Music games are a rarity on Facebook, but a quickly growing title by the name of Instant Jam has revitalized our faith in the genre. Developed by InstantAction, the game has recently grown to north of 400,000 monthly active users.

Essentially Facebook Guitar Hero, Instant Jam takes all the core elements of the rhythm-based console game and spins them into a social environment. While the concept has been done many times before, InstantAction is evidently well aware of the problems of these games and does a pretty decent job at mitigating them. The app is still a bit temperamental about playing music, but thus far such issues have been fairly isolated.

For anyone that has played either Guitar Hero or Rock Band, it will be obvious what Instant Jam is all about. Players pick a song, and as it plays, frets, representing the notes in the track, stream down the neck of the guitar. The user must time a button press to the fret when it reaches the bottom. Unfortunately, most games in the past — such as Rock Riotfrom Slide — have only made use of specific letter or number keys and/or have had miniscule selections for music.

The problem is that such rock games are intended to create the feeling of being a rock star. It’s why the guitar controllers are so effective in making the Activision and Harmonix titles so entertaining, and why social, PC-based titles have fallen apart. InstantAction realizes this, so it is, surprisingly, compatible with the guitar controllers. Unfortunately, wired controllers haven’t been used regularly since the 2nd installment of the Guitar Hero franchise, and never for Rock Band (at least not as a default controller to come with the game). However, there does appear to be an adaptor slot for a USB cable in many of the newer guitar controllers.

As for the other issue that plagues these games, Instant Jam also fixes the music selection issue by searching the player’s computer for every usable song they might have.

This feature feels a bit confusing, as the search for usable songs suggests that Instant Jam can play any of them. Not all songs can actually be played (e.g. some of our instrumental-only music), but a surprising number are available.

Once a song is selected, the game can be played on four difficulty levels, ranging from casual to expert level. However, quite a few songs can only be played on the upper difficulties. Thankfully, unlike Guitar Hero, there is no fail mechanic. Everything is done in a Tap Tap Revenge style where missing notes only reduces the potential score. As players hit notes in sequence, a score multiplier works up, but once something is missed, it goes back down to one.

In addition to this, there is a “Jam Power” boost that can be charged during play by hitting all specially highlighted notes in a sequence. Once activated, it will boost the score multiplier.

At the end of each song, players will earn experience and coins (as a side note, players get a limited number of plays a day). The latter only appears to be used to unlock items in the store such as new frets, guitars, and background videos. The coins, on the other hand, are not only used to purchase sessions, but can also be utilized to buy special power ups to boost one’s score. As the core social mechanic to this game is to play, then challenge friends to beat that high score, powerups make for a nice advantage. Other than this, however, the only other social mechanics are the standard leaderboards amongst friends and gifting.

The downside to Instant Jam, at least for now, is that the game is a bit temperamental in the songs it likes to play. Many songs have variations; it could be a Live rendition, or it could be the single version, or some special edition track (e.g. with an introduction of some sort). Regardless, if the version the user has is not the exact version in the game, it doesn’t work. It will still play, but there will be no music. For the most part, the developers state that should the basic notes match up, the different versions will work, but as one can surmise, a single version versus a live version does not always synch up.

As a side not, the developer has also told us that there are places within the game to request songs to be added to the game. Furthermore, players are rewarded with extra plays and virtual currency for purchasing songs through the game.

Overall, Instant Jam is one of the best rhythm games we’ve seen on Facebook, recognizing the shortcomings of past titles and doing its best to remedy them. It’s not a perfect solution, as many users likely do not have the old, wired guitar or any adapters, but if they do, this is a game that could easily be loaded on a laptop, plugged into a TV, and played Guitar Hero style (yes, it does have a full screen mode). Furthermore, with a large selection of music, it allows users to play a large portion of their favorite songs without having to spend $60-$100 on a console game, containing many songs they‘ve never heard of. Of course, the game doesn’t cooperate with all versions of a song, so if the user doesn’t have the one the game uses, they’ll have to buy it. Even so, most of them do seem to work.

In the past, these social rhythm games have been unable to truly hang on to their users, but Instant Jam may just have a chance.

Almost five months after Zynga’s initial release of FarmVille on the iPhone, the company has followed through on its promise to also release the game for the iPad.

Regular iPhone players won’t see much that’s different in the iPad version. The biggest step for Zynga was the creation of new graphics for the iPad’s larger screen, a significant time investment that probably explains the months-long wait.

In its press release, Zynga calls the iPhone version of FarmVille an “instant hit”. That’s a subjective measurement that some may not agree with. While FarmVille has appeared a 50 times among the top 25 free game downloads, according to Zynga, the free charts are somewhat less competitive than the paid, and FarmVille has rarely appeared at the very top of the list.

The game is for some stiff competition on the iPad, where Ngmoco’s We Farm, also a virtual goods-based farming game, is getting rave reviews. Facebook games typically haven’t done well on iDevices as native mobile games, mainly being used by Facebook players who want to stay connected to their virtual space.

But Zynga has an ace up its sleeve: earlier this month, it acquired Bonfire Studios, the company that actually developed We Farm. As we noted afterward, Zynga looks like it’s readying a mobile push for the near future, of which FarmVille could be a component.

Earlier this year, Digital Chocolate launched its NanoVerse franchise of games. The core mechanic of the NanoVerse is purchaseable virtual cards called NanoStars, which, once bought, become usable across all of the NanoStar titles. Although the first two titles, NanoStar Castles and NanoStar Siege, didn’t perform spectacularly well, Digital Chocolate is sticking with the concept for Card Rivals, which was just released on Facebook.

Third though it may be, Card Rivals is essentially the same as the older Castles title. The big difference is that it is no longer fantasy-based, and takes on a more casual, yet quirky, look. In fact, it’s best described as a 2.0 version, improving mechanics rather than all out changing them. It may be that Digital Chocolate intended this game as a second stab at Castles, which reportedly had scaling issues that impacted its growth.

For those that never played NanoStar Castles, the rules of Card Rivals are pretty simple. Over the course of 10 turns, players draw both NanoStar and regular playing cards. On the field are four playing cards — two face up and two face down (neither player can see the face down cards). The idea is to draw playing cards and replace those on the player’s side of the field so that their cumulative total is higher than the opponent’s.

As for the NanoStar cards, these are reminiscent of collectible card games such as Magic: The Gathering. Each card has special abilities that can boost the player’s playing card’s total, reduce the opponent’s, or trap enemy NanoStars that get played. This is where strategy comes into the picture.

Many of the NanoStars provide seemingly useless abilities, such as turning a specific type of playing card into another type. However, other NanoStars can affect only specific types of cards as well. As an example, one card can boost diamond cards by two, while another might be able to turn a face up or face down card into a diamond. Since multiple NanoStars can be played in one turn, it’s possible to see what this sort of combination will do.

In addition to this, as playing cards are drawn they can be used to replace one of the four playing cards that player has on the field. Neither player can see what the face down cards are initially, although their values can be learned during gameplay. Whenever a card is replaced, it is placed, face up, in the discard pile, from which the next player can draw.

The winner is determined by whomever has they highest total at the end of 10 turns, but like Castles, users have the option to “Knock” at the start of their turn. This effectively ends the game, but will deduct the number of remaining turns from the total points earned by the one who initiated it. The advantage to knocking is the opportunity to end a game before an enemy strategy can be fulfilled.

One of the nice things about Card Rivals, and all NanoStar games, is that there is a tremendous variety of cards that can be purchased. Another problem in Castles was that most players did not wish to buy such cards, and those that did make purchases had distinct advantages. This is changed in Rivals — and, evidentially, in a more recent version of Castles — as players not only begin with a starter deck of 20 cards, but can play a single player mode called “Kingdom Play.”

This mode pits the user against ever increasing difficulties of AI opponents, but gives a few free NanoStars as they progress. Additionally, players can compete in “Elite Live Matches” to earn bonus cards as well (note that Castles also now has Novice Live Matches and regular Live Matches).

As for social play with friends, there is the typical challenge mode, along with leaderboards. Furthermore, as with Castles, players can battle against the deck of a friend in single player mode. It’s not quite the same as asynchronous multiplayer, but it is interesting to see if one can compete with the strategies developed within a friends’ deck.

Objectively speaking, Card Rivals is as decent game a game as NanoStar Castles, and earns extra points for not raising crops, but evidence has shown that the predecessor never really took off. As noted above, Digital Chocolate felt that Castles had significant back-end issues that prevented the game from scaling up, and put off numerous players who tried the game at its initial launch.

That said, one must wonder why Digital Chocolate didn’t simply try to revive Castles once the technical issues were solved. It may be that the company thought the original name and concept had been ruined in players’ minds. On the other hand, one can’t help but feel that Digital Chocolate may have decided that the original fantasy theme was a turnoff to players. Millions of players have played fantasy-themed games on Facebook, though, so it’s not clear yet that a simple change of scenery will be enough to make Rivals take off.

After two weeks of heavy hiring in social gaming, this week is back to normal. Even so, a number of the major social developers have come to see new faces according to data from LinkedIn, including the relatively quiet wooga and iWin. Nevertheless, most companies, save Zynga, only saw a handful of new hires, but of all of them, iWin and RockYou! appear to have the largest changes. The former has brought on Rohan Sardesai, who comes joins as their new Sr. Director of Product Management for Social Games for the former. The latter company gets Ryo Ishizuka, who becomes RockYou! Asia’s new Chief Operating Officer.

There is also a late addition to the list, as developer FreshPlanet has also informed us of two new hires of their own, the now Chief Design Officers of Naomi Clark and Eric Zimmerman.

As always, if your company is bringing on new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email editor (at) insidesocialgames (dot) com, and we’ll get it into this or next week’s post.

For those searching for new jobs, be sure to check out our Inside Network Job Board.

Here’s this week’s list:

iWin

• Rohan Sardesai — According to what iWin tells us, Sardesai will be joining the team as their new Sr. Director of Product Management for Social Games. Prior to this, Sardesai was the Director of Product Management for LOLapps. Among other duties, he will be overseeing iWin’s Family Feud team.

FreshPlanet

• Naomi Clark — As noted already, Naomi Clark joins FreshPlanet as one of its two new Chief Design Officers. She comes with 20 years of experience working and collaborating with companies such as PBS, Disney, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, and a significant number more.
• Eric Zimmerman — Also joining the FreshPlanet team as the other Chief Design Officer, is Eric Zimmerman. Zimmerman is best known as the Co-Founder and Chief Design Officer of Gamelab.

Kabam

• Phuong Vu — Formerly a Senior Sales Development Specialist for LinkedIn, Vu is now a Recruiter for the social developers at Kabam.
• P.T. Schroeder — Schroeder joins Kabam as their new Marketing – Visual Designer. Prior to this, Schroeder was dealing with Car Audio Sales at Best Buy.
• Sam McLellan — Coming from YouTube, where he was an Online Operations Associate for its Partner Program, McLellan is now a User Experience Associate for Kabam.

Metrogames

• Sebastian Tleye — Previously a “Programador” for Équila SRL, Tleye joins Metrogames as their newest iPhone Games Developer.

Playdom

• Adam Robertson — In an internal change, stemming from Disney’s acquisition of Playdom, Robertson’s official role changes from Director of Technical Operations at Playdom, to Technical Operations, Playdom for the Disney Interactive Media Group.
• Tamir Nadav — Nadav joins the Playdom team as their newest Game Designer. Before this, he was a Game Designer for Vigil Games.

RockYou!

• Steve Cartwright — Now the “GM Redwood City Studio” for RockYou!, Cartwright was formerly the Manager of Interactive Design for Gazillion Entertainment.
• Ryo Ishizuka — Technically an internal change, Ishizuka is now the Chief Operating Officer for RockYou! Asia. Prior to this, he was a Senior Architect for RockYou!.

Wooga

• Juha Lindell — Their first noted hire in a little while, Lindell joins wooga as their latest Product Managers. Prior to this, Lindell was an Associate Product Manager of Social Games for Digital Chocolate.

Zynga

• Matt Byerly — In an internal change, Byerly switches roles to that of a Network Engineer at Zynga. He was a Linux System Admin.
• Sathish Sathyan Chindarankandy — Chindarankandy joins Zynga as a new Snr. Release Engineer. Before this, Chindarankanday was a Software Engineer for Cognizant Technology Solutions.
• Matt Snow — Formerly an Experience Design Manager for Customer Engagements at Adobe Systems, Snow joins Zynga as an Art Director.
• Michelle Murrett — Now a Technical Research Recruiter for Zynga, Murret was previously a Sr. Software Engineer for ALX Global LLC.
• Dwayne Anderson — Anderson leaves his role as a Quality Assurance Analyst for Eveo to join Zynga as Quality Assurance.
• Peter Chapman — A former Programmer for Bonfire Studios, Chapman joins Zynga under the same Programmer role.
• Brandom Dicks — Dicks joins Zynga as their newest User Interface Designer. Prior to this, he was a User Interface Artist for Cryptic Studios.

Facebook’s rapid maturation as a gaming platform has caused more than one startup to rethink its business this year. The latest to signal a big shift is WonderHill, a San Francisco developer whose latest game is a strategy title called Dragons of Atlantis.

Nothing in WonderHill’s history signaled that it might take on a deep strategy title. Its last big game, Tattoo City, was a lightweight business sim that put players in charge of a tattoo parlor. And when WonderHill raised its venture round in mid-2009, co-founder James Currier told us that he intended to make “wholesome”, non-violent games.

Dragons of Atlantis isn’t exactly a bloodbath, but it’s still a significant step in a new direction. Taking cues from games like Evony and Kingdoms of Camelot, the Dragons universe transports players back to a somewhat non-standard retelling of the Atlantis legend, in which both magic and technology are turned to a fight for survival.

Life’s a Dragon

Evony, Kings of Camelot, Dragons of Atlantis and other games all use a basic layout first made popular in an MMO called Travian; players familiar with one will be able to navigate the others.

The game world is divided into three major areas: the city, field and world map. Your city and field contain over a dozen types of support structures, all of which are eventually needed to play the game. The world map is a wilderness area, containing the kingdoms of other players, resource areas and monster dens.

For the first week of play, Dragons protects new players from attack, giving them time to build up their fledgling kingdom. After that, it’s gloves off, with other players able to invade

The biggest difference in mechanics for Dragons result from the theme and, of course, the dragons themselves.

A big part of the plotline is the anthropus, which are sub-human creatures on whom the Elder race has performed DNA experiments — perhaps a tad too many. The anthropus lurk out in the wilds, waiting to be attacked; as the game develops, they may take on an even more important role.

Each city also gets a resident dragon, which can attack, defend, and be slowly upgraded over time. If overmatched, the dragon can actually be killed, but given a day to recuperate it will by replaced by a fresh recruit, unwitting of its predecessor’s grisly fate.

On the world map, if players should care to attack anything, they’ll have to wait for their troops to assemble and march off to battle. This time restriction, like the dragon’s healing period, is a key monetization strategy for Dragons. Players in a hurry to build, attack, heal or perform any other in-game action can hire Chronos, the lord of time, to shave off anywhere from a minute to 15 hours of game time.

One feature of Dragons that WonderHill seems particularly proud of is the art. Icons and characters bring a hand-drawn flavor, while the pastel shades of the world and city maps are nevertheless crisper and easier to navigate than older games in the genre. Some things, like the dragon, are animated; over time, WonderHill plans to add more movement throughout the game.

Make a New Friend

Another important feature of massively multiplayer games like Dragons is that they don’t follow the Facebook formula for social features. A major draw to the game is the presence of clans, in which players can cooperate and organize attacks against enemies.

Clans can become quite large, whereas most Facebook gamers only have a few close friends playing the same game, and often not at the same hours. So clans make sense. Nevertheless, they’ll be a new feature for Facebook players that haven’t previously encountered Kingdoms of Camelot.

Chat is also an important presence. When entering the game, only “Global” chat, between all the players occupying a particular server, is available. After joining a clan, Alliance chat is also available. This provides an engaging alternative to paying for time to pass — players can simply chat the minutes away.

These ideas aren’t totally new. What would be original is allowing players to plan out their attacks in real time. Battles are currently decided automatically, but true strategy aficionados will want to personally direct their troops. WonderHill is considering a future addition that will alert the player when an attack is happening, so that they can take part if desired. If the fight is between two players, it could provide another layer of social interaction.

The Future for Dragons

As noted above, WonderHill isn’t the first Facebook developer to decide to go with in-depth games and fantasy themes. Meteor Games told us that it would make the switch in September, though we haven’t yet seen a new title from the outfit. In early August, it was Watercooler (now Kabam).

Stan Chudnovsky, WonderHill’s co-founder, tells us that Facebook has evolved enough to make a strategy title successful. “Facebook was an anomaly for a short period, but gaming really didn’t change for the past 20 years. Now we’re getting back to the norm. Everything that worked in real gaming will work here,” he says.

WonderHill is hoping to attract several million players over the next few months — not an entirely unreasonable expectation, given that Kingdoms of Camelot did much the same. Games like Evony and Ikariam also drew over a million users each, but siphoned them off to their own external websites. Currier says that strategy could be a mistake: ““What we’re seeing is that on Facebook the retention and number of hours played per day is higher versus an MMO on its own website,” he says.

So far, Dragons of Atlantis has drawn in over a hundred thousand monthly active users in less than a month, without WonderHill turning on any viral mechanics in the game — once they do, it should grow a bit more quickly.

European developer MegaZebra is doing well with its latest Facebook game, Mahjong Trails. A new iteration on a classic type of casual game, Mahjong Trails is a simple title that has grown steadily in past weeks, now boasting north of 664,000 monthly active users, and doing significantly better than previous MegaZebra title Jewels Rock.

It goes without saying that the entertaining and zen-like nature of Mahjong is contributing to this growth. The rules are fairly simple. Players are given a pattern made up of dozens of random tiles. Each tile has a different image atop it, with more difficult levels of the game containing more variety. The idea is to remove all tiles from the board by matching pairs.

However, a tile can only be selected as part of a pair should it have no tiles above it (many patterns use a pyramid sort of shape), nor any tiles to either its left of right (the left or right side of the tile must be exposed).

This sounds easy enough, but as the patterns become more and more intricate, with more and more tiles, the difficulty of seeing, and then making, matches increases dramatically.

Mahjong Trails doesn’t rely solely on the classic tile game rules. Rather than granting players the ability to select their own patterns and level layouts, Trails has a visible progression to it. Players start on the southernmost tip of South America, and gradually wind themselves around the globe until they reach eastern Asia. Each progressive level becomes significantly harder, and each continent comes with new, stylistic music and backgrounds.

As players win, they earn experience towards new levels, which rewards the user with Trail Coins. With this virtual currency, players are able to purchase seemingly aesthetic items such as new backgrounds and different symbols for the in-game tiles. In fact, as the game’s secondary objective (secondary to actually finishing a puzzle) is to compete with friends for high scores, these decorations actually come in handy.

One of the more important means of augmenting the score is time. Each puzzle in the game has a time limit in which it must be finished, but the faster it is completed, the more points are earned. As such, many of tiles that players can purchase, and will then find in the game, are intentionally designed to be highly contrasting and visible (as are many of the backgrounds). Additionally, players can purchase two power-ups that will either reshuffle the pattern or remove a single tile, in order to keep the player from getting stuck.

Perhaps the most important detail is that players must also purchase “Tickets” in order to progress to higher difficulties (new continents), with each subsequent ticket costing more. In order to mitigate this, the Trails Coins cost of tickets can be substituted by a friend cost. For example, in order to travel to North American, one needs to have three friends playing with them.

Our only real complaint with the game is that Mahjong has been done time and time again, so the core of Mahjong Trails is hardly original. Nevertheless, with new puzzles, a handful of minor mechanics, and new visuals and music (arguably one of the most important aspects of a relaxing Mahjong game), it still feels fresh.

Mahjong Trails is fun if you’re a puzzle-game fan. That said, its new elements are minor compared to the, very dated, core concept. Even so, they are well done, and gives this app a new flavor of its own.

Recently, we launched the Inside Network Job Board – dedicated to providing you with the best job opportunities in the Facebook Platform and social gaming ecosystem.

Here are this week’s highlights from the Inside Network Job Board, including positions at iWin, Fuel Industries, Large Animal Games,  KlickNation, Atari, and CrowdStar.

• Lead Back End Web Developer-Social Games (San Francisco, CA)
  
• Sr. Game Designer – Social Games (San Francisco, CA)

• Flash Game Developer (Culver City, CA)

• Server Engineer (New York, NY)

• Senior Flash Developer (Sacramento, CA)

• Game Producer Online and Social-Atari (Los Angeles, CA)
  

• Business Intelligence Front-End Engineer (Burlingame, CA)

Listings on the Inside Network Job Board are distributed to readers of Inside Facebook and Inside Social Games through regular posts and widgets on the sites. That way, you can be sure that your open positions are being seen by the leading developers, product managers, marketers, designers, and executives in the Facebook Platform and social gaming industry today.

After a release this summer of office employees duking it out in Office Wars, Broken Bulb Studios has gone back to one of the Internet’s most popular topics. Yes, it’s zombies, and with their new Facebook title, aptly named BRAAAINS, Broken Bulb is gunning for a satirical take on the ever-impending zombie apocalypse.

Currently earning just under 500,000 monthly active users and just over 100,000 daily active users, the new app was in our recent emerging titles list and is now Broken Bulb’s third most popular application. As a battle game, it uses mechanics similar to both Office Wars and Ninja Warz. Though familiar in theme and mechanics, Braaains still comes off as fresh and entertaining, with only a few minor usability issues.

Braaains has a simple premise: “Here are some zombies.” The game immediately gifts you a group of the undead. Your task is to raise a horde of these quirky creatures and rise up the Facebook ranks.

Visiting the graveyard allows you to recruit more zombies, with each costing more coin or “Brains” (more on that in a bit). All zombies seem to be the same, other than their date of death and mood. Once a zombie is “exhumed,” they can be equipped with weapons and armor. In this game, however, those terms are used loosely. Clothing is armor, which enhances a zombie’s defense. But the amount of protection an item offers is determined by the game’s own, rather amusing, logic. For example, “tighty whities” are a higher level than a truck driver’s outfit and grant more defense.

Weapons are similarly bizarre. Some, like a baseball bat, make sense — while others, like a cheese wheel, do not. Regardless, weapons increase overall damage and augment attack speed. Not all weapons can be purchased, many must be won.

Once equipped, you can battle other players of your relative level, pitting your zombie horde against you opponent’s. Everything is automated, so the real play comes in the prep work. Once the fight is over, experience and coin are doled out, along with the occasional bonus item. You can opt to keep these bonuses, or share them with your friends via a wall post. First one to click it, gets the item.

Once you level up (or when you earn an achievement), you get a supplementary income called “Brains.” This is where some strategic thinking can help. Brains are earned in relatively small quantities, and are used to enhance a variety of things. They allow you to improve the strength, agility, health, and defense of one individual zombie. But, they are also used to unlock slots for “Enhancer” items — universal augmentations for all zombies. Enhancers can improve both single and multiple stats, depending on the Enhancer level. You can also use Brains to purchase more zombies. These choices allow you to build your army to your own tastes: a  small number of super zombies, an evenly balanced army, or a horde of weaker ones.

Broken Bulb throws in another currency called “Zombonies.” With these, you can purchase temporary items (such as flying buzz saws) to aide your zombies on the battlefield. Zombonies cannot be earned by in-game means. Instead, you accrue them through offers or as gifts from friends.

Other social mechanics in Braaains are also well done. Not only are there leaderboards and player versus player competition, but a slew of mini-games that you can play with friends. These play like classic arcade games — zombie-versions of Memory and Snake etc.

Our only criticism of Braaains is very minor. The game never clearly states what the different stats mean, the significance of speed  on the weapons, or even if a zombie’s mood is merely stylistic rather than tactical. Again, this is very minor, but a simple mouse over tooltip would be nice.

Braaains is a very fun game. The Internet is seething with zombie fans and this game should please them. Already it’s doing better than Office Wars and is coming up fast on Ninja Warz, with roughly one-third the total MAU count. With only minor issues and an amusing spin on a classic concept, we highly recommended Braaains.

Apple is on the lookout for a new partnerships manager to help relationships with both established and up-and-coming games publishers. The position’s official title, according to this job posting, is “Worldwide Developer Relations – Partnership Manager, Casual Games and Social Networking segment.”

Although it has historically been a small gaming platform provider, Apple’s iPhone and iOS devices have enabled a wide range of developers to build popular and sometimes lucrative mobile and social games. Earlier this year, the company took a further step in helping third parties, introducing the Game Center to provide more social connections between mobile gamers.

Meanwhile, third-party developers like Ngmoco have been finding users and revenue through adding their own social features — based on growing virtual goods revenue from free-to-play games on iOS devices, that company just sold to Japan’s DeNA in a deal worth up to $403 million.

Apple follows Google and Facebook’s efforts earlier this year to build out teams for strengthening their gaming ecosystems. In addition to filling product management positions around games, Google hired a gaming advocate — although that person, industry veteran Mark DeLoura, left just a few months after being hired, and now the company appears to be looking for a replacement. Facebook, meanwhile, has built out a proper Games team, and continues to look for a head of games partnerships.

According to the Apple posting, the person filling the role will have the following responsibilities:

• Work with cross-functional teams to identify and transition strategic mobile products, solutions, and developers to deliver world class 3rd party products for Apple’s mobile platforms.
• Maintain current knowledge of the mobile industry and the competitive 3rd party landscape, with particular emphasis on the App-ecosystem in the casual gaming social networking segment.
• Work both independently and in close collaboration with Apple Technology Evangelism, others in Partnership Management, Product Marketing, iTunes, Engineering and senior management.
• Build internal and external relationships in order to effectively deliver Apple’s message to developers, whilst championing developer needs and issues within Apple.
• Maintain a high level of business expertise, combined with a strong understanding of the underlying technical competencies relevant to App development.
• Promote the adoption of the iPhone, iPad and Mac OS X SDKs and other development tools to 3rd party application developers.
• Attend appropriate industry conferences to stay current on trends and leverage outreach opportunities.
• Clearly communicate approved Apple product and marketing messages.

A sharp rise in its percentage of monthly active users (MAU) who return as daily actives has put new CrowdStar title It Girl atop this week’s AppData list of fastest-growing Facebook games by DAU.

However, trouble may already be on the horizon; the past couple of days have yielded a small decline in both MAU and DAU for It Girl, slightly offsetting the week’s growth.

Here’s the full list:

	Name	DAU	Gain	Gain,%
1.	It Girl	667,900	+265,230	+66%
2.	Texas HoldEm Poker	6,437,660	+248,168	+4%
3.	FarmVille	17,224,839	+192,627	+1%
4.	Monster World	912,297	+177,266	+24%
5.	Mafia Wars Game	4,195,918	+127,431	+3%
6.	Millionaire City	2,313,093	+125,031	+6%
7.	Warstorm	257,367	+115,199	+81%
8.	Instant Jam	107,254	+104,541	+3,853%
9.	FantaBook	186,124	+93,034	+100%
10.	Crime City	247,560	+92,205	+59%
11.	Bingo Island 2	148,353	+69,788	+89%
12.	開心花園	99,408	+69,243	+230%
13.	FrontierVille	7,335,699	+64,935	+0.89%
14.	Bubble Island	972,505	+61,748	+7%
15.	小小戰爭	268,220	+59,381	+28%
16.	Zoo World	857,751	+53,622	+7%
17.	ESPNU College Town	434,605	+53,395	+14%
18.	Jungle Jewels – The Temple	69,096	+44,143	+177%
19.	Mall World	903,634	+43,709	+5%
20.	Car Town	1,218,801	+42,065	+4%

Although Zynga appears with both Texas HoldEm Poker and FarmVille, neither game has achieved any meaningful long-term increase in DAU.

Monster World, a Wooga farming game, shows up in fourth place with 177,266 MAU. Although the title is gradually growing, its larger-than-usual gain this week is, like It Girl’s, due to a rise in DAU / MAU percentage, in this case from 19 to 21 percent.

Skipping to number eight, Instant Jam looks interesting. Although launched in August, the Guitar Hero-style game by InstantAction slipped by until now without notice, but has had hockey-stick growth over the past few days. Although the game asks for a Javascript plugin download on starting, it repays the download by searching a user’s music library and allowing them to pick from their own songs.

Several other small games appear on the list, including Warstorm and Crime City, two RPGs that are running neck and neck.