In less than a year, more than 58 million monthly active users are playing Zynga arcade games which include Bubble Safari, Zynga Slingo and Ruby Blast Adventures. And while we were busy releasing these great experiences on web, behind the scenes we’ve been hard at work to bring everything we love about social arcade games to mobile.
Today, on behalf of the talented team in Zynga China, I’m proud to announce that Ruby Blastlaunches as a connected, multi-platform experience available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch joining games like Zynga Poker and Words With Friends – two of our early examples of connected play.
With Ruby Blast mobile, players can carry their scores wherever they go, challenge friends in a head-to-head race to compete for high scores and prizes or kindly send them energy and gifts so they can dive even deeper into their own mines. Key game progress including power-ups, goals and community leaderboards are synced across both web and mobile games. Players will also find that Ruby Blast mobile has the same beauty and pace as Ruby Blast Adventuresfrom the web, and it’s even easier now to match gems thanks to the aid of two thumbs. But it will still require skills to dig deep into mines; you won’t get ahead with just aimless button smashing.
When we launched Ruby Blast Adventures on the web, we wanted to bring players a whole new way to experience a match-3 game. Fast-paced gameplay, over the top power-ups, unique social features, and quite possibly the most visually stunning social game anchored an experience that we believe moved the category forward. Since then, we’ve added a brand new way to play with Adventure Mode, where players progress across a series of levels to uncover ancient treasure. We’ve also made countless changes to Ruby Blast Adventures based on player feedback, and it’s clear they like what we’ve added to the game.
We ran the numbers, and since the launch of Ruby Blast Adventures, players have:
- Dug 3.1+ billion feet – enough to drill the diameter of the earth over 74 times (or 37 round trips to Zynga China)
- Spent over 630 years of actual game time digging and finding hidden treasure
- Unearthed more than 157 million emeralds, 618 million rubies, and 13 billion coins
- Won almost 80 million stars in the new Adventure mode. Almost as many stars as this picture of the Milky Way.
Fun is only one piece of the equation. While social arcade games are uniquely suited for mobile, the trick is creating an experience that’s just as fast-paced and social — no matter the device. When we approach making multi-platform games, we are laser focused on building an experience accessible to all devices, yet tailored to bring out the most fun for the specific platform. This is where multi-platform is most challenging, both in design and technology.
Whether it’s in the form of a connected game – like Ruby Blast – or whether it’s an experience that simply carries the look and feel of a Web franchise to mobile – we want our players to enjoy our games whether they’re a click or tap away. And, as we continue to release new multi-platform games, we’ll do what we do best: listen to our players and deliver the experience they want.
Check out Ruby Blast on the Apple App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch while continuing the journey in Ruby Blast Adventures on Facebook and Zynga.com.
