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Ravenwood Fair, a Facebook game from ... John Romero?
You're probably familiar with the name John Romero. The legendary co-founder of id Software, and co-creator of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake, Romero is often credited with the first-person shooter mechanic that now commands so much of the video gaming world's devotion. And you might be surprised to learn that Romero's newest game -- no, it's not the Slipgate Ironworks-developed MMO, though he's still working on that as well, downsizing be damned -- is a Facebook game called Ravenwood Fair. "Clear the scary forest and build a fun fair!" it instructs players. The game -- built by the terribly titled, up-and-coming Facebook dev LOLapps -- is akin to peers like Zynga's Frontierville. In fact, Romero points to Frontierville's lead designer Brian Reynolds, formerly of Big Huge Games, for helping set the Facebook stage for developers like himself. "I knew when the game developers moved into social games it would get more gamed up," Romero told VentureBeat. The small-scale, "craftsman-like" work of building a Facebook game is familiar to Romero; id's original (and current!) team sizes are dwarfed by the rest of the industry. Romero's projects with larger teams -- from the ill-received Daikatana to the refocused Gazillion-published MMO -- are complicated affairs, while his early cellphone-gaming company, Monkeystone Games, was marked by a familiar DIY ethos. VentureBeat reports that "it took Romero and his handful of people about two months to make" Ravenwood Fair. For Romero, that's an incredible trade-off for the hundreds of millions of potential users Facebook offers. "More people could play it than would ever play an MMO," Romero said. You can play Ravenwood Fair today, if you're not worried about certain Facebook apps accidentally revealing your personal info to unscrupulous advertisers. But then, who will clear the scary forest? Decisions, decisions.
John Romero becomes consultant for casual game developer LOLapps
John Romero may forever be known as the man behind Doom and Daikatana to hardcore gamers, but he's since diversified his resume quite a bit. While he remains the head of MMO developer Slipgate, Romero is now acting as a consultant for casual game developer LOLapps. The company boasts over 100 million users of its various Facebook apps, such as Gift Creator and Quiz Creator; its most recent title is Critter Island (pictured above), "a game where you can decorate an island for tourists and invite friends to come visit." Romero recently joined the team to work on an unnamed Facebook game, one that will likely follow the company's mantra to "[marry] web and game technology to the kind of mini virtual worlds that are popular on Facebook." We're not exactly sure what that means, but it should sound thrilling to venture capitalists. "This is where the excitement is now," Romero told VentureBeat, marking the next step in the developer's rather unique career.
Get your Champions fix on Facebook
Recently we spotted an interesting post from Bill Roper, Design Director for Cryptic Studios' MMO Champions Online. On his Facebook page he showed a slightly blurry picture of a developers booth with the simple caption "GDC 2010: The developers of our Facebook Game." Sure enough you can now play a Mafia Wars style Facebook game while wearing your tightest spandex! It runs in your browser and hooks up to your Facebook account so that you can choose to announce level ups and achievements. You can also invite friends to form a superteam, customize your secret base and even attack other players. Developer Lolapps claims to have "over 40 million active users per month, and has the largest network of social games and applications on Facebook." It looks like they know what they are doing, so it is definitely worth a look. Head over now, make your hero and get to stopping crime!
