examiner.com: The new generation of social games

“…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.

Read the full article at examiner.com

Gamezebo Interview: How Idle Worship will turn Idle Games into the Pixar of social gaming

“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.”

Read the full interview at Gamezebo

TechCrunch: Idle Games Wants To Be The Pixar Of Social Gaming; In Their First Game, You Play God

“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.”

Read the full article at TechCrunch

Idle Worship® shown at the Adobe MAX 2010 Keynote

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