Funtactix brings The Hunger Games to Facebook
New York-based Funtactix brings The Hunger Games to Facebook next month with a new social game, Hunger Games Adventures, timed to launch Mar. 23, the same day the highly anticipated film adaptation hits theaters.
Hunger Games Adventures comes five months after the release of Funtactix’s previous movie-based Facebook title, Mission: Impossible. That game was also directly tied to a film, released to coincide with Paramount Pictures’ debut of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Our AppData traffic tracking service shows that Mission: Impossible peaked with 600,000 monthly active users in early January, but has since dropped off to 260,000 MAU and 8,000 daily active users. For Hunger Games Adventures, Funtactix partners with Lions Gate Entertainment.
The Hunger Games Adventures is set in Panem — the post-apocalyptic world in which the Hunger Games fiction is set. Players will be able to explore District 12 and other areas from the movie while interacting with characters from the film early in the game, a lesson Funtactix learned its work on Mission: Impossible. According to Funtactix CEO Sam Glassenberg, the company finds introducing iconic characters early helps to immerse players and significantly improves conversion rates.
While working from an extremely popular series like The Hunger Games may seem like an easy way to create a popular game, Glassenberg says it also puts the developer in a delicate position. He stresses that The Hunger Games Adventures will not be an what he calls an advergame: “Our focus on creating games based on AAA films provides us with a great community to tap into, but also creates a tremendous responsibility for us to create an experience that is authentic to the worlds that fans love,” he explains. “If a game lacks authenticity, the fans realize it in a second.”
Although the source material for The Hunger Games Adventures is a series of young adult novels, Glassenberg is confident about game’s monetization and growth prospects. “When it comes to viral growth, our team has a great deal of experience tapping into an existing fanbase to drive growth,” he says. “The fans already congregate and share around the common interest of the books [and] film. The Hunger Games Adventures is designed to be a natural extension of that phenomenon.”
Fans of The Hunger Games will also be interested to note that official map of Panem will finally be unveiled in The Hunger Games Adventures, a responsibility that Glassenberg describes as “humbling and awesome.”
“We know that our primary responsibility is to create a version of Panem that fans can jump into and explore. When we make the hardcore fans happy we know we’ve succeeded,” he says.



February 1st, 2012 at 8:32 am
[...] from Funtactix CEO Sam Glassenberg via Inside Social Games: While working from an extremely popular series like The Hunger Games may seem like an easy way to [...]
February 1st, 2012 at 8:39 am
[...] an experience that is authentic to the worlds that fans love,” Funtactix CEO Sam Glassenberg explained to Inside Social Games (ISG). “If a game lacks authenticity, the fans realize it in a [...]
February 1st, 2012 at 8:49 am
[...] Inside Social Games had an interview with Funtactix CEO Sam Glassenberg on his thoughts on developing ‘The Hunger Games Adventures’ which seemed to be developed on Facebook platform. The Hunger Games Adventures is set in Panem — the post-apocalyptic world in which the Hunger Games fiction is set. Players will be able to explore District 12 and other areas from the movie while interacting with characters from the film early in the game, a lesson Funtactix learned its work on Mission: Impossible. According to Funtactix CEO Sam Glassenberg, the company finds introducing iconic characters early helps to immerse players and significantly improves conversion rates. [...]
February 1st, 2012 at 9:15 am
I hope the movie does as good a the books, at least better. If it doesn’t, if it sucks in any way, I will die.
February 1st, 2012 at 9:19 am
[...] checkout what Funtactix CEO Sam Glassenberg says via Inside Social Games: While working from an extremely popular series like The Hunger Games may seem like an easy way to [...]
February 28th, 2012 at 10:55 am
[...] seen aimed at female fans include beauty products (nail polish, eyeliner), bedding, books, and social gaming. Nail polish hardly says “strong female role model.” Admittedly fashion is a focus of the book, [...]
March 23rd, 2012 at 6:01 pm
[...] The Hunger Games comes to Facebook — Suzanne Collins’s wildly popular book The Hunger Games hits movie theaters today, and the Facebook tie-in game The Hunger Games Adventures goes live this weekend. The game was developed by Funtaclix. [...]
March 30th, 2012 at 3:51 pm
[...] drops in lots of references to small details from the books. Developer Funtactix came through on its promise to create a game that would cater to both casual fans and hardcore devotees of the franchise and [...]