PopCap's strides into adding social elements to its casual games through Facebook is well underway with the launch of a version of Zuma that leverages the popular social networking platform's Connect technology.

In beta as of today, Zuma Web Connect lets players of the casual game on PopCap's website publish leadership stats, medals and other play statistics back to Facebook.

PopCap's newest foray into using the existing, prolific Facebook platform to add social features to its games follows a six-month beta for Bejeweled Blitz, a one-minute version of the popular match-three title on Facebook. Bejeweled Blitz accumulated 5 million monthly users during the beta phase, says PopCap.

As part of a recent Gamasutra feature interview, Facebook platform manager Gareth Davis discussed PopCap's work with the Facebook Connect capability, and how game developers now have the opportunity to use Facebook to enhance gaming experiences that don't exist directly on the Facebook platform itself.

Online skill games company King.com released its first series of titles designed exclusively for social networks -- Kalorie King and Mars Lives -- to Facebook. The studio also announced Amazon Survival for iPhone.

The titles join over 150 other skill and social games that King.com offers to more than 17.6 million unique users per month. Launched in 2004, the company is the exclusive provider of skill games for portals and sites such as Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, NBC, and more.

In Kalorie King, players try to burn to burn as many calories as they can and increase their score by catching falling vegetables, fruits, and vitamins. They can challenge friends to weight loss tournaments, find out who can burn the most calories the fastest, and share their scores on their Facbook newsfeed.

Mars Lives is a massively multiplayer and episodic game about the first human settlers on the red planet and the challenges they face with colonizing the new world.

“With more than 350 million games played globally each month, King.com is proud to drive skill games as one of the fastest-growing games sectors. Now, we are excited to bring our games to the fastest-growing consumer audiences - iPhone owners and Facebook users,” says King.com CEO Riccardo Zacconi.

San Francisco-based MMO publisher and online platform developer has announced $8.3 million in Series C funding, and here, CEO Susan Choe explains what the company plans to do with that investment.

Outspark, founded in January 2007, announced its original Series A funding in an undisclosed amount that April; another round came through last year.

This new round allows the company to move forward with partnerships centered on its not yet launched Outspark Publishing Platform, which will allow companies to publish games online using Outspark's proprietary tools, which facilitate such things as user acquisition and tracking, microtransactions and more. This was outlined by Choe in an interview from earlier this year.

The company got its start running its own games, such as Fiesta, primarily ported over from Asian sources. Says Choe today, "The company's been going through a growth mode. We're up to 5.4 million uniques, with 4.7 million users registered. I think after Nexon, according to comScore, we're the largest North American audience base [for free-to-play MMOs]."

Seventy percent of Outspark's userbase is in North America, with the remaining 30 percent in Northern Europe; the company currently operates games in only English-speaking territories.

But simply running ported-over Asian games has never been the goal of the company, though Choe says the company is "always going to run some portion of the games ourselves". Its Outspark Publishing Platform is the engine for growth, despite the success the company has found in this niche, says Choe.

"We've been really launching games for a year and a half. It's been a pretty rapid growth. So in recognition of rapid growth and audience quality, we're near profitability pretty soon. The investors that we've met gave us the up-round, and we've raised $8.3 million for growth capital... This gives us additional options to be able to invest or even maybe acquire, as well as partner with other content or service distribution companies."

The new round of funding has been lead by Syncom Venture Partners, with participation from SBI Investment and Mille Plateaux. Says Choe, "The new investors who are joining the crowd are veteran media, communication-focused investors, both in the U.S. and the international market, and I think this is a reflection of our model, which is instantly global."

Its Publishing Platform includes solutions for registration, billing, payment, content management, patching, community, marketing solutions, as well as a web-based launcher and installer for Outspark-distributed download games, in the form of several APIs.

Outspark Publishing Platform licensees will also have the opportunity to hook into its single logon system. Its business model and tools are based around free-to-play microtransaction-supported games, which Choe calls "freemium" titles.

This suite of options is what's attracting attention, says Choe, though she can't yet name names. "[With] the third party publishing program, we're actually starting to get a pipeline of partners from all over who are interested in working with us," says Choe.

"We're in the midst of refining the final details of how we work together," Choe says. "We'll be launching those partnerships pretty shortly." These include "major media partners" from the U.S., Europe, and Asia -- and "pretty shortly" is, per Choe's target, "the end of the summer."

The company plans to use this money for recruitment, says Choe. "We're in the midst of searching for talent, both at the executive level and at the execution level... we're hiring across the board, to both support number of games expansion as well as geography."

As mentioned, 70 percent of the company's audience is North America-based, but that may change, though English remains the focus for the company, says Choe. "We're also starting to partner with European game developers to address the part of our audience that's European as well as English-speaking [with] games."

Choe claims that the company's ARPPU -- average revenue per paying user -- is $50 per month, and that its ARPU -- average revenue per user overall -- is "still in the double digits for all users."

[While submissions have just opened for the main IGF, we're also trying out an IGF China event, with an entrance deadline in September - and we're hoping for a number of online game entries. All Asia-Pacific based developers should check out the IGF China site for more info.]

Think Services, organizer of the Game Developers Conference events, has announced the first annual Independent Games Festival China. The event is to be held in conjunction with the 2009 Game Developers Conference China, which returns to the Shanghai International Convention Center, October 11-13 of this year.

After 11 years of the main Independent Games Festival competition being held at GDC in San Francisco, the Independent Games Festival will present itself to Shanghai, China for the first time in 2009, in a competition specifically designed to encourage innovation and showcase standout games from smaller companies in the Asia-Pacific region.

Independent developer and publisher Riot Games announced that it will launch upcoming multiplayer role-playing game/real-time strategy game League of Legends: Clash of Fates for free this September, allowing players to customize the look of their characters (nicknamed Summoners) with microtransactions.

In the game, players summon champions to throw into combat, gaining Influence Points with each match. They can exchange the Influence points to access content that will enhance the power of their characters, while Riot Points, a separate currency purchased with real money, are used for "rare visual customization options". The company stresses that gamers will not be able to purchase a power advantage over other players.

Riot plans to offer a $29.99 League of Legends Collector’s Pack retail option with exclusive items like Champion skins, Runes, Riot Points, and Champions. Gamers who preorder the PC bundle from the official site, GameStop, or Best Buy will also receive an exclusive Champion skin.

"One of our goals at Riot has been to set a high quality bar for core games that are available for free online as we believe that a relentless focus on delivering tremendous value to online communities will earn player loyalty," says Riot Games co-founder and CEO Brandon Beck.

He adds, "League of Legends is being built as a highly competitive core game that we believe will change many people’s minds about the type and caliber of games that can be offered for free."

MMORPG developer Artix Entertainment developer and publisher announced that its browser-based game AdventureQuest Worlds (AQW) now exceeds 9 million registered accounts, and claims that its community attracts an average of 1.1 million new players each month.

Launched in May 2008, the free MMORPG allows players to battle monsters in real-time combat and take on quests released every week. They can also customize character items (armor, helms, weapons, etc.) and change their class at any time.

Along with its its other browser-based RPGs, including AdventureQuest, MechQuest, DragonFable, and WarpForce (currently in beta), Artix reports a total of over 85 million accounts created for its games in the past five years.

"The spectacular growth rate of AQW shows no signs of slowing down, and we find that very gratifying," said Artix founder and CEO Adam Bohn. "The game’s appeal -- in addition to chat, real-time combat, wars, and live events -- is enhanced by our releasing at least one new game update every week since launch."

Seattle-based company Reality Gap launched free-to-play fantasy MMORPG Monato Esprit today, noting that the game uses its own MetaTIX virtual currency for player trades, premium content, and in-game purchases.

The studio developed MetaTIX as a plug-and-play currency system that scales across multiple game titles. Its designed so that players in games supporting the Tix currency can buy, win, and trade for Tix. They can also receive them through sponsorships.

In Monato Espirt, players take on the role of winged Archons seeking to defend the Dreamworld from an invasion by nightmares. Reality Gap says that players control the economy, as they have the exclusive rights of selling "items in the stores, commanding non-player characters (NPCs) to charge tolls, and performing alchemy to create custom magic items."

"We are excited to be able to present gamers with the official launch of Monato Esprit,” says Reality Gap CEO Michael Williams. "However, players should remember that this is a living, breathing product, and one that will continue to evolve over time."

He continues, "The Dreamworld you see today will not be the one you see in six months. Fans will find new ways to master spells and combat abilities, complete quests, form guilds, as well as participate in the new and robust player-driven economy with MetaTIX."

Social media/gaming ad company Offerpal Media released OfferpalSecure, a suite of security and fraud prevention services designed to help online gaming and social web publishers combat fraudulent activity in their virtual economies.

The company notes that security experts estimate as much as 50 percent of unguarded games and networks' transactions for virtual goods and currency can be fraudlulent, especially if player-to-player transfers are supported. Some of those deceptive behaviors include fake account creation, account takeover, fraudulent offer completion, and more.

Marcus Eikenberry, founder and CEO of video game anti-fraud technologies and services company TrustWho, says that even in games without player-to-player transfers, fraud rates typically hover around 10 percent. Fraudulent activity is also blamed for damaging the user experience for users by "creating inflated prices, unfair player advantages and imbalanced economies."

Offerpal claims its tests show that OfferpalSecure can reduce publisher fraud by more than 60 percent. The security system is available for free as an integrated part of the company's offer-based payment platform, which provides various virtual currency payment options (credit cards, microtransactions, mobile payments, etc.) for online games, virtual worlds, social networks, and other web services.

In this round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from 2K Boston, Radical Entertainment and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted in each market area this week include: