Being a millionaire is a dream that millions share. This helped “Millionaire City” to peak at 13 million MAU in the end of 2010. Today, it only has about 1,600,000 MAU. For Digital Chocolate it still is the second biggest game on Facebook, according to AppStats. It is also a good example to investigate how an alteration of a classic resource managing game translates onto mobile devices and to discus differences of both platforms and their meaning for social games.

Developer: Digital Chocolate
Genre:  Resource Management
Languages: English
Platforms: Facebook, iOS , Android
Active users (Facebook): 1.600.000 MAU 250.000 DAU

How to play
In this early resource managing game the goal is to accumulate resources, build more and more advanced buildings and decorate the city with new shiny items. For “Millionaire City” that means getting money through renting property. The user levels up and unlocks more profitable properties to build his own digital real estate empire. Although the goals of both versions are the same, the appeal is not.  It’s the details that make the difference between the Facebook and mobile version of the game.

iPod-Screenshot-Millionaire City

Game play – touching is not clicking

The touch screen doesn’t change the possibilities for the player in the game but changes his interaction with the game. The mouse has several advantages here. The mouse always feels fast and precise. The player only needs a few seconds to select a building and build it where he wants, more information is shown via simply letting the mouse hover over the property of interest. Zooming in and out is easy and smooth with the mouse wheel. On touch devices all those interactions are bit notchier.

Buildings have to be dragged and dropped into position and then confirmed to be build. For more information the player has to open a new screen by taping on buildings. Zooming in and out is intuitive with the pitching motion but doesn’t feel as responsive compared to a mouse wheel. Right now, Facebook versions of most social games feel smoother when played than via touch screen on mobile devices. Taping on a screen and clicking a mouse may do the same, but it doesn’t feel the same.

Facebook screen shot Millionaire City

Presentation – mobile ghost town

On Facebook Millionaire City has very bright and colorful graphics with appealing animations. Due to the more limited resources of mobile devices the game doesn’t look as good as on Facebook. Again the details are the difference. On Facebook the player can examine his whole empire at once, not so on mobile devices. Also no vehicles are driving on the streets of the city on portable devices, giving the city an intensified feeling of emptiness. With less bright colors compared to the Facebook version and buildings that look muddier in comparison – cities build by the player have more similarities with a ghost town. Also missing on the iOS and Android versions are some small animations when collecting money, building and other interaction. In summary this results in a superior look and feel of the Facebook version. It seems like mobile social games don’t play as well as their social counterpart.

Verdict
Millionaire City on mobile devices isn’t a bad game, but it isn’t a good one either. It shares the problem of many mobile social games that try to sell the same game mechanics of their desktop analogues. Facebook and mobile are two different platforms that have their own set of rules.

Slotomania is the number two slot machine game on Facebook and with 2 million DAU #19 in the overall game chart on appstast.eu. Even though Slingo from Zynga still has the edge over the game from the in Tel Aviv located company Playtika, it is positioned well for a pure virtual slot machine game. Let’s examine what keeps players feed the virtual slot machine.

Title: Slotomania
Developer: Playtika
Genre: Casino, slot machine
Languages: English, Spanish, Italian, Turkish, French, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese
Platforms: Facebook, iOS, Android, Google+, Yahoo! Mobage(JPN),VKontatke(RUS), Mail (RUS)
Active users (Facebook): 7.100.000 MAU 2.000.000 DAU

How to Play

As it is a slot machine game, there isn’t that much to explain. The player sets his bets on one or multiple lines he predicts that will be filled with the same signs in row, presses “Spin!” and crosses his fingers hoping for the best. When the wheels stop the player gets his wins according to the pay table and the player can start again. These plays are only interrupted when the player wins some free Spins, in which the game locks the bet and spins five times but without having to pay for the spins – the wins stay the same. Those aren’t the only thing changing the pace of the game.

Also bonus games are occasionally thrown in, in which the player has to play a small luck based guessing game to win some extra coins. Important to know is that Coins don’t represent real money the player can win! Since gambling for real money is not allowed in the App Store or on Facebook, players can’t cash out their wins. At first one would think that gambling without real money would lose all its appeal, but Playtika did a good job in transporting the slot machine game play into a social environment. It is when the wheel spins, where the magic begins.

Gambling with no profits – it works

Even though no real money could be won, the player fast gets sucked in into the hypnotizing spinning of the wheels, hoping for the next win, free spin or bonus game to earn more coin and unlock the next slot machine. The appearance and the sound differ from machine to machine, but the experience stays the same.  The player is ask very little but when he has luck and gets that big win, it feels very rewarding. , so rewarding that he might consider paying for extra coins. Just to keep the wheels spinning and to break the losing streak, just to get that feeling of reward again. Despite the fact, that there is nothing material to win. The key to understand this type of game is to understand the effort and emotional reward ration. Players don’t have to do much, to get the feeling of accomplishing something. It’s a casual game at its core. Not demanding but still rewarding. And the Facebook Connect integration helps to carry this spirit.

Connecting the game with the owned Facebook profile not only opens the possibility of sending Gifts and collecting them from friends, comparing balances and share new unlocks but connecting the mobile game to Facebook synchronizes the balance and level to the version available on the social network. Transition from one version to the other is managed without any big differences. The mobile version only lacks the social slot machine where the player spins a machine using the profile pictures in the slot machine. Due to the Facebook connectivity the game can’t be played offline, that is the only issue and probably just an anti cheat measure.

In summary Playtika did a good job with this virtual impression of a slot machine casino and offers enough insensitive to keep the wheels touring. According to Facebook data provided by Appstast.eu Slotomania appeals to more mature audience. 70% of Slotomania users are older than 26 years. And 40 of all players are located in North America. It’s the love in details of the look and feel of this game that gives it its appeal and proves that gambling without material winning prospects can be very appealing.

Demograpic Data

In most cases crimes don’t pay off in the reality, but in the mobile game Crime City they do. Not in wealth, but in hours of enjoyable gameplay. And for the developers of Funzio in successful cross platform game. On Facebook, Google+, Google Play and in the App Store Crime City became one of the most successful roleplaying games for those platforms. Last month the San Francisco-based Funzio was sold for $210 million to the japanese social gaming network GREE. The acquisitions seems to have paid off. On of the reasons is Crime City.

Title: Crime City
Developer: Funzio
Genre: RPG
Languages: English
Platform(s): Facebook, iOS, Android, Google+

How to Play:
Crime City is a role playing game with city building elements. It presents itself with and isometric 3D look and an interesting crime setting. The goal of the player is to become the city’s biggest mobster. To do so the player’s creates an avatar that can be customized, has to do dirty work, build up his hood and fight off rivals.

The center of the players crime organization is his hood. There he can build different buildings to earn money or other perks. Building and managing his hood is not the only thing the player has to do.

The player also earns money by finishing jobs which drains his energy level. Energy is replenished by time, gained building in his hood or bought with gold that can be purchased as an In-App purchase. Jobs can be done in different areas where the player can travel to. There are a variety of different activities. From shoplifting over mugging to assassination. For a little guidance the player is assigned to goals that include doing certain jobs and finishing other tasks. This helps the player to stay on track of his progression. By finishing the player does not only earn money but  items and experience which levels up the avatar.

Higher levels unlock new areas, new items in the shop and goals to finish. Also skill points can be spent to improve the characters’ energy capacity, attack and defense skills. This is important in fights with rivals – other players’ avatars.

Mobile not as smooth as the Facebook version
Other players can be attacked to steal money from them and to earn respect that can be used to buy better equipment in the shop. It is also possible to join forces with friends. It’s not as smooth as in the Facebook version, because you have to enter and individual Mafia Code that consist of nine digits, but doing so gives the players’ mafia an advantage in fights with other player and let’s him progress faster. The social factor is translated well onto the mobile version.

In comparison to the Facebook and Google+ version of the game interaction is a bit shortened due to the limitations of the platform. But non of those features are really missed, since all the gifting and asking for help is a mechanic that only make sense in a framework of a social network. Important features as the customizable character and the possibility to join forces with friends made it into this version. Another side effect of missing social features is that the monetization doesn’t feel as forced. Since there are no items that can only be acquired from friends or in the store for real money. What you can buy are funny items, weapons and customization options for characters -these are options for players who are really invest in the game.

No good reason to play both versions
It is a real pity that both versions are not connected. They are two separate games from which nothing carries on from on to the another. Playing one version there is no good reason to play the other. Why should the player start from scratch and build up a new character on the other version ? There is no good reason especially if the player already invested real money to customize his character.

In total Funzio manages to translate the interesting gameplay of Crime City from social to mobile. With interesting player interaction possibilities and a good implementation of roleplaying into a casual game.

The sound of the forest, mumbling citizens and angry but cute bears, those are familiar things to the aspiring majors in the social game Triple Town. Developer Spry Fox first released it for the Amazon Kindle in 2010. Limited due to the e-readers specifications, the game had no sound, no colors and was not social, but with an interesting core game mechanic of a ‘Match-3’ puzzle game.

With a slightly new setting and adding a social game esthetic to the presentation; it was released on Facebook and Google+ in October 2011. In January 2012 the success of Triple Town and the demand of the community led to a mobile version of the game for iOS and Android devices. Was this the foundation stone for a social cross-platform experience?

The task in Triple Town is straight forward: Build the biggest town possible. It gives the well known ‘Match-3’ mechanic the twist, which tasks the player to build structure, not destroying it, making it a slower paced high score game.

The town is build by placing object as grass, trees or bushes into a 6×6 field in which some object are already placed. The player can build new structures by matching three of the same objects next to each other, resulting in the merging of the objects in a new one. Those can then be merged in the same manner to better structures. As an example, 3 field of grass result in a bush, 3 bushes in a tree and so on. Higher complexity equals in more points are added to the score.

To spice things up, occasionally the player has to place a bear. Once placed he move around the village and may prevent the player to build the town how he planned it, by simply blocking the spot where he stands. Trapping him with objects so that he can’t move will stop him and turn him into a gravestone, which also can be matched into new structures.  Those bears bring in certain randomness and complicate the construction of the most valuable town possible. The level ends if all fields are occupied. In relation to the score achieved, coins are earned. And this is where the monetization is introduced into the game.

Coin can be used to buy aid in the shop. There the player can buy an object he wishes to place in the field, other than the random one that is given to him. This can make up for mistakes he made in planning his placements. But more important, it can buy him more play time, because the limited resources in Triple Town are his moves.

Moves can be bought in the store or regenerate over time. It is also possible to buy unlimited moves as an In-App purchase. Surprisingly friend interaction that rewards with moves or coins is missing – except achievements and the game center rankings. And more things are missing.

In comparison to the Flash version on Facebook the mobile version lacks all social implementations.
All social features as weekly ranking, sharing options for high scores and gift sending are absent in the mobile version. In the Flash version the player also moves from town to town on a campaign map, facing new challenges and presets, as smaller field or towns with no bears. On mobile only three additional levels are available for purchase. The mobile game and the Facebook version are completely separate from each other. Triple Town misses the opportunity to give the player a long time motivation. After the a few rounds, when the appeal of presentation is fading and he gets the feeling he saw everything, he will most certainly not come back for more. If they are no true puzzle fan, there little that keeps players coming back.

In conclusion Triple Town is not as greater on mobile as it is on Facebook or Google+ and no social cross-platform game. The two versions are in no relation to each other. Playing one version won’t lead the player to play the other. For the mobile version the simple game play with a sense of depth is not enough keep a player playing over a long time period – at least not in this target g

Last week, San Francisco-based Funzio released its newest game Kingdom Age for Facebook and iOS, marking the first time a social game has launched on both Apple iOS and Facebook simultaneously. Previously, Kingdom Age was exclusively available on Google+.

The game is a strategic action RPG in which players construct their own kingdoms, hack-and-slash monsters and battle other players army-to-army. Funzio’s VP Business Development Jamil Moledina tells us that Kingdom Age is actually less hardcore than it seems. ”The apparent complexity of the game is actually linear,” he explains. ”We have three layers of game design which give players a choice to do the things they enjoy most at the time: questing, battling or building.”

Kingdom Age is tuned for 20 minutes of play when doing all three activities, but it can also be played in six or seven minute sessions when focusing on just one aspect at a time. The accessible gameplay has helped Funzio to tap into new audiences with 35 percent female users – a high percentage for the genre. Funzio’s biggest game to date, Crime City, has a 75 percent male players, for Modern War the audience is 85 percent male, according to Moledina.

He says that on iOS play sessions are significantly shorter so Kingdom Age was tuned for three and a half minutes of play with a less complex battle system and has fewer menus for the users to deal with on a smaller screen.

Because iOS is not inherently a social network, Funzio had to create a way to connect players – which was realized by letting them exchange individual codes to battle or join forces. The results were surprising, says Moledina: ”On iOS we saw higher multiplayer activity. Players would have twice as many and in some case four times as many battles on iOS than on the Facebook version.”

Funzio’s first two titles, Crime City and Modern War are available for iOS already with good performances in the top grossing charts. Most recently, Crime City was released for Android enabling Android users to battle across platforms against iOS opponents.
Moledina says that Funzio’s Google+ exclusive phase was insightful and the company will continue to experiment with other platforms that are potentially capable to host free-to-play social games for larger audiences.

San Francisco-based Funzio, creator of Crime City, today announced their latest game Kingdom Age exclusively for Google+ and the Chrome Web Store (which will redirect players to Google+).

Kingdom Age pays homage to classic action-RPGs and fantasy sagas such as Lord of the Rings.  Players construct their own kingdoms, hack-and-slash monsters in dungeons and collect rare weapons and artifacts. Exploration and discovery of special loot items, which are not available to purchse in the in-game shop, aim to keep players interested.

Funzio’s VP Business Development Jamil Moledina told us that all battles take place asynchronously to make the game accessible for mid-core players who don’t want to spend several hours in real-time battles but rather play in bursts of 10 to 15 minutes. The game’s virtual goods provide a competitive edge in multiplayer combat. Battle mode and cooperative play are possible with both friends and strangers; opponents are matched according to strength with a sophisticated algorithm that Moledina calls the game’s ’secret sauce’.

Funzio is the latest social game company to release on Google+ exclusively after Kabam and -most recently- Digital Chocolate. Moledina tells us that Google is being very supportive towards developers and that Google+’s gamers show high engagement and competitive monetization levels.

“Google+ is adding millions of new members to their social network and it’s key for our future growth as an entertainment company to be part of the developing gaming scene on this vital new social platform,” commented Kenneth Chiu, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, Funzio in a press statement. “As a developer, we’ve also found it easy to work with Google; they’ve listened to our feedback and have been very collaborative on Kingdom Age. With this successful launch on Google+ and the Chrome Web Store, as well as our new projects beginning to arrive on Android, Funzio has again proven our multiplatform strategy.”

“Kingdom Age marks the fifth exclusive game to launch on Google+,” said Punit Soni, Lead for Google+ Games. “We’re thrilled to see that our trusted partners, such as Funzio, are launching their games exclusively on the platform demonstrating their long term commitment to Google+ games.”

The game will later be rolled out to other platforms. A trailer can be watched on YouTube.

Kabam operates at the convergence of social games and so-called hardcore games with elaborate strategy multiplayer titles like Dragons of Atlantis or Kingdoms of Camelot. We were curious to learn more about Kabam’s philosophy, especially in the wake of its latest move to publish the first The Godfather social game exclusively on Google+, and caught up with their COO Chris Carvalho to explore the topic.

Social Games Observer: The Godfather: Five Families (TGFF) was released on Google+ exclusively – why did you take this step?
Chris Carvalho: To paraphrase The Godfather, “It was strictly business.”
TGFF had performed well in beta and we were ready to take it to large audiences.  As we were evaluating our options, Google+ games came to us and put together the most compelling marketing and merchandising package to support the expansion of The Godfather: Five Families onto their platform.

Kabam's Chief Operating Officer Chris Carvalho

SGO: Are you happy with the game’s performance so far?
Chris: We are very happy with the performance of The Godfather: Five Families to date. In fact, the game experienced the best performance in beta of any game Kabam has released to date. We continue to see growth in players and revenue, and expect that to continue.

Is it already possible to tell if players on Google+ show different behaviors or enjoy other things in a game than players on other platforms, especially Facebook?
Chris: There are some differences with G+ and other platforms, but so far the internal metrics are pretty similar.  That’s because it’s the game itself that has the most impact on players, as each title has its own game and design mechanics which engender different player behaviors.

SGO: Google+ has a reputation for having a very male-heavy audience – how does that reflect on your user base?
Chris: The G+ user base to date is definitely complementary of our users as the demographic profile of Kabam game players is 70% male, mostly under 40.  This is a direct result of our overall strategy.

Google+ made them a marketing offer they couldn't refuse.

Kabam was the first social gaming company to take a different strategy, consciously targeting and developing games for the core gamer audience, not ‘casual’ gamers. We develop hardcore social games that combine the deep, immersive gameplay found in MMO games, strategy and RPG style games, with the connectivity and interaction benefits of social platforms. Consequently, our player profile is much more in line with what one historically sees in the gaming category.

SGO: From a technical perspective, which are the main differences when publishing on Google+ compared to Facebook?
Chris: Kabam created a solution for multi-platform publishing specifically to address this challenge, a new technology framework called Pyramid™.  The Pyramid layer allows us to leverage a single code base engine, which in turn enables Kabam to rapidly integrate a game as well as deliver simultaneous game updates across multiple platforms. As a publisher, this means we can easily and efficiently integrate, and update games across multiple platforms. No more branched code… games are always kept up to date, no matter the platform.

Kabam built a new publishing framework to run games simultaneously across different platforms.

We deployed this solution not only for The Godfather: Five Families, but for other Kabam games that are running on multiple platforms (Dragons of Atlantis and Edgeworld are also on both Facebook and Google+ games).  It has enabled us to solve for the problem of multi-platform development, which in turn will enable us to achieve the broadest possible global reach for Kabam games and reduces our dependency on any one platform.

SGO: What happens when the exclusive period of 45 days is over – are you rolling out The Godfather: Five Families to Facebook and/or other platforms as well?
Chris: Yes, we plan to expand distribution of The Godfather: Five Families. Our goal is to make Kabam games available to as many gamers globally as possible.  Whether it is on Facebook or not is an open question.  No platform captures all gamers – e.g., Facebook only has about 30% penetration in Europe. As noted above, this is one of the reasons we developed Pyramid – it enables us to be a multi-platform game company.

SGO: Are you planning to release more titles exclusively on Google+?
Chris: As we develop and release more titles, we’ll follow the same process we did with TGFF. We’ll evaluate the game’s performance and talk to third party platforms about marketing and promotion to drive users to our games and make our distribution decisions based on what is the best path for each game.

SGO: What other platforms will be in your focus this year for launching new games?
Chris: We will have multiple games across European networks – VZNet, Hyves, Tuenti, etc. – and believe that managing the distribution channels is going to be one of the key factors for success in this evolving games market, so Kabam is constantly looking to expand our game distribution to reach more gamers and provide unique value to our players.

While our focus will continue to be on developing and releasing free-to-play, hardcore social games that are delivered digitally, the ecosystem is rapidly evolving and new opportunities are appearing on a regular basis.
For example, we recently announced a deal with Pokki that enables players to access a Kabam game directly from their computer desktop via an app – it operates much like mobile apps. We feel this has the potential to open up a major new chapter in distribution for core social games.

Now that Zynga has finally made the step and gone public, opinions are divided as to whether Facebook as a games platform has peaked and is now on the downslope. Industry expert Tami Baribeau has repeatedly argued that Facebook games are not sustainable as a business model and iOS should be the platform of choice if a developer was to start today. Unlike in the App Store, in the top lists of Facebook games, there are hardly any small bootstrapped companies, Baribeau points out.

She also points to the greater creativity and variety of genres on iOS whereas Facebook games often rely on the same set of mechanics (e.g. energy, gifting, neighboring). The top 20 list is crowded with a lot of ‘Villes’ because city building simulation games have proven most successful, alongside casual point-and-click action titles. In the App Store, games can be discovered through categories and editorial recommendations, whereas Facebook doesn’t offer a game directory.

Distribution – Facebook’s biggest asset or liability?

Naturally, Facebook’s Head of Platform Partnerships Julien Codorniou begs to differ. He argues that social discovery and distribution is Facebook’s great asset and on iOS developers outside the top 20 list have a hard time acquiring new users.

Wooga’s Jens Begemann even goes so far to say that on Facebook everything is free – including the platform itself and distribution, until a developer is successful enough to sell virtual goods, from which then Facebook takes a 30% share.  Also, he notes that unlike on other platforms, everybody can start a Facebook app tomorrow, without asking for approval or paying a fee. It sounds like a nice concept indeed, but in the crowded market and with limited viral channels, distribution is not exactly free. In some cases it might be possible to grow organically, like Wooga repeatedly states to, but the majority of developers are facing a rising costs for user acquisition on Facebook. Also, the most successful one, Zynga, spends more than 40M in Q1 of 2011 on advertising. Many industry experts are expecting more layoffs at social games companies in 2012, because the market is too crowded and costs for user acquisition and production of games are rising.

Philip Reisburger of Bigpoint believes that being outside Facebook is an advantage for his company because Zynga’s audience represents 30-40 percent of the active Facebook population whereas Bigpoint with a similarly large audience doesn’t represent 30-40 percent of internet users. “We’re in a bigger market, we’re not relying on a new guy registering on Facebook – we have over a thousand media partners who drive traffic, so whenever they venture into new ground, it’s beneficial for us,” Reisburger told Gamesindustry.biz.

Facebook’s own Social Graph allows games to move out

Even outside the Facebook canvas, Facebook remains omnipresent. Almost all browser-based games use Facebook Connect to have their application on the open web for full control over their product and revenues without having to pay 30% Facebook tax, while at the same time still being able to benefit from Facebook’s social ecosystem. UK-based casino game developer Yazino moved away from the Facebook canvas in November but the company still leverages the Facebook Social Graph. So is the future of the Facebook game outside the Facebook platform?

A counter example would be King.com. The Swedish casual games developer (founded in 2003) was already a big player on the web before entering Facebook. Their move to publish games on the Facebook canvas came as late as February 2011 and brought them surges in new traffic – currently over 23 million monthly active users. According to Riccardo Zacconi, King.com’s CEO, the company had 300 million games played on its platform per month in December 2010. Now, after the company became a highly successful Facebook publisher 1.4 billion King.com games are played per month.

A dark horse has entered the race

In the platform race, Google+ Games is a dark horse because so far its unclear whether Google+ will be able to attract and retain a mass audience and if that audience is keen on gaming at all. Google is ramping up its games platform and following a different approach than Facebook’s ‘everybody can publish anything’.

Google+ offers a choice of now 33 games that can be browsed in categories such as New games or Top games and also editorial staff picks – something that Facebook deliberately avoids. There appears to be an effort of maintaining a healthy mix in games and genres from Angry Birds to CityVille and Kabam’s story driven Godfather franchise.  This might be a reaction to Facebook’s ‘Ville-dominated’ monoculture as well Google’s own Android Market which is often criticized as cluttered and disorganized in comparison to Apples App Store.

Gameloft announced a partnership with Google to bring the first 3D HTML5 racing game GT Racing: Motor Academy to Google+.

The racing simulation with over 26 manufacturers and 111 licensed cars allows Google+ users to pass driving tests, participate in racing events, and play against drivers from all over the world with multiplayer options.
“Gameloft is very excited about offering our games to Google+ users,” said Baudouin Corman, VP Publishing for the Americas at Gameloft. “GT Racing is bringing a stunning racing experience right in the browser, and we are happy to be pioneering the field with Google to bring the social gaming platform to the next level.”

Paris-based Gameloft, founded in 1999, creates games for all digital platforms, including mobile phones, smartphones and tablets. The company  is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange and distributes in 100 countries.

This week’s Game of the Week The Godfather: Five Families was released on Google+ exclusively for 45 days. Kabam’s first major movie franchise aims to combine MMO-style play with social gaming.

Developer: Kabam
Genre: Strategy, MMO
Platform(s): Google+, web
Launch: 7 December 2011
Languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish
Monetization: Free-to-play with paid premium currency

What’s inside?

A complex multiplayer mafia social game build on top of The Godfather film series.

Players communicate via live chat.

The game is set during the prohibition era, ten years before the events in The Godfather film take place. Players get to choose which of New York’s five families they want to join as they war for domination of the city.

How to play

Players enter the game as low-level gangsters and join one of the Five Families (Corleone, Barzini, Tattaglia, Stracci and Cuneo), each of which confer unique benefits such as extra income from nightclubs and other illicit entertainment. Every family has a Don – a position held by the user who has achieved the most in-game respect through defeating enemies and conquering territories. Players climb the ranks and gain power by intimidating and collecting from neighbors while gathering weapons, skills and equipment to fight rivals.

The player gets assigned jobs but he can never finish- for each completed job another one is added.

Apart from joining a family, players can also form a smaller alliance, or Crew, with others. The Google+ integration uses Circles to share help, information, and experiences with their Family and Crew. Also, a live chat window lets Crews and families communicate in real-time.

The game has three main scenes: Estate, Neighborhood and City.  Each setting features countless different mini-missions or jobs, such as upgrading buildings, training thugs or researching techniques in the game’s library. All tasks take up a specific amount of time but each of them can be sped up using special boosters. There are four resources: Cash, Food, Steel, Cement and a premium currency called Diamonds which can be used in the shop to buy weapons time boosters  for quicker advance in the game.

The in-game shop contains an endless plethora of upgrades and boosters.

Bottom line

Kabam’s COO Chris Carvalho said at launch that The Godfather: Five Families has enjoyed the best ever beta period for a Kabam game. How this translates into actual numbers is hard to tell. The game combines social and player-versus-player mechanics with great atmosphere and graphics. But it could be just a little too hardcore for casual gamers who might not want to grapple with the overwhelming amount of options.