CityVille's lead designer ditches Zynga to help make Idle Worship

![][1] One of the main folks that [Zynga][2] has to thank for its most popular Facebook game has moved on to the island life. Michael McCormick, lead designer on [CityVille][3] and veteran of companies like [EA][4] and [Playfirst][5], has joined [Idle Games][6] as director of game design. The developer's first Facebook game, Idle Worship, is set to land on March 14, so we imagine McCormick will work on this game and future projects.

"I've had the privilege of working with some of the industry's biggest players on the frontiers of emerging genres and platforms," McCormick said in a release. "To say that Idle Games is doing new things in the social space is an understatement, and I couldn't be more excited to join the team."

Idle Games' debut has been hyped up for some time: The developer promises that it will revolutionize the term "social game," with five pending patents to prove it. Idle Worship will allow players to play god over an island-dwelling race known as Mudlings. After players gain the Mudlings' devotion, they can then use the little guys to either hurt or help their friends in real time to gain the worship of their followers.

What's interesting about this news is that it's usually Zynga that does the [high-profile][7] employee [snagging][8], not the other way around. Idle Games bills "exploding bunnies" as a major bullet point for Idle Worship, so maybe that's what brought McCormick over the fence. Do Zynga's games have exploding bunnies? That's what we thought.

**What do you think this news might mean for the future of CityVille? Are you excited to see what Idle Worship is all about? Sound off in the comments. [Add Comment.][9]**

[Permalink][10] | [Email this][11] | [Linking Blogs][12] | [Comments][13]

[![][14]][15] [![][16]][17]

![][18]

[1]: http://o.aolcdn.com/dims/GAME/5/168/168/100/http://www.blogcdn.com/blog.games.com/media/2012/03/idleworship.png
[2]: http://blog.games.com/tag/zynga
[3]: http://blog.games.com/category/cityville
[4]: http://blog.games.com/tag/ea
[5]: http://blog.games.com/tag/playfirst
[6]: http://blog.games.com/tag/idle+games
[7]: http://blog.games.com/2011/08/02/nba-jam-creator-leaves-ea-joins-zynga/
[8]: http://blog.games.com/2012/01/12/zynga-ea-barry-cottle/
[9]: http://blog.games.com/2012/03/02/cityville-zynga-idle-worship-idle-games/#disqus_thread
[10]: http://blog.games.com/2012/03/02/cityville-zynga-idle-worship-idle-games/ (Permanent link to this entry)
[11]: http://blog.games.com/forward/20184723/ (Send this entry to a friend via email)
[12]: http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&fc=1&url=http://blog.games.com/2012/03/02/cityville-zynga-idle-worship-idle-games/ (Linking Blogs)
[13]: http://blog.games.com/2012/03/02/cityville-zynga-idle-worship-idle-games/#comments (View reader comments on this entry)
[14]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/LarrysCorner?d=qj6IDK7rITs
[15]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/LarrysCorner?a=1ZOjb0bTd60:8fSPB1G5imc:qj6IDK7rITs
[16]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/LarrysCorner?d=yIl2AUoC8zA
[17]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/LarrysCorner?a=1ZOjb0bTd60:8fSPB1G5imc:yIl2AUoC8zA
[18]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/LarrysCorner/~4/1ZOjb0bTd60

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LarrysCorner/~3/1ZOjb0bTd60/