Prank House, the First Reality Video Game, Captures 25K Users in the First 2 Weeks of Beta

Online, September 18, 2010 (Newswire.com) - SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, CA Olly Apps has officially released the beta version of their newest desktop app, "Prank House". The free download claims to be the "First Reality Video Game". The app is a live streaming reality show similar to Europe's Big Brother, with one major twist: users can control robotic pranks live via the internet. This isn't a type of reality show you watch, it's a reality show you play.

Launched less than two weeks ago, the beta version has been downloaded by over 25,000 people and is already pulling in steady revenue. Prank House's "Freemium" monetization model takes a page out of the Farmville playbook - users can download the app for free and then buy tokens to control different types of robotic pranks in the house. Users will be able to shoot real people with paintball guns, release angry goats, shock people playing foosball, and drive remote control cars around a 200 sq ft track. The Prank House is a new concept designed to allow you as the viewer to interact with - and influence- - the outcome of the daily competitions, making it the world's first reality video game. Taran Chadha and Brigham White, the game's creators, have a goal of taking the internets virtual world and making it real.

"I think everyone has always known that this is the way things were going," says White, "We were just the first ones silly enough to give it a shot."

Prank House launches October 4th of this year with an impressive lineup of internet celebrities who will actually live and compete in a 10,000 square foot house in California. They will be under constant surveillance and be completely subject to the whims of the internet. Shay Carl, Charles Trippy, Cory Williams, are just a few of the Youtube Stars who will be pranked online by their fans. In all, over 40 different "web-leberties" will make appearances in the house over the course of Season 1. The contestants compete in various competitions, all the while being "pranked" by people at home over 35 live streaming cameras.

Once users download the app from the official website, prankhouse.com, they choose a team to support. Then it becomes their job to help their team through competition in scheduled events. For example: one morning users might see two dunk tanks, each with a member of the opposing teams. Users at home will then try to shoot the target, and the team that has the most hits will dunk the opposing team member and gain points for their team. Basically, it is all a matter of teamwork, and the people in the house - at least in the case of the dunk tanks - have little to no control over the outcome.

Other events will require an even greater sense of teamwork, as some games will need a cumulative effort to affect the outcome. One example is the foosball game, where contestants will be playing on a special table with specific paddles. Users online will attempt to rally together; once a consensus has been reached and a majority of users on the same team agree on a specific paddle, the opposing team member will receive a slight electrical shock when they touch that paddle. Obviously, it won't be enough to hurt them, just enough to distract them and allow the other team to take the advantage. Then there are the other things in the house, like the paintball guns and the smoke-filled robots. While the other games are designed to gain points, these are there, basically, to mess with the contestants.

The app itself is currently available for download for PC, Mac and Linux. A Facebook add-on will be available in time for the season 1 debut on October 4, and plans are in motion to bring the app to mobile devices for later seasons.