QuizUp

QuizUp is a mobile game developed by Iceland-based Plain Vanilla Games. The game is a mobile trivia app similar to the game Trivial Pursuit.^[1] QuizUp is a multi-player game in which one user competes against another during seven rounds of timed multiple-choice questions of various topics.^[2] There are over 1,200 total topics available to users to choose from, and all the questions are voluntarily submitted by content contributors. Most topics are available in different languages.^[3] As of May 31, 2015, there are over 600,000 questions and 1,200 topics in QuizUp's database.^[4]

QuizUp was initially released for iOS in November 2013. Plain Vanilla Games released an Android version in March 2014.^[5]

As of May 2014, QuizUp had 20 million users and has raised over $26 million from venture capital investments.^[6] Over a billion matches had been played in over 197 countries by March 2014.^[5] The company claims that users play an average of 40 minutes each day.^[1] On September 30, 2015, Plain Vanilla Games announced that they had reached a deal with Universal Television to develop a television game show based on the app, which will premiere on NBC in early 2016.^[7] Five days later, on October 5, 2015, it was announced that ITV had also acquired the rights to their own game show version.

In September 2016, as a result of NBC cancelling their show, QuizUp's creator, Plain Vanilla, laid off all of their employees and announced a plan to sell the app before the end of 2016. QuizUp was then acquired by mobile game developer Glu Mobile for 7.5 million USD,^[8] and the phrase QuizUp is "alive and kicking" was relayed to its vast community of players through the separate topic QuizUp: Feedback as well as through social media.

Gameplay

Overview

Users start a game by choosing a topic of interest from over 1000 available categories.^[5] The topics have a wide range of subjects and include popular culture categories like movies and television shows, literary and musical topics, athletic sports and games categories, and scholarly categories like history, science, geography, Charles Dickens^[9] and many more.^[10]

After the user picks a topic, they have the ability to either challenge a friend to a match or be paired against a random player.^[11] Users have the option of signing into the app through a social media platform such as Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ which allows the user to see current friends who are using the app, invite friends to join them on the app, or challenge their friends to a game.^[12] The user can also choose to sign into QuizUp with an email address and not connect with a social media site.^[2] Players have the option of choosing to play with a friend or with a random stranger who may be in another country.^[5]When the user has challenged someone, and the opposing user agrees to play, the match begins. Each match consists of six normal rounds and one bonus round that concludes the game.^[2] In each of the six normal rounds, the same question is given to each player with ten seconds to choose an answer out of the four responses provided.^[2] Users are awarded for the accuracy and speed of their answer, with a maximum of 20 points awarded per round. Point totals are doubled during the bonus round. Answering slowly or not giving an answer at all results in reduced points or no points respectively.^[2] The user will earn one point fewer per second that they wait, with a minimum of 11 points if they answer correctly. Incorrect answers earn zero.

The maximum points possible to be scored in a single game is 160 [(6 rounds x 20 points)+(1 bonus round x 40 points)].^[13] The player with the most points wins the match.

Experience points

Players earn experience points (XP) in a category after completing a game in that category.^[14] The points one earns depends on how well they performed during the game. Experience points earned is the sum of:

• Total points scored in the game (maximum 160)
• A finishing bonus (40 points)^[14]
• A victory bonus (if you win, you get an additional 100 points, halved in case of a draw)^[14]

As a side note, there are possible ways to not receive the finish bonus. This includes, and is not limited to, opening Control Center, and a communications error. A communications error may have two results. The match could end in an ERROR, which results in no XP gain at all, or the match could end with a victory, based on the number of questions already answered. The finish bonus is awarded on this occasion, along with points scored and a victory bonus.

This gives a maximum of 300 experience points per game. However, if one plays daily, as a "Daily Reward" QuizUp gives a XP multiplier, which increases from 1x to 2x, 0.2 at a time. That is, first day 1.2, second day 1.4 and so on, until one reaches to a maximum of 2. But this multiplier would be lost if one doesn't log into the game for over 24 hours. So, the maximum points for a daily player is 600 experience points. The Daily Reward system debuted on October 15, 2015.

200 points are required to move from a user's starting point of level 1 to level 2. After that, the experience points required to increase a level are the previous level's points plus 70. This means that the number of points required to move from level n-1 to level n is 60+70n, and the total points required to reach level n after first starting it is 35n²+95n-130.

Once a player reaches a certain level within a category (usually level 5 or 10), and every fifth or tenth level thereafter up to level 90, they will earn a "title" which can be displayed under their screen name/user name.^[15] Certain categories award titles every five levels. Once a person reaches level 100 in a specific topic, there is a standard title. "Champion of" followed by the topic's name. For example, if a person reaches level 100 in Physics, the title would be "Champion of Physics".

Players who play QuizUp also participate in global, country, state (only in case of USA) and friends/following using experience points. The player can earn a banner on their QuizUp user page from being in the top 10 or being in first, second, or third place. The banner will also show when you are waiting for a matchup. Friends and nearby rankings are excluded from the player achieving banners. The rankings also have a monthly and an all time feature, which makes it possible to get banners in two ways.^[16]

Social media features

Similar to Instagram, QuizUp also has a feature where people can share photos and posts, and other people can comment and like on those photos or posts. In a similar style to Facebook QuizUp has a newsfeed section, where it is possible to see like and comment on people's achievements, medals, and even their profile pictures given that you are following their QuizUp profile.

Topics

On QuizUp, there are individual topics in which a player can choose to be quizzed on by another online player. There are topics of many diverse sections, including Medical, Architecture, Science, Economics, 6 Harry Potter topics and also on major celebrities like pop singers. Users can play in more than one topic; there is no limit on the number of topics played by an individual. The topics mainly played by the individual are shown in the form of a pie chart on the User Screen of the respective player.

References

External links

• QuizUp on iTunes
• QuizUp on Google Play
• QuizUp website