Kabam and Paramount Pictures today announced a new citybuilding crime-themed social game for Facebook based on The Godfather franchise. The Godfather: Five Families launches in fall 2011.

Lawrence Koh, General Manager at Kabam, walked us through a trailer and some assets for the early the game. Players control a single person within one of the five mafia families established in Mario Puzo’s 1969 novel, The Godfather. Each family is meant to have its own benefits and strengths which the player can leverage in combat against gangs from other families. Players recruit friends to form a gang within a family and, through combat and citybuilding, rise through its ranks to potentially become the Don of their family.

The core gameplay loop involves building up structures that produce specific resources within a neighborhood, much the same as other Kabam titles — only here, “oil” or “gold” might be translated as “cement” or “cash.” Koh explains that these resources go not only toward building new structures, but also toward purchasing units to use in combat. Again, the Kabam type units have Godfather-appropriate names here, like “Thug” or “Professional.” Players send these units out to do combat with other families’ units occupying territory around the player’s neighborhood. Overall player progress is tracked for players with a “compound” mansion structure that gets prettier as the player increases in level.

The territory conquering aspect of the game is represented by much larger city blocks that house individual neighborhoods (including the player’s). Occupied territories display the crest of the family that holds it and specific industries within that block tell you a bit about what business that particular family is in (e.g. the Tattaglia is known for prostitution, so its occupied territory would feature brothels). There are also New York City landmarks that function as a sort of scarce resource that the families war for control over. These landmarks are meant to be consistent with 1935-era New York, the time period in which the game is set.

Combat in the game is asynchronous, depicted primarily by flashy artwork pieces like the one below:

Koh says that the combat will function with a rock-paper-scissors balancing dynamic where certain families have advantages over others, much as certain unit types have advantages over others. A player rank system keeps track of which families are ahead — and which player-formed crews within their families are leading. This encourages players to keep the status quo shifting by attacking the family in the lead — and by attacking the crew in the lead, even if it’s a group of players within your own family.

“Because it’s a mafia game, right,” Koh jokes. “There’s a certain amount of backstabbing.”

To discourage bullying, Kabam has gone with the popular social game combat mechanic of diminishing returns for attacking lower-level players. True to the romanticised mafia vision, there are no government or police factions within the game that restrict player activity. Kabam is counting on emergent gameplay from the community to sort out “fairness” — much like it has for Kabam’s other strategy games.

As for The Godfather license itself, Paramount Pictures has given Kabam fairly free rein to do what they like, even allowing them to set the game 10 years before the events of the novel and Francis Ford Coppola film trilogy. At this time, there are no special cross-promotion events or in-game ads for merchandise concerning the the Godfather films. The 40th anniversary of the first film is coming up in 2012, so there could be some potential brand push around then. For now, though, it seems like a very straightforward intellectual property license to a video game developer. Note that Paramount has been burned by these in the past, such as EA’s poorly-received The Godfather 2 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

The Godfather: Five Families is due out for Facebook this fall. Those interested in signing up for the closed beta can follow this link.

The first Facebook title from Hexify Inc., Journey of Moses, is a a treasure-hunting adventure game based on the life of the prominent figure from the Bible’s Old Testament. With relatively few games sporting religious themes, this title has seen its usage skyrocket since launching earlier this month.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Journey of Moses currently has 64,342 monthly active users and 22,662 daily active users.

Journey of Moses is divided into levels, each with their own objectives. Early in the game, players (as Moses) are tasked with simple things, such as finding and collecting all the pieces of his royal outfit. This is achieved by clicking on floor tiles in order to reveal what’s beneath them. This action requires energy to perform and most often results in the player receiving a reward of gold, shekels and experience points. Sometimes, special items are unearthed, including the aforementioned clothing, as well as necklaces, statues, writing tools and other objects that go into collections. Gems can also be found, and these are required to “bribe” the player’s way past guards in the royal palace. Once the player has performed 100 percent of the actions possible in any given level, they can move onto the next.

Some levels, however, require that the player reach a certain experience level before accessing them. Moses engages in dialog with various characters, including his adopted mother and the Pharaoh. These interactions also reward the player with items. After gaining enough experience points, players level up and obtain upgrades to their maximum energy, energy refills and other power-ups. Should the player’s energy run out, they can eat fruit, which can either be uncovered in the levels or purchased in the shop. There’s also a sub-screen that displays Moses’ camp, where players can collect a daily gem, harvest honey, build a well and participate in other activities once per day.

Social features include sharing accomplishments and asking other players for help obtaining certain items through viral channels such as users Walls, as well as the ability to visit friends once they’ve been invited to the game. Doing this takes players to their friends’ camp screens, where they can collect a daily gem.

Journey of Moses is monetized through the purchase of several types of items using Facebook Credits. These include energy refills, tools, additional gems and even missions. Certain items can only be purchased once players reach a certain experience level. Performing most tasks in the player’s camp, such as building a well and collecting honey, also require that players obtain certain items that can only be purchased using Facebook Credits.

You can follow Journey of Moses’ progress using AppData, our traffic tracking service for social games and developers.

The Inside Network Job Board is dedicated to providing you with the best job opportunities across social and mobile application platforms.

Here are this week’s highlights from the Inside Network Job Board, including positions at Zynga, lolapps, Tagged, Liquid Entertainment, 5th Planet Games, Breaktime Studios,  TBG Digital, TinyCo and Acquinity Interactive.

• Product Manager
• Procurement Analyst
• Director of Product, Revenue
• Product Manager – Customer Service Support
• Software Engineer
• Strategic Sourcing & Vendor Management Specialist ? Corporate Services

• Gameplay QA Engineer for Second Largest Social Gaming Company
• Game Lead / Engineering Manager
• Flash Engineer – Game Play
• Principal Analyst

• Business Intelligence Analyst
• Software Engineer – Games
• Game Business Analyst
• Creative Director – Social Games
• Game Designer

• UI Artist
• Social Games Programmer

• Mobile Game Developer (iOS)

• Monetization Manager
• Gaming Software Engineer

• Ad Ops Analyst

• User Acquisition Specialist
• Monetization Analyst

• Senior Online Web Product Manager
• Junior Online Media Buyer
• Online Marketing Manager
• Front End Web Developer
• Web Designer

Listings on the Inside Network Job Board are distributed to readers of Inside Social Games, Inside Facebook and Inside Mobile Apps through regular posts and widgets on the sites. 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.

Zynga announced an expansion of its game card distribution in Europe today that adds 18 new countries to its reach via a partnership with epay, a division of Euronet Worldwide, Inc.

The game cards allow player to purchase virtual goods within Zynga’s games. The cards themselves are available at retail stores and kiosks available from within epay’s network of locations. The partnership grants epay retailers to offer in-store bonuses like free virtual goods, or customized marketing promotions and discounts.

According to the press release announcing the partnership, epay boasts 276,000 retailer locations and 588,000 points of sale in various countries. The 18 markets included in the epay-Zynga partnership are the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Croatia. Last month, Zynga expanded its game card distribution to the Middle East and North Africa through a partnership with Gate2Play.

EA Playfish’s The Sims Social holds the lead on this week’s list of fastest-growing games by daily active users. CityVille and FarmVille round out the top three.

Note: Due to a Facebook reporting delay begun August 20, these numbers date back to last Sunday, a particularly low-traffic day for social games.

Top Gainers This Week – Games

	Name	DAU	Gain	Gain,%
1.	The Sims Social	3,449,323	+1,996,192	+137%
2.	CityVille	14,708,126	+588,304	+4%
3.	FarmVille	8,853,549	+300,011	+4%
4.	The Smurfs & Co	1,366,844	+185,621	+16%
5.	Ninja Saga	958,687	+154,544	+19%
6.	Magic Land	221,335	+135,996	+159%
7.	Diamond Dash	1,801,627	+121,381	+7%
8.	Live Holdem Pro	147,411	+112,526	+323%
9.	DoubleDown Casino	761,033	+62,120	+9%
10.	Tetris Battle	1,231,289	+59,452	+5%
11.	Slotomania – Slot Machines	1,259,056	+50,932	+4%
12.	Bubble Island	1,829,019	+50,564	+3%
13.	Bejeweled Blitz	3,048,309	+49,550	+2%
14.	Wild Ones	532,958	+47,266	+10%
15.	Monster Fusion	57,816	+43,784	+312%
16.	Social Empires	369,343	+40,635	+12%
17.	Komşu Çiftlik	803,650	+39,950	+5%
18.	GnomeTown	413,589	+36,829	+10%
19.	Pet Society	1,271,104	+32,445	+3%
20.	Zombie Lane	795,455	+32,044	+4%

All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned for our look at the top emerging apps on Friday.

The Inside Network editorial team has proposed several panels for this year’s South By Southwest Interactive and Music Conferences, but we need your votes to get them on the program. The panels look at:

1. The ways film and TV studios are integrating with social games
2. How Facebook Credits can power digital media sales and be used as ecommerce purchase incentives
3. How musicians can best market themselves using Facebook
4. Why brands need third-party Facebook service providers such as Page management and Ads API companies

Here’s a closer look at the four panels we’ve proposed. If you think these are important issues, please follow the links and vote for them. Help us out even if you aren’t planning to attend, as some panels will be livestreamed, and we’ll publish coverage of the discussions.

TV & Film in the Age of the Social Game

What does Jersey Shore have to do with FarmVille? Major media producers like Starz, A&E and MTV are capturing new audiences both online and off by leveraging the power of social games on Facebook. As more licensed entertainment brands integrate with social games on the platform, what are the greatest risks, and who is taking the lion’s share of rewards? Join us for a critical look at social game integrations that are headed for a crash, and the ones that are getting it right.

Moderated by Amanda Glasser, Lead Writer of Inside Social Games. Panelists include:

• David Katz – Director of Digital Media, Starz Media, television
• Kris Soumas - A+E Networks Digital (Games), television and games
• Catherine Herdlick – Product Manager, 6waves, social games

Vote here for “TV & Film in the Age of the Social Game”

Facebook Credits: Not Just for Virtual Goods

Facebook Credits, the social network’s virtual currency, has become the exclusive payment method for all Facebook games. Now, more users are maintaining a balance of Facebook Credits, and more users want them. This has opened new business and marketing opportunities. Content owners can license streaming access or downloads of their content in exchange for Facebook Credits. Meanwhile, ecommerce companies can reward users with Credits for marking purchases or signing up for email lists.

Representatives of companies pioneering the use of Facebook Credits outside of social games will discuss the current state of Facebook Credits and their typical uses, explain how virtual currencies are already disrupting several industries, and debate which types of transactions are the next to be changed by the emergence of a virtual currency that is in demand and cheap to distribute.

Moderated by Eric Eldon, Editor of Inside Network. Panelists include:

• Suchit Dash, Co-founder, Ifeelgoods, Inc., virtual goods incentives
• Dean Alms – VP of Marketing and Biz Dev, Milyoni, ecommerce
• Jennifer Taylor – Manager of Product Marketing, Facebook Inc., social networking

Facebook Music Marketing: Pages, Feeds, and Games

Musicians are adopting Facebook as a core component of their online marketing strategy as the importance of Myspace fades. But which of Facebook’s social channels should artists focus on? Streaming music from their Facebook Page? Gaining fans by trading news feed posts with other musicians? Selling music and and driving listens within social games?

Heads of some of most influential Facebook music marketing companies will debate which of these channels is most important, and we’ll discuss how bands can tie the channels together to conduct successful marketing campaigns that don’t spam Facebook’s users.

Moderated by Josh Constine, Lead Writer of Inside Facebook. Panelists include:

1. J Sider – CEO, RootMusic, musician profile apps
2. Mike More – CEO, Headliner.fm, news feed post exchange
3. Albin Serviant – CEO, MXP4, music games
4. Meredith Chin – Manager of Corporate Communications, Facebook, social networking

Vote here for ”Facebook Music Marketing: Pages, Feeds, and Games”

Brands Need 3rd-Party Tools to Succeed on Facebook

Can brands succeed at Facebook marketing on their own? We’ll discuss with the heads of the biggest service providers on the Facebook Platform what problems third-parties can solve for brands more efficiently than they can solve on their own, including advertising, brand presence, and promotion.

We’ll also look at some of the biggest questions brands are confronted with when choosing service providers, and why marketing on a social platform requires different partnership strategies than what brand are used to.

Moderated by Josh Constine, Lead Writer of Inside Facebook. Panelists include:

• Michael Lazerow, CEO, Buddy Media, Page management
• Victoria Ransom, CEO, Wildfire Interactive, Page management
• Patrick Toland, US Managing Director, TBG Digital Inc., Ads API

Vote here for “Brands Need 3rd-Party tools to Succeed on Facebook”

RocketBird is a kid-friendly arcade title from BeTomorrow. Originally released for Apple iOS devices, a Facebook version of the game debuted in August 2010 and has since rocketed right on to our weekly rankings lists.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, RocketBird currently has 536,335 monthly active users and 24,257 daily active users.

The premise of RocketBird is nearly all in its title: Players control the flight of a yellow chick with a rocket strapped to its back while attempting to avoid various obstacles. The game is divided into four themed worlds, each with six sub-levels. The goal on each is to fly as far as possible, with a total of one to three stars awarded per level depending on how far the player has gotten.

As the player flies through each level, they begin to travel faster, thus increasing the challenge. Along the way, they must pick up lightning bolts in order to keep from running out of thrust. In later levels, power-ups including warp portals that let players quickly return to their last farthest point in a level and bullet time that allows them to slow down the game to dodge obstacles, are unlocked. These items are awarded to players after posting high scores but can also be purchased.

For social features, RocketBird lets players taunt their friends after posting a new best score. The game features friend and overall leaderboards. There’s also an option to invite friends to play the game.

RocketBird makes use of Facebook Credits for the purchase of additional power-ups. Facebook’s currency can also be used to disable interstitial pop-up ads, which players must wait for a timer to expire in order to bypass, for a price of 10 Facebook Credits for two months.

You can follow RocketBird’s progress using AppData, our traffic tracking service for social games and developers.

Google+ Games got a bit bigger recently with the addition of Flood-It! and Sudoku Puzzles, two casual titles from Google’s LabPixies, which was acquired last year.

The two games are unique additions to the platform on account of how solitary they are. Though both Flood-It! and Sudoku Puzzles ask players to invite friends to play, the only actual “social” feature included in the games is a leaderboard displayed below the game. Flood-It! is a puzzle game where players click a series of six colors, trying to “flood” adjacent squares on the board in 25 moves or less. Sudoku Puzzles is a Japanese logic puzzle game where players try to fill in missing numbers inside a grid to achieve a configuration where each column, row, and sub-grids contain all digits from 1 to 9.

While puzzle games haven’t gotten much traction on Facebook without the addition of social features, it could be that the “unobtrusive” route Google+ is taking with Games would make the platform a better home for singleplayer games like Flood-It! and Sudoku. With all Games activity (notifications, requests, etc.) currently confined to the Games tab, players already have to be heading toward the platform to play games, rather than attracted to them by games stories like “So-and-so passed your score on Game X.” If players don’t need to leverage the social graph to find the games — why should the games make use of a player’s social graph at all?

Windows Phone to Gain Xbox LIVE Games & Features — Microsoft previewed several Xbox LIVE games and features for the Windows Phone at Gamescom. Features include Avatar Awardables (unlockable Xbox LIVE avatar items), Game Add-ons via in-app purchases with Microsoft Points, Parental Controls, and Fast Async (improved synchronous and asynchronous multiplayer). Fourteen new games were also announced, including Bug Village, Burn the Rope, and Gravity Guy.

Sony Reveals New Social Applications for PS Vita — Sony announced several new social enhancements to its mobile platform, the PlayStation Vita. At their press conference, they announced the integration of Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and Foursquare.

Battlefield 3 for iPhone Previewed — One of the few mobile games displayed at Gamescom last week was Electronic Arts’ and DICE’s Battlefield 3: Aftershock for the iOS. Pocket Gamer notes that the military first-person-shooter hosts no traditional campaign/story mode, but does contain single-player challenges and multiplayer via EA’s new Origin platform.

[image via Pocket Gamer]

The Sims Social Receives “Best Browser Game” – The Sims Social won an award at Gamescom for “Best Browser Game.” Currently, the game boasts a daily active user count of nearly 3.5 million.

According to Digital Spy, an EA representative stated that The Sims Social will be getting a mobile companion app. Players will be able to access the game via java-supported mobile handsets such as Android.

iQU Launches Online Games Analytics & Marketing Service — VentureBeat covered the demo of a new marketing and analytics platform for online games from iQU. The company is a data intelligence firm and states that it can better help with game marketing due to its larger database of gamers and how they act within the social, mobile, and web spaces.

Activision States Social Game Company Valuations are “Out of Whack” — Activision-Blizzard believes that the valuations of social game companies are a bit too high. According to Bloomberg, CEO Eric Hirshberg stated in an interview that “valuations of some of the companies in that space are out of whack, so that’s an issue when it comes to acquisitions.” Nevertheless, Activision is planning to methodically move into the space (no official announcements regarding Facebook games have been made) and is slated to introduce a social network for players in Call of Duty with “Call of Duty Elite.”

Through Call of Duty Elite, players will be able connect with other users and play with people that share similar interests and skill levels. They will also be able to compete in community tournaments and view short films (“webisodes”) based on the game.

Video game developer Ecko Code is launching a series of social games on Facebook based on leading Showtime original series Weeds, Dexter, and The Borgias.

Ecko Code began as a video game studio set up by entrepreneur Marc Ecko, who currently sits on its board of directors. The developer got its start on consoles with 2006 PlayStation 2 and Xbox game, Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure. Though the game received favorable reviews, it wasn’t profitable enough for Ecko Code to continue developing for consoles. Through a partnership with TV network Showtime, the studio went into mobile games with a licensed Dexter title for iOS in 2009.

The Weeds game, Weeds Social Club, is the first of Ecko Code’s Facebook titles. The game is officially developed by Mytopia and published by Ecko Code in collaboration with show producer Lionsgate Entertainment. We took a look at the game in its early beta state, observing that while certain themes of the game were shared with the show, it was largely a standalone experience. Players take the role of series star, Nancy Botwin, and attempt to grow and sell marijuana while avoiding law enforcement. Most plot elements and other characters are omitted from the game and it’s not clear where, if anywhere, the game fits into the show’s continuity. Weeds Social Club will go into public beta as soon as this week.

The next Showtime property to hit Facebook via Ecko Code is Dexter in a game called Dexter: Slice of Life. This will be Ecko Code’s first Facebook game developed in-house. Like the iOS game, this game is deeply tied to the show’s plot. But while the iOS game was based off of Dexter’s pilot episode while season 3 was running, Slice of Life comes directly from the show’s sixth season with Ecko Code sometimes working with scripts before they’ve even been shot. The game launches on Facebook on October 3, the day after Dexter’s season 6 premier.

The latest Showtime property picked up by Ecko Code for Facebook is The Borgias. Not many details are available on the game as yet, but the developer confirmed to us that the game exists and is in development. The show concluded its first season in May and was renewed for a second 10-episode season to air in Spring 2012.

TV tie-in games form a rapidly expanding genre on Facebook. They range from casual games with light integration with the parent show (e.g. MTV’s Jersey Shore) to time-sensitive products that work with the actual content of the show (e.g. Starz’s Spartacus: Gods of the Arena). Ecko Code is leaning heavily toward the latter with Dexter as an experiment in what kind of gameplay experience Facebook fans of the show prefer.

“We want Weeds to be something you play for five minutes ten times a day,” Ecko Code VP Marc Fernandez tells us, “whereas with Dexter, we want you to play for twenty minutes two times a day — more engagement.”

Another important component for Ecko Code is the “edginess” factor. The content of Weeds Social Club (marijuana) and of Dexter (serial killers) are things that “get people talking,” according to Fernandez.

“The brand softens the edge a little bit,” he says. “But we want to partner with brands we like so that we only make the games we want to make. I wanted to make a crime game, a renaissance game — so, the Borgias. I wanted to do a weed game, so Weeds Social Club.”

As for the future, Fernandez says the developer will eventually move to web-based multiplayer games and tablet games.

“On Facebook we’re going to stick to Dexter, to Weeds, and to Borgias,” he says. “Thank God we made our money back on [Getting Up], but the retail games business is a tough business. So we jumped to digital distribution, mobile, and now free-to-play. We’re not afraid to say ‘this isn’t working, let’s go find another niche.’”