The latest game from one of the architects of the first-person-shooter genre probably isn’t what you expect. There are no BFGs, no demons and no space marines. There is conflict of a furry nature, though.
John Romero’s Loot Drop studio — founded along with fellow designer and academic Brenda Brathwaite — has partnered with Zynga to release Pettington Park on Google Plus. It’s a game where players choose to side with cats or dogs and build parks that will compete against the opposing species. You’ll start off by adding buildings and attractions but the real draw will be the arcade-style mini-games that you can add to your virtual property. The species side who can attract the most visitors wins the weekly competition, where players on a team contribute to an aggregate score.
So there’s no ultra-violence of any sort and no egregious tooth-and-claw cat/dog battles either. Still, it should be interesting to see what two highly respected game creators come up with moving their design ideas into the social space. You can check out the beta for Pettington Park here.
No joke: Pettington Park is Loot Drop and Zynga’s Google+ project [Games.com]
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