Fox officially announces Family Guy Online, and dammit, Meg is in it

Really, Meg? Do you have to ruin this game, too? Fox has officially announced Family Guy Online, the upcoming browser-based 3D multiplayer game surrounding the not-so-lovely town of Quahog and its ... charming residents. In fact, when the game launches "exactly later this year," you can become of those residents. It's thanks to the Family Guy Online Character Creator, which fans can take advantage of now after registering, of course.

The Character Creator allows you to base your customized avatar off of existing characters from the Griffin family like Lois, Stewie, Peter, Chris and Brian, though he's locked at the moment. (Hey, at least Meg isn't a playable character.) Each family remember represents a character archetype, though they're pretty nebulous characteristics like "Throws Weight Around" and "Spaz Attack."

The amount of options you have to customize your character is remarkable, you know, for a game based on Family Guy. It shows that developer Roadhouse Interactive is taking great care with the franchise. And, according to an interview with Gamasutra, the game will be free to play and is aimed to fit in a sweet spot "between social games and hardcore online games called accessible games."

Family Guy Online Character Creator
Other than that, what we know about the game is two writers for the show, Andrew Goldberg and Alex Carter, have an important role in the game's creation, and the game is being built on the Unity engine. How "accessible" gamers will deal with an extra download has yet to be seen, but maybe the news that at least Meg isn't heavily involved will entice them. Stupid Meg.

Google: Games platform 'is not ready to handle' opening up to creators

There's a reason that Google+ Games has been a slow burn since its launch this summer: It can't handle much more. Speaking exclusively with Gamasutra, Google+ game developer advocate Todd Kerpelman said, "And that is our larger goal, to bring in more developers, and eventually open it up to anybody that wants to develop on Google+. Just right now the system is not ready to handle that."

Google has been quite exclusive with which developers it allows to bring their games onto Google+ Games, working with only the biggest names in casual and social games like Rovio, Zynga, PopCap and Kabam to name a few. (Well, there aren't many more than that, really.) While this is partially due to the fact that Google+ would likely be crushed if the gates were opened to everyone at once, the company is still working out how exactly it wants to handle developers.

"I'm not sure what our plans are - to be completely open versus something like an Apple-style, curated business - that's still to be determined, and we're still working it out," Kerpelman said to Gamasutra. "...The platform has only been out a couple of months, so we've got a way to go."

Gamasutra notes that, if Google opted to open up Google+ Games like it has the Android Market--which is essentially a wild west of games and apps--it would almost certainly have to handle counterfeit games. And that's something, according to Kerpelman, Google simply doesn't want in its online marketplaces anymore. (Who else just screamed hallelujah?)

This news comes just as a Google engineer name-dropped the Google+ Games platform specifically in a rant, implying that the initiative was an afterthought for Google. We're impressed by the platform's pristine presentation (and we're sure game makers love that tiny 5 percent price tag), but Kerpelman's right: Google's got a way to go, and updates like this are certainly steps.

Have you tried playing social games on Google+ yet? What do you think of the experience compared to Facebook and other networks, and what do you think it needs?

Former Playdom GM takes the reins of social game start-up 519 Games

Hey, at least it's not another traditional game exec jumping ship. Former Playdom GM Lloyd Melnick (pictured) left the Disney-owned social game maker earlier this summer for 519 Games, a social game start-up that plans to release its first game in 2012. Melnick announced the move on the down-low through his personal blog on his first day as CEO, Aug. 29.

The studio is a joint venture between EW Scripps Company and Capitol Broadcasting. But more importantly, the GM-turned-chief has big ambitions for 519 Games. (Like, massive, turn-the-industry-on-its-head ambitions.) "We are currently building a fantastic team and will be one of the top five social gaming companies (both social web and social mobile) by the end of 2012," Melnick wrote in a blog post. "More details will emerge over the next few weeks."

Those details haven't exactly emerged yet, but it's only a matter of time. Melnick, who worked for Disney International as Playdom's head of international operations, had nothing but thanks and praise for the company. "It was this great collection of people that helped me learn and grow professionally that I can now move on to the biggest opportunity I have ever had," Melnick wrote. "Again, thank you all."

Melnick left Playdom and Disney just as doubts grew as to whether the latter could properly use the former to succeed in social games. Since then, Playdom has finally moved to take advantage of Disney's immense branding support, first slapping "Disney's" onto Gnome Town. A number of Playdom games featuring the company's properties will see the light in 2012. Playdom also announced Secret Agent X, a Facebook game shrouded in secrecy that lives up to its title--very sneaky, sis.

[Via Gamasutra]

Is it unwise or admirable for Melnick to challenge the top five before his first game hits? Can Disney and Playdom chomp on an even bigger chunk of the top five with Disney-branded games?

Asura's Wrath maker says mobile social games are 'all rubbish'

However, don't think that Matsuyama's ire for social games is uninformed--the guy has reached Level 250 in DeNA's Kaito Royale for smartphones. "They're not fun at all. But, I have to play it," Matsuyama told Gamasutra. "The reality is that it has over 3 million users, and it's true that they're making money. I need to be aware of those businesses, so of course I play them. GREE's Dragon Collection. I've played that, too. [Matsuyama pulls out two smartphones] This is my iPhone, and this is my Android phone, and I play these games on both of these phones -- but they're all rubbish