Top 25 Facebook Games - August 2011: Gardens of Time hits the big time

Gardens of Time
For all of the Playdom and Disney nay saying lately, the duo seems to be proving everyone wrong with a single game. Gardens of Time has been on a steady climb since its release, and this month it's the fifth largest Facebook game at nearly 16 million monthly players. Just last month alone, the game garnered another 1.7 million players, which is impressive for any game that wasn't made by You Know Who. (Has Zynga reached Voldemort-like proportions yet? We like to think so.)

Of course, Zynga maintains the same top four spots it did last month, even as CityVille lost over 8.5 million monthly players and Empires & Allies lost over half a million. Even FarmVille lost another 3.4 million monthly players, though it'll take a lot more than this for Zynga to lose its reign.

And oddly enough, Monster Galaxy lost a whopping 8.4 million monthly players last month just after gaining over 6 million the month prior. This caused the game to fall back from the mighty top five to now eighth place at 10.6 million players. In fact, loss is somewhat of a trend this month, with 18 of 25 games losing monthly players. This could be attributed to a list of factors, but we're gonna' go with: It's summer, and most folks would rather be outside than in front of the computer.

AppData top 25 Facebook Games August
New additions to the Top 25 are Mall World, which comes in at number 24 with 5.3 million monthly players, and Zoo World 2 in the 20 spot with 6.4 million monthly players and a gain of nearly 3 million. However, publisher RockYou, according to Inside Social Games, uses the same app ID for the sequel to Zoo World as the original, meaning RockYou has not separate the traffic from both games.

Unfortunately, Ravenwood Fair was knocked off the leader boards this month, as was MindJolt Games from the rise of Mall World and It Girl's far leap from 21st place in June to the 14 spot this time around. Gardens of Time has hit the coveted top five because, while there are hidden object games out there, it seems that Playdom hit the previously untapped genre at just the right time. It speaks volumes to Facebook games partnership director Sean Ryan's plea for developers to experiment with new genres (at least to Facebook). At this point, it just might be the only way to reach at least fifth place.

Deep Realms on Facebook: Is this 'accessible' role-playing game still too deep?

If you take a look at the top 10 games on Facebook, one thing is certain. The types of games that lead the pack in social gaming are not necessarily designed for "gamers" -- people so devoted to this form of entertainment that they're willing to slap down hundreds of dollars for a supped-up PC or console designed specifically to play video games. Talk to avid Halo player or a World of Warcraft master about FarmVille, and you're likely to get the hand (as in, talk to the hand). Playdom, the company responsible for City of Wonder and Wild Ones, wants to change that with Deep Realms, a new 'accessible' role-player for Facebook that is a -- in creator Raph Koster's words -- a "game for gamers." The game begins with custom creating an avatar (male or female), choosing a character class and then setting off on an epic journey that starts on a farm and ends, well, you'll have to play it to find out.

Instead of a traditional video game, where you roam freely, exploration will be dictated by a series of tiles, and each tile your character travels to will require energy. Once the energy is used up, you can wait until it regenerates or you can spend real-life cash to buy an energy refill.

deep realm skill tree
Along the journey, your character will find loot, and run into randomly generated enemies and traps. As your hero progresses, s/he will level up which will unlock more skills, new missions and so forth. The game will also have a store, which you will be able to use your virtual coins to buy weapons and other power ups. Gifting will also be part of the game, and people will be able to send gifts that depend on their class.

What I like about Deep Realms is that -- while it seems very casual on its surface -- it still has traditional role-playing game elements designed to deliver a deeper game experience. Skill trees, for instance, are introduced in the game after level 5, allowing you to strategically map out your hero's abilities. There will be collection and crafting system, where you collect items to make, say, potions or other special items. You can organize raids with friends to take on powerful bosses (see the mummy in the pic below) and the game include a Player vs. Player (PvP) mode that will let you test your hero's skills and duel against other players. Koster, who also is Playdom's creative design VP, says they've also considered adding guilds for the game at some point in the future.

deep realms facebook playdom boss battles

If you're not already attune to the language of role-playing games, the list of features above may sound strange (and overwhelming), but Koster assures me that the game will ease players into these advanced maneuvers. He also says Deep Realms will be accessible for people who (like me) don't want to arrange real-time meet-ups with friends to beat a boss or otherwise progress in the game.

Look for the first few chapters of Deep Realms on Facebook near the end of March and followed by regular updates that will include additional chapters and side missions. Then we can judge how well this game maintains the precarious balance between being 'casual' enough for the Facebook gaming set, while deep enough for role-playing game aficionados.

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Disney-branded Facebook games coming in 2012, Playdom head says

Can we all just say, "finally?" During a panel named "The Rise of Social Games" at the f8 Facebook Developers Conference in San Francisco, Disney Interactive and Playdom head John Pleasants revealed that two to four Facebook games surrounding Disney brands will hit Facebook in 2012. The general topic of the panel was the fact that branded social games are taking off.

Pleasants was joined on the panel by Kabam CEO Kevin Chou, EA Interactive head Barry Cottle and Zynga CBO Owen Van Natta. Facebook director of games partnerships Sean Ryan moderated the panel with the preface that branded games will take over the Facebook platform. And he might be right: EA just released The Sims Social, Zynga will soon re-brand its new Adventure World with Indiana Jones and Kabam recently announced The Godfather: Five Families.

Playdom, which Disney acquired in July 2010 for a whopping $740 million, is ahead of the pack with two branded games on Facebook: ESPNU College Town and ESPN Sports Bar & Grill. Both games performed well, thanks to advertising through the ESPN TV network. While Disney owns the ESPN brand, notice how neither of those actually involve the insanely popular Disney characters we've come to love.

Honestly, we're surprised this didn't happen sooner. Consider this: Disney has its own cable TV channel through which it could, in theory, advertise whatever it wants. Pleasants didn't get into why it's taken this long for Disney to throw its cast of characters into Facebook games, but did reveal the power of the Disney name.

Gnome Town, which Playdom launched in the summer--and we enjoyed quite a bit--peaked at 530,000 daily players. But just plopping the Disney logo on top of the existing one made users more likely to spend in the game just through trust of the company's name, according to Pleasants. "We think it's an advantage, if you put game play first," Pleasants said.

It's comforting to hear this emphasized by these developers. (Kabam's Chou shared the same sentiment.) Branded games on Facebook are OK in my book, but the last thing anyone wants to see is the genre become a branding machine.

[Source and Image Credit: VentureBeat]

Are you on board with the growing trend of branded games on Facebook? Do you think developers will maintain integrity as the focus on branded content in their games intensifies? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.