David Swofford, the communications director for Portalarium, forwarded this to me today, in the wake of yesterday’s announcement that Zynga would be publishing Richard Garriott and Portalarium’s next game, Ultimate Collector: Garage Sale:

Portalarium Announces Zynga Partnership for Ultimate Collector

Unique social media game focused on the growing trend of collectible shopping is set to launch on Zynga.com this fall

AUSTIN, Texas, September 7, 2012 — Portalarium™, an Austin-based publisher and developer of premium quality games for social networks and mobile platforms, today announced the company is partnering with Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA), the world’s leading provider of social game services, to bring Ultimate Collector® to the 306-million monthly active players on the Zynga network.

The Zynga Platform is a social gaming platform designed to give players the most social and fun gaming experience wherever they play, while helping third-party developers of all sizes launch, promote, scale and grow their games and business.

“We couldn’t be more pleased to be rolling out Ultimate Collector on Zynga.com,” said Portalarium CEO, Fred Schmidt. “With its millions of players worldwide, Zynga provides the best vehicle for us to put our game in front of the biggest audience. Plus, Zynga understands social gaming better than anyone else in the world.”

Ultimate Collector, available now on Facebook in Limited Beta, is Portalarium’s first original social network game and is developed under the guidance of hall-of-fame designer Richard Garriott. It introduces a new category within the social media space — shopping and collecting.

“Ultimate Collector is really three games in one,” says Garriott, Portalarium’s co-founder and creative director. “It’s a collecting game where players go on a major hunt for collectibles ranging from toys, gadgets, historical weapons, novelties and famous art and display those collections in their homes. It’s a shopping game where players can visit shops and stores in our game, some of them from national retailers, to purchase items and add to their collections. And it’s a world building game that allows players to outfit a home, show off their collections to their friends, sell virtual items to other collectors and make in-game money to upgrade their house and grow it even larger.

“It’s a hybrid — a unique style of social gaming that appeals to all ages, both males and females. With extensive questing and role-playing elements, it is testing very popular with those newer to social gaming but looking for a deeper play experience, as well as those who consider themselves veteran gamers but have been waiting on the sidelines for a more immersive play experience. Ultimate Collector really appeals to that rapidly growing mid-core gaming audience.”

Ultimate Collector is fueled by the collectible craze that is growing by leaps and bounds in this country. Much of that obsession has been created by cable television programs such as American Pickers, Pawn Stars and Storage Wars. By the broadest definition, collecting is an unregulated multi-billion dollar industry in the real world. Ultimate Collector spans the gamut of that entire activity and is a way for treasure and bargain searching people to transfer that enthusiasm — that passion for the ultimate hunt — into the social network space.

In Ultimate Collector, the quest to find and assemble a wide variety of fabulous collections is easy and fun. Create your avatar and your house and begin the quest for the items you want. With plenty of content to appeal to everyone, among the thousands of items to be discovered are antique radios, Barbie® dolls, home décor, books from famous authors, artwork, historical weapons or just a set of tools. Items can be collected as you visit your friends’ or other players’ garage sales, estate sales, markets, pawn shops, storage units, auctions or even from national retailers who have their own stores in the game.

Macy’s, one of the nation’s premier retailers, and Simon and Schuster, a world publishing leader, are two national brands with stores in the game. Other retailers include music lifestyle store, Wild About Music; online antique retailer, Go Antiques; and animation art retailer, Wonderful World of Animation. More brand partners will be announced soon.

Ultimate Collector is available now on Facebook at http://apps.facebook.com/Ultimate_Collector, and will be available on Zynga.com in the near future.

UltimateCollecting.com is Ultimate Collector’s new website. Featuring social media channels, videos, community forums and other information about the game, the site also is a destination that will appeal to anyone interested in the broad topic of collecting in general. It highlights the fascinating people who collect and the unique stories behind their collections. If you like collecting, this is a great place to engage with your community.

About Portalarium

Portalarium is revolutionizing role-playing games for social media. Formed in September of 2009 in Austin, Texas, Portalarium is developing and publishing premium online games and virtual worlds for popular social networks and mobile platforms. The company’s first original IP game, Ultimate Collector, launched in 2012. Portalarium games maximize the fun and social play experience between friends, making it easy to find each other and play together regardless of where you are or what you are playing. For more information about Portalarium, go to www.portalarium.com.

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Portalarium and Ultimate Collector are trademarks of Portalarium, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

So, there you have it: the official statement from Garriott et. al. on the publishing agreement with Zynga.

David was also kind enough to forward several pieces of art and assets from the game for you all to peruse. There are a couple of Ultima references to be spotted:

Also: watch for Dallas Snell.