Zynga has launched its new social game, Ruby Blast, a high-speed race of digging for hidden treasure in an ancient mine that lets users pit their skills against friends online.
Ruby, “a spunky archeologist digging for treasures in the depths of the wilderness,” is the featured star in the game of finding matching gems in the bedrock and activating power-ups to compete for points in a weekly rotating leaderboard. The game was developed by Zynga’s Seattle and China-based studios, and is now available for free on Facebook and Zynga in 15 different languages.
It marks the first game to emerge from Zynga’s Seattle offices, which opened in the historic Washington Shoe Building in Pioneer Square to much fanfare last year.
“With Ruby Blast, we strived to take the familiar experience of a match 3 puzzle game and bring it to a whole new level of social and fun,” said Jim Veevaert, general manager of Zynga Seattle in a release. “We’ve reimagined the category with a game that introduces brand new gameplay and unique social features – all wrapped around a fresh storyline and state-of-the-art visuals.”
In fact, the visuals reminded us a bit of Bejeweled, the legendary puzzle game from Seattle’s own PopCap Games.
In addition to weekly multiplayer tournaments, the game also promises “explosive graphics, action-packed sound effects and gorgeous particle effects,” and awesome-sounding features like “Cherry Bombs,” “Nova Flares” and “Super Rubies.”
Zynga is the world’s leading provider of social game services with more than 290 million monthly users playing its games.
Check out the trailer here:
