State of Play

Photograph by Hayley Young

David Bluhm thinks the next big evolution in mobile gaming is connected featureslike multiplayer technologies and live chatthat encourage friend-to-friend interaction during game play.

Have a short window of downtime on a bus, in a waiting room or between meetings? Bluhms new companySeattle-based Z2Livewill connect you with others to play, compete or collaborate in real time. Bluhm, with Xbox Entertainment Network veteran Damon Danieli and Madrona Venture Group funding, founded Z2Live in 2009.

We started it to create the next generation of game experience, Bluhm says.

Z2Live has licensed its technology to Seattles Big Fish Games and Activision, and is adding voice chat and multiplayer capabilities to its games. However, Bluhm says most of the revenue will come from the games they create.

In Z2Lives iPhone game Trade Nations, players build communities, grow crops and create trading partnerships. They can exchange text messages. Its free to play, but participants can pay to accelerate their progress.

We are building games that have distinctly social mechanics in the game itself such as interacting with your friends while in the game, Bluhm says. [In] Trade Nations, for instance, you trade cut lumber with one of your friends in return for manufactured wood benchesor provide cut stone to your friends land in order to have statues made for your own land.

Another Z2Live game, Dogfight: Online, is more traditional, featuring Air Force attack sequences and allowing players to engage in air battles with fighter planes.

Z2Live develops for the iPod, iPhone and iPad but hopes to expand to all mobile platforms. Bucking economic trends, the company is hiring and doing well, says Bluhm, who has been growing tech companies for more than 25 years. He is also co-founder of Medio Systems, a mobile search and advertising company.

I like to find that space where people havent yet gone, Bluhm says, and find a creative, passionate group of people and go find the future with them.