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Zynga adding real-time multiplayer to its games, starting with Bubble Safari
Zynga is introducing real-time multiplayer to its games through zynga.com, starting today with Bubble Safari. Booting up Bubble Safari allows players to enter a live match with four other people, friends and strangers alike. Each multiplayer match runs for 90 seconds, a time that can be easily changed in the backend, Zynga announced at its conference today.Bubble Safari multiplayer will also incorporate in-game group chat.Real-time multiplayer will be available in all games in the new Zynga With Friends network from here on out. This is not to be confused with the Zynga With Friends studio, formerly Newtoy, which produces titles such as Words With Friends and Hanging With Friends. The network has 290 million users and will soon replace zynga.com on the web and mobile with more social features and an inbox function.
How Mark Turmell went from creating NBA Jam to match-three at Zynga
It's been almost a year since NBA Jam creator Mark Turmell left Electronic Arts to join social gaming powerhouse Zynga. Now, the company is finally ready to reveal his first project, Bubble Safari. Zynga's first arcade title, Bubble Safari tasks a former space program monkey named Bubbles (not that Bubbles, presumably) with saving his jungle friends. Bubbles does so in the only logical way: A match-three bubble-popping puzzle game.Bubble Safari will launch tomorrow on both Facebook and Zynga.com, with a mobile version under consideration.It might seem strange for Turmell to move from the likes of Smash TV, NBA Jam and NFL Blitz to a puzzle game, but he sees them all as fundamentally arcade experiences. "Match-three games have been around for 20-plus years," he says, "even the original Bust-A-Move in the arcade was one of my favorite games – that was in the same era as NBA Jam."%Gallery-154879%
Zynga's Bubble Safari out tomorrow, created by NBA Jam's Mark Turmell
Zynga has announced Bubble Safari, its first project headed up by Mark Turmell, who joined the company last year after leaving EA. A match-three puzzle game, Bubble Safari has players bursting bubbles, earning power-ups, and saving woodland creatures from poachers (and generally reminiscing about Bust-A-Move).Bubble Safari is free-to-play and will be released tomorrow on Zynga.com and Facebook, Zynga tells Joystiq. Check out the first trailer above.%Gallery-154879%
