Kixeye talks Backyard Monsters Unleashed, mobile strategy

Image via Kixeye

With Backyard Monsters Unleashed launching on mobile next week, Kixeye’s CMO, Brandon Barber, sat down with Inside Mobile Apps to talk about the new game in an exclusive interview.

Check out what Barber had to say as he talks Monsters and mobile in the site’s latest Insider Q&A.

Brandon Barber Interview

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Kixeye launches VEGA Conflict on Facebook, browsers

Image via Kixeye

Kixeye has announced the official launch of its latest game, VEGA Conflict, on Facebook and browsers. The game is the first to come from Kixeye Australia, formerly 3 Blokes Studios. Kixeye resurrected the studio in June 2012, after RockYou closed it a few months earlier.

VEGA Conflict is a massively multiplayer online real-time strategy title (MMORTS) that takes players to outer space as they work to construct warships with advanced armor and weapons before attacking other players’ bases and enemy cargo ships in a hunt for valuable resources.

In VEGA Conflict, players have been abandoned in a struggling mining vessel by the massive VEGA federation, which promised untold wealth for outer space miners, but instead took every resource for itself. Players must fight back against the empire by attacking enemy vessels and mining every resource they can find, using those materials to repair and expand their base, and construct new ships and tools.

VEGA Conflict features real time, synchronous player-vs-player battles between multiple living players all around the world, and players can create or join cooperative alliances with others in their same in-game sectors. Finally, monthly events or contests will see players competing against others for their share(s) of the loot.

VEGA Conflict is now available to play for free on Facebook. It has already climbed to over 500,000 monthly active players, according to AppData, our tracking tool for mobile and social apps and developers. The game is supported via microtransactions, giving players the ability to purchase instant repairs for damaged ships, or instantly build new structures, as examples.

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The Inside Network Job Board: Machine Zone, KIXEYE, Kongregate more

The Inside Network Job Board is dedicated to providing you with the best social media job opportunities across social and mobile application platforms. Here are this week’s highlights from the Inside Network Job Board, including positions at: Machine Zone, KIXEYE, Kongregate and more.

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Exclusive: Zynga’s Alan Patmore case gets more complicated with Kixeye cross-complaint

Zynga’s lawsuit against Alan Patmore just had another legal layer added to it: Kixeye’s legal team filed a cross-complaint against Zynga yesterday afternoon. Kixeye’s complaint alleges that Zynga’s lawsuit against Patmore is designed to “send a message to its employees about the consquences of leaving Zynga to work at Kixeye and to gain access to Kixeye’s confidential information and trade secrets.

Kixeye’s complaint says the company is looking to prevent Zynga from continuing to pursue legal action against Kixeye, keep the company from threatening or initiating litigation against employees from leaving Zynga to work at Kixeye, stop Zynga from interfering with Kixeye’s business relationships, force Zynga to notify employees of their rights to seek employment with competitors and to require Zynga to provide the court with quarterly sworn statements of compliance. Kixeye is also seeking restitution in legal fees and damages, to be determined by the court.

The cross-complaint highlights the fundamental differences between Zynga and Kixeye, primarily that Kixeye makes mid-core games for a smaller audience while Zynga develops large titles designed for maximum appeal to casual audiences. “Comparing Kixeye’s games to Zynga’s games is like comparing a Ducati racing motorcycle to a minivan. Both are motorized vehicles, but Ducati motorcycles, like Kixeye’s midcore games, appeal to a small but passionate group who are focused on quality and performance,” the complaint reads. “Zynga is more concerned with cranking out games that will fit the whole family without offending anyone.”

The counter-claim also says Kixeye makes original, creative games, while highlighting Zynga’s controversial “fast follow” development process.  Other points mentioned include Zynga’s problematic IPO and ongoing troubles with its stock price, as well as its efforts to enter the mid-core market by acquiring studios like A Bit Lucky and November Software, as well as publishing mid-core titles on Zynga.com. Kixeye calls Zynga’s mid-core efforts “a desperate attempt to resuscitate the company by re-inventing itself.”

Meanwhile, in the document’s factual allegations section, Kixeye says that while Patmore left Zynga in August, Zynga didn’t have his laptop undergo a forensic imaging until 36 days later (2 days before he started working at Kixeye). Zynga didn’t file suit until October 12, 22 days later, claiming Patmore took 760 documents from his office computer and backed them up online, providing insight into Zynga’s core game mechanics and monetization practices. The documents supposedly include unreleased game design documents, his entire email inbox, monetization plans and revenue projection. On Oct. 16, a judge granted a temporary restraining order preventing Patmore from using, discussing or copying the info in the documents he’s accused of taking, as well as being prevented from engaging in any activity that has anything to do with developing online games that would use Zynga’s trade secrets.

In a statement, Kixeye CEO Will Harbin said:

“We believe Zynga is manipulating the legal process and fabricating claims against Kixeye to access OUR trade secrets. Their illustrious history of using their legal department to exploit and slander competitors that they can’t otherwise out-perform is well documented.  We will not stand for it.  This matter was shameful enough when it was focused on bleeding one of their former employees. When they broadened this frivolous claim to include Kixeye, they showed their hand. We will fight to our last breath to keep this predatory company from accessing our confidential information and best practices. We intend to defend ourselves from Zynga’s legal bullying for as long as it takes to reveal the truth — that Kixeye played no part in this. As we have stated previously, we have ZERO interest in Zynga’s IP or “trade secrets.” Our games are categorically different from theirs in almost every way. Claiming that their failed business practices could inform ours further establishes their complete lack of understanding of the gaming business.”

We’ve reached out to Zynga for a statement. In the meantime, you can read the whole cross-complaint here.

Developing.

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Quote of the Moment: 'Zynga, Kixeye, Kabam try to make the same game'

Those are harsh words coming from a Zynga alumnus, don't you think? John Yoo, lead designer and co-founder of the new social game maker Rumble Games (and formerly of the big red dog), said the words to Business Insider in an in-depth interview. "Zynga, Kixeye and Kabam try to make the same game over and over," Yoo told the website.

Yoo and former BioWare (which has since gotten into social games) CEO Greg Richardson have raised $15 million from investors like Google Ventures on the premise that their games will provide "hardcore" gamers with the Facebook experience they're looking for. Rumble Games plans to release two games in the first half of 2012, using the new Flash Player 11--the latest in the most commonly used tool to create social games--to offer high-quality games "that people would pay for in a boxed game."

"I do think our games will be different, when we have combat in our games we want it to feel like combat," Yoo said to Business Insider, referring to the strategy social games put out by Kabam and Kixeye. "We want you to actively feel like you're taking a punch or swinging a sword. We want players to participate in the actions of controlling a character and battling it out to that effect."

Developers other than Kabam and Kixeye have tried to cater to the hardcore audience on Facebook before, even with full-blown shooters, to tepid results. So, it's uncertain whether Rumble Games can create a commercial hit going after the same crowd. That said, what appears to be the studio's first game does look fairly badass, if a tad familiar.

[Image Credit: Rumble Games]

Do you agree that Zynga and its ilk are simply pushing out the same game over and over again? Do you think a start-up like Rumble Games can break the supposed monotony? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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New Hires in Social Gaming: Bossa Studios, Kabam and Kixeye

Hiring in the social gaming industry was steady with week, with seven companies reporting 18 new employees. According to data from LinkedIn and other sources, East Side Games and Nanigans accounted for the majority of week’s activity. The biggest hires were at Bossa Studios, who added former Sony vice president Yoshifusa Hayama to the team as creative director and Nanigans who added a new CFO and SVP.

If your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please get in touch with us. Email us at: mail (at) insidesocialgames (dot) com, and we’ll get your news into an upcoming post.

If you want to know who else is hiring, the Inside Network Job Board showcases current openings with the industry’s leading companies.

Bossa Studios

Yoshifusa Hayama, Creative Director - Bossa studios kicks off this week’s roundup with the highest profile hire. The London-based developer has brought aboard Hayama as its creative director. Hayama was previously a VP at Sony.

East Side Games

Kevin Okada, Designer/Artist - Vancouver BC based East Side Games added six new employees this week, accounting for most of the hiring activity in this week’s roundup. First up is Okada, who was previously the lead level designer at Rabbit Hole Interactive.Jason Fleming, Software Engineer - Next up is Fleming, who moves from a programming position at Magellan Interactive.Josh Wood, Jr Software Engineer, QA - Wood starts his career with East Side Games, coming from Vancouver Film School.Darius Tam, Software Engineer - Tam also moves from Rabbit Hole, where he was a senior gameplay software engineer at Rabbit Hole Interactive.Dimitri Sirenko, Artist - Sirenko was previously an artist at The Sequence Group.Daphne Mui, Jr System Administrator - Finally Mui comes from Ericsson, where she previously worked as a software development co-op.

Kabam

Traci Hui, UI Artist – A single hire for Kabam this week. Hui was formerly a traffic manager at Image Comics.

Kixeye

Romain Di Vuolo, Software Engineer - Kixeye also makes our list with one hire. Di Vuolo comes from Casualing, where he was also a software engineer.Scott Ward, CFO - Boston based Nanigans make our list with some very high profile hires. First up is new CFO Ward, who was formerly the CFO at Chitika.Ben Tregoe, SVP Business Development - Next up Tregoe, the the former founder and CEO of Getsugar who joins the company as the SVP of business developement.Nanigans also told us it had added four new members to its operations team to keep pace with new business.

Playfish

Sergio De Natale, XML Game Coder - De Natale makes the the jump from Mixel Scarl, where he was a junior developer.

Zynga

Joel Thomas, Senior Concept Artist - Zynga closes out our listing this week with a pair of hires. Thomas was previously a concept artist at Electric Bat Interactive.Jason Kim, Technical Game Designer - Next up is Kim, who was formerly the lead game designer and game programmer at Frozen Codebase.

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Social Gaming News Roundup: Zynga, Ubisoft and Kixeye

Zynga Hit With Shares Scandal – The Wall Street Journal reports that Zynga is looking to re-distribute the amount of shares that have been given to employees by demanding some employees sign over shares they had previously been awarded. CNN later received a copy of an internal Zynga memo, which said “the story is based on hearsay” and affirmed that “being a meritocracy is one of [Zynga’s] core values.”

Ubisoft Earnings Call Overview - Earlier this week Ubisoft had its third quarter earnings call. CEO Yves Guillemot said the the developments in the social space had been “exciting” for the company, with its Facebook game The Smurfs & Co. outperforming expectations in terms of both sales and profitability. He also said while the company focuses on creative content, Ubisoft is using analytics to ensure the company has both famous brands and great content. For the next quarter Guillemot revealed the company is trying to capitalize on the Facebook fanbase of its Assassin’s Creed brand, potentially through a new companion game similar to Ghost Recon Commander. He also revealed that Germany is a star territory for the company, generating higher average revenue per user as compared to other regions.

Xbox Live Boosts Social Features – Online gaming service Xbox Live is revamping its web portal Xbox.com with a host of new features, designed to make playing games on the network more social. In a new Social section users will be able to set beacons on game they wish to play with their friends and view their friend’s activity streams to learn what their friends are currently playing.

Call of Duty Elite Social Network Struggles Under Load – While it may have been one of the most highly anticipated game launches of the year, Activision’s Call of Duty Elite social network wasn’t ready for how popular the game would be. In what has been a very bad week for the Activision, it was revealed that the service’s PC launch had been delayed due to to security concerns. Meanwhile many subscribers have not been able to connect with the service due to heavy demand. In response Activision is extending all subscriptions by one month.

U.S. Population of “Gamers” Doubles – Research firm Parks Associates has released a study indicating the number of people in the U.S. who play at least one hour of video games a month has doubled in three years, from 56 million in 2008 to 135 million in 2011. The firm credits the increase to “casual gamers” who play games on social networks and mobile devices.

U.S. Colleges Now in CityVille – The Collegiate Licensing Co. has signed a deal with Zynga to extend its suite of brands into CityVille digital goods. Players can now add college-themed clock towers, libraries, dorms and sport stadiums to their CityVille cities. So far the top selling schools are Alabama, Clemson, Boston College, East Carolina and Boise State.

Take-Two Raising Cash for Mobile or Social Acquisition - Industrygamers.com is reporting that publisher Take-Two Interactive issued $200 million in convertible senior notes this week, a move that industry analyst Michael Pachter thinks is a precursor to a major mobile or social gaming acquisition.

Winter is Coming… To Social Games -  USA Today is reporting that George R.R. Martin’s popular book and HBO TV series Game of Thrones series will soon be the subject of a console game, an MMO and a social game developed by German free-to-play giant BigPoint. Little is known about the social game so far.

Ubisoft: Slow Social Road is Better - In an interview with Gamasutra, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said his company’s social games strategy has been more cautious than those of competitors EA and Activision. According to Guillemot, while AAA titles can benefit immensely from what he calls a social “revolution,” Ubisoft doesn’t “buy a company or work with a company to create [sales], we actually work from within the company, so that all of the games can take advantage of this revolution within the industry.”

[Launch] World of Football Makes its Facebook Debut – Danish developer Big Bite Games’ Facebook game World of Football has gone into closed Alpha. The game is a 3D synchronous multiplayer game, that allows users to play real-time football (soccer) games with up to 19 other users at a time. The game will go into open beta in early 2012.

[Funding] Mention Mobile Gets $250,000 from Reality TV Mogul Mark Cuban - According to a TechCrunch exclusive, LA based Mention Mobile has netted $250,000 from Mark Cuban to develop its line of Facebook integrated mobile games.

[Launch] Backyard Monsters Comes to Yahoo! – Viximo is bringing Kixeye’s popular real time strategy game Backyard Monsters to Yahoo’s Games and Messenger portals. The game currently has 3 million MAU and 760,000 DAU on Facebook, according to AppData.

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Kixeye Raises $18M Third Round, Brings Zynga Co-Founder Trader to Board

Backyard Monsters developer Kixeye announced a third round of funding today totally $18 million from Jafco Ventures, Trinity Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partner. Additionally, Zynga co-founder Andrew Trader will join the developer’s board.

Back in April, the company formerly known as Casual Collective re-branded as Kixeye and focused all development on the Facebook platform. Since that time, the developer has launched Battle Pirates and is set to bring out a third Facebook-only game, War Commander, later this summer. The total employee headcount of the developer has gone from 3 to 60 in the last 18 months and our AppData traffic tracking service puts its overall growth in monthly active users up 41% to 5.1 million and its daily active users up 37% to 1.1 million since the start of 2011.

The key to Kixeye’s success appears to be targeting a niche “hardcore” market in a manner similar to Kingdoms of Camelot developer Kabam. These focused approaches appear to be paying off; Kixeye claims that Battle Pirates players spend 20 times the industry average. Even with revenues like that, however, the developer has had raise some capital to become completely profitable, netting $4.5 million in funding prior to this round.

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Kixeye calls Kabam a copycat; Kabam says, 'Am not!'

Alright, so it's more serious than that, but we just can't help but envision these debates happening in schoolyards rather than public forums. Gamasutra reports that Kixeye has publicly accused Kingdoms of Camelot creator Kabam of copying the hit Kixeye game Backyard Monsters in creating EdgeWorld, Kabam's brand new Facebook strategy game. Of course, Kabam firmly denies the allegations.

"There is no question that the engineers of EdgeWorld had Backyard Monsters open in one window while they coded the copy in another," Kixeye CEO Will Harbin said in a statement. "It's not detrimental to Kixeye in the short term, but this kind of practice is bad for all of us in the gaming industry - it will eventually sour users and it certainly does the opposite of proving that Facebook can be a legitimate gaming platform."

Whoa, those are some pretty harsh--and specific--claims. Kixeye went even further, according to Gamasutra, to compare Kabam's hit Kingdoms of Camelot with fantasy strategy game Evony as evidence that Kabam "is wasting talent and resources on cloning games that already exist."

Kabam CEO Kevin Chou said in response that Edgeworld, which hovers at about 200 thousand monthly players since its launch, draws inspiration from "movies, pop culture, science fiction, literature, history and, most importantly, from our players." That's in addition to borrowing ideas and techniques from its previous four games. (In other words, "Am not!")

Keep in mind that these sort of exchanges aren't uncommon to Facebook games. In fact, Zynga--which has a lawsuit on its plate from SocialApps over allegedly misused source code from its game myFarm that led to FarmVille's inception--knows the feeling very well. We've contacted both developers for comment.

Do you think Kixeye has a case against Kabam? How or when do you think Facebook developers will rise from this level of interaction and give up on the copycat games? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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New This Week on the Inside Network Job Board: 6waves, AdParlor, Kixeye and More

The Inside Network Job Board is dedicated to providing you with the best job opportunities in the Facebook Platform and social gaming ecosystem.

Here are this week’s highlights from the Inside Network Job Board, including positions at AdParlor, 6waves, Openfeint, Tagged, TinyCo, PopCap Games, Context Optional, Roblox, PopCap Games and Kixeye.

Listings on the Inside Network Job Board are distributed to readers of Inside Social Games, Inside Facebook and Inside Mobile Apps through regular posts and widgets on the sites. Your open positions are being seen by the leading developers, product managers, marketers, designers, and executives in the Facebook Platform and social gaming industry today.

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