Former Disney Online executive Mike Goslin and other veterans from the company have brought their new social game studio Rebel Entertainment, a subsidiary of internet conglomerate IAC, out of stealth mode.
Founded in August 2010, Rebel Entertainment is building a
Diablo-style dungeon crawler for Facebook that's expected to release later this year. It's a rare game type for the social network, and it will also have real-time co-op multiplayer -- most multiplayer Facebook games feature only asynchronous gameplay.
Goslin believes real-time gameplay will help the team's untitled project stand out on Facebook from other titles,
according to an interview with Gamesindustry.biz: "I think the big differentiator is really playing with real people in real-time, not just playing a single-player game that has sort of social features that allow you to communicate asynchronously.
"The only way to retain players is to give them more to do, give them more content. To me the best and longest-lasting content is community. If you're playing it against other real people, meeting other real people, building relationships, the experience keeps changing, because the dynamics of interacting with other real people are what's interesting."
Goslin, formerly vice president of virtual world design and development at Disney Online, has headed Rebel Entertainment's first project for about a year now as general manager. He's joined at the studio by other employees who worked with him at Disney Online on MMOs like
Toontown Online and
Pirates of the Caribbean Online.
Rebel Entertainment's staff includes veterans from other developers like Electronic Arts, Insomniac Games, Zynga, and Meteor Games. The studio's parent company IAC owns other game companies like Retrogamer.com and social game studio iWon, as well as sites like Vimeo, CollegeHumor, OkCupid, Match.com, and many others.
