Playfish to open new development studio in San Francisco

With three development studios already in Europe and Asia, it is with great joy that we announce our plans to set up a new studio in creative and energetic San Francisco!

Tapping into the talent of the San Francisco area creates an unique opportunity to assemble a fantastic team of talented individuals to create innovative social games to be enjoyed by millions of Playfish fans worldwide.

The new studio will be located in the existing Playfish offices in the heart of San Francisco, from where the group will be working closely with the global Playfish team of artists, coders, designers and product managers in other parts of the world.

Through our new team in San Francisco we plan to extend our open and collaborative culture and find new sources of inspiration in our mission to change the way the world plays games.

At Playfish, we love people who ooze with creativity, have an eye for quality, and a true passion for creating great games. So take a look at the job section on playfish.com as we are looking for people who share our dream of shaping the direction of the gaming industry in the years to come!

Escape to the great outdoors in Country Story

Having recently ventured into the depths of space with Crazy Planets, Playfish returns to Mother Earth with a whole new world for you to explore in our latest game Country Story!

Sometimes it’s great to escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and enjoy the tranquility of the countryside. In Country Story, you start your life in an idyllic village among friendly villagers, surrounded by lakes and forests and the sweetest fresh air.

The Mayor is the first of the villagers you’ll meet and he’s happy to help you decorate your home, tend your crops and prepare for your first harvest.  And with your friends’ homes nearby you’re never far from someone who can lend a hand. Or perhaps you’re more interested in keeping animals – maybe you can tend cows for their milk, sheep for their wool, or chickens for their delicious eggs!

A big part of life in Country Story is cooperating with your friends and the other villagers. Helping someone water their crops, participating in community events and finding ingredients for baking a birthday cake for a friend are all part of day-to-day life in the village. But take care – your friends may choose to take advantage of this charming environment and try to take some of your crops – so it pays to be on your guard!

As the village grows we’ll be adding more activities, quests and areas for you to explore.  You’ll soon see that there’s much more to village life than first meets the eye!

Throughout the pre-beta we’ve received excellent feedback on how to improve the game.  The ideas for new features have been a great inspiration for the Country Story team, so we thank you for all your support and look forward to hearing how you enjoy life in the world of Country Story!

It’s ‘All Go’ for Lift Off to Crazy Planets!

Today Playfish celebrates the launch of its latest game Crazy Planets, where we blast you and your friends into space for intergalactic battles on an epic scale!

In Crazy Planets all the action starts from the headquarters on your home planet where you recruit your own team of space troopers, specially selected amongst your friends, to take on the invading aliens and robots at full force. To make things even cooler, you can personalise your character by integrating your profile photo into your space suit.  Your enemies will definitely know that it’s personal!

Through battles and adventures you’ll discover remote planets where you can gather precious gems and metals to create new, more powerful weapons! Each weapon has its own behaviour and special powers, so building your team of troopers will require strategy and planning.

As team commander, you return to your home planet with new found riches to grow your world so it becomes the most powerful and renowned in the universe!

The true test for any space commander is, of course, how they can hold up in a battle against their peers. We’ll soon be introducing a real-time Multiplayer Arena where you’ll be able to put the tactics you’ve learned against aliens and robots to use against the ultimate competitor – your real-life friends!

With Crazy Planets, we set out to combine more active real time gameplay with elements of longer term growth and tactical depth. At the same time, we’ve aimed at creating a fun experience that feels fresh and creative, with the familiar playfish graphical style and approach to gameplay.

Throughout the closed beta we have received a lot of great feedback on how to improve the game (thank you, beta testers!). We have a nice roadmap of new features planned in the coming months, and as always, we look forward to hearing your ideas and comments about how we can take the game even further, so keep them coming!

So, assemble your troops and get ready for some explosive, out of this world fun!  Who will reign supreme in your galaxy of friends? Start your adventure now!