Casual Game News

There was a time when toy stores were filled with ridiculous items like shoddy Mario alarm clocks and Sonic bath toys. It may not have been pretty, but it was the golden age of games merchandise. Companies like Rovio and PopCap have tried to carry the torch, providing us with items like plushies based on game characters. But a whole slew of games have missed out on what we consider obvious merchandising opportunities, and we're here to fix that.

A Bit Lucky, the developer behind Lucky Train and Lucky Space, has been acquired by Zynga. The team is currently at work on Solstice Arena, a multiplayer game set to release on several platforms, and they’ll continue development of the game once settled into their new offices at Zynga San Francisco.

Last month EA filed a lawsuit against Zynga, alleging that the company plagiarized and repurposed several aspects of Sims Social in their similar game The Ville. Not until today has Zynga responded, and as these matters tend to go, they’re denying the allegations and bringing forth a few of their own.

If you needed any proof that the bubble shooter craze is here to stay, look no further than Zuma Blitz: Kroakatoa Island. It’s being released tomorrow (September 13) as an update to the massively popular Zuma Blitz, but it has more than enough content to be considered an entirely new game. And oh yes, there will be frogs.

I’m working on a bit of a conspiracy theory. August is the eighth month in the year, and we’re going to share the six games we liked the most from that month. If you add six and eight you get fourteen which, divided by two, equals seven. July is the seventh month of the year, and we shared six games with you that month as well. That alone is suspect, but the plot runs deeper.

So far, players have gotten a glimpse at Kingdoms of Camelot: Ascension and its three factions in developer diaries #1 and #2.  This week, though, we wanted to dig into the specific benefits that players will be getting when they ascend a city.  As a player begins to rebuild their Ascended City, they will be given access to a series of faction themed blessings and new buildings, the City Center and Grove, to help them manage their city better than they previously could.

Druid, Fey and Briton: these are the factions in Kingdoms of Camelot.  Up until now, players have known very little about these factions. As mentioned in last week’s developer diary, Kingdoms of Camelot: Ascension will heavily focus on each of the three factions. Aligning an Ascended City with a faction will shape how that city grows and what benefits the player will receive.  This choice is on a per city basis, allowing players to eventually have cities of each faction.  Players will be able to choose which of their eight cities become Druid, Briton or Fey to further enhance how they wish to play Kingdoms of Camelot.

Update: An official statement has been released by Popcap, confirming layoffs and adding clarity to the situation. Text can be found in the body of the post.

Say it ain’t so, PopCap.  The casual games giant behind notable franchises like Bejeweled, Peggle, and Plants vs Zombies may be gearing up for some layoffs in the near future – or so says the rumor mill on the internet.

People like to give Rovio a lot of flack for “milking” the Angry Birds franchise with things like theme parks or, you know, $400M in plush toy sales. In truth, however, I see them as a very Disney-like entity: prolonging the value of their work by making smart moves to grow a lasting brand. Whatever you feel, though, there’s no denying their latest promotional announcement rocks... literally.

It wasn’t too long ago that everyone had stars in their eyes about HTML5. It was supposed to be the future of casual games.  Relatively easy to develop for, web playable on just about every platform – how could it miss? But flash forward to a year later, and it’s far from the dominant programming language in gaming – and the folks behind Goko think they know why.  

Eagle-eyed Facebook gamers may have noticed a surprising ad in their sidebar today for a game called CoasterVille.  More surprising still was the “Zynga” logo emblazoned on the ad.  Did Zynga slyly release a new game without making any sort of an announcement whatsoever?  Not really – but it looks like it could be a hint of things to come.

At its essence, Kingdoms of Camelot is all about building. One of the top requests we get from players is city and building expansion features. The problem is that the game has eight cities already, and simply adding more cities makes the game increasingly more difficult to manage on a day to day basis.  The release of Kingdoms of Camelot: Ascension looks to expand cities in a new way.  

When it comes to digital distribution, few services have managed to establish a presence as strong as Steam.  EA decided it might be able to do one better with Origin, but over the last year it really hasn’t gained the traction that they were probably hoping it would.  Maybe a jump to some new platforms might help the situation?

The boom in mobile, social and browser gaming has been an incredibly healthy thing for the industry, but it’s also cultivated an environment where a whole lot of great games go unnoticed. That’s where platforms like Spil come in. With over 50 different gaming sites under its belt, it’s helping developers all over the world find an audience.

Order & Chaos Online, Gameloft's popular MMORPG title, has a lot of new content on the way -- the most notable of which is the inclusion of PvP arenas. The decision to update the game was inspired by the many demands fans were making for additional content, proving a mobile developer's work is never really done.

Facebook has made it official first foray into gambling.  Before you scream, “but wait, that’s illegal!"  It's only for a game in United Kingdom only and is restricted to Facebook members, 18 years and older.

According to Techcrunch, Facebook has launched Bingo & Slots Friendsy, a gaming app that allows users to play with real money instead of Facebook Credits.

You find the most amazing things in the most unexpected places. Like, say, a champion of independent creativity, genuine play, and real innovation... all in the social games space. Until recently, Jamil Moledina was responsible for managing platform and partner strategy at Funzio. $210M later, the company was acquired, and Moledina was invited to transition into a new and exciting role as Entrepreneur in Residence at Signia Venture Partners.

Hearing someone call Zynga a copycat is old news. Whether or not Zynga “draws inspiration” or “flat-out rips off” from other popular titles has been a debate for years. For the first time, however, Zynga appears to have an opponent with the financial capital to challenge the social games giant in a court of law. That opponent goes by the name of EA, and they’ve officially sued Zynga and The Ville for copyright infringement.  

When Double Down Interactive President Glenn Walcott gave a speech about building a successful business at this year’s Casual Connect, he started it off by shooting 1,000 one-dollar bills into the audience. Judging him only on that impression, one might draw the conclusion that virtual gambling is all people make it out to be: a money-hungry space obsessed with the bottom line. 

The Olympics represent one of the greatest collections of athletes from around the world. They also represent a larger group of couch potatoes – judging said athletes from the privacy of their own home, likely never to reach the same spotlight that these incredible athletic specimen receive. Thanks to Zynga, even the couch-bound athlete has a chance to compete for their country’s honor.