Hiring in the social gaming industry dropped this week, with seven companies hiring 10 new employees. According to data from LinkedIn and other sources, Zynga, PopCap Games and Work4 Labs showed the most activity, each reporting a pair of hires. Perhaps due to the lag in hiring activity, there were also no significant high profile or executive level hires to report this week with the exception of Gui Karyo joining up at Atari as EVP of Development & Operations– which was just announced today.

If your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please get in touch with us. Email us at: mail (at) insidesocialgames (dot) com, and we’ll get your news into an upcoming post.

If you want to know who else is hiring, the Inside Network Job Board showcases current openings with the industry’s leading companies.

Atari

• Gui Karyo, Executive Vice President, Development & Operations - Atari brings aboard Karyo, the former president of Mindspark’s IWON.com to help bolster its casual gaming expertise.

King.com

• Thomas Vedel, Product Performance Manager - A single hire this week at King.com starts off our roundup. Vedel moves bwin.party digital entertainment, where he was the product manager for poker.

Kixeye 

• Sarah Steinberg, Technical Recruiter – One hire for Kixeye as well. Steinberg was previously the technical recruiter at Gravity.

Nordeus

• Aleksandar Milosavljević, Software Development Engineer - Nordeus also reports just one hire. Milosavljević was previously a .NET software developer at MarginTech.

EA PopCap Games

• Brian Coonce, Web Designer - EA PopCap breaks its recent one-hire-per-week trend by bringing on a pair of new faces. Coonce was formerly a user interface designer at Microsoft.
• Tara Brannigan, Marketing Lead - Also joining the EA PopCap team is Brannigan, who was a content producer at Pfizer.

Work4 Labs

• Andrew Suri, Account Executive - Work4Labs also reports two hires. First up is Suri, who was previously the director of business development at NRI – Progressive digital media development.
• Guillaume Leseur, Software Architect - Next up is Leseur, who moves from Nimble Apps SAS where he was a Software Engineer.

Zynga

• Cassie Alcudia, Food and Beverage Assistant Manager – And finally Zyna fills out a slim week with two new hires. Alcudia previously worked at Aveda.
• Randolph Lizarda, Associate 3D Artist – Also joining the Zynga team is Lizarda, who was a CG layout artist at Pipeline Studios.

Zynga is venturing again into celebrity promotions with a Michael Jackson-themed CityVille campaign to promote Cirque du Soleil’s Michael Jackson memorial tour, The Immortal.

Starting this week and running until November 25th, CityVille players will be able to collect Michael Jackson themed items like a hot air balloon, a soldier robot statue, posters and gloves. The main thrust of the campaign will be to build the Michael Jackson The Immortal Cirque du Soleil stage, which will allow players to unlock an exclusive in-game video of the tour.

This campaign is very similar to the CityVille Enrique Iglesias campaign from a couple of months ago. The Michael Jackson campaign, however, adds some minor cross-promotion with Zynga Poker, putting branded tour graphics into the game’s table felts. Zynga’s high water mark for celebrity game integrations still seems to be the FarmVille GagaVille promotion that ran this spring; that campaign gave players the ability to stream brand-new songs and gave away real-world prizes like tour tickets.

Regardless of the size of the promotions, Zynga games seem to enjoy a significant, but short-lived boost in popularity when they bring in star power. The GagaVille campaign boosted FarmVille player numbers by almost 2 million monthly active and daily active users during the peak of that promotion. Few of them stuck around afterwards, however, with DAU levels back to where they were before as soon as the promotion ended:

The more involved gameplay experience in Enrique Iglesias’s CityVille campaign proved to be slightly better at retaining players. That campaign, which had a much bigger player pool to work from, boosted MAU by almost 5 million and DAU by over 2 million, with new players seeming to stay engaged for the better part of a week before leaving the game. That said, while celebrities seem to give Zynga’s older titles short term gains, they’re still no cure for an overall decline in popularity as players tire of the titles.

While its hard to pinpoint if the in-game efforts were successful on the other side of the equation, neither Iglesias nor Gaga seemed to lose anything from their social game promotions. Iglesias’ Euphoria Tour went on to earn 20 million dollars, and Born This Way has sold over 8 million copies so far.

As far as what the CityVille campaign can do for the late Michael Jackson, we observe that the promotion is merely the latest in a long line of game tie-ins that Michael Jackson and his estate have authorized. The King of Pop’s first video game was 1989‘s Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker and since then Jackson has appeared in the Space Channel 5 games, Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2 (as a secret character), been the posthumous star of Ubisoft’s Michael Jackson: The Experience and was famously removed from PopCap’s Plants vs. Zombies, where he showed up as an unauthorized dancing zombie.

Cirque du Soleil’s Michael Jackson: The Immortal begins touring in the U.S. tomorrow.

Launched in October, Bubble Atlantis is the latest Facebook title from MindJolt.The game is currently MindJolt’s second most popular title after the portal Games on MindJolt in terms of monthly and daily active users.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Bubble Atlantis currently has 1 million monthly active users and 230,000 daily active users.

Similar to Bubble Speed from GameDuell, which we recently covered, Atlantis is a match-3 style puzzle game set underwater. Players fire multicolored bubbles up the screen at a stack of existing bubbles that is growing ever closer. When a bubble hits two or more of the same color, they disappear and players earn points. Causing a section of bubbles that has others attached to it to fall starts a chain reaction, clearing more of the screen. If the bubbles reach the bottom of the screen, the game ends and players lose one life. If players run out of lives, they must purchase addition lives or wait for them to be refilled over time before playing another level.

Unlike Bubble Speed, in which rounds are timed, the levels in Bubble Atlantis are stand-alone. Players get up to three stars for their performance on the levels, including how quickly they complete it and the score they achieve. Bubble Atlantis uses a world map divided into multiple areas, each containing several levels. Levels can’t be played until the previous one has been beaten.

Bubble Atlantis also features power-ups, which include bombs that destroy multiple bubbles and a stopwatch that freezes the downward progression of bubbles. These cost the player coins, the soft currency used by the game, each time they’re used.

Players can brag about their high scores via viral channels, as well as add their friends to the game so they can compare scores on a real-time leaderboard. MindJolt is monetizing Bubble Atlantis with lives and premium power-ups, as well as through its soft currency, which can be used to buy standard power-ups.

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

Kingdoms of Camelot developer Kabam is following in the footsteps of industry leader Zynga by releasing its own pre-paid gift cards.

Players will be able to convert the gift cards, which will be available in $25 and $50 denominations, into in-game currency for any of Kabam’s Games on Facebook or its website. Google+ is noticeably absent from the list of supported platforms; Kabam tells us it hopes to set up a program with Google to support the game cards at some point in the future.

Purchasing pre-paid cards is a common practice for larger social game and PC game developers. Market leader InComm has signed deals with companies like Disney, Playdom, Nexon, Sony and Blizzard to create cards for their games. It’s a business that brought in $8 billion in retail transactions as far back as 2007.

Among social game developers that got their start on Facebook, Zynga was the first into the market, unveiling its own branded cards early last year that weren’t tied to Facebook Credits, allowing players to redeem the cards on Facebook and on Zynga’s standalone sites like FarmVille.com. Incidentally, Zynga’s can be redeemed on Google+.

Kabam’s cards can be used in its Facebook games Dragons of Atlantis, Edgeworld, Global Warfare, Glory of Rome and Kingdoms of Camelot, as well as in The Godfather: Five Families, which is currently only available on Kabam’s site. The cards are available at Best Buy and GameStop.

Japanese PlayStation 3 owners now have another social network called Play Community. According to video game consumer blog Andriasang, Sony Computer Entertainment’s new social network allows gamers to make friends, form groups, send messages, recruit other players for online play and create personalized profile pages.

We’ve noticed that social gaming elements on consoles seems to have gained traction with both console manufacturers and console game publishers. Last week Sony’s main rival, Microsoft, announced it had deepened the social features available for the Xbox 360, replacing the My Xbox section with a Social section. Gamers on Xbox Live can now see what their friends are playing, have played and are currently doing, as well as set notifications called Beacons, which tell their friends they are actively looking for someone to play a specific game with. Sony also recently completed an overhaul of its PlayStation Home virtual platform, refocusing it on social gaming with the addition of playable social games for the Home platform that are supported by advertising and microtransactions.

As for the publishers, Activision’s Call of Duty Elite is an additional social network layered on top of the game and even EA’s new Origin digital distribution service includes basic social features like player profiles and friends lists. There are also rumors that EA and Nintendo are in talks to bring Origin to Nintendo’s new WiiU console, which, if true, signal Nintendo’s first real attempts to build a social network to pair with its console.

Play Community is currently only available in Japan, apparently in closed beta. Sony is incentivizing new user registration with a PlayStation Vita giveaway for three users that sign up, form three friend connections, and comment on a Sony blog post.

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 6waves Lolapps, Checkpoint Studios, Storm8, Electronic Arts, Deep Fried Gaming, TinyCo, JibJab Media Inc., Live World and Acquinity Interactive.

• User Acquisition Manager
• Software Engineer
• User Relations Associate
• Recruiter

• Technical Director, Mobile

• Product Manager

• Product Manager

• West Coast Sales Director
• Midwest Sales Director
• West Coast Sales Director

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.

Bubble games have completely conquered the top three spots on this week’s list of the fastest-growing Facebook games by daily active users. Bubble Witch Saga leads the pack with Diamond Dash and Bubble Island just behind.

Though casual arcade games have a bad reputation for low average revenue per user, it seems as though they’ve become more sophisticated in introducing monetization opportunities for players. For example, Bubble Witch Saga limits players to five lives per day and subtracts one for each time the player fails a level. If a player has failed a level four times in succession, a popup appears that reads something like “Stuck that level? Try this powerup!” with a transaction button just below the text. By turning up when the player is at their most vulnerable (one life away from halted gameplay) and likely their least rational (failing the same level four times), it may be that this powerup monetizes better in the popup than it does sitting passively in the game’s marketplace.

Top Gainers This Week – Games

	Name	DAU	Gain	Gain,%
1.	Bubble Witch Saga	2,700,000	+300,000	+14%
2.	Diamond Dash	2,600,000	+200,000	+8%
3.	Bubble Island	2,300,000	+100,000	+5%
4.	DoubleDown Casino – Free Slots, Blackjack & Poker	1,300,000	+100,000	+8%
5.	FarmVille	7,500,000	+100,000	+1%
6.	Ravenskye City	1,500,000	+100,000	+7%
7.	Slotomania – Slot Machines	1,600,000	+100,000	+7%
8.	Tetris Battle	2,000,000	+100,000	+5%
9.	Mynet Çanak Okey	530,000	+90,000	+20%
10.	المزرعة السعيدة	760,000	+90,000	+13%
11.	Best Casino – Free Slots, Bingo, Poker & Blackjack	330,000	+60,000	+22%
12.	Games on Mindjolt	870,000	+50,000	+6%
13.	Bizim Çiftlik	230,000	+40,000	+21%
14.	Bubble Atlantis	230,000	+40,000	+21%
15.	Coco Girl	420,000	+40,000	+10%
16.	Family Feud & Friends	300,000	+40,000	+15%
17.	Ravenwood Fair	620,000	+40,000	+7%
18.	The Pokerist club — Texas Poker	180,000	+40,000	+29%
19.	Bubble Speed	340,000	+30,000	+10%
20.	Mafia Wars	730,000	+30,000	+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.

Read our reviews of…

• Bubble Witch Saga
• Diamond Dash
• Bubble Island
• DoubleDown Casino
• Ravenskye City
• Slotomania
• Tetris Battle
• Coco Girl
• Bubble Speed

Social gaming giant Zynga has released its latest game for iOS, Mafia Wars Shakedown. The free title is a spin-off of Zynga’s Mafia Wars and Mafia Wars 2, which have seen tremendous success on Facebook.

Shakedown sees players assuming the role of a mobster, with the goal of committing crimes, defeating boss characters, and stealing from other players. Gameplay is divided into two main types: jobs and stealing. Jobs are single-player focused, and task the player with robbing jewelry stores, intercepting shipments, blackmailing and other generally sketchy missions.

Read the rest on our sister site, Inside Mobile Apps.

Woodland Heroes from rookie Facebook developer Row Sham Bow combines cutesy anthropomorphic animals with a strategy game akin to the classic Battleship board game. The game officially launched late last month.

According to our traffic tracking service, AppData, Woodland Heroes currently enjoys 130,000 monthly active users and 10,000 daily active users.

Woodland Heroes casts players in the role of a male or female raccoon person that must do battle with the evil Bear King’s army to make the forest safe again for all animals. The core gameplay loop has players building combat units out of a workshop and then leading these units into turn-based battles to earn resources to spend on building more combat units. New unit types unlock as the player levels up and the difficultly of battles increases as the player progresses through the main story toward a boss fight with the Bear King. An energy gauge restricts gameplay sessions by depleting each time the player moves a unit across the world map or each time the player attacks an enemy during the combat phase.

Combat is carried out between machines places along grids of squares with each machine occupying more than one square in various configurations of squares. The player can see where they’ve placed their own units, but cannot see where on the opposing grid the enemy has placed theirs. In order to find and destroy units, players select squares of the grid to target with their machines at the beginning of their turn.

If the player has successfully targeted a square containing an enemy unit, that square reveals some battle damage, hinting at the machine’s actual location. Once the player has struck a majority of squares that contain an enemy unit, the entire unit is revealed and can be destroyed once all of its squares are hit. An additional “hint” element comes in the form of a enemy unit list that the player can view to determine how many and what configuration of squares on which the enemy units are placed. Players can repair their own units that take damage during combat using either Facebook Credits or coins, the game’s soft currency. Once destroyed, a player completely loses that unit and must rebuilt it from the workshop during the non-combat phase of the game.

Social features include the standard gifting and Wall-posting functions of most social games. The most compelling feature, however, is the Visit ability where players can fight any of their friends’ impending battles with the Bear King’s armies. The catch is, the guest player can only use one unit to take out the enemy — but the combat doesn’t cost the guest player any energy. If successful, the player can choose to take a reward of in-game currency or leave behind a marker that gives their friend a combat advantage for that battle when they choose to play it. There is no player versus player mode planned for the game that we know of.

Woodland Heroes monetizes primarily through the sale of energy — which can only be gifted by friends or bought with Facebook Credits. Special combat units can also be purchased with Credits and certain units can only be repaired during the combat phase using Credits while other units can be repaired using coins, the game’s soft currency.

Speaking to Inside Social Games, Row Sham Bow CEO Phil Holt says the game isn’t finished “by a long stretch.”

“We launched with a small set of features expecting to deal with initial performance problems that most new games face,” he tells us. “This team has a lot of experience with supporting live features and live games, so I think we were well prepared for launch. We’re continuing to address the first-time user experience flow to optimize for retention. This is our current area of focus.”

Row Sham Bow formed in Orlando, Florida from a team of ex-EA Tiburon developers. The studio secured a $3 million first round of funding from Intersouth Partners.

You can follow Woodland Heroes’ progress on Facebook using AppData, our traffic tracking service for social games and developers.

Launched today, Storage Wars: The Game is the latest Facebook title from A&E Networks Digital. The game is based on A&E’s popular TV reality series, Storage Wars, the second season of which has just begin airing. Earlier this year, the publisher launched a Facebook game based on its Pawn Stars reality series, which currently sees 710,000 monthly active users and 180,000 daily active users.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Storage Wars: The Game currently has 2,000 monthly active users and 1,000 daily active users.

In Storage Wars: The Game, players bid on abandoned storage units in hopes of making a profit off of whatever’s inside. As in real life, they get a quick look at the unit’s contents, with some items obscured from view by others. The player then enters a bidding war with two other bidders. There are stakes involved, as it’s possible to bid more for the unit than its contents are worth.

Before bidding, players are able to view a world map, which shows all of the storage locations available in the current area as well as the storage location of the area’s “boss” character. Each location requires a base amount of energy to enter, which depletes the player’s energy reserve. This meter refills over time, but can be instantly replenished with a purchased power-up or by leveling up. Each storage location can be played for free once every 15 minutes or replayed immediately for a price.

Inside the storage location, players are presented with three units up for auction. Before beginning, they are shown a selection of special items that are being requested by a collector. If they can manage to find and purchase these items from a unit, they’ll get a bonus. Players are given a minute to look around the front of the unit using a flashlight before bidding begins. When hovering their mouse pointer over items in plain view, they’re given a rough estimate of what the item might be worth. At any time, players can choose to begin bidding or skip the unit if they feel it’s full of junk. Should they skip a bum unit, they’ll get extra experience points to reward their shrewd decision.

Should players decide to bid, they must enter their opening offer, which must be higher than the minimum for the unit. Once that’s done, the computer-controlled bidders present their offers and the process continues until there’s a winner. If they should win, players are given the ability to remove items from the unit, and can do so quickly with the click of one button. A counter displays the total value of the items they’ve won, compared to their final bid. If they came out on top, the game will reward them with experience points.

Each unit the player purchases occupies a space in their moving truck. When the truck is full, they can no longer bid on units. This is remedied by selling items for a profit. This cash, a soft currency, can then be put back into bidding on more units. Once players have enough cash and are of a sufficient level, they can bid against the area’s boss on the best units available. When one area of the map is completed, others are unlocked.

Social interactions at present include adding friends, bragging about accomplishments via viral channels, sharing winnings, and sending free gifts to friends once per day. Players are able to see their friends’ current levels and other stats via a live leaderboard at the bottom of the screen.

Storage Wars: The Game is being monetized through the sale of soft currency and energy, both of which can be purchased using Facebook Credits. Players can also replay storage locations without waiting 15 minutes by paying Facebook Credits.

A few features in the game are still listed as “coming soon.” These include bigger moving trucks and better flashlights. No indication has been given as to when these features will go live, but they should have a fairly significant effect on gameplay and monetization.

You can follow Storage Wars: The Game’s progress using AppData, our traffic tracking service for social games and developers.