Jawfish Games recently launched a platform that supports real-time multiplayer tournaments across iOS, Android and the web, and the studio is kicking off its platform with the release of Jawfish Words and Jawfish Poker.
Founded by Phil Gordon, a former professional poker player and World Tour champion, Jawfish Games previously collaborated with Big Fish Games on Match-Up! — the world's first real-time multiplayer tournament game on mobile devices. Jawfish is now bringing this technology to its own games.
Jawfish Words is the world's first real-time multiplayer tournament word search game, where players compete in three objectives per round, such as High Score, Corners, Longest Word or Diagonals. It is currently available on Kindle Fire and will come to iOS, all Android devices and Facebook in June. When it releases on all platforms, players will be able to compete live against others in the same tournaments, regardless of which device they choose to play on.
"If you see Jawfish Gems, you're going to know immediately that it's a multiplayer, real-time gems game."
Jawfish Poker, which is out now on iOS and will be coming to other platforms in the near future, is a multiplayer, real-time poker tournament that has a television broadcast look and feel, real tournament leaderboards and running commentary from Gordon himself. The game's design was also led by Gordon.
"We chose the names Jawfish Poker and Jawfish Words for a reason," Gordon told Polygon. "Basically, the idea is we've got a bunch of games in development, and what we want consumers to realize when they see Jawfish as the name of the game is it's a multiplayer real-time tournament. If you see Jawfish Gems, you're going to know immediately that it's a multiplayer, real-time gems game. Or Jawfish Bingo — multiplayer, real-time tournament bingo."
According to Gordon, Jawfish's technology is very scalable and can support hundreds of thousands of players in tournaments at a time. In the coming months, the studio plans to roll out more of its own games for the Jawfish platform.
Jawfish Poker is out now on iOS, with Android and Facebook versions on their way. Jawfish Words is out now on Kindle Fire and Facebook. It is due to release on Android May 29 and iOS June 6.
