1）据techcrunch报道，社交游戏开发商Mob Science日前宣布融资100万美元，针对Zynga新社交游戏平台开发内容。Mob Science代表作《inFamous Anarchy》、《Coffee Bar》、《Snowball Fight》和《Willy’s Sweet Shop》。据AppData数据显示，该公司游戏目前MAU仅2万左右。

infamous-anarchy(from venturebeat.com)

通过与Zynga合作，Mob Science不仅可以接触Zynga的2.4亿MAU，而且还能获得Zynga后台技术、分析及其他病毒渠道等支持。

2）加州社交游戏开发商Addmired近日宣布更名为Machine Zone（但并未透露更名原因），并在B轮融资中筹得800万美元（游戏邦注：该公司去年已融资530万美元）。

machine zone(from technoded.com)

该公司旗下代表作包括《iMob 2》、《Original Gangstaz》、《Global War》和《Race or Die》等游戏，已在iOS App Store实现近4000万次下载量。

3）Digital Chocolate上月独家发布于Google+平台的新游戏《Gangs of Boomtown》日前正式登陆Facebook，支持玩家寻机报复导致自己家破人亡的刺客团伙。

Gangs of Boomtown(from games)

这款游戏Facebook版本添加了新功能和任务，但玩家如果要在Facebook上玩游戏，就需重新开始。

4）由Ludia公司开发的Facebook老虎机游戏《The Price Is Right Slots》发布于今年2月29日，据AppData数据显示，该游戏在上周MAU增长最快游戏榜单中位居第8，目前有50万MAU和18万DAU。

The Price Is Right Slots(from insidesocialgames)

其基本游戏玩法与其他Facebook老虎机游戏相似，主要通过让玩家购买Credits兑换虚拟货币实现盈利，但没有提供任何升级道具和可搜集的虚拟物品，其社交功能也仅限于向好友赠送游戏回合以及在积分排行榜比拼分数。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Social Gaming Startup Mob Science Raises $1M To Make A Bet On Zynga’s New Platform

Kim-Mai Cutler

While Zynga may have won the early social gaming wars, investments in Facebook gaming haven’t totally dried up.

In fact, some startups are hoping that Zynga will end up being more of a friend than foe. That’s exactly what Mob Science is doing in taking $1 million in seed funding to build games tied to Zynga’s new platform and push into supporting third-party games.

Mob Science, which is based just north of San Diego, has made games like inFamous Anarchy, Coffee Bar, Snowball Fight and Willy’s Sweet Shop. They’re relatively small and none have more than 20,000 monthly active users, according to Facebook app tracking service AppData.

But Mob Science is using the cash to focus on a mid-core RPG and hire game designers, product managers and engineers. The Zynga partnership should effectively allow Mob Science to outsource marketing so that the startup can focus on making actual games. On top of having access to Zynga’s 240 million monthly active users, Mob Science gets access to back-end technology, analytics and other viral channels from the gaming giant.

After years of creating its own games, Zynga is trying to break into supporting other studios’ games so that it isn’t as vulnerable to the hits-driven nature of the business. The company launched a destination site for casual games that incorporates Facebook Credits a few weeks ago and it hopes to include third-party titles.

With the round, Joyent co-founder David Young joins Mob Science’s board. The other angels include GameSpy Industries founder Mark Surfas, Joyent chief technology officer Jason Hoffman, Joyent’s executive vice president of corporate development Brian Brown and Steve Tuck, who is the general manager of Joyent Cloud at Joyent.（source: techcrunch）

2）Social games startup Addmired gets new name, $8M in funding

by Mike Rose

Newsbrief: Addmired, a mobile social games startup in Palo Alto, California that has a handful of popular free-to-play games under its belt, today announced that it has changed its name, alongside a new round of funding.

The company is now known as Machine Zone, although its management did not divulge the reason for the name change. It has also raised $8 million in Series B funding from Menlo Ventures, following a funding round of $5.3 million last year.

Machine Zone, which has released games such as iMob 2, Original Gangstaz, Global War and Race or Die, has seen nearly 40 million downloads of its games via the iOS App Store. （source:gamasutra）

3）Digital Chocolate unleashes Gangs of Boomtown on Facebook

by Brandy Shaul

For the last month, Digital Chocolate’s Gangs of Boomtown has only been available to play over on Google+, but if you’ve always wanted to get your hands on this story of revenge and spaghetti westerns while actually having a large audience of players to interact with, you can now do so from the comfort of your Facebook profile, as the game’s exclusivity to Google’s social network has now ended.

Gangs of Boomtown retains the gameplay you may have tried over on Google+, allowing you to seek revenge against a gang of assassins that destroyed your family. But don’t worry if you’ve already made progress on the game’s original home – you’ll still be greeted with “new features and missions” there, says Marc Metis, Digital Chocolate’s President, via a company press release.

Of course, if you do wish to play the game on Facebook you will need to start from scratch, but as Google+ still hasn’t been able to really scratch the surface of what it takes to dethrone Facebook as the social gaming giant that it is, you’ll likely catch up to your original save state and pass it by in no time flat thanks to all of the additional players available to you.

Either way, get ready to grab your gun and head into the wild west across more platforms in Gangs of Boomtown, thanks to Digital Chocolate.（source:games）

4）Ludia invites players to “come on down” for The Price Is Right Slots

Pete Davison

The Price Is Right Slots, released to the public on February 29 of this year, is a Facebook-based slot machine adaptation of the popular game show developed by Ludia, Inc. At the time of writing, our traffic tracking service AppData shows the game as the No. 8 top gainer by MAU in the last week. The game has appeared on the top gainers chart in the past day, with a gain of 460,000 MAUs or a 1,150 percent increase.

Basic gameplay in The Price Is Right Slots takes the same format as the many other slot machine games Facebook currently plays host to. Players select a machine loosely based on one of the Pricing Games from the The Price Is Right TV show, purchase up to 20 “win lines,” choose how much they are going to bet per line and then spin the reels. If a winning combination of symbols comes up, they win soft currency. If it does not, they simply spin again until it does, gaining experience points equal to their total bet with every spin. Leveling up allows players to unlock additional machines and to increase their maximum bet. It also increases the size of their “special bonus” of coins which can be collected every four hours.

So far, so predictable, but it’s the addition of minigames and their implementation that helps add an addictive quality to The Price Is Right Slots. This particular mechanic helps set the game apart from its numerous rivals, many of which demand nothing more from their player than the patience to keep clicking the “Spin” button.

Rather than making the ability to play a minigame dependent on getting a correct combination of symbols on a single spin, The Price Is Right Slots allows players to collect tokens when they match three or more special “token” symbols on a machine. These take two forms — “Contestant’s Row” tokens and a token unique to the specific machine they are playing on. Collecting three of the same token types lets players take on a gambling minigame based either on the theme of the machine they are currently playing or on the show in general. The games are very simple and the rewards often disproportionately small for the amount of effort required to start a minigame, but the token acquisition process adds a sense of tension and the desire for “just one more spin” that simply isn’t present in simpler Facebook slots games.

Also worthy of note is the “Showcase Jackpot” mechanic. Each machine carries a gradually-increasing jackpot total, beginning at 50,000 coins and gradually increasing over time as players place bets. Should a player succeed in spinning five “Wild” symbols on a single line, they win this jackpot, which then resets to 50,000. The “Showcase” part of the mechanic comes with the fact that the player’s profile picture and name is then displayed next to the jackpot total. Again, it’s a simple mechanic, but an effective one that makes playing the game feel a little less “lonely” for players — seeing the name and picture of a previous winner helps promote a small sense of community and may encourage some players to seek out the winners and congratulate them on their victory.

Monetization is kept simple with Credits-for-currency transactions. There are no boosts or powerups for players to purchase, and no virtual items to collect. Social features are limited to gifting packs of five free spins to friends and comparing levels on the in-game leaderboard.

Slot machine games are rarely the deepest titles on Facebook and this often makes them feel unimaginative, uninspiring and predictable. The Price Is Right Slots doesn’t deviate significantly from the basic formula used in every game of the genre, but the simple addition of the token collecting mechanic and the minigames set it apart, giving it an addictive quality that many of its rivals lack. It’s a good example to look to when considering how to create a video slots game which may retain its users beyond the point where their chips run out for the first time.

The Price Is Right Slots currently has 500,000 monthly active users and 180,000 daily active users. Follow its progress with AppData, our traffic tracking service for social games and developers.（source:insidesocialgames）