Press | Idle Games

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

All Things D: Idle Games Raises $10 Million to Support Higher Quality Social Games

“Idle Games has spent the past two years developing its first Facebook game as part of the belief that social games will require the same high production standards more commonly found on today’s consoles.

Of course, higher quality means bigger budgets. To that end, the San Francisco company is announcing today that it has raised $10 million in a second round of capital.

The investment comes from Idle co-founder Rick Thompson, the former chairman and co-founder of Playdom, the social games company Disney acquired last year. Thompson previously led Idle’s initial round of $9 million.

In a recent interview with Thompson, he told me, ‘I think developers are having to retire old practices and will have to provide experiences that people do enjoy. What I am saying is that the bar is being raised and the established players are having a harder time reacting to the environment, and it’s hard to let go of that. The innovation is coming from emerging players.’”

Read the full article at All Things D

Games.com: Facebook farming games aren’t social games

“Rick Thompson, co-founder of Disney-owned social game studio Playdom, is not happy with the lot of social games. During an interview with All Things Digital (ATD), Thompson was asked if he finds many Facebook games enjoyable. ‘I think they are fairly scarce,’ Thompson told ATD. While he did shout out to games like Kixeye’s Backyard Monsters and Gardens of Time by his own former company, Thompson said that the established powers in social games are having a hard time raising the bar.

‘I tend to think that those will not be very interesting in another two years, and they aren’t social games,’ Thompson said to ATD, referring specifically to the myriad of Facebook games that insist on farming mechanics. ‘They are single-player games with the possibility of visiting your friend’s aquarium – that’s not social.’”

Read the full article at Games.com

All Things D: Ex-Playdom Exec Rick Thompson Calls for Higher Quality Social Games

“Thompson: I am helping develop exciting opportunities in social and mobile.

My thesis is that the rules are different now than they were back in 2008 to 2009. Back in those days, the viral channels were wide open, and lots of folks were competing. The reality is that the best companies at exploiting the channels — those companies, which had their DNA in Web marketing — were the ones who had the winning strategy.

Then, of course, there was the over-exploitation of those channels, which led them [Facebook] to dial them back, so that they were inaccessible by all. It got rid of the noise and the signal. These communication channels were largely app to user, they weren’t user to user.

When the rules changed, they changed radically, but they also changed slowly. They slowly turned the valve, so some companies rather than reinvent themselves, tried to apply band-aids to 1,000 cuts that were coming.

Here we are now in 2011, with the viral channels greatly reduced. And, some are still executing against the playbook that was used in 2008 and 2009.”

Read the full interview at All Things D

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

Games.com: Idle Games shows first game Idle Worship’s true social colors

“Since co-founding social game hit maker Playdom, Rick Thompson has grown tired of the friend bar beneath Faecbook games. No, scratch that: He’s grown tired of the way traditional Facebook games operate … period. His contempt for this arguably tired form of Facebook game has helped spawn Idle Games and its first ever Facebook game, Idle Worship.

We first heard word of the potentially revolutionary social game way back in April, and Idle Games has launched the game into a closed beta test before presenting it to the audience of TechCrunch Disrupt, an event in San Francisco celebrating tech startups ran by TechCrunch. The overall gameplay of Idle Worship hasn’t changed since we first heard about it, but now we have fancy video that reveals more of what the game is all about.

Through Idle Games’s Idle Engine, Idle Worship does away with the friend found in almost all social games. Instead, your island of Mudlings (the people you oversee with either benevolence or tyranny) will be surrounded by not only your friends’ islands, but players’ islands based on how their Facebook profiles match up with your own.”

Read the full article at Games.com

Social Games Observer: Idle Games Launches at TechCrunch Disrupt and Announces $9 Million in Financing

“Idle Worship is a casual yet massively multi-player synchronous game where every player is a god, vying for the adoration and worship of both real players and the rather dim indigenous population called “Mudlings.” Players build up their dominion and reveal their powers to their faithful while competing with other gods for followers. New followers are won by performing divine acts such as conversions, miracles, blessings, and curses.

“Make no mistake, social gaming is the entertainment industry and in the entertainment industry, quality is the only sustainable business plan. We lead with creativity and innovation, while others are led by analytics and the previous actions of their competitors,” said Jeff Hyman, Idle Worship’s CEO and Co-founder. “The industry is almost 4 years old and we’ve spent half that time crafting the most ambitious game ever to see a Facebook canvas – we are pioneering a new model,” said Hyman.”

Read the full article at Social Games Observer

VentureBeat: Idle Games helps you find new friends in social games

“The game is powered by the “Idle Engine,” a social recommendation engine that connects players that they otherwise might not know. The game recommends new social connections for players by analyzing a player’s Facebook profile. It creates “social context,” like flicking Mudlings from one gamer’s world to another gamer’s world, to start conversations and create social connections.

It results in a much larger world than a game made by a company like Zynga, which relies on bringing friends in externally, Idle Games chief executive Jeffrey Hyman said. Part of the reason is because of the engine, but the other part is because the game connects gamers that are playing at the same time and creating a reason for them to talk to each other, Idle Games chief executive Jeffrey Hyman said.”

Read the full article at VentureBeat

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

All Facebook Preview: Idle Looks To Take Facebook Gaming To The Next Level

“IdleWorship is in a league of its own…”

“The most significant component of this game which sets it apart from others is the massive investment in original creative.”

Read the full article at All Facebook

Inside Social Games Preview: New Facebook Game Inspires Faith In Flash, Innovation

“The final feature that separates IdleWorship from all other Facebook games live to date is the visual quality of the experience.”

“IdleWorship is a significant title for Facebook, pushing the boundaries of what developers think is technically possible and what goes into a social game’s development.”

Read the full article at Inside Social Games

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

Martha Stewart Plugs Idle Worship

Martha Stewart was on hand to present her digital publication at Adobe’s World Wide User Conference, and evidently Idle Worship made a big impression on her as well.

Inside Social Games: Playdom Co-Founder Investing in “Original IP” Social Gaming Startups

Inside Social Games has posted an interview with our Founder and Chairman.

“Rick Thompson is best known in the social gaming world for Playdom: He helped found the large social gaming company, was its first investor, and continues to serve as its chairman. But he’s recently started investing in small, up-and-coming gaming studios.”

Read the full article at Inside Social Games