MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
French indie studio Pretty Simple’s hugely successful hidden object title Criminal Case has been crowed game of the year 2013 on Facebook.
The title, which tasks players with investigating crime scenes, was singled out for “standing above the rest by all measurements”.
A wave of titles were also selected for best new game of the year, including King’s Farm Heroes Saga, Wooga’s match-three title Jelly Splash, Social Point’s monster collecting and fighting game Monster Legends and Plarium’s RTS Soldiers Inc.
This year’s hall of fame featured King’s popular breakout hit Candy Crush saga, Zynga’s FarmVille 2, Playtika and Caesar’s Interactive’s Slotomania and DoubleDown Interactive and IGT’s DoubleDown Casino.
Staff favourites meanwhile included MMO strategy game Wartune by Road7, Kixeye’s RTS War Commander and Disruptor Beam’s role-playing sim Game of Thrones Ascent.
In total, 23 titles were highlighted in the games of the year rundown, with ten of them coming from studios based in the Europe and Middle East. Eight titles were made by indie developers.
Reflecting Facebook’s push into the cross-platform and core gaming markets, the list featured eight cross-platform titles and seven mid-to-hard core titles. A further five games were arcade titles, while another five were described as casino or slot games.
For more details on what these trends mean for Facebook, and what the social network has planned in future, you can read our interview with the company’s developer relations for games AJ Glasser here.
The full list of Facebook’s best games of the year 2013:
Game of the Year 2013
Criminal Case by Pretty Simple
Best New Games of 2013
Bake Shop Drop by Broken Bulb Studios
Farm Heroes Saga by King
Heart of Vegas by Product Madness/Aristocrat
Hit It Rich Casino Slots by Zynga
Jelly Splash by Wooga
Kitchen Scramble by Disney Interactive
Monster Legends by Social Point
The Smurfs & Co.: Spellbound by Ubisoft
Soldiers Inc. by Plarium
Solitaire Tales by Qublix
Thunder Run War of Clans by SpinPunch Games
Vikings Gone Wild by EveryDayiPlay
Staff Favorites
DoubleU Casino by AFewGoodSoft
Game of Thrones Ascent by Disruptor Beam
King’s Bounty: Legions by Nival
Panda Jam by SGN
Wartune by Road7/Proficient City
War Commander by Kixeye
2013 Hall of Fame
Candy Crush Saga by King
DoubleDown Casino by DoubleDown Interactive/IGT
FarmVille 2 by Zynga
Slotomania by Playtika/Caesar’s Interactive
