Mr.Farmville

An Israel-based company by the name of Skiller is talking for the first time about their progress as a mobile, social game developer today, announcing the milestone of over 5 million downloads since its platform’s inception in 2008.

Skiller hasn’t focused on the major smartphones in the past, building instead on “feature phones” from Nokia, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson that have remained more common around the world. Skiller’s selection of games thus consists of simplistic, free titles reminiscent of Break Out, Tetris, and Connect Four, as well as classic skill-based games such as Checkers and Backgammon.

But Skiller isn’t blind to the smartphone market, and the company now also supports J2me, Android, and BlackBerry devices with iPhone support coming in the near future.

As for the social elements of the Skiller Platform, its games already have many of the more basic mechanics including leaderboards, challenges, and synchronous play. Skiller also adds more beyond just the games by offering messaging services, buddy lists, user walls and avatars, commenting systems, and even the occasional tournament. The platform also supports virtual goods and currency, dubbed “Skiller Coins.”

This virtual currency, both earnable in games or purchasable, is used to buy everything from vanity avatar items to mobile phone goods such as wallpapers. The recently redesigned website also boasts achievements, as well as Facebook and Twitter integration for wall and tweet postings as well as friend importation.

At the moment, the Skiller Platform games all appear to be by the company. For the future, Skiller may have different plans, as it has provided a developer registration page for downloading the SDK, and an analytics tool. We haven’t been made privy to any official announcements yet, so we’re simply assuming from the evidence that Skiller will work with third-party developers.

Regardless, Skiller’s platform, while consisting of simpler games, does reach 180 countries, and according to the company, it’s popular in areas that have been pining for social, mobile games for some time — like Mig33, Skiller says it’s popular in countries like India and Malaysia. Now, with added Android and BlackBerry support, coming iPhone support, and the possibility of newer and better games, Skiller is opening itself up to a whole new ball game.

Source: Inside Social Games