How do you foster word of mouth virality?

It's the question Jussi Laakkonen has spent a lot of time considering.

After all, he successfully introduced the concept of free cross-promotion for Facebook games with his company Applifier.

For various reasons, the concept didn't capture the imagination of developers or users on mobile, however; a situation which led him to Everyplay.

Formally announced at the Unite 2012 conference held in Amsterdam this week, it's a combined technology and social play, which enables people to record their in-game footage (graphics and audio) on-the-fly. They can then share via Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Everyplay's own social platform.

"We're giving gamers a voice and letting them share their cool moments," Laakkonen explains. "This is FaceTime for games."

Consumer facing

The technology - currently for iOS, but coming to Android - works by automatically recording footage in games that integrate the Everyplay SDK.

There's a plug-in for Unity, while users can opt-in to using a frontfacing camera and microphone to add their own commentary.

Laakkonen says there's no impact on the GPU, nearly zero impact on the CPU, and minimal battery hit using the technology. The video is streamed directly into the filesystem to avoid memory issues.

"The point about Everyplay is it's automatic, it's on all the time," he says. "It's the Steve Jobs approach."

This means that gamers can easily select and crop their biggest crashes or best plays once it's happened using the in-game tools. The video can then be shared, driving virality.

Everyplay will have a community section for each game that will enable players to share, comment and vote on their videos, generating more engagement.

Good for devs

Of course, there's a strong commitment to developers too; something that's been reflected with over 100 studios signing up for the technology in the three days since it was announced.

For one thing, Everyplay is free to use, with Applifier making money only if they want to pay for marketing campaigns within the Everyplay portal. It will also give developers the opportunity to utilise its user opt-in Impact video ad service.

Laakkonen says Everyplay should provide additional advantages during the development process in terms of improving usability testing and bug testing.

But his bigger concern remains the players.

"Current user acquisition is good for the fisherman but bad for the fish," he says.

"It treats players like cattle, but we're empowering users. We're giving them a voice and connecting them so they can communicate with each other. And that's good for everyone."

You can sign up for Everyplay - which is currently in beta - via its website.