What's Hot:

• Botanicula
• Ice Age Village
• Bubble Safari
• Marvel Avengers Alliance

It’s no secret that Zynga has spent the year trying to diversify their portfolio a little farther than games with the word “Ville” in them. Whether it’s dropping a fine $200 million to acquire OMGPOP and Draw Something, jumping into the popular bubble-popping genre to make Bubble Safari, or putting one of its purchased entities to use to use with the brand-new announcement of Zombie Swipeout, it’s clear that Zynga is trying to branch out.

Crowdfunding sounds easy (just put up a page on Kickstarter and watch the bucks roll in for your new video game project), and on the surface, it may very well be so – at least in principle. But successful crowdfunding generally doesn’t happen by accident. If you look at triumphant gaming projects across the Web, you’ll find that many share several attributes in common, including one or more of the following building blocks:

Crowdfunding seems like a dream to many video game developers – just post up a pitch for an unfinished gaming project, and watch the pledges and donations roll in. But as veteran crowd funders will tell you, the actual process can be something of a nightmare, and success is far from certain. Certainly, crowdfunding can be a powerful too for launching and marketing any new business or startup. But before diving in, make sure you understand the benefits and risks associated with the practice.

The best thing I can say about The Last Stand: Dead Zone is that I was playing it at the very moment of Diablo III's long-anticipated release and found myself reluctant to stop. That's partly because there wasn't much point to trying to log in to Diablobecause of the server load, but also because ConArtist's fourth entry in their Last Stand series surprised me at every turn. It succeeds as both as a strategy game and a roleplaying game, and it's a gritty example of how to give aging social conventions new relevance. Perhaps most importantly, it's a game for people who doubt the legitimacy of Facebook as a gaming platform.

When it comes to making you hate your friends, the kart racing genre is second to none. The ridiculous weapons, the ease with which a player in dead last can overtake you in a matter of seconds; it's all rather frustrating. With its devious arsenal of weapons and demanding course design, KartRider Dash successfully carries on this age-old tradition of aggravating the heck out of players. Prepare to swear like a sailor.

Full-on social online gambling might not becoming a part of our everyday lives especially soon, but that hasn’t stopped casino games from becoming the most popular social gaming genre. DoubleDown, eager to push its casino presence while it’s hot, has announced the addition of Texas Hold ‘Em poker to its array of DoubleDown Casino games. It seems only fitting that Facebook’s largest virtual casino adds the most popular variant of poker.

We cover plenty of new games here at Gamezebo every week, but the number of games we’ve already covered that show up on new platforms? It’s staggering. Starting this Wednesday and continuing every week, we’ll be rounding up the games that aren’t quite new, but might be new to you depending on your platform of choice.

Welcome to the quick start guide for Bubble Safari, a new Facebook game from Zynga. In this arcade game you will find yourself aiming your bubble cannon at rows upon rows of colored bubbles in an attempt to clear the screen. Match colors and use special bonus bubbles to drop large sections of bubbles to score points and earn stars to unlock the next levels.

Welcome to the quick start guide for Ravenshire Castle: a sequel to the popular Facebook games Ravenwood Fair and Ravenskye City. Build your castle and sneak into the castles of your rivals and loot them of their treasures.

If you’re wondering why Gamezebo’s a little late in its coverage of the release of Ravenshire Castle, the answer’s simple--for a couple of days, I was unable to do anything past the third or fourth quest thanks to a bug that prevented new missions from appearing. That in itself speaks of the obstacles surrounding the game’s release, and as I’ve ventured into the castle itself and beyond, I’m surprised to find less threatening shortcomings at almost every turn. It’s a shame, really, since there’s a good game lurking behind all these issues, and Ravenshire Castle goes to great lengths to prove that there’s still room for innovation in an aging genre.

Zynga was one of the first well-known developers on Facebook, but that pedigree doesn't guarantee the company's future success; in order to stay competitive in the increasingly competitive social game arena, it's got to keep innovating. Of late, the mega-developer – best known for its “Ville” titles – is making new flavors of casual entertainment, and one of the best thus far is jungle-themed bubble popper, Bubble Safari.

Plenty of games companies like to remain secretive about their upcoming games. That’s fine, we get it. Why spread word about a game that’s not quite ready for prime time yet? But when you need to beta test those games, eventually something’s gonna pop up. Like this: a new game that’s allegedly from Zynga that’s testing in the Philippines right now under the name Big Harvest.