I’m super-excited to be announcing our partnership with SQLstream today, and I think it’s appropriate that we timed it with the Virtual Goods Summit. The technology they provide is particularly applicable to virtual goods, and virtual world economies, and it’s even more applicable for those things on Social Networks.

Imagine being able to monitor purchasing behavior for new virtual goods the minute they deploy. Imagine being able to track all falloff points, from feed notification, to in-game promotion, to storefront bounce and conversion (with multivariate analysis). Correlate these metrics with post-purchase in-game usage, repeat purchases and gifting behavior. We get all this in real-time, iterating and optimizing the entire process in an afternoon.

Imagine the ability to identify corollaries between game-play behavior and conversion to paying user, to monitor the player base in real-time for individuals that meet that criteria, and present them with a customized offer the exact instant they’re most likely to buy. On the flipside, watch for users that are statistically on the verge of quitting, and automatically send them a customized incentive to stay. Even if they are only getting bored, it’s possible to watch for this, and adjust the experience to compensate.

Beyond monetization and user behavior, there is the power to continuously monitor changes in viral distribution on the macro level. As Social Networks change their APIs and policies, we have the power and tools to rapidly iterate on new distribution methods, and identify new opportunities.

It’s pretty heady stuff, but that’s the nearly limitless power of stream computing. We’re very excited to highlight it as an important part of our strategy and vision, to raise the bar for games on social networks and present the best possible experience for our users.

It’s been a proverbial flurry of activity here in the past few weeks, as we ramp up to do our first “official” press announcement in a few days. There’s always that nervous anticipation before unveiling something significant, and I’m feeling it big time. I think this is the most extreme case of “nervous anticipation” (sounds better than “jitters”) that I’ve had to date. The whole team here has a lot of time, creativity, and labor invested in Gravity Bear, and I really feel in my bones that it’s about to pay off. We’ve accomplished a tremendous amount since we started just a little over a year ago… It’s been a year that feels like 3 in terms of experience.

That said, I feel like we’re doing the best job that we can, given the fantastic opportunities in front of us. Somehow, at every turn, we’ve always managed to attract the right partners and friends at just the right time. This past month has been a huge example of that… Solutions present themselves when they’re most needed, and new opportunities abound. Biggest lesson here is that talking to people is good… A simple lunch with a friend for catch-up can morph into an amazing possibility. It seems like virtually everyone is up to something cool in the space right now. In light of that, it’s extremely heartening the amount of interest that we’re getting, even though we’ve been in stealth up until now. For anyone working in the space of games for social networks, the buzz emanating from the wire is exhilarating.

I’m continually amazed at how hot this space is getting. We knew when we were starting out that games on social networks was going to grow in 2009, but it’s exceeded my expectations. By all accounts, it’s looking like our plan is bearing fruit, looking like there’s going to be a lot of demand for what we’re making at just the right time. It’s amazing how many anecdotal examples filter back to us, of seasoned games developers itching to take the plunge. We watched it happen earlier this year at the executive level, across all the big players, and now the creative teams are following suit. It’s good to feel like our teeth are sharp just as the ocean is starting to get a little red. It’s also good to know that we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeve

I’m so grateful for the team here at Gravity Bear. I’m proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish, and super-excited about where we’re going. It’s absolutely a great time to be doing what we’re doing, and we would not be here without all the generous and talented people that helped us along the way. I love helping friends succeed, and love the feeling of getting the support from those I trust and respect. I can’t wait to see what we all come up with!

Woohoo!  We received a mysterious (but useful!!)  “crunch kit” today from a Gravity Bear friend.  YAY!  None of us were prepared for the pure awesomeness that was inside…

Best. Gift. Evar!

Curious George Plush, Savage Strikes (book), Paul Frank: Julius Journal, Tarot Cards, Artist’s Model Female Hand, and a bottle of Crown Royal.  YAY!

Now we just have to match them up….

Welcome to the Gravity Bear dev blog!

Ether here, posting temporarily to get some “filler” on our blog for when our website goes Live.  Currently, our dev blog consists of lorem ipsum stuffs, which is gibberishly interesting, but not very informational for someone coming to read up on Gravity Bear.   Going forward, our CEO/Creative Director, our Game Designer and other Gravity Bear folks will be the major contributors to this blog, but for now those folks are all plugging away on the game so the readers will have to deal with me!  Muhahaha… !!

I suppose you’re wondering what Gravity Bear has been up to… ?  Well, we’ve spent the last year at Gravity Bear trying to get a game out!

Hrmph.  It just seems wrong to summarize the last year in one sentence:  “…we’ve spent the last year at Gravity Bear trying to get a game out.”

The reality is that the last year has been a crazy/scary/exhilarating/exciting/nerve-wracking adventure.  We’re hoping to get those experiences in our blog eventually, but since everyone here is super busy working on the game and since we can’t officially talk about the game yet, I’ll have to write about something else.

I guess this would be a good time to talk about our plans for the blog, and FB page, and forums, and <insert current hip social media thingy here>.

Our goal is to use or Developer Blog to talk about our experiences with game development here at Gravity Bear. We want to keep the tone of our blog Serious & Professional and our fearless leader, Phil Shenk, will likely be doing the majority of those posts.

We would like to have  a “Meet the Crew” segment, which will highlight one member of the Gravity Bear family.  Ideally we can get these out biweekly or monthly; more frequently than that would be silly, since our family is pretty small.

We’re also planning to post important info and updates for our game–new content we’re adding to our game, why we’re adding it and all that jazz.  Our designer, Alan Hu, will be making most of those posts.

The Facebook page will be where we keep most of the “light-hearted fluff”, and I’ll be doing the majority of the updates there. ( I’m told that no one will take us seriously if I blog, so I need to keep my silliness on the Facebook Page and in the Tweets.)There we plan on having contests, posting pictures, and keeping everyone updated on all the random stuff that happens here at our crazy lil company.

Well, I should probably wrap up this “test post” for now since it’s getting long and I have oodles of work to do.    If anyone has any ideas on features or info they would like to see on our Blog or Facebook Page or Forums, please Please PLEASE let us know.  The blog, the site, the FB page—it’s all just a way for us to communicate with our fans and friends.  If there’s something we can be doing better to keep you involved and engaged—we want to know!

-Ether