London-based software developer Webalon is planning to take on the big online casual gaming portals with the public beta launch of an innovative Ajax-powered casual gaming web app. Described by Webalon founder Alex Kearns as "iTunes for online games", Gambolio allows users to create and play their own library of online games in the same way as iTunes helps people oversee their music collecion. "We want to give users the same sense of ownership of the games that people have with the songs in their iTunes library," said Kearns.
Users can choose from a catalogue of more than 8,000 free games to add to their library. Games can be filed in different categories, shared with friends and family, rated, commented on - all within a beautiful Ajax interface designed from the ground up to greatly improve the user experience of playing online games.
"While most gaming portals bombard you with flashing icons and animated ads, force you to play the games at a fraction of the size of your browser window and make searching through their catalogues a painfully slow experience, Gambolio has taken a completely different approach," said Kearns.
The application's rich, desktop-style interface and interactivity allows users to browse and search through thousands of games in a matter of seconds, play games in a unique full-window mode bereft of the in-your-face adds ubiquitous on most portals and load your friends' game libraries simply by clicking a button.
Gambolio.com's Ajax technology allows users to smoothly switch between playing games, managing their library, commenting on games... without the need for a single page reload. "It is really like a desktop application - with all the fun interactivity and responsiveness - but working in your browser. We believe gambolio.com could change the way people play online games for the better," said Kearns.