Facebook Application Development

Divorce, alcoholism, and near worthless stock are the rewards for 12 hour days prepping for a game launch at Zynga, according to one anonymous Quora user who worked there after their company was bought by the gaming giant.

The answer was called “butthurt” by one responder. “Sorry you’re not a millionaire after a year of work on a failed product” said another. Indeed it seems a bit overemotional and worth taking with a grain of salt. Long hours and rewards that might not materialize are part of working at startups.

Still, the answer has received tons upvotes, including some from former Zynga employees, and sources from inside the company say they’ve seen these hardships first hand. So here’s the grim Quora tale of killing yourself to get to an IPO, just to see your $10 shares dive to $3.

Why did Zynga generate revenue of $332 million versus the analyst-projected $344 million, earning 3 cents per share instead of 5 (and sending the stock off 40% in after-hour trading)? Three big factors, the company said today on the earnings call, in the following order: Facebook platform changes, game launches late in the quarter, and Draw Something’s weakening mobile traffic.

Facebook began emphasizing new games in its news feed, notifications, bookmarks and other communication channels at the expense of existing games, chief operating officer John Schappert said. This sent existing games down 15% across the platform (not just Zynga games) and live-action genre games down 34%. Because so many users engaged less often, they bought fewer virtual goods, driving down gross bookings by 9% for the quarter.

Ellen Siminoff, President, and CEO of Shmoop University, an educational publishing company, and a founding executive at Yahoo, joined Zynga’s board of directors today. Siminoff joins DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, LinkedIn Founder and Chairman Reid Hoffman, Sidecar Rideshare CEO Sunil Paul,  Kleiner Perkins Partner Bing Gordon, LinkedIn board member Stanley J. Meresman, Zynga EVP of Business Owen Van Natta, Zynga COO John Schappert and Zynga CEO and founder Mark Pincus on the gaming giant’s board.

Siminoff’s background and comments about extending Zynga’s platform could signal a push towards the intersection of online education and gaming. But the board does have a very diverse set of backgrounds, and we’ve speculated about board members changing Zynga’s direction before, so take it with a grain of salt.

It’s not quite at the scale of Zynga or its European competitors King.com and Wooga yet, but the Barcelona-based social games developer SocialPoint just raised a $7.4M Series B round led by Idinvest Partners with participation from a number of other funds, including BBVA and Nauta Capital. The company raised a first round of financing worth $3.4 million in June 2011. This first round was led by Nauta Capital and marked the venture firm’s first investment in a gaming company.

Zynga said it is boosting support for synchronous multiplayer tournaments in its games. The company’s starting with its recent arcade title Bubble Safari, which is a Match 3-type puzzle game where players have to match up three types of fruit in a row by shooting a cannon.

Synchronous multiplayer basically means two or more people can compete with each other in real-time. Historically, Zynga has focused on asynchronous (or turn-based) play because it’s easier for casual gamers to fit gameplay into their daily lives. In the new mode, you can either play with Facebook friends or strangers. Each game is 90 seconds. There’s also chat so players can trash talk each other on the side. Developers also can tap into this platform, and offer special prizes on a leaderboard.