New Facebook platform industry hires: Identified, Wildfire, Buddy Media, AdParlor, Milyoni, Spruce Media

Facebook-integrated career site Identified announced a $21 million Series B round of financing and three new hires today, including a director of product.

A number of other Facebook platform companies also made recent hires, according to LinkedIn. If your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email mail (at) insidefacebook (dot) com, and we’ll get it into our next post.

Looking for new opportunities? Check out the Inside Network Job Board, which shows the latest openings at leading companies in the industry.

Here’s this week’s list of hires:

Ian Brillembourg: Director of Product – formerly worked at Zynga, Microsoft Game Studios, Activision, and Procter & GambleChintan Rita, Front End Engineer – former software engineer at YahooDaniel Mease, Front-End Engineer – former engineer at Nokia, Avvenu, and Copart

Wildfire

Sherri Takahara, Creative Director – former creative director at SabaChris Morton, Account Executive – promoted from sales associate at Wildfire

Buddy Media 

Michael Marzano, Success Manager  – promoted from project manager at Buddy MediaErica Skurnik, Human Resources – former student at Vanderbilt UniversityCharles Meynet, Engineering Intern — current student at Chapman University

AdParlor

Joyce (Xiao) Guo, Account Manager – current student at University of Toronto

Milyoni

Ben Johnston, Software Developer — former ruby on rails student at Dev BootcampColin Miller, Sales Representative – former student at California State University-Long Beach

Spruce Media

 Zach Miller, Intern – current student at University of Wisconsin

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

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Buddy Media acquisition of Brighter Option results in new BuyBuddy ad platform

Buddy Media today announced its new BuyBuddy platform for managing Facebook advertising campaigns.

BuyBuddy is the result of the social media management software company’s acquisition of Facebook Ads API partner Brighter Option in February. Buddy Media has integrated the advertising product with its page management tools to create the type of unified system that large brands are looking for to make decisions and track success on social platforms.

Facebook has been shifting its advertising model away from traditional display ads toward one where brands promote page posts and user activity. This new emphasis on content is what led Brighter Option to become the first company to combine the Ads API and Insights API so businesses could easily see how posts were performing and create ads accordingly. Ten days later, Buddy Media announced it had acquired the company.

BuyBuddy CEO and founder Peter Goodman says today’s announcement is more than just a name change. (Goodman retained a CEO title in the acquisition.)

“We have integrated [Buddy Media and Brighter Option] products to work more in harmony,” he says. “This also allows us to leverage more information Buddy has on their end and bring in more of Buddy’s proprietary statistics.”

For example, Buddy Media tracks conversions off-Facebook and generates some of its own engagement metrics for the content brands share through the platform. Bringing content marketing and content advertising into a single system will allow advertisers to better optimize their campaigns for different actions.

“What consumers engage with drives a brand’s paid and owned strategy,” Buddy Media CEO Mike Lazerow says. He adds that online content marketing could also help inform what brands do beyond Facebook, “What becomes a TV ad is an extension of what people respond to in the social sphere.”

Lazerow also shared the following statistics about BuyBuddy:

1,000 clients with users in 91 countries1 million clicks per day (90 million total) in Q1 2012, up from 54.1 million total clicks generated in Q4 2011127 billion impressions in Q1 2012, up from 92 billion in Q4 20111.6 million total ads created in Q1 2012, up from 1.2 million Q4 2011Increased CTR by 90 percent and reduced cost per click by 45 percent for Work the WorldHelped Great British Chefs achieve an average clickthrough rate of .07 percent versus the Facebook benchmark of .02 percent

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Buddy Media’s ReachBuddy Lets Brands Embed Facebook Page Tab Apps on Websites

Buddy Media has announced several new features to its social marketing suite, including ReachBuddy that lets brands embed on third-party websites the widgets they use as Facebook Page tab apps. ReachBuddy will help brands gain more exposure for the contests, discounts, sweepstakes and content apps the build for Facebook. This will in turn make BuddyMedia more of a cross-web publishing platform than a dedicated social media tool.

The Page management giant also launched C-Rank, a system for scoring and benchmarking Facebook and Twitter that will help brands track their performance. Additionally, clients can now create custom dashboards tailored for different team members such as marketers or community managers to improve the efficiency, compose content for other team members to publish in a way that facilitates corporate/local franchise hierarchies similar to Hearsay Social, and license custom packages of Buddy Media products to keep costs down for brands in specific verticals.

A core part of Buddy Media’s Facebook Page management business is the licensing of its suite of custom tab applications that brands can embed on their Pages. Brands can choose from templates to skin in order to easily offer promotions such as sweepstakes, discounts and user-generated content contests. They can also add content apps to let them distribute their Twitter, YouTube, or Flickr updates.

Most brands are working to build their Facebook fan bases, in some cases Like-gating their Page tab apps so users must become fans to use them. However, some still get much more traffic on their websites, or often create micro-sites for special initiatives. Now, rather than rebuilding widgets that duplicate the functionality of their tab apps, Buddy Media clients can use ReachBuddy to embed these apps on sites outside of Facebook.

ReachBuddy launch partner Pepsi used ReachBuddy to add video to a microsite promoting a partnership with television show The X-Factor. Rather than embedding a YouTube video, Pepsi was able to easily configure  a white-labeled video player for the site through the simple ReachBuddy interface.

Brands have an ever increasing number of ways to distribute their content, between websites, microsites, Tumblr, and now Google+ planning to launch brand pages that can host applications. Redundantly building rich functionality into each of these distribution channels is a waste of resources. By allowing brands to build first for Facebook, the biggest platform, and then replicate their apps across the web, ReachBuddy will make Buddy Media more valuable to clients trying to take advantage of the whole evolving social landscape.

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Facebook Adds “More Online Friends” to Chat, Returning the Complete Buddy List

Facebook has returned to showing users their complete buddy list in Chat with the addition of a “More Online Friends” section. Now users see their closest and recently interacted with friends at the top of the Chat buddy list, and can independently scroll down the Chat bar to view the online statuses of all remaining friends. Update: The change has since been confirmed by the Facebook Twitter account.

Facebook redesigned its instant messaging system last month such that instead of showing the online status of all of a user’s friends, it only showed around 20 of a user’s closest or most recently interacted with friends. The only way to determine the online status of other friends was search. Some users complained, and we wrote an article discussing the merits of being able to easily Chat with all friends, even distant acquaintances.

The change will allow users to quickly start conversations with the friends they Chat with most, but still be able to send Chats to the rest of their friends without conducting time consuming individual searches. The modification also shows Facebook is listening to feedback on product changes, despite some believing it ignores its users.

Typically when Facebook changes its interface, a small but vocal minority denounces it and demands Facebook revert to an older version. Often it’s not so much that the functionality is worse, but that it’s different than users are accustomed to and they don’t want to adopt a new behavior pattern. But with so many users and a readily available medium for sharing their discontent, a fraction of the user base can make it seem like there is larger disapproval.

Facebook has come to expect this, giving users time to adjust and looking at the actual usage data before considering whether additional changes are necessary. It famously watched hundreds of thousands of users protest the addition of the news feed to the home page, only to see it become one of the site’s most popular features.

In this case, though, press criticism, analysis of the design, and possibly the data pointed to users preferring the option to see the online status of all of their friends without having to search one-by-one. Users now get the best parts of both the old design and recent redesign: prominent access to their closest friends alongside options to scroll through all their friends and search for particular ones.

The re-redesign should be especially helpful for users with large numbers of friends that had many hidden from view in the previous design. It will help users reconnect with those they don’t interact with often, and make it easier to know who could be invited to an ad hoc group chat.

Users may also notice a new mobile phone icon next to some friends. This indicates that person is available to chat via Facebook’s new standalone push notification-delivered group chat iPhone and Android app Facebook Messenger, or the Chat-enabled primary Facebook mobile apps like Facebook for iPhone or BlackBerry. The icon will help users determine that it may be better to send shorter, simple messages rather than links or attachments that are more difficult to consume via mobile device.

The addition of “More Online Friends” to Chat should serve to improve Facebook’s relations with its users. It could rally users to be more vocal about future redesigns in hopes of attaining a similar outcome, but at least they know Facebook isn’t deaf to the opinions of those it serves.

[Thanks to Kevin Evanetski for being the first to tip us to this.]

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New Facebook Platform Industry Hires: Buddy Media, Syncapse, North Social, 140 Proof and More

There were some big and interesting hires this week. Buddy Media brought in a managing director for their Europe office, there were various engineering and sales positions across several companies, 140 Proof hired a VP of Product, North Social hired a VP of Business Development and SocialShield hired a chief of safety.

If your company is bringing in new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email mail (at) insidefacebook (dot) com, and we’ll get it into next week’s post. Also, please note that information about most new hires, below, comes directly from company updates from LinkedIn.

Looking for new opportunities? Check out the Inside Network Job Board, which shows the latest openings at leading companies in the industry.

Here’s this week’s list of hires:

Buddy Media

Luca Benini, Managing Director, Europe – effective August 1; previously worked as VP, Commercial Director, comScore Europe.

Syncapse

Edward Chow, Statistician - formerly a Data Analyst at the Canadian Red Cross.Mohammad Adil Khan, Manager, Client Solutions - previously a Summer Marketing Intern at Tkaro, Inc.

140 Proof

Alan Shusterman, Vice President of Product – founder of Jobnob and formerly worked as VP of Client Services for Edusoft.

TBG Digital

Gregory Vindry, Client Services Manager – previously worked as an account manager specialist at Microsoft Advertising.Reginald Sebastian, Social Media Analyst – formerly worked as an associate at the Life Management Institute at LOMA.

Involver

Kefan Xie, Ruby on Rails Developer Intern – formerly worked as a QSL Developer at Qualcomm.Chase WIlson, User Interface Developer - previously worked as a Frontend Web Developer at Oakley.

BranchOut

Abhik Pramanik, Senior Software Engineer – formerly the founding engineer at Top Prospect.

Wildfire

Bradley Wolf, Sales Manager – was previously an Account Executive at Wildfire.Mithya Srinivasan, Sales Associate – worked as an International Communication Intern at Facebook.Natalie Parks, Account Management Intern – previously worked as an intern at UBS Financial Services.Gregory Furmanek, Software Engineer – founded Elegant Software.

North Social

Mike Johnson, Vice President of Business Development – formerly a digital marketer with Electronic Arts.

SocialShield

Steve DeWarns, Chief Safety Officer – founder of Internet Child Safety and a former police officer.

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Facebook Page Managment Giant Buddy Media Acquires Social Ecommerce and Analytics Provider Spinback

Buddy Media, the largest Facebook Page management company, has acquired Spinback, a provider of social ecommerce and analytics solutions for Facebook Twitter, email, and blogs. Spinback’s technology will allow Buddy Media to allow its clients to better track how social sharing of links to products and services drive sales.

This acquisition of both the team and technology follows our predictions that expensive Facebook Page management services are becoming commodified by companies offering free products, so the Page management industry needs to explore new revenue streams by expanding into ad buying or ecommerce through partnerships and acquisitions.

Buddy Media got an early start in the industry, helping brands market themselves on Facebook since the Platform opened in late 2007. At time, there were few powerful Page management tools, let alone free ones, and brands didn’t have any experience and therefore needed helped. Since then, Buddy Media has signed some of the world’s most prominent brands, grown to over 170 employees, and raised $38.3 million, including a massive $23 million Series C round in October 2010.

Now, though, solid free tools and Page tab app suites are proliferating and brands are gaining the experience necessary to require less hand-holding with day-to-day Facebook Page operation. More brands are still shifting marketing focus towards Facebook, but commodification means the Page management industry’s largest companies will eventually need to seek additional revenue streams if they want to keep growing, or even avoid shrinking.

The most obvious expansion area is facilitating Facebook ad purchases by their clients — a lucrative business where they can license tools or charge a percent of the growing Facebook ad spend of big brands. The other is ecommerce, where they can also license Facebook ecommerce storefront and analytics solutions.This appears to be just what Buddy Media plans to do with Spinback, its first full-fledged acquisition.

Spinback’s two main offerings are EasyShare, a product and purchase social sharing widget, and EasyTrack, which provides analytics on this sharing and the sales it generates. These technologies will allow Buddy Media to inform clients about what social channels are driving sales, what products are being shared most frequently and creating the most revenue, and who are the most active and influential customers and customer segments.

Spinback has signed over 20 retailers as clients since it launched in October 2011, with clients seeing an average increase in incremental revenue of $2.10 per Facebook wall post, and  a conversion rate of 10.9% for Facebook shares leading to purchases. The five-person company’s founding CTO, Paul Boutin, was formerly the founder and CTO of Payvment, the most popular Facebook ecommerce storefront application.

The acquisition will allow Buddy Media to attract more retail and ecommerce clients, and offer a wider range of services to Spinback’s and its existing clients. It will also protect it from commodification as brands mature from establishing a Facebook presence to attaining a healthy return on investment in social.

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Buddy Rush for iPhone (and Facebook): The time for adventure is all the time

by Joe Osborne, Posted May 12th 2011 4:55PM

Cross platform social games can be a drag--just look at FarmVille. (Alright, so it's come a long ways, I still don't wanna hear it.) They're rarely, if ever, like their core counterpart, which in most cases lives on Facebook or elsewhere. However, Sollmo might have found the answer in Buddy Rush for the iPhone (and Facebook): asynchronous gameplay. You know, what we've been trying to move away from as a genre? That's exactly what makes Buddy Rush, a free game on the iOS App Store, work so well. After downloading and installing the game, you'll need to log in using Facebook Connect. From there, you can add all of your Facebook friends by sending them in-game gifts. And trust us when we say you will need lots of friends. This is because, at the heart of it, you're never actually playing with your friends. (Stay with us, people.) You're slaying blue monsters and giant bugs with AI-controlled versions of your friends' characters. However, having a large pool of friend friend characters available for whatever trials you might face would be a good idea. And those trial are faced in real time for you, but your partying adventurers, if used by you, we imagine will receive bonuses upon logging into his game. And that's the number one flaw and point of brilliance in Buddy Rush. While not being able to play with your friends in real time through your phones or on Facebook is a bummer, that's not the point. The aim of the game is to be there to provide a dungeon-diving adventure whenever you're ready, with your friends. And since today's gamer has little interest in setting up times to play a massively multiplayer game, here you go.

The asynchronous gameplay allows players to enjoy the game whenever they want, and have their friends be right there with them, fighting back hordes of beasts. The combat and aesthetic are standard fantasy fare with a twist of humor and a kid-friendly style. There are several character classes to choose from the standard warrior/wizard/archer trio to strange character types like the Vampino (a vampire that wears copious amounts of sunblock) and Skully (a revolver-wielding pirate), which unlock in time.

As for actually dispatching enemies, Missions are displayed isometrically, with the player touching (or clicking) the areas on the ground he wants his avatar to run to. Honestly, the controls are all very intuitive: tap enemies to kill them, then tap different abilities and items to use them. (Visions of a cuter Diablo might dance in your head while playing this game.)Your party members contribute to combat automatically, and can be healed--remember that. Each Mission rewards XP and Chips, the game's currency, as well as costs Stamina. This slowly refilling statistic is similar to the Energy system in most social games, but can be restored with potions either earned or purchased for Chips.

All in all, Buddy Rush for the iPhone would stand on its as a single player game (by technicality, it is), but the inclusion of Facebook friends, regardless of whether its asynchronous, opens up whole new possibilities. And you can access that content whenever you want--forget waiting around for your friends to make the monster raid. Buddy Rush is an elegant solution to a common problem in mobile social gaming crossovers: simply make both versions as similar in form, function and style as possible (the Facebook and iPhone versions are nearly identical). And for the mobile monster-slaying crowd, this game is a fashion do.

Click here to play Buddy Rush on Facebook Now >

Have you tried Buddy Rush on either platform? What do you think of cross-platform social games? Are games generally headed this way? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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Tags: buddy rush, buddy rush facebook, buddy rush iphone, buddy+rush+game+on+facebook, buddyrushgameonfacebook, farmville iphone, iphone games, mobile game, mobile games, mobile gaming, mobile social games, preview, social games, social gaming, sollmo, sollmo buddy rush

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New Facebook Platform Industry Hires: AdParlor, Buddy Media, Context Optional, Involver, Kontagent, Vitrue and More

There were hires all around this week, from business development to interns, on our new weekly post covering hires among non-gaming companies on the Facebook platform. In particular Buddy Media hired a Director of Business Development and General Manager of Lifestyle brands. Nanigans hired a Vice President of Client Partnerships, TBD Digital hired a Managing Director of France and two VPs of Business Development and Vitrue hired a General Counsel, as well as a Director of Business Development.

If your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email mail (at) insidefacebook (dot) com, and we’ll get it into next week’s post. Also, please note that information about most new hires, below, comes directly from company updates from LinkedIn.

Looking for new opportunities? Check out the Inside Network Job Board, which shows the latest openings at leading companies in the industry.

Here’s this week’s list of hires:

AdParlor

Sarah Watson, Account Manager – formerly an Intern Marketing Coordinator at T Magazine.Dustin Keller, Designer – previously a Web/Graphic Designer at SteadyRain.Prashanth Mohan, Account Manager – formerly the Development Manager at Management and Economics Students’ Association.Vitaly Pecherskiy, Account Manager – previously a Financial and Research Analyst at Oriyon Corporation.

BranchOut

Christopher Henty, Marketing Associate – formerly at Project Manager, Recruitment Chair at Cornell Business Review.Andrea Kalsow, Marketing Associate – previously a Teaching Assistant at Saddleback Valley Unified School District.Emma Markley, Marketing Associate – formerly an Intern at Makena Capital.Michael DeVerna, Product Manager (Virals/Analytics) - formerly Director of Products at Pagefad.John Petroff, Marketing Associate

Buddy Media

Stephanie Sprangers, Vice President of Strategic Brand Accounts - formerly Vice President of Business Development at InterMundo media.David Dowd, General Manager of Lifestyle Brands - formerly the CEO/Founder of ViewPlay Media, LLC.Drew Stern, Director of Business Development – formerly a Senior Manager of New Product Development at American Express.Rebecca Bonell, Manager of Client Loyalty Team - previously an office Manager & Executive Assistant at Lead Financial Group.Jamar Parris, Senior Engineer – previously a Vice President, Application Architect at BNY Mellon.John Friese, Front End Engineer -formerly a Graphic Designer/Production Support professional at Sign-a-Rama.

Context Optional

Grahame Lesh, Comunity Genius – formerly the Marketing Manager at Tripping International.Belen Torres-Gil, Account Manager - previously a Program Coordinator at Stanford University.

Involver

Richard Rich, Sales Executive – formerly the Director of Marketing at Webtab, Inc.Jed Wheeler, SML Trainer & Developer – previously the Founder & Editor in Chief at Vallejo Free Press.Adam Steinharter, Recruiter - formerly a Contract Recruiter at Adchemy.

Kontagent

Ryan Tankoos, Enterprise Sales Executive EMEA – formerly a Business Development Manager at Global Collect.Taehoon Kang, Software Engineering – formerly did the same work at Soompi Media, LLC.Justin Hypes, Business Development – previously Director of Business Development at MSDonline.Art Santos, Business Development – formerly at Senior Director of Business Development at heyzap.com.Dave Paola, Software Engineer - formerly a Software Developer at the Department of Civil/Environmental Engineering.

Nanigans

John Dobrowolski, Vice President of Client Partnerships – formerly the VP and Brand Alchemist at SCVNGR.Ron Searls, Ad Operations Manager – previously a Software Developer at Incipient.

Spruce Media

Jason Leveille, Software Engineering – formerly Lead Developer at Blue Atlas Interactive.Scott Bain, Director of Advertising Delivery -previously the Mobile Marketing Manager at Neverblue.

TBG Digital

Ben Miles, Senior Account Manager – previously a Key Account Manager at Shopping.com.Ed Cox, Client Services Manager – formerly a Digital Media Analyst at Fairbrother Lenz Eley.Bruno Vannod, Managing Director France – previously a Solution Sales Specialists Director at Microsoft Advertising France.Mike Lee, Vice President of Business Development – formerly an Agency Development Manager at Yahoo.Chris Phenner, Vice President of Business Development – formerly EVP of Business Development at Thumbplay, Inc.

Vitrue

Michael Rideout, Director, Business Development – previously President and Founder at Rideout Media Group, LLC.Harris Troutman, General Counsel – previously a partner at FSB FisherBroyles, LLP.Amy Barbieri, Mid-Market Sales – previously a feature producer for Jezebel Magazine/Modern Luxury Media.Eric Schwertzel, Business Development – New York City, previously Vice President of Business Development at Netbiscuits.Kevin Race, Senior Project Manager – formerly a Project Manager at Trivantis.Erika Admundson, Strategic Services Manager - once a Marketing Strategist at MKTG Inc.

Work4 Labs

Libby Te, Office Administrator at Work4Labs – previously a program leader at YMCA.Vincent Vo, Business Development & Strategy Intern

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Buddy Media Report on Facebook Page Posts: Shorter Is Better, but Avoid URL Shorteners

Page management company Buddy Media has released a study based on 200 of its clients illustrating best practices for Facebook Pages looking to increase their fan base’s engagement — the volume of Likes and comments their posts receive. Key findings include: posts of 80 characters or less receive 27% more engagement, posts on Thursdays see the most engagement across industries, and posts including a full-length URL bring in three times as much engagement as posts using URL shorteners such as bit.ly.

The report also includes insights about which hours of the day have the most engagement, which weekdays have the highest engagement rates for different industries such as retail or media, and what call-to-action keywords receive the most engagement. Strategies for Effective Facebook Wall Posts: A Statistical Review can help admins of any sized Page to increase the loyalty, brand affinity, and click through rates of their fans.

Buddy Media is one of the largest Page management companies, hosting over 600 clients including seven of the top ten global advertisers, more than 150 employees, and $38.3 million in funding. This past year, the company improved multi-Page and team-based management through its system, and released a training program for its tools called Buddy Media University.

The findings of this study were culled from Page posts made between January 30th and February 12th 2011 by 200 Buddy Media clients industries including  finance, food and beverage, media, retail, automotive, sports, and travel.

One finding that contradicts common sense is that engagement is highest at 4am, 7am, and 11pm, but that brands post the most during business hours. By posting early in the morning, late in the evening, or in the middle of the night, brands can take advantage of these odd usage trends.

While in aggregate, Thursday was the best day to post, there is a great deal of variance within different industries. For Pages of media publishers, engagement soars on Saturdays and Sundays, but plummets on Mondays. Instead of competing with the swell of media updates on Monday, media Pages will see higher engagement if they post on the weekends when users are primed to consume content.

When asking questions of fans, updates including the words “where”, “when” or “would” have much higher engagement than updates including “why” or “what”. This may be because the latter words may be perceived as challenging or intrusive, and users aren’t willing to take the time to respond. Posts including a question mark at the end had 15% higher engagement.

Information about what weekdays have the highest engagement rates for industries including food and beverages, and entertainment, or what keywords lead to the most participation in contests can be found in the full report, which can be downloaded in exchange for an email address. Such high quality data should generate interest from brands looking for a Page management company that can help implement these strategies for them, drawing more clients to Buddy Media.

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Slaying Oblins With Your Friends in Buddy Rush for Facebook and iOS

A developer by the name of Team Sollmo is attempting to bring it’s version of the action-role-playing game genre to the social-mobile space in the form of Buddy Rush — it’s simplified, asynchronous and ultra-cute. Available cross-platform for both Facebook and iOS, we got to take an early look at the Facebook half, but watch for it in the app store very soon.

An action RPG, Buddy Rush pits players into a cartoonish world filled with goofy looking characters that apparently came straight from the bobble-head store. With its bizarre art style and simple point and click play, it’s a game that ought to be appealing to many social users. Along with the prospect of playing asynchronously with friends’ avatars, this simplistic app is actually a good deal of fun for the short amount of times players can play; which is especially useful with its iPhone and iPad counterparts.

Players start out by selecting one of seven different character classes, each of which set the stage for the game’s satirical nature (e.g. a “warrior” is now a “worrier). Depending on one’s play style, users can become everything from armor clad knights to some sort of skimpily dressed hula girl with each one boasting very different abilities, and they can create more than one.

Once created, users are then able to accept missions that send them out into a world of a highly geometric and color saturated nature, reminiscent of older games such as Animal Crossing.

Once in the mission space, players battle with random enemies in order to complete whatever goal it sets forth. Thus far, however, most of the missions have been of a “fetch” variety, meaning that they consist of collecting X item or killing Y monsters. Nevertheless, the game has very literally just released, thus new iterations will be coming, and this may change at higher levels. In fact, when players wander about town, they will come across a pair of non-player characters that offer special challenges and dungeons for users that are level 40+.

The combat itself is a bit basic, so it may not appeal to social game players that lean more towards the core gaming demographic. Essentially, players point and click to automatically attack enemies, and eventually begin unlocking upgradable special abilities that can be cast periodically (for example, the ranger-type character class will unlock an ability that shoots multiple arrows at once). Thus far, however, only three skill slots appear to be available in battle, so players will have to pick and choose what is best for the mission at hand.

It’s also worth noting that many enemies require a bit more attention to contend with. It’s not always point and click. As an example, there is an early enemy called an “oblin” (a goblin), that will target a player and toss a large bolder. Should the user not move once it is thrown, they will suffer significant damage. Granted, this isn’t that extravagant, but it does suggest that more interesting enemies may appear at higher levels. Additionally, with each successive mission, larger swarms of creatures also becomes a standard.

This is where the primary social play comes in. Players are actually able to form a party with any two friends who are also playing, and are roughly the same level as them (NPC characters are also available). The system works very similarly to the iOS game, Gun Bros, but the key difference is that if enough friends play, users can pick and choose classes that best complement the class choice they are playing (e.g. if the player is a ranged class, using friend avatars that are melee is a prudent choice). Furthermore, friend avatars will make use of all of the skills they have learned, come with all the equipment said friend is wearing, and will even earn bonus experience for being used.

Truthfully, the biggest downside is that there is no synchronous option for this. That isn’t to say the asynchronous element is bad. It’s not. In fact, it’s better than most social gamers. But the option for synchronous play would still be great. Other than that, the game is a bit simple and repetitive, but game sessions are gated by slowly recharging stamina (which is consumed with each mission), so play doesn’t really last long enough, at any given time, to cause boredom all that quickly.

It’s also worth noting that with the ability to quickly do all the missions one’s stamina can handle in a short burst of time, it is an ideal, on-the-go game for a mobile device. All that said, players can always recharge their stamina by purchasing potions from an in-game vendor with in-game currency. Still, it’s worth noting that currency is slow to earn; at least early on (but it can be bought with Facebook Credits).

Overall, Buddy Rush is a pretty fun game with a cute visual style. Of course, if you are looking for something terribly deep, it’s not going to be found here. All the same, this new title does make for a guilty pleasure in its simplicity, and is especially addictive with more friends. It could be a little more interesting with its mission system though, and its hard to say how interesting monsters will become at later levels due to the stamina gating. Nonetheless, early impressions of the game are positive, so here’s hoping it does well.

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