Category: Video Games

Hallpass Media run by Bill Kara, has launched its newest website, VirtualPets.com (currently in Beta). The casual game company that acquires and develops killer game properties unveiled VirtualPets.com earlier today, where casual gamers can adopt, dress up, care for, or play with their favorite zoo, farm, exotic, house and ocean pets.

The site features an ‘Adopt a Pet’ section where players can adopt and care for anything from puppies to pandas. Other sites features allow users to take a visit in the Zoo games section to play with animals from around the world. Breed and train a stallion in the Farm section or enjoy an underwater adventure with some fishy friends in the Ocean section.

The site recently came out of testing after recently launching CookingGames.com in May 2010, which already ranks near the top of search engines for the phrase “cooking games” after only being online for a matter of weeks.

Bill Kara, Eric Borgos have more in common

Eric Borgos, another well-known and respected domainer-developer who operates Impulse Communications, currently owns the top spot in Google Search for the keywords “virtual pets” with his AdoptMe.com website. Eric, who made millions with his sale of Bored.com and 170 other websites – is also a big time domainer, who develops out casual gaming properties as well with properties like Dumb.com.

Bill Kara and Eric Borgos both have been buying and developing domain names for years and making millions in the process, so it should be an interesting competition in the search engines – with the newly launched VirtualPets.com pitted against the long standing AdoptMe.com.

It was only 7 days after launching CookingGames.com, that the site landed on the first page of Google…

Why is development so important? None of the domains that are parked, no matter how killer they are, will ever live up to their potential unless they are unlocked for development.

If you’re tracking the progress of CookingGames.com, the $350,000 domain with type in traffic already in the thousands per month, has quickly moved into the #7 spot in Google Search with the latest Google update – within 7 days of “officially” launching.

Bill Kara (who is now on Twitter) thought about purchasing the website that owns the #1 spot, but he’s confident with a few tweaks here and there his website can quickly move into the top spot.

Wanna start your own Gaming site?

If you’re looking to start you own game website and you don’t have the development skills, WordPress has you covered. There are a number of sites out there right now offering premium wordpress themes that can help you get started – sites like MyArcadeBlog Pro which was mentioned in the previous Hallpass Media story (and is used by RestaurantGames.com) and WPArcade.

Can’t say whether they are worth buying or not, since no Fusible properties use WPArcade – but it may be a good trial for VideoGameJunkies.com a name acquired off NameJet for $89 in November 2009.

Any readers out there who have installed and used any of these premium wordpress themes, feel free to drop a note with a link to the site.

Bill Kara is a lot different than many domain investors who buy up domain names for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It’s development that’s key to his success, and that means developing his “casual games” internet properties and getting those names out of parked and into the top of the search engines.

Bill Kara is a fan favorite here on Fusible, and he recently updated his Hallpass media site again with news updates – such as the launch of CookingGames.com, the DNJournal Cover story, and more. In his latest news section, he also links to quantcast, sharing how in just five months after development, his Spanish gaming site JuegosGratis.com has topped the charts.

Quantcast Directly Measured Data has Juegos Gratis ranking as one of the most viewed websites in key Spanish markets, 140th in Mexico, 71st in Argentina, 179 in Chile and 135th in Columbia…

Casual Games is anything but Casual

The Casual Games industry is big money as Bill Kara can tell you. If you’re looking to get into the gaming industry, you can actually find WordPress themes that can help you get started especially if you’re on a budget.

RestaurantGames.com (a property not owned by Bill Kara) uses MyArcadeBlog Pro. Owning RestaurantGames.com may not be as important now anyway, now that Bill owns the macro level domain for restaurant type games with his recent acquisition and launch of CookingGames.com. For those looking for a script to start your own games portal, the MyArcadeBlogPro theme lets you transform a boring WordPress Blog into an amazing arcade games portal using Mochi Media, HeyZap, Custom and IBPArcade games.

The theme is cheap, but powerful – however it does require quite a bit of configuration and setting up and if you’re unfamiliar with WordPress, it may take you longer than the average user.

After redesigning its own website, HallPass Media the entertainment network has launched CookingGames.com – the domain name that sold for $350,000 in January at Noktadomains and caused many to question the reasoning behind the purchase.  Maybe because the fact that CookingSupplies.com only sold for $2,500 in 2006 or that other game domains had sold for far less – but it was a no brainer for Bill Kara the CEO of Hallpass Media who paid $100,000 for the domain StickGames.com and is on track to quickly turn a profit in months.

Bill didn’t have sticker shock. Hallpass Media doesn’t buy and park, the company buys and develops.

CookingGames.com like many of the Hallpass Media properties is a casual gaming site. And casual gaming is a high growth market, with big money that attracts a mass audience.

Google even opened up their wallet recently to purchase Labpixes, a company that develops casual games – including applications for the Android phone.

Hallpass Media’s newest site lets you play games where cooking is a big part of the game.  From the CookingGames.com website:

Greetings and welcome to Cooking Games! The best place on the ‘net for you to sink your teeth into a mouth watering assortment of fresh as can be Free Flash Cooking Games. We’ve rounded up a more then fair assortment of all the best that the web has to offer and are serving it up to you on silver platter. Feel free to sample everything from the deliciously decorated treats available in baking games, the saucy, spicy fun of pizza games or the sweetly unique ice cream games. Put together a great dining experience in our meal games and follow up with our great selection of cake games for dessert. Try your hand at running a fast and fun paced restaurant with our diverse selection of service and restaurant games. Whether traditional home made food or exotic foreign delicacies, timed cooking puzzle competitions or cooking and baking lessons. You’ll find we’re well stocked in top notch, ‘grade A’ flash cooking games. Dig in and enjoy!