Virtual worlds and microtransactions were the theme of this year’s Game Developers Conference. SmallWorlds fits this trend. Developed by Outsmart as a 3D browser-based game, Small Worlds is one of the best free-to-play games I saw at GDC 2009.

The GamersInfo.net crew got to see a lot of games, and we had an appointment with the public relations firm TriplePoint to check out two games: SmallWorlds and Gatheryn. We expected to be there for about an hour, but we ended up staying two — one for each game. I wanted to know more.

With SmallWorlds, I was impressed with the rich and crisp graphics done in Flash. The amount of cartoony detail and fun backgrounds and options are pleasing to the eye and would make it easy for me to spend hours and hours hanging and mingling in my own room or house or in various common areas.

When you sign up and log in to SmallWorlds for the first time, you get to create your online persona and choose a pet to hang with in your room. Regular free-to-play players have limited choices, but if you purchase a subscription — which can be as little as $4.95 a month — you get exclusive access to avatar options, clothing, items and spaces as well as the ability to take your pets with you everywhere you go. Players get their own rooms, which also can be decorated and customized.

There are a lot of fun things you can do in SmallWorlds, including making new friends, playing games from a huge game library and challenging your friends, watching YouTube simultaneously with other players, listening to music, chatting and hanging out, shopping at many shops and galleries, and creating adventures to send others on. The adventures are missions or quests that are basically you creating minigames through the SmallWorlds interface. All missions are user-created, which is unique for virtual worlds. The interface is incredibly intuitive and easy to use. You basically tie logic to certain items that allows players to continue a string of tasks, which can be beneficial to the player, disappointing to the player or just silly in general.

The user interface for the games and video is the same, with a chat window on the right. This keeps the world fairly consistent. This is a main issue for the SmallWorlds crew, which also controls shops, products and content. However, pretty much all of the items and things in SmallWorlds are interactive.

For most things in SmallWorlds, users can use virtual tokens. However, you also have the option for microtransactions and can purchase special things using real money. You can add tokens to your account via in-game ATMs. You don’t need real money for many of the special or rare items. You can play to get more virtual token, or you can use real money to buy virtual tokens. If you do get a rare item, though, you can only have one per account.

The sounds in the game are done very well. There’s no cutesy background music going on, and the music and video sounds are all very crisp and clean. The various sound effects all match their respective items, which is also a good thing.

The demographic for SmallWorlds is about 65 percent female. About 50 percent of total users are ages 13 to 17; about 35 percent are ages 18 to 25. In a month, about half the visitors spend about 4.5 hours playing, about 22 percent spend 35 hours playing and about 11 percent spend about 75 hours or more playing.

Since the game plays in Flash, there is no download necessary. You also have the option to play via Facebook, MySpace and Bebo. The game also has live moderation — which helps keep SmallWorlds clean and safe for the younger crowds — that is handled by volunteers who can earn virtual tokens.

The look and feel of SmallWorlds added to the variety of fun and safe environment make me excited to play. I will admit, though, that I’m a bit cautious because I tend to get sucked into virtual worlds and ignore the rest of society. SmallWorlds looks awesome, though, and I plan to join sometime in the near future.