Social gaming company Zynga announced a mobile developer partner programme to provide access to its game audience and improve the discovery and reach of titles.

Developers who sign up will be able to benefit from Zynga’s monetisation, distribution and player engagement. Early partners include Atari, Crash Lab, Fat Pebble, Phosphor Games Studio and Sava Transmedia and the first partner games are due in the coming months.

The company also announced its Zynga API, which allows in-house developers to tap into features to make games more social. The API will be opened up to third-party developers "soon".

It also announced its Zynga with Friends Network, which connects users playing Zynga games on Android, iOS, Facebook and Zynga.com.

The network includes a social lobby where users can access their ‘zFriends’ list, a live social stream, chat and the Zynga.com multiplayer feature, which players can use to challenge friends on the site.