Aug 12, 2011 09:40 GMT  ·  By

Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, Facebook is making some big announcements for games on the platform, at the very same time Google revealed Google+ Games.

Facebook has unveiled a number of features that should make games more engaging and make it easier for developers to reach new users.

One big new feature is the Game Ticker, a feed that shows up when you play a game in the right sidebar with notifications and updates from games your friends are playing.

"The best way to find new games is through friends, and now you'll have more opportunities to see what they're playing," Facebook's Jared Morgenstern wrote.

"You can now control who can see these stories for each individual app in your Settings. If you want friends to see you're playing one game but not another, you can change that," he explained how users can customize the Game Ticker feed.

"You're also able to limit visibility directly from the ticker by clicking 'X' on a story to remove it," he said.

The move should make it easier for game makers to acquire new users, something that's been harder to do ever since Facebook moved to block apps from posting on people's walls and the likes.

It's not the only such change, Facebook is also loosening up a bit on apps and games posting in users' streams, it says that it is rolling out an algorithm which will rank this type of posts and will surface the ones that get good engagement and will bury the ones a lot of users mark as spam.

Facebook is also debuting a couple of features that game developers are going to like and that will benefit users in the end. Developers can maximize the screen size their apps and games can take up and even go full screen for a fully immersive experience.