TribePlay's Cube Galaxy is a chip off the Diamond Dash block

It's only been two months since TribePlay released their first Facebook game. But the brainiacs that brought us BrainJewel, an Egyptian-themed math and logic game, have now debuted their second game ever, a sci-fi themed falling blocks puzzler for Facebook called "Cube Galaxy". While brain games are a rarity on Facebook, puzzlers are a popular genre dominated by two greats -- PopCap's Bejeweled Blitz and Wooga's Diamond Dash.

Available in English, German, French, Portuguese, and Chinese, Cube Galaxy was made in Chengdu, the capitol of Sichuan province in China. This game's got all the bells and whistles of your typical Facebook puzzler, including 60-second rounds, the option to purchase boosts with coins or Facebook Credits, the ability to send friends virtual gifts, compare scores with your friends, and a weekly leaderboard. In fact, Cube Galaxy bears a striking resemblance to Diamond Dash. Those basics aside, it does manage to offer a few new twists in terms of gameplay.
Cube Galaxy Thunder Boost
Your goal is to eliminate cubes on the screen by arranging them in groups of 3 or more. But these cubes can be moved one at a time, at your discretion, and they also don't disappear unless you decide they're good enough to zap away. The pace of the game feels faster than either Diamond Dash or Bejeweled Blitz, even though these rounds only last a minute. This is because you're handling a smaller playing field, one that starts off empty, then quickly fills up randomly, just like Tetris.

Gallery: Cube Galaxy

Before a round, you can add boosts to your game, but not all of them are unlocked until you level up. During a round, if you earn points fast enough, your screen will go into Overdrive, which nets you special items for higher scores. Finally, each round concludes with something called "Last Blow", which zaps all the blocks off your board that's in groups of 3 or more. Needless to say, it's in your best interests to keep shuffling blocks until the final second, even if you can't click on those blocks to zap them. Points earned during Last Blow get an added percentage bonus based on what level you're at. For example, if you're at Level 3, you get a +3% added to your Last Blow points.

While Cube Galaxy offers very little that's new, it's still a solid title with a nice aesthetic and a mascot. It'd be nice if TribePlay took further advantage of their sci-fi theme and adorable alien, "QT" (which is Chinese keyboard slang for "cutie"), such as turning him into a virtual buddy, to offer user customizations for the game. Some good examples would be enabling players to purchase backgrounds, interactive animations (hey, "durable virtual goods that enable new gameplay experiences" have definitely worked for The Sims Social), and costumes for QT to wear. Since the game is currently still in beta, one can hope. Right now, there's just not much helping this title stand above the rest.

Click here to play Cube Galaxy on Facebook now >

Do you find Cube Galaxy more challenging than Diamond Dash?

Zynga CEO's memo to employees: 'We have nothing to hide in our past'

The big red dog bites back. FarmVille maker Zynga came under fire recently from a Wall Street Journal report that claims CEO Mark Pincus and other executives asked early employees for their unvested stock or face termination. Now, Pincus has responded. Well, not directly, but to his employees. Fortune acquired the Zynga chief's memo to his staff of 2,000 plus.

"The wall street journal posted a story last night (copied below) which paints our meritocracy in a false and skewed light," the memo reads. "The story is based on hearsay and innuendo which is disappointing but is to be expected as we move towards becoming a public company."

The guy has a point: The media has employed a laser focus on Zynga since it revealed its intent to file for its initial public offering (IPO), but this report is by far the most ... unfortunate. Before receiving the memo, Fortune issued its own response to the WSJ report, looking to downplay the severity of the issue.

As the memo reads on, Pincus reminds his employees of Zynga's core values. More importantly, the Zynga chief says that Zynga has "nothing to hide." (But we're reminded of a certain TechCrunch story and video.) Read the memo in full below:

    Team,

    The wall street journal posted a story last night (copied below) which paints our meritocracy in a false and skewed light. The story is based on hearsay and innuendo which is disappointing but is to be expected as we move towards becoming a public company.

    We have nothing to hide in our past and present policies and I am proud of the ethical and fair way that we've built this company. As many of you have heard me say -- we're building a house that we want to live in.

    Being a meritocracy is one of our core values and it's on our walls. We believe that every employee deserves the same opportunity to lead. Its not about where or when you enter zynga its how far you can grow. This is what our culture of leveling up is all about and its one of our coolest features.

    we want everyone to put zynga first and contribute to the overall success of our company and all of you have.

    thanks,
    mark

What are your thoughts on the WSJ report? How about Pincus's response?

Does the Call of Duty maker hope to rock the world of social games?

Activision Blizzard, the publisher of hit shooter series Call of Duty, appears to have a love-hate relationship with Facebook gaming. But that scale appears to slowly be tipping in the lovey-dovey direction. During a recent interview with Bloomberg, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick hinted that the company's next move could be a social one, and in a big, big way.

"The exciting thing about Zynga or Facebook as a platform, is they're bringing new audiences to gaming that have never been gamers before," Kotick told Bloomberg. "When you think about that target of a 50 or 55-year-old woman that has never really experienced a game, or someone who's coming in for the first time to play a game with their friends on Facebook, that is a fantastic new platform."

These comments are far more enthusiastic about social gaming than Activision has ever been. While strides have been made to capitalize on the benefits of social gaming with the Call of Duty Elite service, other execs within the company appear even threatened by the prospects of Facebook games. But recently, CFO Thomas Tippl revealed that the shooter king is "methodically investing in mobile and social gaming projects."

"Now, we're never gonna be first guys into those markets, but we usually are the best," Kotick said, closing the interview with Bloomberg on a high note. We'll just have to see how Zynga and EA respond to that. In the video interview below, skip to about 4:30 to hear Kotick's thoughts on Facebook games.


Is there still time for Activision Blizzard to make waves in social gaming similar to EA and Playfish?

Three lessons social games can learn from Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the mother of all go-anywhere, do-anything role-playing games, arrives on store shelves today, and you can bet there are a more than a few people ditching work due to a sudden bout of the Skyrim flu. With all of the buzz surrounding this new game (and the fact that not too many people seem willing to skip work to play a new Facebook game), here's a few lessons social game makers can adopt.

1. Let the players pick their own style

One of the things Skyrim does best is throw away boundaries found in most games and let the player dictate their own experience. That includes everything from your avatar's physical details (right down to nose length and chin width) to what type of player they want to be. Do you want to rush into battle wielding an axe? Shoot magic spells from your hands? Both? You can do it all. There's also the option to jump headfirst into the main action or dabble with alchemy, which involves collecting plants and other items, mixing them together and watch the results. It would be interesting to see more social games give players more freedom to craft the entire experience. Imagine being able to mix a purple cow with a certain type of tractor in FarmVille for some interesting results.

2. Make the game feel expansive

Skyrim offers players a big expansive world to play in, and that's one of the biggest selling points in the game. You can literally walk dozens of square miles in the game, while taking in the vast landscape around you. There's something about being given a wide-open playground that lends to the fun, as if anything can happen at any given moment. Games like FarmVille, CityVille and The Sims Social tend to take place in a small, confined area that the player can claim as his/her own. There's the option to visit your friends' homes/farms/cities, but that is also in the same confined area and there's nothing connecting the various locations, taking away from that go-anywhere, do-anything sense of adventure.

skyrim dragon

3. Don't ignore the story

Story is an essential element in Skyrim and helps you pull you into the game from the very beginning. And, as any good game storytelling should, it keeps you playing just to see what happens next. In social games, story is still mostly an afterthought. FrontierVille/Pioneer Trail was the first big social game to take a stab at having a central story to back up the action -- and other games, such as Playdom's Deep Realms, have followed suit -- but there is still plenty of room for social games that take storytelling seriously.

What other lessons can social games take from more traditional video games? What would you like to see?

Survey: Nearly 20 percent of social game fans are brand new gamers

And you claim to "dabble" in FarmVille and the like--we're onto you. A new survey by Bejeweled Blitz maker PopCap and Information Solutions Group found that 68 percent of social gamers play said games at least once daily. That amounts to 81 million players, while a still-impressive 49 million (41 percent) report playing social games multiple times daily.

The survey was completed by 1,201 people (801 in the U.S. and 400 in the UK) who reported playing social games more than 15 minutes a week. All in all, according to this survey, social games are on the rise, but you already knew that. What's important to note is that 17 percent of all social gamers have never played a video game before. (According to the survey, they're mostly 50 plus women.) While much smaller than you might have imagined, it's without a doubt that the genre has literally created a new breed of gamer.

As these new social gamers continue to invest themselves in their favorite Facebook games more traditional companies will undoubtedly attempt to garner their attention. Of course, these folks will have different expectations of what a video game actually is, and therefore change how games are made ... perhaps across the board.

And, according to the survey, more folks between 18 and 29 years old are playing social games, who have more likely than not played video games before. When new demographics crop up in any industry, they're almost immediately targeted. The social games movement will be no different, and color us intrigued to see the results. Click here to see the full survey.

Do you consider yourself a new breed of gamer, or one that's simply taken an interest to social games? How do you think social games will continue to change video games across the board?

CastleVille: Zynga's next 'Ville' is now live on Facebook

FarmVille and CityVille-maker Zynga's next new game, CastleVille, is now live on Facebook. The game is best described as FrontierVille meets Medieval Times, and the goal of the game is to build your kingdom by completing missions, exploring new territories and helping friends do the same. If you've played other Zynga games, this will feel instantly familiar, save for a few new enhanced features. Whether that's enough new stuff to get (and keep) Facebook gamers interested remains to be seen.

Click here to play CastleVille now & stay tuned for our first impressions and getting started guides.

Psst! Want to make new friends to play CastleVille with? Head over to our new CastleVille "Add Me" page for details on how to do just that.