Zynga launched its first social game, Zynga Poker in July of 2007 on Facebook and it turned out to be a massive success. Since then, Zynga has gone on to launch a number of online and interactive games but none of them have managed to do as well as Zynga Poker.
The company recently announced that it had decided to give Zynga Poker a huge makeover. This move will result in the company shedding its cartoon themes and going with player photos that appear to be a lot more real and interactive. The makeover has been carefully designed after a much thought out process as Zynga realizes that it is tampering with a winning formula.
However, keeping the future in mind, Zynga is adapting to change and looking to make Zynga Poker much more interactive and realistic, giving players a casino type of experience. One of the main reasons for this innovation is because Zynga is facing stiff competition as a number of competitors have also launched social casino games in an attempt to capture market share.
Nick Giovanello joined the Zynga Poker team in 2013 and was part of the group that had to plan and implement the makeover including colors and design. In a statement, Giovanello said
Poker is a 200-year-old game. How do you reinvent that experience? We wanted to create an app that was rearchitected for mobile and reimagined. It’s not trivial to do that. We had to think about what matters, about how we want our players to feel. It’s more social, with an emphasis on quality, immersive, and personal, like you have permission to dream, play and win. We looked into the psychology of casinos. Red encourages split-second decisions. Gold increases value and the lighting changes at night.
One of the more interesting changes of this makeover is the fact that the new game works a lot faster and also automatically checks your skill level and then puts you at a poker table that is in line with your skill level, preferences and game play pattern. This means that the player is always in a competitive and learning environment.
In a recent blog post, Clive Downie, Zynga’s chief operating officer stated
We are going back to our roots in social, and players will find that the new Zynga Poker delivers entirely new layers of social, making it easier for you and your friends to join the same table and instantly connect.
