If you're still with us at this late hour, you'll probably be thrilled to learn that Zynga has finally launched CityVille on Facebook!
We've been keeping tabs on the game over the last few weeks, and are expecting Zynga's version of the city-building game to take off pretty quickly. If you'd like more information about what to expect from the game, check out our hands-on preview (including a video preview) or simply dive head first into the game by heading over to the game's page on Facebook.
Thứ Tư, 1 tháng 2, 2012
CityVille Cheats and Tips: Energy Guide
CityVille Building
CityVille, arguably the most anticipated social game of this season, was launched by Zynga just today. And, of course, we want you folks to have as fun a time as we are building our cities. That being said, managing your resources and tapping every possible source is going to maximize your time in CityVille and thus your overall enjoyment and personal happiness. (Yes, these games are that powerful.) Energy, the most important resource in nearly every Zynga game, is scarce, but it's not impossible to find.
Look after the break to find some tips that will increase your time in CityVille to potentially unsafe levels.
Energy MeterWaiting:
This is obviously the first logical option when you see that Energy timer being ticking. However, only one Energy point will refill every five minutes. So, if you just got into this and want to squeeze as much fun as possible out of it, we suggest you employ this method as a last, last resort.
Batteries:
The main source of Energy in CityVille, Batteries can be gifted for free as well as bought through the game's build menu (pictured below) for City Cash. Just click "Build" and then the lightning bolt icon to access the Energy shop where you can buy Batteries that give either 3, 7 or 12 Energy for 3, 6 and 9 City Cash, respectively. Though, there are some more fun ways to replenish Energy.
Battery Shop
Visiting FriendsVisiting Friends:
My personal favorite, visiting friends daily grants you a whopping 3 Energy for nothing among other rewards like XP, coins and Reputation points (this stat returns from FrontierVille). The more friends you help, the more oomph you'll have to do things back Home. Not to mention you'll look good around your friends, who might come around and help you out some in return.
Gifting:
As we mentioned before, Energy can be gifted to other players for free, which means your friends can do the same for you. Just click on the "Free Gifts" tab that rests on top of the game screen to the left of "Play." From there, you can select one type of gift to give out at a time--in this case that being either 1, 2 or 3 Energy Points (much less than Zynga's other games) with the latter two locked until you reach certain levels.
Collections:
Speaking of gifting, certain Collections (pictured below) in CityVille will yield lots of Energy if completed. This can be done through playing the game normally, collecting from properties like the Toy Shop and Coffee House, but there's a neat little feature called the Wishlist that might help. In your Collections menu (click on the icon to the right of the arrow), you'll see that every item in each Collection has a small button that looks like the RSS symbol. Click that to add it to your Wishlist and then click "Share" to broadcast exactly what you need, which should increase your chances of friends sending you those very items.
Collection
Going about your Business:
Just as it sounds, just doing normal tasks like collecting from properties, planting and/or harvesting crops and chopping down trees all have a chance of restoring spent Energy. Albeit small, work is progress and progress leads to...
Leveling Up:
Second only to visiting friends (personally), gaining levels restores huge amounts of Energy. Nothing beats the feeling of being on your last point of Energy as you build the City Hall, only to level up off of that last point of XP, launching you forward to finish the job.
Unfortunately, there aren't any cheats or get-energy-quick schemes in CityVille that we know of... yet. But with your help, we just might be able to figure out this game's little quirks that might help us maximize our Energy even further. So, if you find any interesting (and possibly unintentional) ways to nab some extra juice, why not let us know? It'll both help this guide and make you look even more awesome in front of your fellow mayors.
CityVille, arguably the most anticipated social game of this season, was launched by Zynga just today. And, of course, we want you folks to have as fun a time as we are building our cities. That being said, managing your resources and tapping every possible source is going to maximize your time in CityVille and thus your overall enjoyment and personal happiness. (Yes, these games are that powerful.) Energy, the most important resource in nearly every Zynga game, is scarce, but it's not impossible to find.
Look after the break to find some tips that will increase your time in CityVille to potentially unsafe levels.
Energy MeterWaiting:
This is obviously the first logical option when you see that Energy timer being ticking. However, only one Energy point will refill every five minutes. So, if you just got into this and want to squeeze as much fun as possible out of it, we suggest you employ this method as a last, last resort.
Batteries:
The main source of Energy in CityVille, Batteries can be gifted for free as well as bought through the game's build menu (pictured below) for City Cash. Just click "Build" and then the lightning bolt icon to access the Energy shop where you can buy Batteries that give either 3, 7 or 12 Energy for 3, 6 and 9 City Cash, respectively. Though, there are some more fun ways to replenish Energy.
Battery Shop
Visiting FriendsVisiting Friends:
My personal favorite, visiting friends daily grants you a whopping 3 Energy for nothing among other rewards like XP, coins and Reputation points (this stat returns from FrontierVille). The more friends you help, the more oomph you'll have to do things back Home. Not to mention you'll look good around your friends, who might come around and help you out some in return.
Gifting:
As we mentioned before, Energy can be gifted to other players for free, which means your friends can do the same for you. Just click on the "Free Gifts" tab that rests on top of the game screen to the left of "Play." From there, you can select one type of gift to give out at a time--in this case that being either 1, 2 or 3 Energy Points (much less than Zynga's other games) with the latter two locked until you reach certain levels.
Collections:
Speaking of gifting, certain Collections (pictured below) in CityVille will yield lots of Energy if completed. This can be done through playing the game normally, collecting from properties like the Toy Shop and Coffee House, but there's a neat little feature called the Wishlist that might help. In your Collections menu (click on the icon to the right of the arrow), you'll see that every item in each Collection has a small button that looks like the RSS symbol. Click that to add it to your Wishlist and then click "Share" to broadcast exactly what you need, which should increase your chances of friends sending you those very items.
Collection
Going about your Business:
Just as it sounds, just doing normal tasks like collecting from properties, planting and/or harvesting crops and chopping down trees all have a chance of restoring spent Energy. Albeit small, work is progress and progress leads to...
Leveling Up:
Second only to visiting friends (personally), gaining levels restores huge amounts of Energy. Nothing beats the feeling of being on your last point of Energy as you build the City Hall, only to level up off of that last point of XP, launching you forward to finish the job.
Unfortunately, there aren't any cheats or get-energy-quick schemes in CityVille that we know of... yet. But with your help, we just might be able to figure out this game's little quirks that might help us maximize our Energy even further. So, if you find any interesting (and possibly unintentional) ways to nab some extra juice, why not let us know? It'll both help this guide and make you look even more awesome in front of your fellow mayors.
FarmVille creator Zynga buys mobile developer, forms Zynga with Friends
Zynga returns to round two of the ongoing mobile title bout swinging. Zynga With Friends, the company's brand new, mobile-focused studio, is thanks to Zynga's most recent acquisition of Texas-based NewToy. Developer of iOS hits such as Words With Friends and We Rule, NewToy will now be Zynga's premiere mobile developer, unifying the company's mobile efforts into one single platform. NewToy's studio will become the location of Zynga With Friends Studio, which is convenient considering the company just opened Zynga Dallas recently.
words with friends is now part of zynga with friends"Our goal is to have is to have Zynga games available to anyone, anywhere on any device," says Zynga SVP of Mobile David Ko. "At Zynga, we're committed to provide the best-of-breed mobile game experiences."
Founded in 2008 by brothers Paul and David Bettner, NewToy has reached over 12 million mobile gamers through games like Words With Friends and Zynga hopes to bring that success to its presence in your phones. Paul, the company's CEO and co-founder will take the helm of Zynga With Friends as vice president and general manager and his brother David will become the studio's director.
"Throughout our acquisition talks we utilized a secret code name for the operation--that codename was 'jet pack,'" Zynga With Friends VP and general manager Paul Bettner says. "We chose jetpack because, to us, that's what this acquisition represented--the potential to strap jet packs to our backs and move even faster toward our shared goals."
However, it's unsure at this point what this means for the company's games that have already landed on mobile such as FarmVille's iPhone game and Mafia Wars: Atlantic City on mobile web browsers. Zynga declined to comment on how NewToy will handle making its new bosses' games--both old and new--available for all mobile devices at once.
words with friends is now part of zynga with friends"Our goal is to have is to have Zynga games available to anyone, anywhere on any device," says Zynga SVP of Mobile David Ko. "At Zynga, we're committed to provide the best-of-breed mobile game experiences."
Founded in 2008 by brothers Paul and David Bettner, NewToy has reached over 12 million mobile gamers through games like Words With Friends and Zynga hopes to bring that success to its presence in your phones. Paul, the company's CEO and co-founder will take the helm of Zynga With Friends as vice president and general manager and his brother David will become the studio's director.
"Throughout our acquisition talks we utilized a secret code name for the operation--that codename was 'jet pack,'" Zynga With Friends VP and general manager Paul Bettner says. "We chose jetpack because, to us, that's what this acquisition represented--the potential to strap jet packs to our backs and move even faster toward our shared goals."
However, it's unsure at this point what this means for the company's games that have already landed on mobile such as FarmVille's iPhone game and Mafia Wars: Atlantic City on mobile web browsers. Zynga declined to comment on how NewToy will handle making its new bosses' games--both old and new--available for all mobile devices at once.
Top 25 MySpace games of Dec. 2010: The land beyond Zynga's rule
Top 25 MySpace Games
Thanks to Inside Social, the results are in for this month's top MySpace games and the results would be shocking for anyone who doesn't normally game on the platform. Essentially, things over at MySpace could be known as the bizarro world of social gaming. In a land where MySpace is second fiddle to Facebook, so is Zynga to Playdom in a strangely mirroring way with its hit game Mafia Wars (13.4 million players) beat out by its direct competitor, Playdom's Mobsters (14.9 million players) by over one million players.
However, this list includes products that are more web apps than true social games like Tag Me from BitRhymes sitting in the number 5 spot with 8.4 million users. Though, web apps and games competing for the same audience is also common on Facebook with Phrases recently dethroning FarmVille as the top app in town. In fact, web apps are the majority on MySpace with 12 spots on this list including Bumper Stickers in the number 3 spot with 12.8 million users and Own Your Friends in fourth place with 10.3 million users.
Filling out the rest of this month's top MySpace games are a slew of pet care games such as SuperPoke Pets by Slide in ninth place with RockYou Pets tailing behind them in the 10 spot. Then rest of the list includes more obscure titles by Zynga and Playdom such as the former's Street Racing in the 13 spot and the latter's Bloodlines in 24th place. All in all, it shows that despite the power and insane growth of social games, social web apps can still give this relatively new genre of gaming a challenge.
Thanks to Inside Social, the results are in for this month's top MySpace games and the results would be shocking for anyone who doesn't normally game on the platform. Essentially, things over at MySpace could be known as the bizarro world of social gaming. In a land where MySpace is second fiddle to Facebook, so is Zynga to Playdom in a strangely mirroring way with its hit game Mafia Wars (13.4 million players) beat out by its direct competitor, Playdom's Mobsters (14.9 million players) by over one million players.
However, this list includes products that are more web apps than true social games like Tag Me from BitRhymes sitting in the number 5 spot with 8.4 million users. Though, web apps and games competing for the same audience is also common on Facebook with Phrases recently dethroning FarmVille as the top app in town. In fact, web apps are the majority on MySpace with 12 spots on this list including Bumper Stickers in the number 3 spot with 12.8 million users and Own Your Friends in fourth place with 10.3 million users.
Filling out the rest of this month's top MySpace games are a slew of pet care games such as SuperPoke Pets by Slide in ninth place with RockYou Pets tailing behind them in the 10 spot. Then rest of the list includes more obscure titles by Zynga and Playdom such as the former's Street Racing in the 13 spot and the latter's Bloodlines in 24th place. All in all, it shows that despite the power and insane growth of social games, social web apps can still give this relatively new genre of gaming a challenge.
Top 25 Facebook games of Dec. 2010: Digital Chocolate takes distant second place
Top 25 Facebook Games December
The results are in from Inside Social's list of the top 25 Facebook games for Dec. 2010 and they're somewhat surprising given AppData's recent developer rankings. Zynga grips tightly to the top seven spots on the list including staples like FarmVille in first with 53.7 million monthly players, FrontierVille taking the third spot with nearly 30 million players and Mafia Wars in fourth sporting 21 million players a month. But just after Treasure Isle in sixth place comes Millionaire City, the newest game by Digital Chocolate, with 12.7 million players--808 thousand more than last month.
Millionaire City, if it keeps going at this rate, could easily knock CrowdStar out of tailing Zynga and Takeoff Monkey--the folks behind Phrases. Especially considering its top game, Happy Aquarium, is lagging behind in the 11 spot with 9.8 million players. However, Millionaire City's success does come with Zynga losing millions of users in all of its games aside from FrontierVille, where it gained 86 thousand.
The same goes for other top developers like CrowdStar and Playfish who each lost hundreds of thousands of players over the past month in games like the aforementioned Happy Aquarium, which lost 1.2 million players, and Pet Society that lost 118 thousand players last month.
Rounding out the list are a few gems like Car Town, a new game from Cie Games that gained 1.1 million players last month to bump it into the number 15 spot. And in the most massive gain this month, Funzio and its crime game hit Crime City took 18th place thanks to welcoming 3.5 million more players into its felony-filled walls.
You'll notice on this list that FarmVille's new arch nemesis, Phrases, is nowhere to be found. This is because Inside Social believes that the sheer number of new Facebook games that have popped up in recent months warrants their removal. (A good move, I'd say.) But what's this? According to AppData's most recent app leaderboards, Zynga and FarmVille are back on top as the most popular app on Facebook with 53.7 million players. Though, CrowdStar still has a long way to go--about 20 million more players--if it wants to send Takeoff Monkey and Phrases farther down the ladder. We know you got it in you, guys, now make it happen.
The results are in from Inside Social's list of the top 25 Facebook games for Dec. 2010 and they're somewhat surprising given AppData's recent developer rankings. Zynga grips tightly to the top seven spots on the list including staples like FarmVille in first with 53.7 million monthly players, FrontierVille taking the third spot with nearly 30 million players and Mafia Wars in fourth sporting 21 million players a month. But just after Treasure Isle in sixth place comes Millionaire City, the newest game by Digital Chocolate, with 12.7 million players--808 thousand more than last month.
Millionaire City, if it keeps going at this rate, could easily knock CrowdStar out of tailing Zynga and Takeoff Monkey--the folks behind Phrases. Especially considering its top game, Happy Aquarium, is lagging behind in the 11 spot with 9.8 million players. However, Millionaire City's success does come with Zynga losing millions of users in all of its games aside from FrontierVille, where it gained 86 thousand.
The same goes for other top developers like CrowdStar and Playfish who each lost hundreds of thousands of players over the past month in games like the aforementioned Happy Aquarium, which lost 1.2 million players, and Pet Society that lost 118 thousand players last month.
Rounding out the list are a few gems like Car Town, a new game from Cie Games that gained 1.1 million players last month to bump it into the number 15 spot. And in the most massive gain this month, Funzio and its crime game hit Crime City took 18th place thanks to welcoming 3.5 million more players into its felony-filled walls.
You'll notice on this list that FarmVille's new arch nemesis, Phrases, is nowhere to be found. This is because Inside Social believes that the sheer number of new Facebook games that have popped up in recent months warrants their removal. (A good move, I'd say.) But what's this? According to AppData's most recent app leaderboards, Zynga and FarmVille are back on top as the most popular app on Facebook with 53.7 million players. Though, CrowdStar still has a long way to go--about 20 million more players--if it wants to send Takeoff Monkey and Phrases farther down the ladder. We know you got it in you, guys, now make it happen.
Treasure Isle: Superhero's Sub bonus quest unlocks the deep sea
Treasure Isle: You need a submarine chassis
You can tell from the World Map that the islands of Atlantis (along with the North Pole and the Egyptian Isles) are still off-limits to Treasure Isle players. But its promise is alive, and two indicators of that are the recent Nexus Relic (probably inspired by the Stargate Atlantis sci-fi series) and now, there's the Superhero's Sub, because a submarine's the best way to reach a sunken island city.
Treasure Isle Bonus Quest: Superhero's sub
To build the sub, you'll need five materials: Gold, Glass, Bolts, Diodes, and Metal. Afterwards, you'll need to recruit your crew, but they don't let you know what that entails until you complete the materials task. You can get the materials by posting a message to your Wall or buying each of them for 1 Island Cash. In total, constructing it should cost you 5 Island Cash, which is pretty cheap, all things considered. But the game indicates that this is for construction of the "Submarine Base", which means you might get another pop-up window asking for more supplies to build the actual sub itself. If that's true, this will suck. Either way, you've got roughly 12 days to find out, because after that, the quest will disappear.
You can tell from the World Map that the islands of Atlantis (along with the North Pole and the Egyptian Isles) are still off-limits to Treasure Isle players. But its promise is alive, and two indicators of that are the recent Nexus Relic (probably inspired by the Stargate Atlantis sci-fi series) and now, there's the Superhero's Sub, because a submarine's the best way to reach a sunken island city.
Treasure Isle Bonus Quest: Superhero's sub
To build the sub, you'll need five materials: Gold, Glass, Bolts, Diodes, and Metal. Afterwards, you'll need to recruit your crew, but they don't let you know what that entails until you complete the materials task. You can get the materials by posting a message to your Wall or buying each of them for 1 Island Cash. In total, constructing it should cost you 5 Island Cash, which is pretty cheap, all things considered. But the game indicates that this is for construction of the "Submarine Base", which means you might get another pop-up window asking for more supplies to build the actual sub itself. If that's true, this will suck. Either way, you've got roughly 12 days to find out, because after that, the quest will disappear.
Thứ Hai, 30 tháng 1, 2012
Reuters to social, mobile gamers: 2011 will be better
Oh, the possibilities
Aside from the burgeoning and indisputably successful social and mobile games markets, video game sales suffered a year long slump in 2010. Industry professionals predict that game sales for this year will total four percent lower than 2009. But if a recent Reuters report is any indication, 2011 will be the year of the mobile and social, bringing revenue growth to the industry. And of course, that means more money to make even better social games, which Mark Skaggs, vice president of product development at Zynga, says will have "deeper gameplay, more polish, and be much more and better social experiences."
Carnegie Mellon professor and game developer Jesse Schell predicts that 2011 will ring in games that exist on all platforms from the PC to our phones and to our consoles and TVs, Reuters reports. The news service also predicts that 3D and motion gaming will grow in 2011 thanks to the oncoming Nintendo 3DS, the Xbox Kinect and 3D TVs that will be on display at this year's CES. (Well, on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, at least.)
But as for social and mobile gaming, we've already seen signs of this predicted boom in 2010 with marvels like Angry Birds on iPhone and Android along with the recent CityVille explosion on Facebook. So, 2011 could very well mean even more growth for social and mobile, but don't expect leaps and bounds when it comes to cross-platform play. Well, unless companies like Zynga continue to make use of HTML5 and the mobile web--then we're onto something.
Aside from the burgeoning and indisputably successful social and mobile games markets, video game sales suffered a year long slump in 2010. Industry professionals predict that game sales for this year will total four percent lower than 2009. But if a recent Reuters report is any indication, 2011 will be the year of the mobile and social, bringing revenue growth to the industry. And of course, that means more money to make even better social games, which Mark Skaggs, vice president of product development at Zynga, says will have "deeper gameplay, more polish, and be much more and better social experiences."
Carnegie Mellon professor and game developer Jesse Schell predicts that 2011 will ring in games that exist on all platforms from the PC to our phones and to our consoles and TVs, Reuters reports. The news service also predicts that 3D and motion gaming will grow in 2011 thanks to the oncoming Nintendo 3DS, the Xbox Kinect and 3D TVs that will be on display at this year's CES. (Well, on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, at least.)
But as for social and mobile gaming, we've already seen signs of this predicted boom in 2010 with marvels like Angry Birds on iPhone and Android along with the recent CityVille explosion on Facebook. So, 2011 could very well mean even more growth for social and mobile, but don't expect leaps and bounds when it comes to cross-platform play. Well, unless companies like Zynga continue to make use of HTML5 and the mobile web--then we're onto something.
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