Zynga digs up a new gem in Ruby Blast

Zynga has announced the global launch of Ruby Blast, a fast, fun, social and visually-engaging game, where players match gems, dig through bedrock with help from friends, and activate power-ups to reach high scores in a weekly leaderboard. Created by the talented teams from Zynga’s China and Seattle studios, Ruby Blast follows intrepid archeologist, Ruby, in a high-speed race into the depths of an ancient mine where players smash through dirt to uncover hidden treasure and face off with friends.

"With Ruby Blast, we strived to take the familiar experience of a match 3 puzzle game and bring it to a whole new level of social and fun,” said Jim Veevaert, General Manager, Zynga Seattle. “We’ve reimagined the category with a game that introduces brand new gameplay and unique social features – all wrapped around a fresh storyline and state-of-the-art visuals. Hidden beneath a veil of simplicity, Ruby Blast offers layers of complexity that bridges the best of classic arcade games with innovative twists from today that will leave players’ hearts racing through each round.”

As players follow Ruby to the depths of the mine, they will encounter a variety of gems, power-ups, obstacles and explosives. In each round, players have 40 seconds to dig into a cavernous mine by matching three or more gems at a time. By digging down, players progress in the game toward checkpoints, adding more time to the clock and uncovering treasures and a few surprises. In Ruby Blast, players unearth features such as:

More Social: Weekly Tournaments: Dig deep to compete with friends for high scores and prizes; send friends energy and gifts to help them along the way.

Friend Gems: Facebook friends appear on a player’s game board to dig up special gems drill through layers of rock.

Multi-Player: Coming later this year, players on Zynga.com will be able to challenge friends in a head-to-head race.
 
Stunning Effects: Enjoy explosive graphics, action-packed sound effects and gorgeous particle effects. Ruby Blast also marks Zynga’s first game optimized for Adobe Flash 11 Player utilizing Stage 3D technology.

Power-ups: Level up to activate over-the-top power-ups that explode gems and clear the board. Various power-ups at launch include: •Nova Flare: Instantly destroys a row and column of gems and dirt

Star fall: Blazing meteors destroy three columns of gems and dirt

Cherry Bomb: Blast downward in a triple explosion

Shuffle Magic: Rearranges board into big blocks of color for easy matching

Gems are Truly Outrageous: Match gems and dig thru dirt as you uncover a multitude of treasures to help your archeological adventure. •Rubies: Help players level up and progress through the gameSuper Rubies: Discover rare, giant rubies that lurk in each mine; each are worth multiple normal rubies

Emeralds and Sapphires: Collect rare gems from mines to fuel exclusive power-ups

Bomb Gems: Help players blast away rocks and other obstacles.

Ruby Blast is the first game to launch from both Zynga China and Zynga Seattle. It also marks the first cross-collaboration for a game at launch. Ruby Blast is available in 15 languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Norwegian, Thai, Swedish, Danish, Japanese and Dutch.

Ruby Blast is free to play and available today on both Zynga.com, and on Facebook at: apps.facebook.com/rubyblast