Hooked from Bonfire is a fast-paced, aquatic themed, arcade-style card game derived from poker. Players create as many high-ranked hands as possible within a 60-second time limit, using power-ups to help boost their scores.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Hooked currently has 210,000 monthly active users and 20,000 daily active users.

Players are given one minute to amass as high a score as possible by assembling hands of cards based on rank, suit, and pairs. Hands follow the rankings used in poker, such as straights, flushes, full houses, and so on. In order to assemble their five-card hands, players must quickly look over a selection of six fish bearing cards to choose from before they swim off the screen. At the end of the 60 second period, their score is displayed and they can try again for a higher score. Winning helps players level up; when they reach certain level milestones they can unlock new stages to play on.

The game features a number of power-ups and gameplay mechanics that require players to spend pearls, a premium currency, in order to use them. These include those that create automatic pairs and change card suits. Players also have the ability to play wild cards and swap out the six cards for a new set to choose from by spending pearls. On occasion, free power-ups swim by in the form of fish that provide score multipliers.

Hooked’s social features include friend invites and bragging about high scores via viral channels. The player’s standing compared to that of their friends’ is shown in a life leaderboard at the bottom of the screen. Players can compete head-to-head against others in real-time, or enter a tournament where their five highest scores for the week are added up, with the game’s top players receiving free pearls.

Bonfire is monetizing Hooked with the pearls currency, which can be purchased using Facebook Credits, and with video advertising. Players can earn more pearls by playing, as they win tickets at the end of each game, which can be traded in at the rate of 100 tickets per pearl. Pearls can also be earned by watching advertisements, and the game features un-skippable interstitial video ads from time to time.

Two elements of Hooked are displayed as “coming soon” in the game. The first is a customizable user section where players can set a custom background image and build their own aquarium. This is then filled with pet fish purchased from the second upcoming feature, an in-game store. These fish will be purchased using the coins players earn by playing.

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

Five-month-old social game developer Pangalore has launched its first two Facebook titles, Wild West Solitaire and ArtFit. Both titles are built using HTML5, enabling their use on computers and devices that don’t support Adobe Flash, such as iPhone and iPad.

Speaking with Inside Social Games, company co-founder and chief product officer Doyon Kim says that Pangalore was able to get up-to-speed quickly because of its approach to HTML5 development. Other companies hit performance walls, he says, because they attempt to shoehorn existing Flash code and assets onto the platform, rather than building for it from the ground up. Pangalore has assembled a team of experienced game designers and developers with HTML5 expertise in order to accomplish its goals.

The company has plans to launch at least three additional HTML5-based games on its Facebook portal by the end of 2011. Its current titles combine classic board game and puzzle themes. Wild West Solitaire is a variation on the popular card game, while ArtFit, with its unique paper cutout visual style, has players piecing together colorful blocks to create images.

Pangalore is currently readying two more puzzle games, Bubble Prince and Pop the Candy, based on its HTML5-based technology. Like its current titles, they will appear in stand-alone downloadable releases for iOS and Android, which will feature Facebook Connect functionality enabling players to carry on sessions between devices. Based on our own experience, Wild West Solitaire and ArtFit run very well on iPad and iPhone when played through on Facebook in the Safari browser.

Kim tells us that beyond HTML5 casual games, Pangalore plans to use Unity 3D for titles that are “a bit more hardcore.” These will run on Facebook and have stand-alone iOS and Android releases utilizing Facebook Connect. We were shown a quick preview of one Unity 3D title it has in the works, Knights of Loreland, which combines action RPG and farm simulation gameplay in an MMO environment, with fully 3D visuals. It is expected to launch in early 2012.

Pangalore was founded by Kim, founder of Spotplex, Opinity, and Dialpad Communications, and business partner Brian Kang, formerly the CEO of Gravity Co., Ltd. It has offices in San Jose, Calif. and Seoul, South Korea. NHN Investment Corporation, based in South Korea, has invested an undisclosed amount of capital in the company.

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.

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.

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.

Brazilian social games developer Vostu is kicking its Facebook offering up a notch with Gol Mania, a realtime arcade-style soccer title for the platform. The game launched at the end of September and is so far making regular appearances on our weekly list of emerging Facebook games.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Gol Mania currently has 880,000 monthly active users and 100,000 daily active users.

Gol Mania lets players compete against friends and random Facebook users in soccer games around the world. When starting the game, players select their team name and a look for their players which includes three types of hairstyles and numerous color combinations for their uniforms. There is a training mode designed to get players accustomed to the game’s simplistic control scheme and the basics of soccer.

All gameplay is against live opponents in real time. Down on the field, one team is given possession of the ball and must work to get it into the opposing team’s goal. On offense, players can move using the arrow keys, as well as pass and shoot using the X and Z keys. If positioned at the proper distance and angle from the goal, they can also shoot and have a CPU teammate assist in kicking the ball into the goal. On defense, players move with the arrow keys and use the X and Z keys to switch defenders and steal the ball away from the other team.

The game length is significantly truncated from the traditional 90 minutes down to just a couple to encourage faster gameplay. For participating, players receive coins, experience points, and even trophies. Once players have leveled up sufficiently and acquired enough coins, they can unlock new stadiums to play in. Trophies can be displayed in the player’s trophy room.

Social elements of Gol Mania extend beyond playing against random opponents. Players can share their accomplishments via viral channels and track their friends’ position in relation to theirs using a leaderboard at the bottom of the screen. This can also be toggled to show how many coins their friends have earned. Players can play against their friends directly by creating game lobbies and inviting their friends, or searching for friends that are currently playing and joining them.

Gol Mania is currently monetized through the use of Facebook Credits to purchase additional coins, the soft currency, which can be spent on unlocking new stadiums. Credits can also be used to purchase additional energy, which is required to play games. Note that playing against friends does not currently cost the player any energy.

The game contains several placeholders for upcoming features, the most prominent of which is an in-game store. The world map, which displays the stadiums available to players, currently shows several countries as “coming soon.” Vostu appears to be actively adding content, as it launched a Mexico stadium for the game in mid-October.

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

Adult Swim’s video games studio has launched what it is calling its most ambitious social title to date, Hemp Tycoon. Based on its popular Flash game of the same name, Hemp Tycoon is a farming simulation that has players planting, harvesting, and selling hemp. For the jump to Facebook, the title has received a number of additions and updates for its Facebook debut.

A look at the title in our AppData traffic tracking service indicates that Hemp Tycoon hasn’t completely made the switch to Facebook’s new active user accounting method. The game’s Facebook page reports 30,000 monthly active users.

In Hemp Tycoon, players assume the persona of Hempy, a hemp leaf who grows hemp. With the assistance of his grandfather, Hempy starts out his fledgling hemp empire growing plants inside of his tree house. Players start with an initial allotment of cash, using it to purchase seeds that can be planted in pots. They can then harvest the hemp after a period (various types require differing amounts of time before they’re fully grown) and sell it for more cash.

Boosts, including grow lights, and fertilizer can also be purchased. Seed types range from a run-of-the-mill hemp plant to zombie hemp, which looks like it sounds, and bacon. Once they have more money, players can purchase businesses that allow them to transform their harvested hemp into ice cream, textiles, and more. The game has several dozen quests to complete, which reward players with experience points. Levelling up enables players to purchase higher-level hemp plant seeds and items. There are 60 different plant types in all. From an overhead world map, players can move between their grow locations and businesses. 10 businesses are currently in the game.

This version of Hemp Tycoon differs from the original Flash release in a number of ways. For one, the Facebook release features monetization. The Flash version also lacked many of the seed types, boosts, and deco items. New to this version are quests and the businesses which convert hemp into other items for sale. The title has also received a significant visual upgrade for its debut on the social gaming platform.

Hemp Tycoon’s social features include sending friend requests, posting accomplishments to the player’s Wall, and sending gifts to friends. These include free fertilizer, which can be gifted every time the player completes a quest.

Adult Swim is monetizing Hemp Tycoon primarily through the purchase of additional cash, the game’s soft currency, as well as premium boosts. Players can also use the soft currency and Credits to purchase garden decorations.

Though not as explicit in theme, Hemp Tycoon falls under the marijuana-themed game sub-genre of farming sim pioneered by Pot Farm and most recently expanded in Weeds Social Club and Cheech & Chong’s Animated Game. Hemp Tycoon is a lot more like Pot Farm than the latter two because its primary objective is to be funny — compared to the brands driving Weeds and Cheech & Chong. It’s not immediately clear how big of an audience there really is for this sub-genre; however, Pot Farm is still going strong with 550,000 MAU, Weeds enjoys 80,000 MAU, and both Cheech & Chong and Hemp Tycoon currency have 30,000 MAU. At the risk of making a pun, this could be an area of growth on Facebook.

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

Developed by Hungarian studio THX Games PLC, Triviador is a unique mix of strategy and trivia game presented like the classic board game Risk. It supports up to three simultaneous players in real-time matches.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Triviador currently has 110,000 monthly active users and 20,000 daily active users.

In Triviador, three live players compete to take over the world, one country at a time. It begins with a conquest phase, for which the game asks all three players a series of four trivia questions. These are used to divide up the four soldiers available for that round. The questions are based around amounts and years, allowing players to enter their own answers. Once time’s up, all three players’ answers are shown, and the soldiers up for grabs are divided based on who’s answer was closest to the correct one.

Once the soldiers are assigned, players are given the opportunity to place theirs on the map, one per country, until all have been used. At this point, war mode begins. In this mode, players are asked to choose the soldier or castle belonging to an opponent in a space adjacent to their own soldiers or castle. When a target is selected, a battle begins. The fighting takes the form of a multiple choice trivia question. The player with the correct answer wins the country. If both players answer correctly, another question is asked. Players not involved in battle are allowed to rate the quality of the questions. If a player chooses to attack another’s castle, the defender has three chances to answer correctly. If they should fail, they’re counted out of the game and can watch as the two other players finish. A real-time chat feature is present during gameplay but can be disabled.

A variety of power-ups, which eliminate a certain number of incorrect answers, and so on, are available for use in the war mode. These must be unlocked via leveling up. Players level up by winning, and by completing missions, the more basic of which involve simply using the requested power-up once, or winning a certain number of games. Players also receive achievements for performing well, along with gold, the game’s soft currency.

Players can add their friends and play with them in private matches. Other social features include a global leaderboard, friend leaderboard, and a scoreboard displaying the current point total for all participating countries. Players are able to set their home country from the game’s menu in order to participate in this ranking. Bragging about wins via viral channels is also supported.

Triviador is monetized through the purchase of soft currency, which players can spend on power-ups. More adventures (plays of the game) can also be purchased, although they are automatically regenerated every day.

THX Games PLC has discussed a number of planned improvements to the game on its Wall, including a feature that will allow players to submit their own trivia questions for consideration and more detailed player statistics. The developer has also pledged to regularly add its own new trivia to a database which currently includes more than 10,000 questions.

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

Australia’s Halfbrick Studios brought its hit iOS and Android title, Fruit Ninja, to Facebook this summer in the form of Fruit Ninja Frenzy. This ought to go a long way toward eliminating knock offs made by other developers.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Fruit Ninja Frenzy currently has 680,000 monthly active users and 90,000 daily active users.

Like the original iOS release — which has since spawned a spin-off, Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots — Fruit Ninja Frenzy revolves around a slicing mechanic. Where mobile players used their device’s touchscreen for input, the Facebook title has them moving their mouse pointer in order to cut flying fruit in mid-air. The pretense for the gameplay is that players are ninja training in a dojo using fruit as targets. The game features a charming old sensei that dispenses sage knowledge (but mostly fruit facts) to hit pupils. Players earn soft currency (here called Fruit Juice) based on how well they perform.

Fruit Ninja Frenzy also adds the special bananas found in the mobile version’s arcade mode to the mix. When sliced, they activate time-limited power-ups, including a timer freeze and rapid-fire flurry of fruit. The later is especially helpful in completing combos — multiple fruit slices in a single swipe — which add up thanks to score multipliers.  Bombs in this release don’t end the game; rather, they deduct 10 points from the player’s total score for the game if accidentally sliced. At the end of the match, the number of fruit sliced is added to any special bonuses from achievements to tally the player’s final score.

In terms of social features, the game offers a real-time friend leaderboard, sharing of high scores via viral channels, and a number of achievements to unlock. Players can also choose to post messages promoting Fruit Ninja Frenzy to their Facebook Walls.

Where Fruit Ninja Frenzy really departs from its mobile parent is in the virtual goods monetization. This takes the form of Smoothie power-up items, which can be used to eliminate bombs or add extra time to the 60-second-per-round limit, and so on. Smoothies are single-use items that the player has to spend both hard and soft currency to create — first spending premium Starfruit currency on Smoothie recipes and then spending Fruit Juice to actually create the Smoothie. When first starting out, players can choose only one smoothie per game, but are able to unlock up to two additional Smoothie slots using Starfruit. Outside of gameplay, players can use Starfruit to change the dojo background and the way the actual swipe of the slicing action looks.

Speaking to Inside Social Games, Halfbrick executive producer Duncan Curtis reveals some of the company’s future plans for Fruit Ninja Frenzy on Facebook. These include connectivity with the mobile versions of the game, potentially utilizing Facebook Connect, to synchronize scores and other data. This would go along with the mobile versions adopting the new Frenzy mode features introduced in this Facebook incarnation of the game. Future versions of Frenzy will also utilize Adobe’s Flash Player 11 and hardware acceleration for smoother gameplay and improved visuals. Real-time competitive multiplayer is in the cards for the title as well, but Halfbrick will likely roll out asynchronous competitive features to encourage high score based rivalries between friends in the shorter-term. The developer also plans to launch the game in more countries for a wider audience.

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

A collaboration between GCrest and developer CyberAgent, Owlbear Garden is part farming simulation and part showcase where cultivating social interaction is equal to the importance of planting and decorating. Launched on October 3, the title has a growing global audience, with many users from the developer’s home country of Japan already producing some fascinating displays.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Owlbear Garden currently has 20,000 monthly active users and 2,000 daily active users.

In Owlbear Garden, players grow plants and decorate their “panel,” a space that’s part farm and part blank canvas for creation. After designing their Owlbear avatar, players interact with their panel by buying seeds using coins and planting them in available plots. Five plots for growing are available at the outset, with more unlocked as players level up. Once players have planted seeds, they can purchase and use fertilizer to make them grow, buying special spray to hasting the process. If they choose, players can use the Flower Dryer on their plants, turning the resulting crops into decorations that can be used in designing the look of their panel. Harvesting plants also gives players experience points and coins. The game presents players with challenges, such as growing a specific number of a certain fruit, then rewards them for completing the task with decoration items and experience.

Beyond plants, players can purchase deco items from the in-game store, or visit a mall where they can browse themed panels and click on items they’d like to purchase right then and there. Harvested flowers and purchased items can also be combined to create new ones, or even fashioned into new clothing for the player’s avatar.

Instead of the traditional energy bar common to most social games, Owlbear Garden uses a hunger level to restrict the amount of actions a player can perform during a session. Harvesting plants increases they player’s hunger level over time and once it’s maxed out, they must visit the Treant Dining area to eat. Players locate and grab food items, then return them to a table in order to eat. Some items, when eaten, reward the player with a deco item for their panel.

The hunger mechanic is also where the game introduces social interaction, as players can chat with others in real time while they’re in Treant Dining. The socialization continues when players visit Streets: a section of the game where players can submit their panels so that others can visit them, hang out, tend to their crops, and rate them. The highest rated panels are featured on a special page in the Streets listening, and some of them can be quite popular. Multiple players can congregate on other players’ panels, text chatting in real time and using emote animations. Panels can also be bookmarked in order to quickly revisit them later.

Up to five tending actions can be performed on another player’s panel each day. In addition to visiting others’ panels in Streets, players can quickly access their friends’ panels at any time from a menu at the bottom of the screen. Accomplishments such as leveling up and completing tasks can also be shared with friends via viral channels. Mini-games, including roulette and “bottle shake,” can be played at friends’ panels as well.

Owlbear Garden is monetized through the purchase of seeds, clothes, and deco items using the soft currency, coins, and Facebook Credits for more premium items. Facebook Credits can also be used to buy new chat emotes. Coins can be used to play a game called Gacha, where they’re traded for a random capsule that contains an item from the collection of the player’s choice.

GCrest tells Inside Social Games that it plans to update Owlbear Garden at least once every two weeks with new content, gameplay updates, and events for players to participate in.

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