RockYou Signs Second Social Game Deal With Romero's Studio

Social game developer RockYou announced that it has signed a second publishing deal with Loot Drop, the studio founded by John Romero and recently joined by Brenda Brathwaite. Doom and Quake designer Romero co-founded Loot Drop last November with Brathwaite and Robert Sirotek shortly after helping launch his first social game, Ravenwood Fair, with LOLapps. Brathwaite (Wizardry, Jagged Alliance) worked with Romero on Ravenwood Fair, and left LOLapps two months ago to join him at Loot Drop as COO. The San Mateo-headquartered developer has recruited other notable talent, such as creative director Laralyn McWilliams, who held the same position at Sony Online Entertainment while working on popular free-to-play MMO Free Realms. Id Software veteran Tom Hall was also brought into the start-up to head its Austin studio. RockYou struck its first publishing deal with Loot Drop in January, and today revealed that Facebook game is titled Cloudforest Expedition and slated to launch this summer. It is described as a "story-driven adventure game ... built upon successful clearing, exploration and discovery gameplay mechanics." Romero is serving as the lead designer for Cloudforest Expedition and the second RockYou-published project (title not yet announced), while Brathwaite is working as a designer on the former game. RockYou says it's working closely with the studio, and that it's impressed by Loot Drop's progress on Cloudforest Expedition. "Since we signed our initial deal in January, RockYou has been an awesome partner," says Romero. "They support our creative freedom as we bring innovation to the story-driven adventure genre with Cloudforest Expedition. Extending the relationship with a second game makes sense, and we're excited to reveal more details of our projects."