Proletariat releases iPhone game LetterRush from the ashes of Zynga Boston

After Zynga shut down its Boston office in October, that team decided they weren’t quite done making games. So five senior members started Proletariat, a new game studio, and their first title is debuting today: LetterRush, a new word game on Apple’s App Store.

The iOS game (for the iPhone and iPad) has an arcade-like spin on the classic word finding game. Players can play solo or over local multiplayer.

The Zynga Boston team, originally part of Conduit Labs, created the social game Indiana Jones Adventure World. Proletariat is based in Cambridge, Mass. Conduit Labs focused on music-oriented games for the web, and Zynga acquired it in 2010. The team went to work on Adventure World, an ambitious effort to expose Facebook’s social gamers to a new adventure gaming genre. LucasFilm licensed the Indiana Jones character for the game, but it ultimately wasn’t a success.

“We have all known each other and worked with one another for so long that we’ve developed an organic way of making games together,” said chief executive Seth Sivak in a statement. “We all want to make successful games, both creatively and as a business. This team has been on both sides and knows how to find that balance.”

Sivak added, “Building games is all about navigating the chaotic process of discovering ‘The Fun’ and then performing a disciplined march to a polished, final product. That process is important to us.” The goal, said Sivak, is “to keep teams small and let highly skilled groups of creative people innovate.”

The team is self-funded. Another game is already in the works.