Plain Vanilla Games’ QuizUp recently launched on the Android Store and has already shot up to number six on the top free downloads chart. Couple that with its ranking as number 12 on the iTunes store, and the game boasts a user base of over 11 million.
So what can you with this massive new trivia app? Well, you can test your knowledge of Minecraft, Halo, Mass Effect, Skyrim, and other games in head-to-head battles. That was the first thing I did. I wasn’t very good (I can’t believe I forgot that there should be three Nightingales in Skyrim), but I still had a good time playing.
There are currently 428 topics available for quiz battles. Each topic belongs to a topic category.
There are 14 topic categories:
Arts
Business
Educational
Games
Geography
History
Lifestyle
Literature
Movies
Music
Nature
Science
Sports
TV
You can choose to battle Facebook friends or choose to be matched up against a random player.
Games will earn you experience depending on your performance. The maximum amount of experience a player can gain is 300 per game unless he or she purchases and uses a performance buff. The way this is added up is as follows:
- Total points scored in the game (maximum 160)
- A finishing bonus (40 points as long as both players finished the game without surrendering)
- A victory bonus (if you win, you get an additional 100 points)
Each round consists of seven questions. Players are scored based on speed and accuracy, and the final question is worth double points. Each topic also features a discussion board that players can use after the game.
Around 40,000 of QuizUp’s 11 million players have applied to submit questions, which should ensure a constant influx of fresh questions. The game features something for everyone; if you can’t find a category that you like, you probably aren’t looking hard enough. I stuck with video games, but beware: the specified categories can get REALLY tough. I thought that I was a Halo master, but I was wrong.
Plain Vanilla CEO Thor Fridriksson recently told Forbes that the team has hired a high-powered Hollywood agency to facilitate a possible television game show deal for “the biggest trivia game in the world,” so we are all going to be seeing a lot of QuizUp.