”

“I like zombie games, and zombies,” he smiles. “Everyone can become a zombie. It can be a person from any time, any continent, age or profession. As an artist, I like to create different zombie people.” It’s an interesting point – zombies are universal, once bitten it doesn’t matter whether you’re an American footballer, a local sheriff or just a guy taking a walk when the apocalypse starts. All of these and more can be found in Zombality and, although they all have different abilities, they’re all after the same thing: your brains. And it wasn’t long before Shapkin decided to try his hand at his own addition to the zombie game genre, with his second game, Zombie At The Gates, featuring in the Top 5 at the annual awards of Jayisgames.com in 2012.

Shapkin’s second game, Zombie At The Gates

If all this talk of our impending zombie-related doom is giving you the creeps, worry not: Shapkin has a fine remedy. “Find the nearest video game store,” he says, “and play all the zombie games you can find. It will help you to prepare for any situation.”

You heard the man.

Like the look of Zombality? We’ve got two exclusive desktop wallpapers for you.

Check out our Zombality Walkthrough video!

Jet Ski Racer is the fast-paced racing game that will keep you on the edge of your seat. A flooded and abandoned city has become the meeting place for the coolest and fastest of racers – high speeds, dangerous objects and crazy jumps await you! Avoid the obstacles, collect the coins and find the fastest routes to win the race.

To help you finish first (and stay dry), here are some tips and tricks!

1. Get off to a fast start

Make sure you’re ready to go from the very start, because the other Jet Ski Racers are fierce competitors! As soon as the game starts, hit the accelerator button right away. This means you won’t lose precious seconds trying to increase your speed!

2. Watch out for mines

Mines are explosive obstacles set in the course – touch them, and you blow up! Watch out for yellow warning signs that give you a heads-up that you’re about to enter the danger zone. It’s not just your jet ski that the mines can damage, though – the other racers can also end up flipping out if they come into contact with them! If you’re brave, you can easily pass a few other racers in the mine areas.

3. Use boosts

Look out for green lightning bolts – these are power-ups that will give your jet ski a much-needed boost! They are often hidden, and sometimes close to mines, so be careful – but they can be the difference between a top 3 finish or last place!

4. Cut corners

Collecting coins will score you points, but the fastest route around the track often lies away from them. Cutting corners sharply can often save you a few seconds and allow you to zip past other racers who are taking the long way round!

5. Big air can be a big help

As you race around the course, you’ll encounter plenty of ramps that launch your jet ski into the air. These ramps always give your racer a temporary speed boost, and can be used to fly over the heads of your opponents and splash down ahead of them.

6. Keep your eyes open

Unlike many racing games, Jet Ski Racer’s courses change while you’re speeding around them! Buildings collapse, ships sink, and containers fall from the sky, changing the route you need to take and occasionally providing another ramp that you can use to get a speed boost. The fastest route from your first lap might be blocked by an obstacle in the second one, so make sure you’re aware of changes happening around you as you race!

7. Get the high scores and awards

You score points based on your finishing place, your average speed and the coins you collect – so try and balance getting the coins and completing the course in good time! You need 45,000 points for the Gold award – good luck!

Time to start your engines and play Jet Ski Racer! If you’ve got any other tips that you think belong in our guide, post them in the comments below!

Check out our Jet Ski Racer gameplay video!

The new Insane frame and pattern, with Elven Blue cloth.

Welcome to your fifth 8 Ball Pool Community Update! We’re here to bring you all the latest news from the game.

As usual, there’s lots to tell you about this month – here we go!

New tables and cues

We’ve just released some brand new tables and cues for you to customize your game even further! Check out the Elven and Insane frames, cloths and patterns in the Pool Shop, and take a good look at the brand new Amber and Silver cues! We’re looking forward to seeing some of these shiny new items in action

We’ve also been listening to your feedback and cue suggestions – and we have a few more cues coming to the Shop very very soon…

Big discounts in the Pool Shop

The Digitized cue is one of 18 cues that are now much cheaper!

To mark the release of Pool Cash, we’ve made some big discounts on many items in the Pool Shop. A whopping eighteen cues are now cheaper than they were, with our current faves, the Camouflage and Digitized cues, getting a 70% discount! The Royal Blue, Test Tube, Blue Hope and Pharaoh cues are also around half-price. It’s the perfect time to upgrade your 8 Ball gear!

Got yourself a new cue or table thanks to this update? Tweet your friends to let them know!

Talking of Pool Cash…

As you will have seen, the new currency – Pool Cash – is now live on the web. We’ve started everyone off with 5 Pool Cash, and you’ll soon have the opportunity to earn more Cash when you level up in the game. Look out for more news on that feature in the next Community Update!

For more information on Pool Cash, check out last month’s update.

Mobile news

Enjoying Tournaments on mobile, in the sunshine.

Following the success of tournaments on mobile, we’ve got another mobile update coming out in the next few weeks. Features will include calling pockets, the new mini-game Scratch & Win, and a few minor fixes to improve the game.

Other news

• We’ve streamlined 8 Ball’s loading process – your game should now load even faster than before
• More security improvements have been implemented into the game, and we’re continuing to work on combating new exploits

Cool stuff from the 8 Ball Pool Community

Players have been sending us all sorts of cool and funny images on our 8 Ball Pool Facebook page and on Twitter - here’s a few of our favourites from this month, including an awesome Indirect Clearance video from RON-O-SULLIVAN!

Got something to share? Message us the link on Facebook, or tweet us and YOUR pic could appear on next month’s Community Update!

That’s all for this month – if you’ve got anything to ask or discuss, hit the Comments below – we’d love to hear your feedback.

Miniclip today has over 100 million players every month, our game library extending beyond 800 titles, and almost 200 employees across our offices in the UK, Portugal, Switzerland the USA. In our new Tech Blog series, written by our DevOps Manager Dave Shanker, we’ll take a look at the challenges faced – and overcome – in growing Miniclip from its origins to what it is today.

In this first part, Transitioning to a DevOps Culture, Dave gives us an insight into the issues he faced and the quest for SA/SE efficiency as the Miniclip infrastructure began to grow rapidly around him…

Starting up

As with all startups, Miniclip originally started with a small admin team. Very small, in fact: just one person, who handled most, if not all, aspects of our infrastructure. As that infrastructure grew, additional members were added and teams were created. Today, the main teams include the following:

• System Engineering/Administration team

• PHP/Flash Team

• DBA Team

• Network Team

Each team handles their own respective duties, but the SE/SA team always seem to play an integral role in the success of the other teams! After all, the database team can’t run a database if they don’t have a server, the network team doesn’t have much to do if they have nothing to plug into the network and well, PHP can’t run if there’s no web server to run it on.

Growing pains

The initial Systems Engineering / Systems Administration team structure and processes worked rather well: the team did a great job of supporting what we had, and going the extra mile whenever required. We always had new requests coming in on a daily basis (new servers, package installations, etc) along with the normal maintenance tasks like security updates, performance issues, failed servers and so on. As Miniclip’s infrastructure expanded it wasn’t long before this started becoming unsustainable without a big investment in personnel or major changes.

For example, back then, we would receive a request for a package installations for a single server and then a couple days later, we’d get a request to install the same package on another server. Since the first SA that installed it was different from the SA that received the second request, the packages were setup slightly differently on each server. If and when  it broke, we’d have to deal with the differences in implementation of that package.

While requests like this were being processed, other SAs would be troubleshooting performance issues with servers, patching software, and attempting to push out new architecture to support new features all of which were tracked in email and updates via Skype or phone.

We’d reached the stage where we couldn’t continue with the setup that had worked well for us in previous years. So, we pushed changes that decreased costs, and made day-to-day processes more efficient – starting with virtualization.

Saving time and money with virtualization

When I first started back in 2009, our data center was sprawling with servers, and we seemed to purchase new servers every quarter. Virtualization wasn’t trusted and was only implemented for small, non-production servers –  anything production was running on a physical server.

Knowing how much money could be saved, and how we could increase administrative efficiency, one of my first projects was to implement virtualization – but first, it had to be sold to upper management. Luckily for me, the Database manager was looking for new hardware for one of their DB products. It would not be easy though, as virtualization was pretty much distrusted at this point,  so I thought we’d have a hard timing setting up a Proof of Concept.

With the Database manager, we spec’d out hardware that was generic enough to be used to run the DBs as physical servers, but could also be used as virtualized test beds that would give us a way to justify the hardware cost. If virtualization didn’t end up working, then we could order more hardware of the same configuration (cutting any waste). But if it did work, then we would save a lot of money. Just one crucial drawback to this plan: no Storage Area Network –  but more on that later.

Next steps

We developed an architecture of 2 servers connected to a Direct Access Storage of 24 disks (12 disks split per server) to run 6 virtual DB servers. There were huge doubts that this setup would perform, but perform it did. In testing, it actually outperformed a single non-virtualized configuration on the same hardware.

This setup proved to be so wildly successful, it became our standard virtualized SQL stack and we were able to run what would have taken up 18 Us and 18 AMPs of electricity in an envelope of 6 Us and 10 AMPs. We then took this template and applied it to other SQL products, which saved even more space and power.

But for me, that wasn’t enough. I was worried management would want to implement the free version of the virtualization suite (both Xen or ESXi were free), but I knew the benefit to efficiency that the management suite in the paid version would give us. So I set out to justify the cost of licensing these hypervisors and associated management software.

After documenting the cost of each scenario (physical servers, virtualized servers with free licenses and virtualized servers with management software), and showing the benefits of licensing the management software (such as centralized management, VMotion, an enabled ecosystem, etc), upper management clearly saw the benefit of paying for licenses.

The success of virtualization

As a direct result of implementing virtualization, over the past two years we’ve made only a single hardware purchase – and that was due only to a lack of available hardware for a new game database that we were implementing at the time.

Managing servers saw a huge improvement in efficiency as well: we could now take snapshots of Virtual Machines before we attempt a scary upgrade. We could clone virtual machines to create other ones, cutting the amount of time necessary to provision new servers. If there was a kernel panic or any other issue requiring console access, we now only needed to login to the VMware console instead of having physical hands in front of the machine. In total, implementing virtualization has probably saved us hundreds if not thousands of hours of work.

In the next installment, Dave looks at Performance & Availability Monitoring.

How do you become a game developer? Where do the ideas come from, and how do they become complete, playable games for millions of people to enjoy? We sat down with Slime Lab creator Gionathan Pesaresi to find out.

Slime Lab 2 has been one of the most popular games on Miniclip this year, a puzzle platformer with the goal of guiding the eponymous Slime to safety, and it’s easy to see why: as well as challenging puzzles and hidden secrets, the simple act of moving Slime himself is a joy. Your blob of green goo flows and ripples as you slide, jump and squeeze him through the levels, googly eyes slipping about his body as you do so.

It wasn’t until Pesaresi was happy with the gloopy physics of his blob character that he actually came up with a game idea to fit around it: the character came before the game. He started out by drawing sketches and ideas in elementary school, before progressing into creating simple games. Even today, he spends a lot of his free time drawing and collecting cool toys – if he wasn’t a game developer, he confesses that he’d love to be a toy designer – and also hiking, explaining that the air helps to put him in a creative mood. His gaming roots come from playing C64 and DOS games in his youth, as well as coin-op arcade titles.

“My favourite games were graphic adventures like Monkey Island – although I also played a lot of Pokémon Red and Blue on my Game Boy.”

“At that time, my favourites were graphic adventures like Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle – although I also enjoyed playing a lot of Pokémon Red and Blue on my Game Boy.” Who didn’t? He does point out, however, that none of these titles had a direct influence on Slime Lab. Which begs the question, what did?

“Making a game where you take control of a blob has been in my mind since I played the original LocoRoco”, says Pesaresi, referring to the 2006 PSP platformer. However, it wasn’t until 2011 that Slime Laboratory appeared on Miniclip. “There were many failed tests while I was learning how to program,” he admits, “but after I started working on videogames full time, I spent a couple of weeks experimenting with the physics engine and eventually got a nice blob effect. After that I came up with the game idea and the genre.”

Ah, so was Slime Lab a collaborative process, or does he prefer to develop games from start to finish, from initial concept through to completion? “I think both ways are good,” he says. “In some cases it’s good to follow the idea of one individual if they have a strong game vision. In others it’s good to brainstorm with a team, and shape the game according to input from different people.” When pushed, he confesses his belief that the “visionary individual” approach – the Molyneux approach, if you will – is “more difficult to handle, but might eventually lead to a greater game”.

“My ambition is to create games that you become attached to… like when you remember a nice holiday you had in the past.”

Does he think that some games don’t live up to that criteria? “Maybe the average cheap mobile game”, he says, mentioning no names…. “I’m proud of Slime Lab 2 – proud of the way I learned from the feedback I got from people who played the original.”

So can we expect a Slime Lab 3? And if so, are there any new things he’d consider adding into the game? “Slime Lab 3 would be very cool!” he says. “It would be fun to add new power-ups and special skills to Slime. I haven’t planned anything yet though.” Apparently, he’s spending his time working on “an exciting new browser game” – although it’s clearly top secret stuff as that was the only information he’d divulge at this stage. Looks like we’ll have to wait for more news from our partner in Slime…

Like the look of Slime Lab 2? Play the game here, or check out one of our gameplay videos!

__MAzen__ sent us this brilliant image. Top dollar.

Hi and welcome to your monthly update from the 8 Ball Pool team! We’ve got a huge amount of news for you, plus a ton of player-created 8 Ball artwork that we’ve received this month from the community – check out some of our favourites down the side and in the gallery below.

Let’s get started!

8 Ball Pool – FREE on mobile

You’ve always been able to play 8 Ball for free on Miniclip.com and on Facebook – but we’re very pleased to announce that as of now, you can now download it onto your iPhone, iPad, or Android device, absolutely free! This means that your friends have no excuse not to take up the challenge and give you a game of 8 Ball - tweet the good news now and get them involved!

Bigger prizes

Amazing Elf image from hot5treak… scary eyes though!

In the next few weeks, we’ll also be increasing the prizes for each Tournament winner on web and Facebook, to bring it into line with the prizes available on mobile.

So you’ll be able to win 1,000 Pool Coins in London, 18,000 in Sydney, and 30,000 in Moscow. The entry fees have been adjusted as a result, but we’re sure you’ll agree that the potential prizes are worth it… if you’re good enough

Please note that the number of available tournaments will be temporarily reduced to 3 (London, Sydney and Moscow) while we roll out some new security fixes. Soon, the others will be re-opened.

Earn Cash when you level up

That’s right, when the new 8 Ball Pool web update goes out in the next week or two, you’ll start earning Pool Cash every time you level up.

P is for Pool.

You get 1 Pool Cash for every level you progress in the game – so good luck out there on the table!

Bear in mind that this feature isn’t out yet – it’ll come with the next update to the game client. Keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter accounts for further announcements of when the update goes out!

Call pocket on all shots in elite matches

We’ve listened to your feedback, and a lot of players have asked for a feature where players have to call pocket on all shots in higher tiers. So, we will be introducing this for elite players in top tier Tournament and 1v1 matches on web and Facebook soon! This will reward the most skilled players, and make you less likely to lose to a hit-and-hope in high-stakes matches It’ll take effect in the Moscow and Las Vegas Tournaments, and Toronto and Jakarta in the 1vs1 matches.

Other news

Kunal908 made this to celebrate us passing 8 million Facebook fans!

Other things we’ve been working on this month include:

• New security fixes in the game, which we hope will greatly reduce any exploits and make for an even fairer playing environment for all our players
• Pool Cash will soon feature on mobile, as well as web
• Did we mention that 8 Ball Pool is now free?

Amazing images from our players

We get a lot of users sending in awesome pics that they’ve made, or even weird situations that they’ve found themselves in while playing 8 Ball Pool! Some of the fan-made pictures are out of this world, and must have taken a lot of time and patience to put together. You’ve probably noticed a few down the side of this post, and here’s a gallery with some of our other favourites from this month – if you’ve got anything you’d like to show us, send it to us as a message on our Facebook page, or tweet it to the official @poolbyminiclip Twitter account!

Can I axe you something?

Maybe your image will be in next month’s update!

If you have an questions, you can either head to our Facebook page, tweet us, or hit the comments below! And, if you have any problems, don’t forget that you can visit our Customer Support site to get help.

WORDS: Jeremy Wadia, Chief Operating Officer

“So, I’ve got this friend… he’s an amateur triathlete and he’s just qualified for a place at the World Ironman Championships in Hawaii, where he has to cycle 112 miles (180km), swim 2.4 miles (4km) and finish with a 26.2 mile (42km) run!  But he’s got to raise some cash to get there. Any chance Miniclip can help him?”

This was pretty much how it all started a few months back, when we embarked on our sponsorship of Raphael Vorpe, a 30-year-old triathlete from the Bernese Jura region of Switzerland. Raphael, a friend of Melissa from our Swiss HQ, has been competing in triathlon events for many years and has recently decided to try his hand at the Ironman Triathlon. The Ironman is probably the toughest physical challenge an athlete can face, taking around 17 hours to complete without a single break! Raphael’s most recent result was a highly impressive 36th place in the Ironman Wales. After many qualification events, he has now achieved his dream of gaining a place in the Ironman World Championships, which takes place in Hawaii on Saturday 12th October.

Here at Miniclip, we have always tried to help good causes when we can, in particular through supporting employees in their charitable fundraising efforts. We’ve always believed in encouraging each other to take some social responsibility and that’s why we decided to affiliate each of our offices to a local charity, and do things like give our staff extra paid holiday for time spent working with charities. We’ve had guys in the UK climbing mountains for Teenage Cancer Trust, teams in Switzerland running half-marathons for Le Foyer des Jeunes, which helps troubled teenagers, and staff in the US have been providing food parcels for Jack and Jill Children’s Center, who help children from lower income families.

As well as our charitable contributions, we also wanted to get involved with some smaller “grass roots” sponsorship of activities linked to our employees. Previously we’ve sponsored the soccer teams of the sons of two employees, in Florida and in London, as well as a budding Swiss fashion student who was the best friend of an HQ employee; we’re super-pleased to say that she managed to get an internship in New York and now is in Paris with Louis Vuitton!

The closest most of us will come to competing in an extreme triathlon.

With Raphael, we decided that here was a young man with a passion for sport and pushing himself to reach a goal which could inspire all of us at Miniclip, as well as young people in Switzerland and beyond. Of course it helped to hear that he was a massive Miniclip fan too! We love games and the web and all they have to offer, but we also love getting outdoors, playing sport and keeping fit. At Miniclip we do have a few good sportsmen but to be honest, the closest most employees have probably come to anything like Raphael is attempting is by playing Extreme Triathlon! So, everything Raphael was doing impressed us enormously. That is why, as I write this, he is in Hawaii preparing for this amazing challenge.

Raphael has had to make sacrifices in his life in order to work towards his sporting goals. He currently works a full time job as a biomedical technician in a local hospital, analysing the blood of people suffering from diseases. While some of his triathlete competitors have been able to focus on training full-time, Raphael has had to carry on working in order to pay for his equipment, entry fees etc; and the further he gets in the sport the more expensive it becomes! Of course, he has to train outside of work, in order to keep at the peak of physical fitness, and he spends between 23 – 27 hours per week running, cycling or swimming.

The Ironman World Championship, now in its 35th year, is a huge success because of the dedication and courage exhibited by its participants. They follow the Ironman mantra of “ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE”. Raphael will be competing with 2,000 athletes from 60 countries on the 140.6 mile journey that presents, as the Ironman site describes it, “the ultimate test of body, mind and spirit”.

So, on 12th October, think about what Raphael is doing. Think about what you can do to push yourself, to reach your goals whether they are sports related or not.

If you want to see how Raphael is doing, the event will be broadcast live on ESPN, and on www.ironman.com. And if you want to get the inside track on Raphael’s preparation and performance, don’t forget to check out his website.

Raphael and the Miniclip Team

On The Run: The Getaway was one of our favourite games of the month.

Hi and welcome to the first Miniclip Roundup! In these blog posts, we’ll bring you a look at our hottest games this month, plus news, videos, cool stuff that you’ve made, plus what’s been going on in the Miniclip offices. It’s your chance to get a look inside the inner workings of Miniclip, and also ask us anything that’s on your mind – get involved in the Comments section below!

Let’s start with some of our favourite games of this month.

Games Roundup

We were super-excited to release the next game in the On The Run series, with The Getaway hitting the road. It’s all about using your speed, driving skill and special weapons to keep the evil Corporation off your back long enough to reach the end of the level. It’s fast and furious – but not Fast & Furious, that’s something else… although The Getaway probably has more explosions. Check it out – there’s helicopters and gunmen in vans and everything.

Atten-shun! Assault Course 2 launched this month.

Our other big hit this month was Assault Course 2, which, although a lot less physically-demanding than running an actual assault course, may still strain your fingers a little as you run, jump, crawl, dangle and shimmy your way through seven levels of obstacles. Stay out of the mud, look out for detonators to clear your way of barriers, and beat the clock to that flagpole finish. GO!

We have also spent a lot of time dungeon-raiding in Barons Gate, firing arrows at skeletons and big bosses in our quest for yet more loot. The shoot-and-loot core of this game reminded us a lot of Borderlands – it’s pretty addictive!

We’ve also been playing Once Upon A Life, a game with a story very different from anything else out there – you play old man Harry, out to track down his lost memories by solving a series of platform puzzles. Harry also has jet-powered walking sticks that enable him to fly. Yes. Once Upon A Life also features the most polite shark we’ve ever encountered in a video game…

After something a bit more explosive?

The very polite shark in Once Upon A Life.

Look no further than River Assault, our new blaster where you deal massive amounts of damage to enemy forces from your gunboat. Or have some retro-shooting fun with Mutant Alien Assault, where survival is the name of the game (not to mention a screen-shaking hyperjump at the end of every stage).

Words not enough to convince you of the awesomeness of all these games? Then check out these screenshots instead! Or…

…Ooooh, videos

Loads of new videos have hit our YouTube channel this month. Our most-watched clip is our wonderful 8 Ball Pool tips and tricks guide, followed by our gameplay video for River Assault, and this superb clip of one of our top games of 2013, Free Running 2. We really think that one has a good chance of being named Miniclip’s Game of the Year, which is another thing that may be coming your way very very soon…

To get the maximum awesomeness out of your internet, we suggest subscribing to our YouTube channel. Or, you could just sit staring at your browser until we upload the next video. It’s your choice.

The Miniclip Charity Cake Bake

In the office

In between listening to Rebecca Black, Will Smith, and the Ukrainian version of Kiss FM (number of Ukrainian speakers in the Miniclip UK offices: zero), September also saw a cake bake-off to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust charity. Many cakes were baked, judged and scoffed, from spongecakes to Black Forest gateau, and £151.19 was raised.

In case you haven’t realised, we like cake. We recently had a controversial suggestion by one of our staff to move Cake Friday to Wednesday but that was quickly shot down amid cries of “heresy!”, “burn him!”, and “this is Spartaaaa!”.

I am Ironman

Miniclip recently started sponsoring Swiss triathlete Raphael Vorpe, who was competing in the 2013 Ironman World Championships in Hawaii on October 12.

Triathlete Raphael Vorpe and the Miniclip Team

For anyone who doesn’t know, the Ironman triathlons are about the craziest, most intense endurance race ever dreamed up humankind: 140.6 miles of swimming, cycling and running (I’m tired just thinking about it). Raphael finished in the highly impressive time of 9 hours 22 minutes, placing him 168th out of 2,134 athletes! Huge congratulations to him, and to all who entered. On a side note, his time meant that he beat celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay by about 4 hours. Just putting that out there.

Around the blog

This month, we sat down to talk game development with Slime Lab creator Gionathan Pesaresi, and his influences and inspirations (Pokémon Red and Blue is quite high on his list). Oh, and if you’re an 8 Baller – and let’s face it, who isn’t – then you should definitely check out the latest Community Update blog post which has everything you need to know about what we’re working on for the next update.

The spooky Zombie Big Trouble is one of our new games for Halloween.

Come and work with us!

Like games, cake, working hard and having fun? We’re hiring for several new positions right now – check out our Careers page!

What’s Next?

October means only one thing for gaming… Halloween! We’ve got a ton of spooky games coming up in the next few weeks. Some are scarier than others, but we’re sure you’ll love zombie go-karting all the same. Keep an eye on Miniclip.com, or you can give us a like on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to make sure you don’t miss out.

We’re already starting work on the next monthly Miniclip update, in which we hope to feature some of our favourite fan-made videos, pictures, Facebook comments and tweets of the month. If you’ve got something cool that you think everyone should see, send it to us! And if you’ve got any questions, hit the comments section below.

See you next month!

We’re very proud to have been nominated for Best Website at this year’s BAFTA Children’s Awards!  And you, yes YOU, can vote for us right here.

Each year, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) host the Children’s Awards to recognise the very best programming and content available to young people today. It’s also a great chance for youngsters to have their say, by casting their vote for their favourites – last year over 500,000 votes were cast, and BAFTA are estimating that there’ll be even more this year!

So, get involved! Go and vote for us now at www.baftakidsvote.org.

Thank you to all our fans!

And in case you needed any more convincing as to why you should vote for us, here’s an awesome video.

Halloween is the perfect time for ghost stories, horror movies, and creepy games – and at Miniclip, we’ve got plenty for you to get your fangs into. In fact, we love Halloween so much that we’ve created a special set of awards for you to win, with our top 10 Trick or Treat games! If you can crack all 10 achievements, a very shiny Trick or Treat Super Award will be yours…

So turn off the lights, settle in, and get ready to play… if you dare.

1. Zombotron 2: Time Machine

Award Score: 250,000 points

Why you should play it: Your time machine has crash-landed on a zombie-infested planet and it’s up to you to repair it and get out of there, blasting your way through the undead horde. Doctor Who never had it this tough. You also get to drive a massive, zombie-crushing truck at one point. Squish!

Scariest Part: Battling through unexpected enemy ambushes – they zombies are smarter than your average brain-eaters.

2. After Sunset

Award Score: 55,000 points

Why you should play it: The sun has gone down and there’s wave after wave of enemies to fight off. You start out armed with little more than a meat cleaver and a moustache as you try to stop panicking humans from becoming part of the undead.

Scariest Part: With more enemies showing up every second, and other humans running around yelling for help, it’s easy to lose your cool. Keep calm!

3. Zombie Karts

Award Score: 40,000 points

Why you should play it: Customise your zombie karter and hurl skulls at each other while dodging tentacles, ghosts and bats in one of the most fast and frantic racers we’ve played this year. Complete challenges in the game to unlock more outfits for your racer!

Scariest Part: Zombie Karts is more silly than scary. But we’re not going to lie: the thought of losing a massive lead because somebody zapped us with their Special Attack sends shivers down our spine.

4. Zombie Breakout

Award Score: 10,000 points

Why you should play it: It turns out that hazardous chemicals + corpse = zombie apocalypse. Those silly science people! When will they learn. Anyway, there’s a whole lot of undead that need putting back in the ground, and your character, Bruce, needs your help in taking care of them.

Scariest Part: The super-powered zombies are no joke. Run away!

5. Zombie Defense Agency

Award Score: 100,000 points

Why you should play it: This is tower defence with a spooky twist. Upgrade your turrets and try and stop the horde from stumbling to their target.

Scariest Part: When you realise that you’ve put your most-powerful turret in a bad position and the zombies just keep on comin’. Panic!

6. Candy Magic

Award Score: 20,000 points

Why you should play it: This is a retro-style, side-scrolling shooter which requires quick reflexes. There’s a whole host of Halloween ghouls and goblins coming at you – plug them full of your magical attacks and then grab the candy they drop for maximum points.

Scariest Part: The snake-haired Medusa boss at the end of level 3 is not only creepy, but real tough too. Especially when she brings out her serpentine henchmen to lay down even more attacks on your poor witch. Why’d it have to be snakes…

7. Los Zombies

Award Score: 40,000 points

Why you should play it: You have a great big machete with which to fend off some of the most difficult undead beasts we’ve ever encountered. Oh, and you can upgrade to a minigun as well, but where’s the fun in that.

Scariest part: Not spotting the explosive zombie until it’s too late…

8. Bounzy 2

Award Score: 17,500 points

Why you should play it: Bounzy 2 has a strong element of strategy: you need to make maximum use of your environment to take out the enemy. This involves deflecting bullets off surfaces on their way to the zombies, guiding homing missiles past obstacles, and even kick-starting a car into driving over a couple of undead foes.

Scariest Part: Bounzy 2 shouldn’t give you the creeps, as your character is always in a safe position on each level. But we can guarantee that you’ll definitely feel the pressure when you’re down to your last bullet on a particularly tough level.

9. Rail Rush Worlds

Award Score: 2,000 points

Why you should play it: One of our most popular games has had a Halloween update! Ghosts, bats and tons of other creepy obstacles will try to knock Jack O’Lantern out of his cart. You need to duck and dodge your way to the 2,000m mark – good luck!

Scariest Part: Rail Rush gets very quick, very quickly. Sweaty palms will not make it easier for you – deep breaths!

10. Zombie Breach

Award Score: 35,000 points

Why you should play it: Taking on a zombie with your bare hands – now that’s the mark of a real action hero. That’s what you’ll need to do in Zombie Breach. Oh, and if they get too close, you can always rely on a bit of back-up in the form of a devastating cannon fire from your reinforcements. Or your trusty knapsack, which can deliver a mean combo.

Scariest Part: As the zombies get faster and more frequent, it’s easy to get overwhelmed out there.

Ready for the challenge?

Think you’ve got the skill, the reflexes, and – more importantly – the bravery to take on these 10 award games? Head over to the Trick or Treat hub on Miniclip and give them a go now!

You’re walking down a dark corridor in an empty mansion, your palms sweaty at the thought of what might be around the next corner. You move slowly, one careful step at a time, trying not to make a sound in case there’s something terrible waiting for you. Your heart is thumping so loud you’re worried it might give away your location. Suddenly, in a crash of broken glass, a demonic zombie dog bursts through a nearby window and hurls itself at you, its jaws snapping, knocking you to the ground…

Players of a certain age may recognise this moment as a now-iconic scene in the original Resident Evil, and you can be sure that it was a lot scarier to play than to read about – especially if you were just a kid when you first experienced it. Well, Halloween is here again, and we took to our social pages to ask the Miniclip community: what’s the scariest game you’ve ever played?

The scariest games

Unsurprisingly, we got a big reaction to this simple question. But why do we feel so strongly about scary games? Do we actually like being scared? The answer, of course, is yes – we love the freaky, the frightening, the downright terrifying – it’s the reason horror movies like The Ring and The Blair Witch Project grossed hundreds of millions of dollars when they were released, and why they’ll occupy pretty much every TV channel this October 31st.

So what makes a game scary? We took a look (through our fingers) at some of the creepy, jump-out-your-seat games that the Miniclip community suggested.

On a simplistic level, a game can be scary just by having a horrible monster with which you have to do battle, or simply run away from. Beasts like Resident Evil’s huge, hulking Nemesis or Devil May Cry’s Phantom Spider boss live long in the memory even after you’ve successfully squished them (especially if you’re already an arachnophobe). They’re scary in the same way that a good monster movie can be scary: whether it’s Jaws, The Thing or Alien, there’s something strange out there, and it’s coming for you.

Yep, we’re big scaredy-cats.

Run and hide

A key part of a scary game is making the player feel vulnerable. The fixed cameras of Resident Evil mean that you can never quite see what’s lurching towards you from the darkness, and ammunition is always a rarity. More recently, the survival horror genre has taken the radical step of actually removing weapons altogether, leaving the player with no choice but to run and hide. Games like Outlast leave you with only a camcorder for “protection” – your night-vision window into a terrifying world – where the infamous Slender leaves you with nothing at all.

Ah, Slender. YouTube is full of Let’s Play videos of gamers jumping out of their skins and shrieking incoherently into their mics, and a large proportion of them feature this brilliantly simple horror game. All a player has to do is find eight pages of text hidden around a forest… before the Slender Man gets you. The fact that this can happen at any moment heightens the game’s fear. As with a good horror movie, a player knows that something scary is about to happen – but the fact the game holds that scare back, ratcheting up the tension to unbearable levels, is what has led to so many YouTube yells.

Atmosphere of Fear

Here again we come back to the crucial point of scary games, and horror generally: we want to be scared. How else can we explain those Let’s Play vids, the huge box office takings of horror movies, the strong nostalgic reaction of gamers when asked “what’s the scariest game you’ve ever played?” and our general fascination with all things ghoulish around Halloween? It’s worth noting that a large number of suggestions we got from the Miniclip Community focussed on games that they had played from a young age – it brought up long-buried memories of being scared witless by Resident Evil, or Silent Hill, or Doom, or even the final boss of Nintendo’s Earthbound.

But it’s not all about monsters. Probably the creepiest game I’ve played this year contained nothing more freaky than a rubber duck and a TV that someone left on. Gone Home features no monsters, ghouls or ghosts – in fact it’s a very powerful, moving experience – but it does have an atmosphere of dread and fear that many horror movies would give their left tentacle for. Set on a stormy night in a silent, empty mansion, I found myself hesitating to open doors or turn corners in case there was something unpleasant lurking in the shadows.

There are no jump-scares in Gone Home – okay, maybe just one, when a lightbulb suddenly pops at an inconveniently spooky moment – but games have dined out on making us leap out of our chairs just as much as Hollywood has. From demon dogs to bumps in the dark, a game can make us jump in ways that movies cannot, given that playing a game requires a more active involvement than watching a film. Don’t just take our word for it, check out the thousands of YouTubers freaking out over some of the games mentioned in this post. And if you’re feeling particularly brave, turn the lights off and the sound up while you’re watching… and try not to jump yourself.

Wait… Rugrats?

The Scary Game Formula

So then, what makes a game scary? We’ve come up with what we call… the Scary Game Formula.

*thunder rolls, lightning flashes*

The finest scary games combine…

• A blood-curdlingly terrifying monster or three
• A feeling of vulnerability. Someone pass me a crowbar!
• A spooky atmosphere… where you’re never quite sure what might be around the next corner.
• The sort of jump-scares that might make you a YouTube Let’s Play superstar. And possibly necessitate some new underwear.

So, which games combine all of these parts into one winning, frightening formula? And, more importantly, what’s the scariest game that you’ve ever played? Join the debate on Facebook, tweet us, or tell us in the comments below!

Happy Halloween!

We’ve lowered the entry requirements for tournaments and 1 vs 1.

Welcome to your monthly update from the 8 Ball Pool team! Plenty to tell you about as always, with the release of new versions of 8 Ball for web, Facebook and mobile devices. If you missed the previous blog post, head here to find out about new features like calling pockets on elite tiers, and earning Pool Cash when you level up.

Here’s what we’ve got for you this month.

New entry levels for tournaments and 1 vs 1 play

We’ve made a tweak to the entry requirements for the various tiers in 8 Ball, on both web and mobile. What does this mean for you? Well, you can now enter – and win – higher-stake matches earlier in your Pool career than ever before Game on!

Security measures

We’ve also made some big changes to the security of the game, which should go a long way to ensuring a fun and fair playing environment for all players.

Yes, our new security measures are VERY serious.

Essential fixes

We’ve made a few essential fixes to bugs that have been reported by users over the last few weeks. If you spot anything else strange happening on the table, feel free to report it to our Customer Support team who are always happy to help.

8 Ball trickshot masterclass

We’ve seen some truly great trickshots on YouTube in the last few weeks. So, we thought we’d put our favourites into one awesome video for you all to enjoy! We’ve got multi-railers, big-spinners, even a four-in-one shot – which one’s your favourite?

If you’ve got a trickshot to show off, email it to social at miniclip dot com – and maybe you’ll be appearing in our next trickshot collection!

E is for Eight Ball Multiplayer Pool.

8 Ball on mobile

Elite tiers now have calling pockets on all shots, on mobile and web.

You may have seen by now that we released a new version of 8 Ball on iPhone, Android and Kindle last week. If you haven’t updated yet… what are you waiting for? New features include a re-designed shop, nominating all pockets on higher tiers, and some minor bug fixes.

10 billion games played

We’ve just gone past the incredible landmark of 10 billion games played on 8 Ball Pool! That’s 10,000,000,000 games (it looks even more awesome written out like that). Thanks to all our players for helping us past this amazing achievement, and here’s to the next 10 billion games

8 Ball artwork

It’s been another great month for 8 Ball artwork – we’ve had some crazy creations once again. Incredible amounts of creativity, effort and patience are required to make these – thanks to everyone who sent them in!

Don’t forget, if you’ve got a cool pic yourself, you can send it to us on Facebook or tweet it to us.

Hey, feet off!

Any questions?

That’s all for this month 8 Ballers – don’t forget that if you’ve got any questions, hit the comments below, or you can check out our Customer Support site.

It’s awards season – the perfect time to take a look at our top Miniclip games of 2013. It’s been an awesome year, with some games pushing the boundaries of browser-based gaming, plenty of gameplay innovations, and above all tons of fun!

Free Running 2

Let’s begin with one of our biggest hits of the year, Free Running 2. Released in July, this sequel thrilled with its gravity-defying stunts, leaps, and jumps – all taking place high above the city streets below. Millions of you played Free Running 2 this year, making it one of our most popular titles of 2013. Get ready for a snowy Christmas update too, coming soon!

Robot Rage

Robot Rage launched on Miniclip this year with the sound of metal on metal in its explosive PvP action. Upgrade your robot with new weapons and powers, and send them into battle in one of our deadly arenas. Fights go on until one bot has been reduced to scrap!

Motocross Nitro

Motocross Nitro is our number 1 racer of 2013, with its combination of high speeds, dangerous stunts and occasional wipeouts adding tons of replayability. It’s also one of the best-looking titles on Miniclip, with a huge range of tracks. Our personal favourite is the Arena on freestyle mode: tailor-made for some big air. Look out for some awesome new features coming to Motocross this Christmas: new tracks, leaderboards, and awards are on the way.

Bow Master Japan

Now here’s a game that really hits the spot: grab your arrows and get ready to aim and fire in Bow Master Japan. Moving targets, stunning environments, quick reflexes and replayability are the secrets behind this game’s huge popularity: it’s been one of our most-played games ever since its release.

Commando Rush

Commando Rush features more action than a Hollywood blockbuster, and enough explosions to leave Michael Bay gibbering with excitement. It’s got a selection of mini missions from the Commando universe, awesome unlockable weapons, tons of awards and some great environments. Time to start the battle!

On The Run: The Getaway

The latest and greatest in the On The Run series, The Getaway has you making your escape from an evil corporation intent on smashing your car into pieces. With explosive power-ups, spectacular crashes, and even a surprise helicopter attack, The Getaway is a high-speed thrill ride.

Slime Lab 2

The sequel to the enormously-popular Slime Lab was one of our favourite games of the year. A physics platform-puzzler with a suitably squishy character, guiding Slime through the various dangers and obstacles of the Lab was a huge hit. Slime Lab 2 is packed with secret paths, tricky puzzles, and, of course, a big blob of goo.

Rail Rush

Rail Rush is an exhilarating adrenaline-fuelled adventure, and has been a big favourite all year round on Miniclip as well as on iPhone, Android and Windows Phones. With tons of characters, four worlds to explore – including the new Horror Land – it’s all about collecting gold nuggets and dodging obstacles in a bid to get just that little bit further than last time.

8 Ball Multiplayer Pool

Of course, no list of our top 10 games would be complete without 8 Ball Pool, a game that has grown at incredible speed this year. Available on mobile as well as Miniclip and Facebook, we recently went past the amazing landmark of 10 billion gameplays. Customise your table, play with your nation’s cue, and win tournaments on your way to becoming the ultimate 8 Ball legend.

Fireboy & Watergirl: Crystal Temple

The latest installment in the super-popular Fireboy and Watergirl series, Crystal Temple launched in October. It’s a puzzle game that will leave your brain and fingers in a twist, as you control Fireboy with one hand and Watergirl with the other, and guide them through increasingly tricky levels. Any player who gets the gold award in Crystal Temple definitely deserves it.

What’s your favourite Miniclip game?

Did your favourite make the list? What’s your game of the year? You can tell us in the Comments below, on our Facebook page, or tweet us. Or, you could just go to Miniclip.com and start playing to decide for yourself! Thanks for helping us to make 2013 such a great year, and stay tuned for news of some of our awesome titles coming in 2014!

There’s been some fantastic games on Miniclip this year, but we wanted to know… what was your favourite? What game would win our People’s Choice award?

So, we picked our top 10 games of 2013, made an awesome video, and then threw the vote open to our Facebook fans to decide which game was our number 1 for this year. From there, we whittled it down to a Final Five, and then, in a last vote, our winner was crowned. Congratulations to 8 Ball Pool, picked as Miniclip’s Game of the Year by you, the fans!

8 Ball just passed a pretty awesome milestone.

8 Ball has proved to be not only the most popular game on Miniclip this year, but also one of the most popular on all of Facebook, as well as on iPhone and Android phones. A few days ago, we went past the incredible landmark of ten billion games played. That’s a lot of wins, a lot of incredible shots, a ton of “sorry gotta run”s, and plenty of “hehe”s!

We’d like to say a huge THANK YOU to all our 8 Ball players! For every game, every pot, every trickshot, every cool bit of 8 Ball artwork that you’ve spent time making – it’s been an incredible year.  We’ve seen trickshot videos that have blown our minds with their creativity: we’ve already published one sweet collection and have another on the way. Keep emailing them in to us using the address social at miniclip.com and you could be starring in a future video too.

To commemorate the fact that you picked 8 Ball as your favourite, you’ll now see this cool People’s Choice badge next to the game page

Thanks to all our players for making 2013 such a special year! Look out for even more great games coming to Miniclip in 2014… oh, and in the rest of 2013, of course! There’s still time left for us to release some more fun stuff for you to play. Don’t forget to keep an eye on our Facebook page, Twitter feed, or our YouTube channel for the very latest Miniclip news.

8 Ball is your winner of the People’s Choice award for 2013!

Welcome to our second monthly Miniclip Roundup!

Guns of Anarchy in action.

Get ready for all the latest info on our new games, videos, and all things Miniclip. Don’t forget, this is your chance to get involved and ask us whatever’s on your mind in the Comments section below.

What a busy few weeks it’s been – here’s what’s been happening on the site and with the team.

New games

We are beyond excited for some of the titles we’ve got coming out in December, but November’s line-up was also full of awesomeness. Guns of Anarchy combines action movie thrills with some very cheesy one liners – we totally approve. Our other big action release was the zombie survival game After Sunset 2. In this sequel, you control Sid the butcher as he takes on waves of the undead with some very cool weapons.

FAR RIGHT: Scary Sid from After Sunset, with members of the Miniclip UK team

After Sunset 2 has proved to be a big hit on Miniclip since its release – in fact, one of our team came to work dressed as Sid on Halloween. It was terrifying.

We also released some superb puzzle games, including the latest in the Fireboy and Watergirl series, Crystal Temple. These have been some of the most popular titles on Miniclip down the years, and Crystal Temple picks up where they left off: you control Fireboy with one hand and Watergirl with the other, using teamwork to beat each level.

One of our other most popular puzzlers from last month is DynaBoy, from the creators of Slime Lab – there’s plenty of jewels and loot to be found in those caves, so grab some dynamite and start treasure-hunting! We really loved the retro look and feel of this one. Check out the rest of our latest releases on Miniclip.com.

Miniclip’s Best Games of 2013

Here’s the REAL Sid from After Sunset 2

With awards’ season upon us, we ran a vote on our Facebook page to see which of our games would be picked as the best of 2013. We were delighted to announce that the winner, after some intense rounds of voting, was… drum roll… 8 Ball Pool! It’s been a great year for 8 Ball – which recently went past the incredible landmark of 10 billion matches played – and you can read more about some of the reasons behind its win right here.

In case you missed it, here’s our video round-up of our top games of 2013. Did your favourite get picked?

Plague Inc is one of our most popular mobile games.

Essential Reading

Around Halloween, we took an in-depth look at scary games: we asked you to tell us the scariest game you’d ever played (Slender was a pretty clear winner, with honourable mentions to Resident Evil and Outlast), plus we went over what it takes for a game to be scary, and whether we actually like to be scared. On a similarly flesh-crawling note, James Vaughan, the creator of our Android hit, Plague Inc, was interviewed on Bloomberg TV about its success. We also enjoyed this Polygon article which looks at how Plague – a game about a killer virus – went viral.

Team Miniclip

So, apart from games, what else have the Miniclip Team been up to in the last month?

Our runners warming up before the Lausanne race. At least, we THINK that’s what they’re doing.

Well, a number of our team ran a race in Lausanne, Switzerland for the charity Foyer Des Jeunes. Into a strong headwind and battered by rain, seven hardy runners covered a total of  125 kilometres (78 miles) and raised over £260 for our chosen charity. Awesome work!

Several team members also took part in Movember last month, taking their inspiration from Super Mario, Hulk Hogan, and maybe even a little bit of Borat, on their way to raising over £600. Good stuff, MoBros! And, of course, it’s not too late to donate.

What else has been going on? Well, it looks like some fairly famous names made guest appearances during a company game of Lasertag last week (check the pic on the right – not sure who Steven Seaga is though). Unconfirmed rumours suggest that everyone ganged up on some of the Miniclip directors to make sure that they didn’t win…

Holiday Games

Bruce Lee: Lasertag superstar

The festive season is upon us, and we’ve launched some special Christmas awards for you to win. There’s 1 award for every day leading up to Christmas (24 in total) – start your collection now from our games hub - and we’ve put together a blog post with everything you need to know about how to get these awards.

And if that wasn’t enough, we’ve also got a whole host of wintry titles for you to play, from skiing to ice hockey to a winter version of Bow Master. Speaking of winter versions, we’re delighted to announce that we’ll soon be bringing you special Christmas editions of Free Running 2 and After Sunset 2

Our Christmas Games hub is live!

What’s next?

We are incredibly excited about some of the games we’ve got coming out over the next few weeks… you can take a sneak peek at the awesome Turbo Racing 3 below, but that’s just the start. Keep an eye on our Twitter feed, YouTube channel, and Facebook and Google+ pages to make sure you don’t miss out on the latest news and releases!

We’re hiring!

We’re hiring for lots of new roles in our London and Lisbon offices right now – take a look at our Vacancies page. Come work with us!

Anything else?

Don’t forget – this is your chance to ask us whatever’s on your mind in the comments section. The best questions and comments may appear in next month’s update

That’s all from Miniclip for this month – we’ll be back with your next update at the start of 2014! Happy holidays!

Achievement Unlocked! 250m downloads

Rail Rush is one of our most-downloaded games.

Miniclip has hit a new landmark: a quarter of a billion mobile downloads across iOS, Android and Windows devices!

From our first mobile game in 2010 to our 40th in 2013, we’re delighted to now be able to bring games to people across all platforms. Our biggest games like Rail Rush (34m downloads), iStunt (25m) and Fragger (24m) have helped us surge past the 250 million mark.

“We’re thrilled to have achieved such a significant mobile download milestone,” says Miniclip CEO Robert Small. “It’s great that our online and mobile game players have responded so well. They know that the Miniclip brand represents great quality games on whichever platform they choose to play.”

Our attention now turns to 2014, and a whole new exciting line-up of original games and new features!

Thanks for playing!

The Miniclip Team

Check out our full range of mobile games here, or just visit Miniclip from your mobile device.