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News, Tips, Game of the Week, and Reviews for Casual Games
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01Sep
Featured Facebook Game of the Week – Words With Friends
Zynga has finally brought the crazy popular Scrabble-esque app, Words With Friends, to Facebook! I have been playing this since I got my iPod touch and am completely obsessed by it. It”s incredibly easy to get started, just go to the app, find some friends who play, and start a game. The thing I like best about this adaptation is that you CAN take it with you. Start playing a game on Facebook, and that same game carries over to your iPhone or Droid. It’s free (with ads) and truly social, with a chat built in. Enjoy!
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17Aug
Review: Little Cave Hero for Facebook
Little Cave Hero is a sort of throwback to pixellated games of my youth with a twist of sociality. Your town has been ravaged by monsters and it’s up to you to put it back together and build it back up to help make the mayor look good again. The games starts players out getting used to mining the caves for treasure, completing missions for the mayor, and rebuilding the necessary components to start the town running and pump up population. At first, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the exaggerated pixelation of the game, but before too long, it grew on me. Now when I play, I find it endearing and nostalgic. The beginning of the game feels good. The character of the mayor is humerous, and spouts some witty remarks. The missions come fast and are completable in a reasonable amount of time, which adds to a
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12Aug
Review – Vampire Saga: Welcome to Hell Lock
Rating: E (Everyone) Genre: Hidden Object Publisher: Go Games Developer: Alawar Games Release Date: July 16, 2011 BUY I enjoy casual gaming, most people do. Whether it be on your phone, pc, ipod, or even your Xbox; people play casual games all the time. I’ll admit, I carry my tablet with me everywhere and 60% of my apps are games of all genres. Recently, I’ve become more interested in Hidden Object games. They are fast paced, fun and challenge your mind. At times, they can be a bit frustrating. So, when I was given the chance to play Vampire Saga: Welcome to Hell Lock I was very excited! This is a fun and affordable addition you can make to your pc games library. Although the title doesn’t seem so family friendly, it really is a game that anyone of any age can enjoy with excellent content and nothing too scary. As I
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10Aug
Featured Facebook Game of the Week – Mahjong Saga
King.com has compiled a Mahjong adventure Facebook users have been waiting for in Mahjong Saga. Mahjong Saga has users follow the lead of a Sensei Panda through a 100+ level progressive adventure that offers challenge in both puzzle solving and time. Players start out with 5 energy and can keep recovering energy by achieving a 3 star time solution, which is a good way to be able to continue playing. The game starts out almost ridiculously easy to get players warmed up, but quickly progresses to challenge even the most seasoned Mahjong players. Challenge your friends and see how you measure up! .
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04Aug
Casual Connect – The State of Social
I think my favorite talk of the day at Casual Connect had to be The State of Social in Social Games led by Aki Jarvinen, Creative Director, Ph.D., of Digital Chocolate. He gave this talk at Casual Connect in Europe and the organizers had to have a repeat here in Seattle this summer. There have been questions as to whether social games are really games, as well as how social social games really are. This discussion, addressed both of these, but really focused on how social social games are, starting out by posing the question – is social broken? Social gaming in the developing world has been compared to passing notes under the door with friends instead of actually meeting face to face, or parallel play among toddlers. Both of these made sense to me. Yes, when we play social games with our friends, we aren’t face to face, which
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27Jul
Casual Connect – Are You a Whale or a Freeloader?
One of the most interesting things for me this year at Casual Connect was going to some of the discussions. Because Casual Connect is more for people in the industry, or people trying to work their way into the industry, I got a peek behind the curtain at what goes in to making casual and social games, some of the psychology, some of the business. This particular talk was given by Greg Mills from Digital Chocolate – makers of one of my favorite social games, “Zombie Lane.” Now, if you have ever played a social game – particularly on Facebook – you have noticed that they are largely free to play. However, when push comes to shove, it’s difficult to get very far very fast when you play with no paid content. There is a multitude of ways to spend Facebook credits within many games that help move things along
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24Jul
A Taste of Casual Connect – Seattle 2011
Impressions In the beginning of the day, Things were a little overwhelming. Attendance was definitely up at Casual Connect this year. But, while pushing through the clusters of people, an overwhelming sense of familiarity took over. It kind of felt like coming home. Though this year, I took a little different strategy to my single day of attendance. I wanted to listen to some panels and see where things sat in the industry instead of trying to meet with a bunch of people singularly. I think this worked out well, and I am anxious to share what I heard, including some of the psychology behind game development, the subtle ways they keep free social games free, and the quality and quantity of social behavior in so called social games. I did meet with a couple of people singularly and am happy with what I learned. Whereas in previous years, it
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12Jul
PopCap says hi to their new boss at EA
It was confirmed today that Electronic Arts has bought PopCap for what might be the largest amount spent on a game company yet. The amount after stocks and some other complicated figures, is around $1.3 billion. The rumors started a week or so ago on Twitter and it looks like in this case the rumors were true. What I love is that PopCap turned around to show that they still have same creative humor that they are known for with the greeting to their new bosses above. EA CEO John Riccitiello noted that they don’t want to change how PopCap operates. “PopCap has been an attractive target for us for years,” he said. “We think of it as one of the premier content creators in the history of our industry.” EA does have a proven track record of not changing Bioware. Only time will tell if PopCap can maintain their
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11Jul
Online Game of the Week – Ninja Painter
This week’s OGOTW is a time to turn into a stealthy, speedy Ninja Painter. Pick up the right color paint, roll it on the marked walls, collect the stars, and head out the door in this puzzler. Enjoy! .
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03Jul
Online Game of the Week – Pickies
This week’s OGOTW is an interesting match 3/puzzle in which little “pickies” are placed on the board to make a complete line and disappear. Mouse controlled, simply click to place strategically. The next few in the lineup are shown in the top left corner. In the top right corner, there are little helper pickies. The ninja takes a pickie off the board and the others match the pickies on either side. The point of the game is to keep at least one spot open on the board until the percentage bar in the middle is filled (based on the number of matches made). Enjoy! .
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GA Presents
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