1）日本游戏开发商Level-5日前宣布与手机社交游戏公司DeNA合作，将冒险游戏系列《雷顿教授》引进日本Mobage门户网站。据该公司所称，他们将于今年推出的该系列第一款社交游戏是《雷顿教授Royale》，支持玩家扮演侦探、小偷或市民的角色。

professor-layton(from penn-olson.com)

该游戏既有来自《雷顿教授》系列中的人物，也有Mobage旗下的《Kaito Royale》系列中的角色，目前暂无将该游戏向其他地区发布的计划。在今年1月份，Level-5宣布《雷顿教授》系列在任天堂DS平台的总销量达1147万份，DeNA则在上月公布上一财年第四季度（截止3月31日）销售额达3.93亿美元，整个财年总销售额为13.8亿美元。

2）Atakama Labs公司近日在Facebook平台发布了《Little Cave Hero》这款结合了传统PC游戏和现代社交元素的8位RPG游戏。该游戏在测试阶段备受好评，收获大量的五星评价。

玩家在游戏中的任务就是在市长的指令下，重建被怪兽破坏的城镇。游戏中有一系列可供玩家寻宝，但充满无数危险的洞穴，玩家得在密室、陷阱门、压板、杠杆、毒箭和独眼怪兽之间周旋，其设置类似于任天堂最经典RPG游戏《塞尔达传说》，同时又带有《超级马里奥》式的幽默。

Little Cave Hero(from malvasiabianca.com)

玩家还可以个性化装饰自己的城镇，开辟一片农场以带来更多好友并增加人口，也可以建设一家冶炼厂生产生活物质。玩家可在城镇中添加各种物品，与好友交易，出售商品。这款游戏的另一大特色在于，玩家可通过Little Cave Hero Design Studio工具自行创建个性化的道具和物品，这个设置又与PC游戏《Kid Pix》颇为相似，玩家只需要像在《FarmVille》中添加一只奶牛或一束稻草一样，直接在游戏中添加自己创造的艺术品。

3）据games.com报道，MMO游戏开发商BigPoint（游戏邦注：代表作包括《Battlestar Galactica Online》和《Lord of Ultima》）推出了一款与《CityVille》极为神似的Flash网页游戏《RamaCity》。除了没有农场，游戏中的商品生产和商店设置略有不同之外，《RamaCity》从能量系统到游戏任务，均与《CityVille》如出一辙。

RamaCity(from christosgatzidis.blogspot.com)

不过《RamaCity》并没有在Facebook露面，而是在其专属网站上运营，玩家可以通过电子邮箱、Facebook和Twitter邀请好友共同参与游戏，换句话说，这是一款没有登陆Facebook的社交游戏。

4）位于迈阿密的社交游戏发行商Mentez日前推出了一款巴西风格的《CtiyVille》——《Wonderful City Rio》（葡萄牙语名称是Cidade Maravilhosa）。值得注意的是，该公司曾负责处理Zynga游戏卡在拉美和墨西哥地区的本土化业务，同时还是Playdom的合作伙伴，可见其与数家知名开发商及其游戏产品关系非同一般，但为何《Wonder City Rio》与《CityVille》相似度如此之高却颇令人费解。

Wonderful City Rio(from games.com)

《Wonder City Rio》目前在谷歌Orkut和拉美社交网站Quepasa.com已获得成功，现已登陆Facebook准备向墨西哥和哥伦比亚市场进军。观察者认为，从Zynga最近与Vostu之间的剽窃纠纷来看，Mentez可以安然无恙地开发《Wonder City Rio》，应该是得到了Zynga的许可。

5）西雅图新兴开发商Giant Thinkwell最近与Sir Mix-A-Lot（游戏邦注：原名安东尼·雷，著名Hip-Hop歌手及格莱美奖得主）合作，推出了以这位说唱歌手为主题的社交游戏《Mix-n-Match with Sir Mix-A-Lot》。玩家可在游戏中抢答与Sir Mix-A-Lot有关的问题以赢取奖励，例如坐在Mix的兰博斯基上去国会山的百老汇兜风，获得一张Mix的个人专辑等。

Mix-n-Match with Sir Mix-A-Lot(from geekwire.com)

该公司CEO及联合创始人Adam Tratt表示，许多娱乐圈艺人都希望与粉丝有效互动，公司通过创建社交游戏以助他们实现这种想法；Giant Thinkwell还有数款与名人有关的游戏已进入开发阶段，公司的其他主要成员包括联合创始人及微软前开发者Kevin Leneway，设计师Kyle Kesterson等。

6）《Vatican Wars》是一款由SGR Games（全称为Saint Genesius of Rome）公司开发的Facebook游戏。该游戏在之前的9个月测试阶段原名是《PriestVille》，但SGR Games在其网站声称他们与《FarmVille》之类的“Ville”游戏及其开发商并无瓜葛。

Vatican Wars(from games.com)

有趣的是，该公司还表示玩《Vatican Wars》有助于提高人们参加弥撒和做礼拜的意愿，这个说法可从他们针对461名玩家的调查结果得到证实。由于玩家对游戏的积极反应，SGR将《PriestVille》重命名为《Vatican Wars》以切合其游戏玩法。玩家在游戏中可增加自己的教区，针对堕胎、计划生育、牧师禁欲和婚姻定义等话题展开讨论。该游戏粉丝虽然不多，但基本上属于铁杆拥趸，并认为这款游戏极具教育性。SGR表示他们也欢迎非天主教徒参与游戏。

7）《Platinum Life: Country》是一款由开发商Heatwave interactive为乡村音乐电视（CMT）推广音乐及乐队而开发的Facebook游戏，据AppData数据显示，该游戏自6月13日上线以来，目前的MAU是1万4515，DAU是1052。因为游戏加载页面最近显示“正在建设中……”的文字，导致不少玩家误认为这款游戏已经关闭，所以流失了一些用户。

Platinum Life：Country(from insidesocialgames)

《Platinum Life: Country》的主要特色在于结合了CMT多名歌手和艺人的虚拟形象，例如Dolly Parton、Trace Adkins、Colt Ford等，玩家可选择其中任意一者作为自己的导师，踏上在游戏中的音乐之旅。它的另一大亮点在于，玩家在起步阶段就可以选择400多种个性化道具和四种不同的姿态，甚至无需花钱就能变换多种发型和面容。如果玩家需要其他装饰道具，可以通过购买虚拟货币换取所需商品。除此之外，游戏还结合了照相机功能，支持玩家张贴自己虚拟形象的海报，或观看好友的虚拟形象。

CMT表示他们希望这款游戏可以成为艺人宣布新专辑或举办演唱会等消息的平台，该游戏在未来还将添加观看CMT视频内容以及一系列迷你小游戏等新功能。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Level-5 Reveals Professor Layton Royale Social Game

by Mike Rose
 
Professor Layton developer Level-5 has announced a partnership with major Japanese mobile social game network DeNA to bring a Professor Layton social game to the Japanese Mobage mobile portal.

At a press conference in Tokyo, and as translated by Andriasang, the company revealed Professor Layton Royale, the first title set to be released under the new partnership, which will see players taking the role of either a detective, a thief or a citizen.

The game will feature characters from both the popular Professor Layton series and Mobage’s Kaito Royale series. No plans for release in other regions were discussed.

Professor Layton Royale is set to be released via Mobage later this year.

Back in February, Level-5 revealed that the Professor Layton series had shipped 11.47 million units in total across all the games in the Nintendo DS series.

DeNA reported last month that its sales more than doubled in its fourth quarter ended March 31 to $393 million, and in its fiscal year to $1.38 billion. （source:gamasutra）  

2）Atakama Labs Launches Little Cave Hero Game, 8-Bit Social Facebook RPG

By Mariel Loveland
 
Atakama Labs launched a new social game on Facebook Tuesday called Little Cave Hero. The 8-bit RPG infuses artwork similar to vintage PC games with modern social elements.

The game, which had received numerous 5-star reviews during its beta testing, mixes elements of some of my favorite games of all time. The premise of the game is that you need to rebuild a town that was destroyed by monsters by following instructions from the mayor. The game features a network of caves where you can search for treasure, but the caves are filled with hazards and you’ll have to navigate around secret rooms, trap doors, pressure plates, levers, poison arrows and one-eyed monsters. It’s all very similar to Zelda, one of Nintendo’s most popular classic RPGs, with the quirks and humor of Super Mario.

The game’s social elements are found entirely in the town, which is a safe haven from the dangers inside the labyrinths below. The town gives you a personal space that you can completely customize. You can build a farm which helps you increase your population by bringing in more friends or you can build a refinery which helps you generate supplies for expanding. This is where the game draws from FarmVille. You can add items to your town, trade with friends and sell things in-game.

Little Cave Hero also puts your creativity to use. The items in your town are customizable and you can create them in the Little Cave Hero Design Studio. Does anyone remember that amazing PC game Kid Pix? It’s like that, only you can add this artwork to your town like you’re adding a cow or haystack in FarmVille. This is breaking new ground in the world of social gaming because it lets users dictate game play on a whole new level.（source:scribbal） 

3）BigPoint’s RamaCity takes on Zynga’s CityVille, but not on Facebook

by Joe Osborne

We’re not sure why companies are competing with Zynga directly, but alas here we are again. BigPoint, creator of hit free-to-play MMOs (massively multiplayer online games) like Battlestar Galactica Online and Lord of Ultima, has released RamaCity. And this free-to-play city building game looks a helluva lot like CityVille, Zynga’s number one Facebook game. In fact, we’re so inclined as to say that RamaCity is looking to compete directly with the 90 million-strong social game.

Honestly, RamaCity is nearly indistinguishable from its would-be opponent–it was even created in Flash, the primary tool developers use to make Facebook games. Players are given their own small town that they must erect a bustling city out of. The game limits players’ actions with an Energy system like its counterpart, though it handles Goods production and stores differently. There are no farms in RamaCity.

We used the term “would-be” above because BigPoint’s next big game isn’t even on Facebook; the company is hosting RamaCity on its own dedicated website. And you can even add new friends to collaborate and play with through email, Facebook and Twitter. What you have here is essentially a social game without the Facebook integration, and one that seems to be trying very hard to repeat CityVille’s runaway success. But whether BigPoint can accomplish that without true Facebook connectivity has obviously yet to be seen.（source:games）  

4）Wonderful City Rio brings the CityVille formula across Latin America

by Jenny Ng

We’ve had it up to here with the FarmVille clones, but it seems the next big game for developers to play copycat with may be CityVille. Because Wonderful City Rio — or as it’s known in Portuguese, Cidade Maravilhosa — is essentially a CityVille clone with a Brazilian flavor.

Developed by a Miami-based game publisher Mentez LLC, Mentez last made the news on our blog when they helped localize Zynga game cards for Latin America and Mexico. Mentez also has a partnership with Playdom, where they adapted Market Street into Paraíso das Compras. I mention these things because it shows that Mentez has been quite intimate with the companies and the games of the companies it’s mimicking. Another thing that needs to be said is that despite Wonderful City Rio never playing like anything but CityVille, it actually may be more fun than Zynga’s original.

I mean, consider Angry Birds Rio for a second. There’s just something bigger, brighter, more colorful, more dramatic (check out that gigantic statue of Jesus!), and glamorous about a real, sun-dappled, wave-lapped locale like Rio than an everytown such as CityVille. Other than that, the games might as well be identical. Now the Wonderful City Rio, which has had success on Google’s Orkut and the global Latino social network, Quepasa.com, has landed on Facebook with plans to expand into Mexico and Colombia. We can only wonder what Zynga thinks of this. It’s one thing to crack down on Vostu which is another company transforming Zynga’s games for the Portuguese audience, but Mentez is a business partner of theirs, so I can only assume that Zynga approves.（source:games） 

5）Baby got game: Giant Thinkwell, Sir Mix-A-Lot launch Facebook game

Aislyn Greene

What do you get when you mash together Facebook, social gaming and celebrities like hip-hop icon Sir Mix-A-Lot? A young startup called Giant Thinkwell, and a series of new celebrity-based social games.

The TechStars grad launched its first Facebook game today in partnership with Anthony Ray, a.k.a Sir Mix-A-Lot, best known for the Grammy-winning “Baby Got Back.” The game, Mix-n-Match with Sir Mix-A-Lot, takes players through a series of questions about Mix’s preferences — “What is Mix more afraid of, STDs or PMS?” and “What would Mix choose, the King of Beers or the King of Pop?”

Players compete for prizes like a ride down Capitol Hill’s Broadway in Mix’s Lamborghini (a tribute to his early classic, “Posse on Broadway,” which pays homage to some Seattle landmarks), a personalized video shout-out from the rapper, or an exclusive track.

Using Facebook as a base, the Seattle startup is partnering with celebrities to offer social games that connect stars to their fans in an engaging way. Sir Mix-A-Lot, who lives in Seattle, was an early adopter of social media and the online fan experience, but had a hard time keeping fans engaged with his site, said Giant Thinkwell CEO and co-founder Adam Tratt.（source:techflash）  

6）Vatican Wars on Facebook increases desire to attend church – honest!

by Jenny Ng

Just when we thought we’ve seen every kind of Facebook “Wars” game, we get Vatican Wars, and to top off a new height in Facebook gaming nomenclature, the 9-month beta for the game was originally called PriestVille. And get this — it’s not created by Zynga. In fact, the actual creators, SGR Games (who named themselves after Saint Genesius of Rome) spells out on their website that they “are not affiliated with FarmVille or the company that makes FarmVille” (or the “Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican or the Holy See”).

And the fun doesn’t stop there, SGR claims that playing Vatican Wars increased people’s desire to attend mass and join the priesthood. Their proof is a two-part survey of 461 players, part one of which, was released last November. Due to such a positive response from its players, SGR relaunched PriestVille as Vatican Wars, a title that better fits its gameplay, which involves increasing your diocese and taking stands on controversial topics such as abortion, birth control, clerical celibacy, the definition of marriage and more.

So, ready to defend the true teachings of Christ? Grow some ideology instead of crops? So far, Vatican Wars has amassed a small, but dedicated fanbase that claims the game is educational, and SGR welcomes non-Catholics to join in as well.（source:games）  

7）Platinum Life: Country Has Rough Start, Potential for Social Gamers Who Like Country Music

By Carolyn Koh

Platinum Life: Country by Heatwave interactive for CMT (Country Music Television) joins the ranks of Facebook Games developed to promote a genre of music or a band. Among others, we’ve previously looked at the hip-hop genre game by Platinum Life: Web Edition by the same developer, as well as New Boyz:The World created by Funtactix previously and expect more to join to join the party.

According to our data tracking service AppData, Platinum Life:Country currently has 14,515 monthly active users and 1,052 daily active users.

The game is still finding its feet. The launch was pushed back by 10 days, going live on June 13th; after that, a new loading screen with “under construction” graphics confused users who thought that the game was down, accounting for the slow start tracked by AppData and the recent dip in users.

Here’s what the game offers users, as is, especially country music fans.

Platinum Life: Country streams music by artists featured on CMT, including the artists themselves as cartoon avatars. A new player selects one of these artists such as Dolly Parton, Trace Adkins, Colt Ford and Big & Rich as a mentor(s) and they will hear their voices and avatars as they play through the game.

The game itself combines the social aspect of building communities and visiting your friends’ communities to do chores for rewards and a “performance” mini-game which is a game of four card draw based on luck. Each action requires energy, called “moxi” in the game and gains fame (experience) for levels. Building isn’t simply buying and setting objects down on the map, some yield only coins and fame, some actually yield coins, moxi, fame as well as ribbons which are used to upgrade building objects. The game monetizes by selling Platinum points using Facebook credits which is used to buy premium buildings for your community as well as moxi and customization for your avatar.

What the game does right is the large avatar that a player gets to create at the start of the game, with over 400 items of customization and four different stances. This gives a stronger sense of identification for the player and the player gets to see the avatar on stage at each performance. Even facial features and hair can be changed without cost so a player could decide to be a happy brunette one day and a sad red-head the next. Additional customization items are purchased with in-game coin as well as Platinum points. The game also features a camera that allows the player to post pictures of his or her avatar, and an option to view your friends’ avatars.

Country music streams continuously in the background, so a player may even use the game as a country music station. In the future, CMT expects that the game will be a platform for the artists to announce new music and another avenue for getting their music out to country music fans. Players who build a movie theatre will be able to watch CMT content including music videos and TV content. This is an announced feature which will be live in a coming upate. As new features and mini-games are added into Platinum Life:Country, we have no doubt that it will have its devoted followers.（source:insidesocialgames）