Facebook hit Happy Island coming to iPhone and iPad
Just another day in paradise
Sick of waiting for FarmVille, innit? Clocked We Rule, like, yesterday? Thought Pocket God was sooooooo 2009?
Then you’re in luck.
With almost 10 million active users on Facebook, Happy Island is one of the social networking behemoth’s fastest growing time-killers.
And, guess what? It’s coming to the iPhone and iPad “soon”.
The concept behind Happy Island will be all-too-familiar for some – manage your own fantasy island and ensure the natives don’t get restless.
Sociability is a major part of the fun too, as you can visit other islands, buying items from the shops and dropping litter.
Going universalThe concept behind Happy Island, the platform, is of greater interest however.
Much like the newly-launched Steam Play (for Mac and PC), Happy Island players will be able to switch between platforms - in this case, iPhone, iPad, Android and PC - without missing a beat.
Gameplay is synced across the platforms in real-time via a new game engine, Sibblingz, borne from the same tech incubator as Aurora Feint and Happy Island creator, CrowdStar.
“By using the Sibblingz engine, we can make a game optimised for the iPad that's connected to the same backend data as the Facebook version," said Peter Relan, CrowdStar’s executive chairman.
Happy Island should be landing on iPhones and iPads in the near future.
You can see how it works, and the game in action, in the following video.