14 DAY TRIAL // A start-up in San Francisco believes that the current generation of social games does not live up to their own name and has announced a “holy war” against those titles who lack quality and offer closed experiences rather than helping players discover new social connections.
Jeff Hyman, who is the chief executive officer and the co-founder of Idle Games, has talked about how his own game, Idle Worship, manages a truly social experience.
Speaking to Gamasutra, he stated, “Most actions you take in the game create 'reactions' or 'side effects' that ripple throughout the world. These side effects create social context between complete strangers.
“While it feels wonderfully random, it's not - these matches are selected by complex algorithms and our recommendation engine.”
The developer believes that the technology Idle Games uses increases the opportunity for total strangers to meet online and share a fun experience.
Hyman added, “I would say at launch, we managed to get about 25 percent of what we wanted into the game. So while we do have a large team working on Idle Worship, we've also been working on two other games, one of which will launch this summer.”
Idle Games has recently been in the news for hiring away Michael McCormick, who was the leading designer for CityVille from Zynga.
Hyman says that McCormick has already had an impact at Idle Games and he is providing ideas that allow for the team to evolve Idle Worship.
Zynga has recently announced that it plans to create its own social game site, taking some of its players away from Facebook in order to have more control over the way they experience its video games.
The company also has plans to bring some of its most successful titles to other platforms, including the Xbox 360, although it’s not clear when the move might take place.