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‘Wizard of Oz’ game hits a million players on Facebook



The creators of the ‘Wizard of Oz’ game, Spooky Cool, a tech company in Chicago with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, recently announced that their game had registered more than a million players on the social networking site, Facebook. The licensed version of the ‘The Wizard of Oz’ game, which was recently launched, has become a hit among users.

Bob Holtzman, director of marketing at Spooky Cool Labs said, ‘We jumped into social games head first, and we’re having a lot of fun doing it.‘ Warner Bros gave the license to Spooky Cool because its founders are famous game designers Joe Kaminkow and Larry DeMar who have also designed some of the most popular arcade, pinball, and slot games.

The game’s launch has been quite timely, coinciding with the release of the prequel. ‘It’s a great time for the Wizard of Oz,’ Holtzman said. Also the original movie is going to complete 75 years of its release this year.
Unlike the plot in the book and movie, Dorothy and her friends are in the virtual yellow brick world on Facebook. The Wizard of Oz is a city-building 3D game with a vocal narrative. In the game, the player has to build the yellow brick road to meet Dorothy and her friends while Glinda, the good witch tells the player how to build Munchkintown.

Till date, in virtual Oz, more than 3.4 million trees have been cut. Players have visited their neighbors more than 4.7 million times and played Munchkinland mini games more than 7 million times. Munchkinlands have been defended from more than 750,000 Wicked Witch attacks and nearly 110 million bricks created to help Dorothy on her way home.

Interestingly, the game has music from the film, video clips, and characters that resemble the ensemble cast in the movie. You can also have some fun spinning the world and viewing it from various angles, including a top-down view in 3D. The team has worked on the game for two years and it appears that their hard work has paid off, after all!

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