eGaming Review are pleased to announce the shortlist for the 2013 Operator Innovation Awards, and Fresh Deck Poker and Idle Games are nominated in the categories of ’Innovative gaming start-up’ category and ‘Poker’. Congrats!
You may see the list of all of the nominees at ERG Magazine
Idle Games CEO Jeffrey Hyman discusses branding, innovation, and what makes Fresh Deck Poker stand out among today’s competitive social poker space in the latest issue of Social Casino Intelligence Magazine.
Read the full article at Social Casino Intelligence
Idle Games CEO Jeff Hyman explains the reasons why the industry should do more to protect consumers.
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This is the second game from Idle Gaming. Idle Gaming is led by a team of iGaming executives, dedicated to bringing players a new benchmark in social casino gaming.
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“The game’s graphics are impressive – possibly the best I’ve seen in any poker game.”
“This is social/mobile poker with five-star potential.”
Sean Ryan, Facebook’s Director of Games says Fresh Deck Poker is 1 of his 6 picks for new games that could become very popular in the near future.
Facebook’s Director of Games, Sean Ryan, touts Fresh Deck Poker as an up-and-coming title to watch.
“Upcoming games for the fourth quarter that look promising, Ryan said, include(s)…Fresh Deck Poker from Idle Games.”
Fresh Deck Poker mentioned in a short list of games that Facebook is excited about.
This is poker like you’ve never seen it before: authentic game play, amazing art and massive tournaments with cash prizes. Fresh Deck Poker creates an unforgettable poker experience.
Leveraging the massively multi-player platform built for Idle Worship, we’ve created a brand-new poker engine. Fresh Deck Poker is free to play on Desktop and Mobile and offers seamless platform portability enabling players to switch back and forth between computer and Mobile device!
Fresh Deck Poker is the first game from Idle Gaming. Idle Gaming is led by a team of iGaming executives, dedicated to bringing players a new benchmark in social casino gaming.
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Idle Worship selected by a group of 400 leading game creators as 1 of 5 nominees for most innovative new game for the GDC’s award show.
“Idle Games, the indie studio that brought us the wonderful Idle Worship, is coming back with something completely different: Fresh Deck Poker, a cross-platform, social and mobile poker game that will create an “ultra-realistic, authentic” poker experience with drop-in, drop-out gameplay, fantastic art, multiple game types and, someday, real-money cash to be won.”
“Idle Worship is one the most technologically advanced and conceptually ambitious Facebook games to date.”
“That’s the real crux of Idle Worship: not just playing with your friends, but meeting new friends.”
“It’s nigh impossible to describe everything that Idle Worship has to offer without writing some 2,000 words. It’s something that just has to be seen (and played) to be believed. There are so many different, new ideas pumped into Idle Worship, and in such a hilarious and pleasant presentation.”
“Idle Worship combines some of the most refreshing ideas ever seen in a Facebook game, all wrapped in a chuckle-worthy package that just screams, “Play me!”… Idle Worship is a social game so brimming with fresh concepts and laugh-out-loud humor that you simply must play it to believe it.”
“Idle Worship takes the god game genre and bring it to Facebook with hilarious results. And we really do mean hilarious.”
“It’s well polished, has a good deal of variety, is fall down funny at times, and really manages to evolve the notion of what multiplayer on Facebook means.”
“There’s been a lot of talk about the next generation of Facebook games, and Idle Worship is a title that mostly lives that ethos of evolution. With plenty of charm, polish, and humor – and more things to do than you can shake a stick at – Idle Worship seems to be the answer to our god-gaming prayers. Even with its fast energy-depleting ways, this is one altar you’re going to want to worship at.”
“Every now and then developers claim that their latest game marks a ‘new era’ for social games – in the case of Idle Games this isn’t just trash talk.”
“If the company pulls it off, it could wind up with a much more engaging mass market game than the Zynga titles that currently dominate the top ranks of Facebook. As such, Idle Games is one of the biggest bets in social gaming.”
“The Idle Worship user interface is well conceived.”
Games of the Month – Social and Online – Idle Worship
“What would you get if you took the god-style gameplay of titles like Black & White, the humor of Pocket God, and put it all on a social platform? That’s Idle Worship in a nutshell. Not only is the game fall down funny and adorably addictive, but it makes big strides in advancing the concept of multiplayer gaming on Facebook.”
Idle Games CEO Jeffrey Hyman on his competition with Zynga, social gaming and what’s ahead for the company.
Idle Games CEO Jeffrey Hyman on his new Facebook Game Idle Worship. Live as a god in a poly-thiestic world and vie for the most popular religion in the new Facebook game, Idle Worship.
“The casual gaming market has a new heavyweight contender with Idle Worship”
“Every once in a while a casual game catches out eye and demands for us to pay attention.”
“The things that sets Idle Worship apart from many other similar games is the polish and technical sophistication on display.”
Michael McCormick, a former game designer at Zynga and now director of design at Idle Games, speaks with Cory Johnson on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg West.” Bloomberg’s Jon Erlichman also speaks.
“Since launching at Disrupt, Idle Games has been testing and tweaking Idle Worship to get it into fighting shape, and we’ve learned today that the Disrupt alum will officially be launching its flagship game into the wild on March 14th, after giving a sneak-preview of the game next week at GDC. Idle Games CEO Jeff Hyman told us that early engagement for its beta has been better than expected, with players logging an average of 20 minutes per session, with nearly four sessions per day.
What sets Idle Worship apart from other social games is that it offers synchronous gameplay, in which players can interact in realtime, collaborating with millions of other players. The team has also done away with the “friends bar,” so that players can connect with people they actually want to play with, instead of spamming friends with requests.
In anticipation of the launch of Idle Worship, the startup is also announcing today that it has hired Michael McCormick as Director of Game Design. Idle Games was able to steal McCormick away from Zynga, where he was Lead Game Designer for CityVille, which currently ranks second among social games, with nearly 47 million monthly active users (according to AppData).”
“…This new generation is legion, climbing out of (the) Facebook onto PCs and mobile devices independent of any one client. At its worst, this generation bears cookie cutter copies of the villes, Mafia Wars and even lightweight StarCraft. There is a glimmer of hope, however, as some developers are looking passed what social gamers are comfortable with and pushing the social platform forward…
Sure, Idle Games’ upcoming Idle Worship picks up on the already explored theme of player-as-god. The key difference, however, is that it’s not trying to be anything like the recent From Dust or the more dated Black & White. Also, they seem to be treading new ground in the social gaming space given the player-as-god concept has not been tried to any avail with social channels built in. Indeed, Idle Worship can be seen as innovative as they take a new look at what it means to be a social game…
Instead, Idle Worship takes special care to incorporate social in a way that makes sense for the gameplay, rather than conforming to what has already been done, or what is in the player’s comfort zone. Case in point is the vast amount of things you can do to affect a friend’s game. Each player gets an island where they are tasked to build and rule over a civilization of mudlings. With faith as the game’s currency, you must make sure they are properly worshiping you. This is done by benevolently showering them with gifts like fluffy, pink bunnies, or malevolently striking them down with lighting and tossing them into volcanoes. It is in this way you get more power and more opportunity rule over your realm the way you please.”
“Gamezebo: So what is it about the Facebook and social games space that interests you guys so much?
Jeffrey Hyman: I very much believe that it’s a form of the entertainment industry. John Lasseter, the great creative director at Pixar, put it best when he said in any form of entertainment the only stable business plan that works is quality. And I firmly believe that the social/casual games industry is the entertainment industry and therefore should be driven by quality. And also your number one goal you should be driving towards should be to provide an entertaining, enriching, and interactive experience for the end user. And quality can be defined as not only art and animation, it should also be the level of engagement and the entertainment experience that you provide to the user, as well as the engineering of what we’re trying to do behind the scenes.
When Rick and I started talking about co-founding the company we really focused, and I said in the advertising world, and specifically the interactive advertising world, the only thing that a creative director or firm has its originality and the originality of the concept. And the worst insult someone can levy against you is to be “derivative.” What we’ve said is that if we’re going to do this we’re going to create everything from the ground up and we’re going to need the time to do this right.”
“If you were into PC gaming in the early 2000s, you know what Black & White is. Peter Molyneux’s 2001 classic published by EA gave every gamer the role they wanted: God. A new startup is aiming to bring that style of game into the social space. And more broadly, they aim to be the “Pixar of casual games”.
Idle Games is launching today at TechCrunch Disrupt. Their first title is Idle Worship, a Black & White-esque game for Facebook. You play the role of a god, controlling villagers on an island to do certain tasks for you. While that may sound ominous, you can choose to be either good or bad in your actions. And overall, the game is light-hearted and fun. We’ve been playing with a beta version of the game for a few weeks; it’s solid.
This first title by Idle Games, a startup founded by Rick Thompson (a co-founder of Playdom) and Jeffrey Hyman, aims to disrupt the casual gaming market by being an “anti-Zynga” of sorts. They believe social gaming is more about entertainment, interaction, and quality — not just button-mashing or mindless clicking. In many ways, they’re also going after the MMO market too. While the games will start on Facebook, you can imagine that they could quickly spread to other platforms as well.
Like other casual games and MMOs, the emphasis for the business will be on virtual goods. But again, the Idle Games team is determined to create goods of the utmost quality so that users feel compelled to buy them and happy when they do.”
Kevin Lynch, CTO of Adobe, showcases Idle Worship® during his keynote at Adobe’s World Wide User Conference.
“The controls, interaction, and game play all look really fun.”
O’Reilly Indie RIA
“Idle Worship demo. Great and fun game …”
Flash Magazine
“He entertained the crowd with the Idle Worship game, a new social game now in beta”
Adobe Flash Platform Blog
