Trellisys.net: Cashing in on the social networking craze

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The global craze for social networking platforms is palpable and applications on these platforms can become money-spinners. Proving this is Bangalore-based Trellisys, which has designed a game that has found mention in Facebook's list of 50 top applications to watch.

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They set out to grab eyeballs and managed to do much more. Bangalore-based Trellisys designed a word game, Grabbler, which has not only caught the fancy of thousands of netizens, but also won the first Facebook India application developers award. No easy feat, considering there were over a hundred other entries.

Arun Benty, Dir-Business Dvpt, Trellisys.net said the game comprised of a multi player word puzzle, it is turn based and very similar to scrabble. "You have a letter on each side of the cube and have to make a word and the whole game is about grabbing a word from your opponent, that is its USP.

Gaming may not be as popular in India as it is in other countries, but getting Grabbler on to a social networking platform was a stroke of genius.

Social gaming is a part of the multi media online gaming or MMOG space - one which Nasscom has predicted will achieve revenues of USD 36 billion this year globally. In India however, it's still at a nascent stage. Games like Grabbler, therefore, will go a long way towards increasing popularity for gaming in India.

That said, Trellisys wants to make it more than just a social game. It is exploring various options, including bringing out a board game to ensure the game's longevity. But for the immediate future, it is working on making the game compatible for other platforms.

Rohit Regonayak, Director - Technical, Trellisys.net says, "You have to be able to make the connect from anywhere, so not just being able to play it on Facebook, intermingling with other devices like the iphone, orkut etc is also necessary. We are working on that."

The Trellisys team is not too worried though. After all, the game has managed to get about 70,000 active users since its launch 5 months ago... users spanning over 130 countries and Grabbler, the company insists, is just the beginning.