Courtesy of the GDC Vault is another free video from its extensive archive of recorded GDC sessions.
This time, Zynga's Mark Skaggs discusses his lessons learned between launching FarmVille and CityVille, in a case study that shows how far social games have evolved in just a few short years from GDC Online 2012.
Speakers: Mark Skaggs
Track / Format: Design / Lecture
Overview: The evolution that occurred in social games between the 18 months from the launch of FarmVille and CityVille represented a new "generation" of social games. In many cases, a traditional game would still be in development over that period of time. Hear Mark Skaggs, SVP of Games at Zynga, and creator of FarmVille and CityVille describe his top lessons learned from creating break out social games. Learn about Mark's new mindset on creating games today, how to tackle the challenge of making data-driven decisions, things that went wrong over various projects and what the "next generation" of games will bring.
About the GDC Vault
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Zynga's evolution from Farmville to Cityville is on the size of the targets they choose to copy. Farmville copied from a small, independent developer while Cityville copied from a bigger, more established developer.
He adapted something from some English author who was no longer trying to make money or a living off royalties from that work. Slight difference, but an important one.
So no one can write another Hero's Story because Joseph Campbell's heirs have an interest? It may boil down to the difference between a patent and a copyright...
Frankly, I'm interested in building a better freight car and appreciate evolutionary thoughts from another successful freight car builder.
That's it.
"Freight cars, each one looks the same" - Steve Alaimo, Greg Allman
Frankly, I'm interested in building a better freight car and appreciate evolutionary thoughts from another successful freight car builder.