Glitch - A Game By Tiny Speck

Glitch Trailer

What is Glitch?
Glitch is a web-based massively-multiplayer game which takes place inside the minds of eleven peculiarly imaginative Giants. You choose how to grow and shape the world: building and developing, learning new skills, collaborating or competing with everyone else in one enormous, ever-changing, persistent world.

What's different?
For starters, it's all one big world. Which means everyone is playing the same game and anyone's actions have the ability to affect every other player in the game. It also involves very little war, moats, spaceships, wizards, mafiosos, or people with implausibly large muscles. Also: we have egg plants. Egg plants make it very different.

Why is it called Glitch?
"Glitch" is both the name of the game and its fundamental concept: the yin and the yang, the fundamental force, the alpha and omega, the path, the way, and most of all: the happy accidents of unfettered creativity. In Glitch, things don't always make sense at first. But that's where the fun starts.

What does it look like?
We comb the internet every single day looking for fresh and original visual styles. The look varies as you travel around the world, from psychedelia to surrealism, Japanese cutesie to hypersaturated pixel art, classic cartoon to contemporary mixed media. We love awesome illustration and animation and part of our mission is to find the best of the best and bring it to a wider audience.

How much will it cost?
Glitch is free to play. Some game items will be purchasable and there will be premium accounts available by subscription. We want to make sure anyone can play the game, and also make it easy for anyone to give us money, should they be so inclined.

When can I play?
Alpha testing has already begun and beta will start sometime this spring. If you'd like to help us test, sign up now and we'll get you in as soon as we can. (A tip: follow us — @playglitch — on Twitter for special queue-jumping announcements since there are already tens of thousands or people waiting).

What can I kill in the game?
Your time! The game is mostly non-violent and you don't spend your time fighting people (except maybe those who have the nerve to vie with you for economic, political or religious supremacy). It's more of a collaborative simulation where the direction the world takes emerges out of the collective action of the players, rather than the top-down whim of a single person acting as god, as in traditional single-player simulation games.

Can I play with my friends?
Of course. We'll make it easy for you to find them. And since it is all one big world, there are no worries about who is on what server. In fact, there will be lots of things in the game that will have much more awesome if they're done with your friends.

What technology does it use?
(Heh. Nerd.) The game client is Flash (though someday there will be other clients) and the server is built in a fairly new and different way for a game: the back end (java at the lowest level, with game logic scripted in Javascript) is designed for maximum flexibility and ease of deployment. That means we'll be able to push new content — new items, new places, new characters — on a daily basis. It also means that we'll have lots of APIs with which the game can be expanded and extended.

What are the system requirements?
A web browser with Flash installed, on pretty much any computer purchased in the last few years.

What's the point?
As much as anything, Glitch is an experiment in culture building. We provide lots of raw materials and environment, but without you there is no point! Play Glitch and you'll have a chance to shape the world, to form it into wherever your imagination takes you.

Update:
Glitch closed December 9th, 2012. Tons of fun and laughter and memories! Thanks Tiny Speck!

Sad Glitch Girl


We write to you with a very heavy heart. Glitch will be closing its doors next month. For complete information, please see the official Announcement and FAQ on our website.
Thank you so much for playing with us while it lasted. And, since there are a few weeks left, please come and play a bit more — we're releasing all kinds of things that we had saved up. Some of them are fully polished and others were still in development but, hey ... now's the time to get it all out there!

Wedding Dash 4 Ever


Gear up for another manic wedding season! Quinn's mom unexpectedly arrives in town and shakes up Quinn's home, business, and love life. With her mom making suggestions at every turn, Quinn manages more wedding than ever before!

Help Quinn run the ceremony, lead conga lines, plan a dream wedding, and more in PlayFirst's most romantic time management game yet, Wedding Dash 4-Ever!

•5 trendy locations including a Greenhouse, a Vineyard, and a Lover's Promenade
•10 deluxe weddings: lead wedding ceremonies and conga lines
•9 wedding day disasters including Bridezilla & Groom Kong and a Food Fight


Available August 10th, 2010 at PlayFirst

System Requirements:

Windows:
•Windows 7, Vista, XP SP1 & 2
•Pentium IV 1.2 Ghz processor or faster
•256 MB RAM for Windows XP (1 GB for Windows 7 or Vista)
•1024 x 768 minimum screen resolution
•Sound card recommended
•57 MB available hard drive space
•DirectX 9.0

Mac OSX:
•Mac OS X 10.5, and 10.6
•Intel 1.5 GHz or faster processor
•512 MB RAM
•1024 x 768 minimum screen resolution
•Sound card recommended
•58 MB available hard drive space

Hotel Dash: Suite Success



Hotel Dash
When Quinn's new travel business hits a snag, she needs Flo's patented elbow grease to help renovate and run hotels all over DinerTown! As Flo, you will deliver guest's luggage, drop off room service and provide extra towels, blankets and anything else they may need to stay happy and leave big tips! Along the way you will use your tips to decorate and restore each hotel back to its original charm. Watch out for the mysterious mishaps and accidents that threaten your progress! Do you have what it takes to keep everyone happy, or will the mysterious shadow halt your success?

*Over 90 upgrades to purchase for bigger tips
*50 levels to try and master
*5 VIP rooms to decorate to make guests happier
*5 hotels to renovate for Quinn's guests

Play Free Trial Here or Buy Now!

Delicious: Emily's Holiday Season


Deck the halls with love and joy in Delicious: Emily's Holiday Season, a wonderful time management sequel to warm up your holidays! It's winter in Snuggford and Emily is preparing for her family's holiday party at a cozy little lodge. Soon, romance fills the air as two suitors vie for Emily's attention. Can Emily carefully balance her duties and build a relationship? Whom will she choose? Join Emily in this romantic new adventure through a winter wonderland! Meet her family and catch up with friends. Help and serve guests delicious holiday treats. Take part in jolly activities. Find out who the lucky guy will be! Brighten up your holidays with heartwarming fun!

*Play the heartwarming holiday sequel to the smash time management series.

*Join Emily in a festive and romantic adventure through a winter wonderland.

*Meet her family, catch up with friends and find love.

Windows: Play Free Trial or Buy Now!

Mac: Play Free Trial or Buy Now!

The Dracula Files




Michael and Quinn Harker grew up thinking Dracula was nothing more than a fairy tale. But now, after over 100 years, the undead count has risen from his grave as Vladimir Draco, thirsting for blood and revenge. Only the descendants of the Van Helsing and Harker families can stop him and save their friend before he is lost to the darkness forever. Search for cursed artifacts and holy relics, facing werewolves, vampires, and dark spirits in a globe-spanning Gothic hidden object adventure.

Features
·Search haunted cemeteries and forbidding Transylvanian forests for the keys to ending Dracula’s reign forever!
·Contend with fiendishly clever mini-games and puzzles in your hunt for the vampire!
·Discover tools to ward off werewolves, poltergeists, and other creatures of the night!
·Drink in the cinematic storyline as Dracula’s dark plan unfolds!


Play Free Trial or Buy Now from egames.com!

Valerie Porter & The Scarlet Scandal




Murder, scandal and your first big break! You’re a young, aspiring reporter in the 1920’s looking for a scoop. When you stumble upon a scandalous celebrity murder and the framing of an innocent man, it is up to you to search for hidden clues, locate missing objects and uncover enough evidence to solve the murder to help an innocent man go free. Can you crack the story and finally be recognized as a top investigative reporter?

Valerie Porter and the Scarlet Scandal™ is the exciting new Hidden Object game that puts you in the shoes of an intrepid, up-and-coming heroine to uncover the hottest scandal in 1920’s Chicago. The game features integrated adventure gameplay, rich cinematics, and period-specific objects and language that make you feel as though you have traveled back to the roaring 20’s!

• 8 investigative journalism mini-games to help you solve the case!
• 3 types of searches (traditional, category, and description) with a “connect the dots” integrated combo mini-game
• 11 chapters of gameplay to master and solve
• 21 locations to explore and 48 search screens to investigate!

How to Play

As Valerie Porter, you’ll begin the adventure immediately searching for clues that will assist you with your investigation into the murder of Scarlet Velour. As you investigate each scene, you will play various mini games that will earn you points and lead you to both evidence and people of interest. You’ll also interview witnesses and possible suspects as you use each game screen to gather all of the information necessary to solve the crime and write your story. Along the way, you’ll have to persuade different people to give you tips, secret information or access to areas that you shouldn’t be allowed into. Each chapter offers
mini games that allow you to wrack up points and get you closer to solving the crime and getting the biggest scoop of the year!

Tips & Tricks

• If you’re not sure what the object you are looking for looks like, click the word on the list and a silhouette of the object will appear in the magnifying glass
• Players can string together items found to earn extra points. A bonus is awarded at the end of the chapter for the highest combo strung together
• If you get stuck and can’t find an object, click on the light bulb to reveal its location. You can only do this so many times in each scene as the light bulb takes time to recharge

Play Free Trial Here or Buy Now!

Avenue Flo



Mysterious events are threatening DinerTown's biggest wedding in history. As Flo, you will explore the town, interacting with neighbors that help you solve puzzles, collect missing items, and complete activities to set things right. Can you help Quinn save the wedding?

*Over 40 scenes to explore
*20 in-scene puzzles or mini games
*Engaging story with full voice over
*Hear Flo's voice for the first time

Windows: Play Free Trial Here!

Windows: Buy Now!

Mac: Play Free Trial Here!

Mac: Buy Now!

Cooking Dash 2: DinerTown Studios

Trouble on the set! When the hungry cast and crew of a new television show threaten to walk off the set, it is up to Flo to start cooking and save the day! It is up to you to prepare, cook,assemble and serve the delicious menu items from each TV-themed restaurant. Watch for the new celebrity characters and take advantage of their star power! But beware of the director and his short temper, he will make sure everyone eats quickly and gets back to work! Can you successfully feed the egos and stomachs of the cast and crew before they walk off the set? Unique set-themed meals to prepare and new celebrity customers to serve as you cook your way into show business!

• 3 new celebrity customers with special power-ups and unique features that help you score extra points
• Over 25 new decoration and functional upgrades to purchase
• 5 new on-set restaurants, each with an original menu that now includes 2 and 3-course meals!
• 10 medals to earn throughout the game
• More than 50 television-themed levels of gameplay

Cooking Dash®: DinerTown Studios™, the exciting sequel to the highly popular Cooking Dash® time management game, offers the challenge of increased preparation and strategy with the star-studded world of television! Join Flo as she visits five different sets, facing difficult challenges, new innovative power-ups, and the paparazzi as she strives to keep the actors, directors and crew full and happy on set.

How to Play

As customers arrive, simply drag them to an open space at the counter. When a customer is ready to order, a bubble will appear next to them letting you know their order. Cook main courses by picking the raw items and putting them in the fryer, or on the grill. A timer will let you know when the food is ready, but if you wait too long, the food will burn and you will have to make the order again! For salads, click on the requested item and Grandma will prepare it for you. Place the ready plates in front of the corresponding customer. When they are finished, click on the empty plates to receive payment. The happier the customers are, the more tips you will earn. Make sure to dump the empty plates in the dish bin to clear the counter space and be ready for the next customer.

Tips & Tricks

• The more advanced preparation you do, the easier it will be to serve customers when you get busy
• If you run into trouble, click on the phone to call Cookie for help. He will start cooking the orders for you while you tend to other things
• The director and the actors possess special power-ups that can help you to keep your customers happy and speed up their eating when the line gets long



Play Free Trial Here or Buy Now!

Dinertown Detective Agency




The search is on for WhoDunIt in Dinertown!

Something’s not right in DinerTown™! Help Bernie the Bookworm become a real detective as you hunt down clues for big cases like “Who stuck their finger in all the jelly donuts?” and “Who keeps calling my house and asking for Mildred?” While you are tackling those big cases you might just come across a real mystery that
affects everyone in DinerTown. Use the items you find in the crime scenes to narrow
your list of suspects and ID the culprit as you search out the fun in this lighthearted spoof on traditional Hidden Object games.

DinerTown Detective Agency™ takes the Hidden Object genre to the next level by building on traditional hunt and seek gameplay. The game offers a series of entertaining logic puzzles that allow the player to act as a real detective and use
the objects they need to solve the mysteries for themselves.

How to Play

The object of the game is to go beyond finding objects in a scene and actually use the items you find to ID the right suspects and solve the case! Start by searching each scene for clues using the naked eye and the forensic tools provided as part of your detective kit. Then narrow down the suspects by playing one of a series of mini-games that are unique to each case. Finally you will ID the culprit by solving a puzzle based on the clues you found to figure out whodunit and move on to
the next big case!

Tips & Tricks

• Use the forensics tools from your detective kit to help you find hidden evidence
• In the assembly search screens, once you complete an object you can then use that object to uncover additional clues and items in the same screen
• Make sure you listen to all of Bernie’s theories when trying to ID the culprit for each case

Have a laugh as you pound the pavement of DinerTown™ to solve a series of mysteries in this fun spoof on traditional Hidden Object games.

• A spin-off of the highly-successful Diner Dash® brand
• 20 new DinerTown locations to explore as you search for clues
• 25 unique cases to solve, with multiple puzzles
• 4 unique mini-games that actually assist you in solving the mysteries
• Interact with your favorite DinerTown characters, and meet some new ones, as you investigate the mysteries—you never know who might be a suspect!

Play Trial or Buy Now!

Check out our Walkthrough with Screenshots!




Hobbit Hollow Review:

DinerTown Detective Agency finally answers the burning question of what books Bernie was always reading while patiently waiting in line at Flo's Diner. Detective magazines, of course! For the low, low Internet price of $99, you too can earn your P.I. badge and solve mysteries with your Big Corporate Detective Kit! Along the way, meet up with many of the famous faces and visit the landmarks of DinerTown.

Each of the 25 "cases" begins with a hidden object scene, several of which involve 2 correlating scenes to move through. Playing in Timed Mode allows us to use the tools from Bernie's detective kit to aid our search. A magnifying glass, a dropper, and a fingerprint brush all work equally well to find the smallest items, invisible to the naked eye. Quickly canvas the entire screen with either the dropper or fingerprint brush to find all 3 items quickly and get back to the hidden objects and the clock. The magnifying glass takes a bit longer, but each found item glows to assist you.

Dinertown Detective Agency puzzles consist of fingerprint matching, sequential organizing, and straight forward jigsaw puzzles. These were all particularly easy for a beginner. After completing the puzzles, informants are available to assist you with narrowing down your culprit list if Bernie's 3 clues haven't led you to the correct suspect.

For highest scoring purposes, search through each hidden object scene quickly. Always make sure you find the P.I. badge in each hog scene. This will only add 100 per level, but 5 minutes to your time. Try not to use the "Hint" option, it will add 500 to your score each level that you do not use it in. Time penalties are accessed for clicking too quickly in the hog scenes. No penalties are accessed for making incorrect guesses during the fingerprint puzzles or when naming the guilty party. Just try again!

For a more relaxed game, play the Story Mode, which gives you cases to solve without the timer, however, also without the detective tools.

Aveyond Lord of Twilight


Solve dozens of adventure puzzles and explore an enchanting world! Aveyond: Lord of Twilight is packed with monsters, magic, and humor. Stop an evil vampire lord from plunging the world into darkness and enslaving humanity. Explore lush tropical forests, arid deserts, mystical woodlands and more. Soar to dizzying heights and descend to the depths of the Underworld in this awesome RPG adventure!

Solve dozens of quests
Choose your difficulty level
Explore dozens of lands
Raise pets and collects eggs




Play Free Trial or Buy Now!

Use The Comprehensive Walkthrough In Our Forums!

Preview: Avenue Flo


Avenue Flo features Flo, the beloved heroine of the Diner Dash series, and positions her in a more active adventure game where she must traverse the length and breadth of DinerTown on her latest quest. The game also marks the first speaking role for Flo and her cohorts adding a vibrant and more interactive feel to the game. Fans and newcomers will face Flo's nail biting goal of saving DinerTown from the worst wedding disaster it's ever faced - a potential catastrophe that touches almost every character and business in town!




Coming soon from PlayFirst!

Preview: Passport to Perfume


Passport to Perfume introduces players to the luxurious and adventurous world of perfume making. This title allows players to coordinate every part of the process from sourcing exotic olfactory ingredients from different corners of the globe to designing custom perfumes. A unique mash up of three different game genres: time management, economic simulation and hidden object, the game also introduces players to a striking new central character yet to be revealed who is part adventurer and part sophisticated designer.




Passport To Perfume takes you around the world as Sophia, a young adventure-seeker, perfume maker and shop owner in the 1940's. You'll manage a perfume shop, create scents, select from elegant perfume bottle inventory and sell your creations to customers. On weekends, travel the world searching for rare ingredients, perfume bottles and new fragrance recipes. Will you find rarest of all—a secret fragrance worn by Marie Antoinette herself? Or will a rival perfumer find it first?

* 48 ingredients to mix and match
* 5 exotic hidden object locations
* 16 elegant perfume bottles

Coming soon from PlayFirst!

A Gamer's First Peek
by Pinky1130


In Playfirst's attempt to produce games that are different and appeal to larger audiences by combining several genres, the game play seems to be suffering. Such is the case with Passport to Perfume. I found the time management game play to be boring and not challenging. Although new tasks were added to each level, the difficulty level did not increase at all. The hidden object game play was laughable at best. The objects were huge and not hidden at all except for a few items that the player had to use a brush to uncover, but it was very obvious where I needed to apply the brush. I played for the entire hour trial and this part did not get more difficult either. There is a section where I mixed fragrances to find the fastest refill time while not compromising the price of the perfumes. This wasn't thrilling either. Lastly, there is tycoon game play where I was asked to manage my funds and purchase items needed to sell the next day in the perfume shop, as well as buy upgrades. This is done with up and down arrow buttons like those in DinerTown Tycoon. The graphics were poorly done, and overall this game is just a dud, in my honest opinion.

Preview: Gemini Lost

Gemini Lost finds a misplaced community unwillingly transported to an untamed world with limited resources. The overriding mission in the game is to develop a nurturing and constructive environment that will enable your community to expand and strive and eventually uncover the key to enable a safe return home. This life simulation title adds a clever layer to the genre by positioning astrological signs as key elements that reflect different character traits and desires and effect gameplay. With enhanced resource management, a rich storyline, and challenging puzzles, Gemini Lost adds a fresh new twist to the growing life sim genre.

SCREENSHOTS




While exploring an ancient astrological site, you and your friends find yourself suddenly teleported to a new world with nothing but the clothes on your back! It is up to you to lead your people and get them safely home. To succeed you will have to manage your community to gather resources and food, build structures and conduct scientific research to help your community succeed. Grow your population by matching-making happy couples (make sure to check out their astrological signs to see if they’re a good pair!) and keep everyone happy as you face daunting tasks and puzzles in your quest to find the lost keys to the teleporter and return home.

* 12 zodiac artifacts to collect and use to restore your teleporter
* Over 20 puzzles that unlock new abilities, tools and challenges
* 3 mini games to play that unlock new tasks
* 20 trophies to earn as you increase your skill levels
* 18 science upgrades to further enhance your world

Coming soon from PlayFirst!

A Gamer's First Peek
by Pinky1130


I generally don't enjoy these life sims type games but I found Gemini Lost to be both enchanting and captivating. The world was fantasy like, similar to Wandering Willows, and that is an element I found very appealing. Instead of animals though, the game characters are people who are trained and skilled in varying tasks rather than having quests assigned to them, making the game more like Virtual Villagers, in that aspect. While I was matching mates with compatible astrological signs at the chapel, scientists were researching and gathering ingredients for medicine, builders were busy repairing bridges so they could get to the next lost key, farmers were steadily farming and bringing their produce to the eating place, babies were born, etc. One option I found most appealing is that I could let the game keep playing when I exited, or I had the option to turn this feature off. I'm excited for this game's release. It's definitely a 'must have'!

Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love!

Love is in the air as Cupid visits DinerTown and Quinn starts planning her OWN wedding. With the magic of Cupid's love arrows, anything can happen! Match the right guests together at the new cocktail tables to earn a love bonus, but watch out for the wedding crashers or they will ruin the party.

*Play the most romantic Wedding Dash® game yet!
*55 levels of romantic wedding reception antics
*All new Cupid mini-game to spice things up
*Expanded wedding planning stage with more customization options

Play Free Trial or Buy Now!



Check out our WD3 Walkthrough in our Forums!


Hobbit Hollow Review
By: Lattegato

After a rough start from PlayFirst and developer Sarbakan which saw the game released with major glitches like level scores not adding correctly, plus screen display as well as several game play issues, the fix is finally in for Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love!

Quinn returns, in this third installation of the Wedding Dash series, having finalized her plans for her wedding to Joe. Except he doesn't know it! Cupid sees an opportunity to meet his overwhelming quota by using Quinn's wedding planning skills, in exchange for making sure Joe pops the question in time for the big event.

5 new wedding venues with colorful graphics, opportunities to meet or beat your budget during the themed wedding planning stage, a whole new set of quirky wedding guests, a fast pace, earning Cupid's Love Tokens, and helpful upgrades make this a fun sequel for the new or experienced Wedding Dash fan!

Our favorite game play items included wedding favors, chimes, the wedding crashers, and a cocktail table for bonus "flirt" points. Make sure the Mother of the Bride and Uncle Billy end up at the cocktail table together! There's a reason the Father of the Bride doesn't make an appearance here *wink*. Upgrading Flo's speed and choosing twin cherubs for an extra set of hands to help Flo deliver our wedding reception dinners were especially helpful.

We could have done without the mini shooting game which occurs once in each venue, and entails Cupid shooting arrows at wedding couples. Not only was it not very skillful, but replaying and choosing "Skip" would allow you to move past this obstacle without penalty to points. If you are intent on obtaining a perfect score of matching 10 couples in a row, aim high above the heads of the brides and grooms on the right side of the screen, as the arrow will fall as it shoots from left to right.

Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love has a skill level similar to the original Wedding Dash. Obtaining Expert score on each level is extremely easy. We would have liked to see a more challenging game, where Expert didn't mean just slightly harder than Goal. With a wide age range of customers at PlayFirst, however, it's understandable. Achieve Expert on all levels and receive one extra bonus level per venue. The bonus level points add onto your overall total score, unlike Diner Dash Hometown Hero, which we thought was a great improvement. The entire game was engaging enough to replay over and over on a quest for all PlayFirst game medals and reaching the top spot on PlayFirst's Global High Scoreboard.

Overall, a fun game for the whole family. Just watch out for Cupid's wayward arrows....or you could find yourself making googly eyes at a lukewarm hamburger!

DinerTown Tycoon Walkthrough

Click here to check out our Walkthrough & Screenshots!!




Introducing a whole new way to have fun with Flo and all your favorite DinerTown friends! Oust the evil fast food chain Grub Burger by using your restaurant savvy and business smarts to stock your restaurant,set menu prices, and purchase new decor in this all new economic strategy game.

From Squid Row to Champagne Falls, help DinerTown bring back wholesome food and local eateries, then finally give Grub Burger the boot once Economic Simulation and for all!

It's a new twist on strategy – Dintertown Tycoon brings the familiar characters of DinerTown to the popular genre of Tycoon games. You’ll have to come up with the right strategy to manage multiple restaurants and successfully meet all of the customer’s specific needs.

How to Play

Simply visit each neighborhood and save the Dinertown residents from Grub Burger’s food. The only way to snap these residents out of their funk is to serve them delicious, wholesome, home-cooked meals to revitalize their taste buds. Serve the target number of meal to each customer type to win them over. Once all of your customers have been served the target number of meals, you’ve won the neighborhood!

Tips & Tricks

• Keep your eye on daily demand in the weekly news to see what dishes might sell well that day.
• Jazz up your restaurant with cool décor to bring in more customers!
• Buy advertising to get your restaurant noticed. There’s nothing like a man in a gorilla suit to catch your eye!

Only you can save the people of DinerTown from ingredient X by serving up the wholesome food they love.

• Over 25 beloved characters from the award-winning Diner Dash® series
• 5 different neighborhoods to win back
• More than 90 recipes to add to restaurant menus
• Meet 8 new DinerTown chefs

Play Free Trial or Buy Now!

Click here to check out our Walkthrough & Screenshots!!

Game Industry Insider: George Fan


In the third installment of our Game Industry Insider interviews, we hear from George Fan of PopCap games, the mastermind behind Plants vs. Zombies.

What is your current job title and main responsibilities?

I'm a Senior Game Designer at PopCap, which means it's my job to come up with new game ideas and make sure they don't suck!

What is your favorite all time game to play?

I always say my favorite game of all time is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Great gameplay, great soundtrack, and great 2d graphics during a time when 2d graphics were thought to be going extinct. It's promising to see 2d graphics and gameplay thriving nowadays.

Where do you find new inspiration for freshness in the games you work on?

All sorts of places. As a kid, I would watch Swiss Family Robinson on repeat because I loved the scene where they defended the island from pirates. While making Plants vs. Zombies, I watched the movie again, this time thinking about what made that final scene so exciting. I realized it was 2 things: 1. setting up traps and 2. watching those traps get sprung by the pirates for a big payoff. I tried to work that into Plants vs. Zombies, and that's how the potato mine came about. Potato mines have to be placed ahead of time because it takes awhile for them to arm themselves, but it's extremely satisfying to watch a zombie creep closer and closer to a mine and finally set it off, covering the zombie in an explosion of mashed potatoes.

Name a personal touch or contribution to a specific game that you are really proud of.

Coming up with the Plants vs. Zombies tagline: "Get Ready To Soil Your Plants!" I don't know why, but I'm really happy with that one.

What games have you personally worked on developing?

There have been 4 games that I've worked on so far:

Wrath of the Gopher - A game that no one's heard of. It was my first 'real' game.

Insaniquarium- Winner of a game design award at the Independent Games Festival. It went on to be a big hit.

Diablo 3- I worked at Blizzard Entertainment for a couple of years doing AI programming for this upcoming game.

Plants vs. Zombies- This game is the worst game ever. Who made this thing?

From concept to release, how many people worked with you on your latest game Plants vs. Zombies, prior to its release?

The core team was pretty small: George Fan(me) on game design, Tod Semple on programming, Rich Werner on art, with Laura Shigihara doing sounds and music. However, it took a lot more people than that to get the game released. QA, a couple of extra artists, beta testers, marmot salesmen, you name it!

Was any one person responsible for the concept of Plants vs. Zombies or was it a group effort?

A lot of my games started out with me prototyping a game concept on a computer in my bedroom, and Plants vs. Zombies was no different. At the point which I thought the game was "fun", I brought the game to PopCap and they helped me put a team together to see it to completion.

As a marketing tool do you feel that the music video did its job? I know it caught my eye and sold me on the game.

Most definitely! The music video was born when I mentioned to my girlfriend Laura that I wanted to do something neat for the game's end credits. That gave her the inspiration to write that awesome song, which in turn gave me inspiration to mock up a goofy flash cartoon to go along with it. Tod, Rich, and I then worked for 2 weeks straight putting the whole video sequence together. PopCap's marketing team dug it so much that they thought it'd be a good idea to release it as a marketing tool. I agreed and the rest, as they say, is history.

Where do you see casual PC game development headed in the next 5 years?

To be honest, I haven't been keeping up with the trends of the casual games industry lately, so it's hard for me to predict where it's headed. I'm hopeful that some of the spirit of the indie games community will catch on with the casual games industry and that we'll start to see less games that are direct clones of one another.

Tell us any secret about yourself, games, or the industry.

Psst! If you press up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, in Contra, you can get 30 lives!

George Fan
Senior Game Designer
PopCap Games - Home of the World's Best Free Online Games


Plants vs. Zombies, May 5th, 2009 from PopCap Games!

Make your own Zombatar, download free Wallpapers, and read game reviews!

Tradewinds Odyssey




Sandlot Games announces it's upcoming release of Tradewinds Odyssey, another installment in their popular Tradewind series! We loved Tradewinds Caravan and are anxiously awaiting this game's launch!

(Bothell, WA) Tradewinds Odyssey, the latest installment in the highly-acclaimed Tradewinds series, takes you on an adventurous journey across ancient Greece, where gods, heroes and monsters of legend await.

Guide five unique heroes – the Athlete, Philosopher, Priestess, Minotaur and more – as you embark on over 50 chapters and quests, encountering characters both strange and familiar. Build, strengthen and upgrade your fleet into a powerful force unrivaled in the Aegean with powerful spells bestowed upon you by the gods, or use your unique Hero’s Talent to demolish your opponent in battle. Take part in trading like never before by creating and spreading goods to new lands.

Your adventure begins today… in Tradewinds Odyssey!

- Play as 5 unique characters, each with an original storyline
- Create and customize your own character.
- Spread, create and trade over a dozen exotic goods.
- New ramming feature available in sea battle.
- Achieve great feats and build your rank.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

- Windows XP/Vista
- Pentium III 850MHz or better (1.0 GHz Vista)
- 512 MB System RAM
- 64MB Video RAM
- Internet Explorer 5.0+, AOL 5,6 or MSN browsers
- Direct-X 7 (10 Vista)

Dinertown Tycoon.. .Part 2...

We've been playing the preview of Dinertown Tycoon, and oh my gosh is it fun and challenging! I still haven't finished the game cuz I want to keep going back to see if I can improve each restaurant district when I realize market, purchasing, and advertising mistakes that could increase my profit. *in my best Captain Kirk voice* MUST.....SELL.....MORE....SAMOSAS!! Tons of replay value. So excited for it to come out....and then I wake up to see this in the PF mail:

A blog note from our old PF forum friend, Sorbet. So nice to see her success and accomplishments!

DinerTown Tycoon: Developer Perspective: Sora Bai, Producer

DinerTown Tycoon is the first Tycoon game for PlayFirst and is set in DinerTown bringing a fresh new twist to the genre. The game was a first in many ways for the development team as it offers a new way for players to interact with the people of DinerTown.

Instead of serving customers in a diner, you are now managing a restaurant from a more entrepreneurial viewpoint and you see the Dinertoons on a more macro level. Players also get a broader overview of the residents’ eating habits, learn which restaurants they frequent and can purchase market research to make better informed business decisions.

A lot of DinerTown games have aspirational stories about the little guy or the underdog triumphing over the "big shots." This was the dev team’s thinking behind Grub Burger, the large fast food chain featured in the game that brainwashes innocent residents into buying their food with its cheap additives and artificial flavoring. At its heart, the game is about giving the player the power to save DinerTown from evil conglomerates like Grub Burger.

The development of the game was a lot of fun for everyone on the team, but it also came with some design challenges. Our foremost challenge was to make a fun and interesting tycoon game that would also appeal to Diner Dash fans. Tycoon games typically involve more strategic and mathematical decision-making, and we were not exactly sure how that kind of gameplay would be received by time management fans. At the same time, we wanted the gameplay to be deep enough to appeal to hardcore tycoon fans.

One of the things we did was to do the math for the player, so that they could simply and easily see at a glance how they were doing without worrying too much about a lot of numbers. So for example, we used a lot of visual bars, graphs, and visual effects instead of numerical data.

Another concern for us was the user interface (UI). We wanted to make sure that our user interface was as simple, clean, and intuitive as possible. We probably went through 20 different iterations of the UI, including redesigns of the artwork to fit with the DinerTown universe, but in the end we came up with a really smart and simple flow.

Another huge challenge was knowing when and where to stop! We had so many interesting ideas and features, but we just didn’t have enough time to implement them all. So a lot of neat ideas had to hit the cutting room floor. Next week we’ll reveal some of the exciting new features that made it to the final stage!
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We also have some exciting Hobbit Hollow forum news!! Our DTT Walkthrough is complete and ready to post upon game release. It looks so pretty.... *lick, lick* ...mmmm, and tastes good too!

See our earlier preview post if you want a small nibble...

Dream Chronicles The Chosen Child Walkthrough



Experience the magic of Dream Chronicles in a bold third edition of the award-winning hidden object adventure game.

Delve into beautiful hide and seek puzzles that will challenge you to uncover the mystery behind Fayes missing daughter Lyra. At the start of the game Faye has lost her memory and she must work to recover it while pursuing clues about the whereabouts of her daughter. With the help of her husband Fidget, Faye will travel through the Human and Fairy Realms in search of Lyra who has been taking by the Fairy Queen Lilith. Solve these puzzles and more in your quest to reunite your family.

Dream Chronicles®: The Chosen Child, the third installment in the award-winning Dream Chronicles series, combines richly stunning visuals and an enchanting story with challenging hidden object puzzles to create an exciting and approachable adventure experience.

How to Play

* Navigating your way through Dream Chronicles®: The Chosen Child is as easy as clicking across your screen.

* Investigate each scene using your mouse to click on objects such as doors, drawers, buttons,switches, wall hangings, unusual shapes and anything that captures your eye!

* Everything that you need along your journey will be stored in your inventory at the bottom of the screen.

Tips & Tricks

* Click on everything on your current screen to see what it is-perhaps it will aid you in unlocking the next door!

* Collect tools on your journey and use them in different scenes

* Many answers can be found by clicking the Crystal Ball and Dream Journal for story updates, clues and more

* Dream Jewels and Dream Pieces can be collected throughout the game in order to unlock doors in the Nexus

What's New

Explore a beautifully stunning mystery world as you overcome difcult puzzles to restore your memory and reunite your family.

* Innovative, open-ended design allows you to revisit all unlocked areas of the game via the Nexus

* New multi-area puzzles provide additional challenge and opportunity for exploration

* Integrated help system makes this the most approachable Dream Chronicles game yet!

* Players can now use the Dream Jewels they find in the new Nexus puzzle

* Now you can plant and grow food to make recipes that will unlock even more challenges

* The Dream Chronicles world can now be seen with 60% greater detail in 1024x768 resolution!

Play Free Trial or Buy Now!

Check here for our Walkthrough & Screenshots!

Wandering Willows Walkthrough



Ready for a new adventure? Welcome to Wandering Willows™, a whimsical world full of
wondrous wildlife and engaging quests. With over forty enchanting pets for you to befriend and train, you're sure to find just the right help completing quests for the land's amusing inhabitants, who range from gruff pirates to rocket ship commanders.

Garden, bake, and create clothing and bouquets with the treasures your pet fetches for you. You might even find a new pet egg to hatch! Spend some time in Wandering Willows today!

Wandering Willows™ combines the rich and engaging story and characters of an
adventure game with the questing, progression and personalization of a role-playing game to create a completely new experience for the casual gamer!

How to Play

* Simply click on the ground where you want to go and your character will move there or click and hold the mouse button to move in any direction.
* Click on people with a “?” above their heads and they will give you quests to accomplish and rewards when you successfully complete them.
* Use your pet to pick fruit from trees, dig up items from dirt mounds and charm wild animals.
* Items are stored in your inventory and you can use, wear or gift them by dragging them onto yourself or other characters.
* You can learn recipes and patterns that will allow you to create items using ingredients you found, receive and purchase.
*Shops in the world will sell you items by clicking on them.

Tips & Tricks

• Roll the mouse over your pet to see what it likes to keep it happy
• Every animal is different. Some are better climbers, some are better diggers and some are better at charming
• Buy extra thread and butter so you can cook and make clothes on the go!


Whats New!

Find, collect and train unique pets to help
you master a world full of surprises while
overcoming challenging obstacles.

• Over 40 different adorable pets to collect and train with unique specialties
• Over 150 quests to complete as you make new friends with the townspeople of Wandering Willows™
• Over 200 food recipes and 150 clothing and item patterns to discover and make
• An engaging story with a surprising twist!
• Customize your avatar with clothes and items that you make in the game

Play Free Trial Now or Buy Here!

Check our comprehensive Walkthrough & Spreadsheets here!

Welcome To Our Casual Game Community!

You've just found our new community for casual games! We all love games like Dream Chronicles, Chocolatier, the Diner Dash series, Cake Mania, Fairy Godmother Tycoon, Tradewinds, and so many more! We are striving for a drama free experience here to chat about all the newest game releases and revisit old favorites from the best game companies! Can you tell we are huge TM & Strategy fans?

Anyway, glad you meandered down our path! Gable and I were just passing the time of day until we saw you mosey over the top of the hill out yonder there. Pull up a stump, s
it a spell and I'll tell you the story of Hobbit Hollow Games...

Gable here is an avid casual gamer, who on most days does her best impression of The Old Woman In The Shoe. She has so many kids, cats, dogs, other people's children, plants, games, and jobs, she doesn't know what to do. The chaos of time management and other styles of PC games actually relaxes her, see, much like a nice hot Calgon bath does for regular folk, like you and me. We'll just let her keep thinking that's normal...please don't burst her bubble.

I, on the other hand, have a taste for food related games only, being as I play a Restaurant Manager on TV, er, um, make that, in real life...it would make sense that I occasionally kill an hour of my day off with games that look strangely like my real work life...right? I also harbor a secret fantasy of meeting Gordon Ramsay and yelling 'In the bin, you donkey!' after he makes yet another dish of braised romaine in cream sauce. Shh, don't tell anyone.

So with Gable dashing around multi-tasking all day, and my running a joint that even Flo, from Mel's Diner, could appreciate, it's little wonder that our Internet search both led us to play Diner Dash, by GameLab and PlayFirst. Through various other casual game sites we went until we finally landed on our rumps where we should have started in the first place. We found PlayFirst.com, laughed hysterically at some of the user's antics and comments, and started contributing to the community there ourselves. We still play at other sites too and always have a great time meeting new people.

We'd like our own game blog to focus on a similar feel. A place to come hang out, try some of the games, interact with the online gaming community, and have some good clean fun, with zero drama, because we hear it's fattening. We are hoping to provide a place where our visitors can play or purchase casual games, post reviews, opinions, and comments in each game posting, chat with friends, help each other out with tips and tricks, make recommendations to others, find out game news as it becomes available, and mostly, have a few laughs.

Well, that's all there really is to tell. *muffles Gable's mouth with duct tape*...I'm going to start us another pot of coffee while you amble on over to the site navigation on the upper right...we'll catch up with you in awhile...

Off To Grandmother's House I Go...

It was a dark and stormy night. Sweet innocent and charming me was dressed appropriately in my best black patent leather strap-on Mary Janes and a frilly red dress with white lace petticoat as all good fairy tale children seem to dress. I pulled on an additional wool cape and began my treacherous trek thru the big scary forest along Redgate & Colley Ave. on my way to Bangkok Gardens, when a terrible 3 headed monster with one eye, brittle claws, and a tail with dull horns tried to ambush me from behind a rock that it had obviously crawled out from underneath! It threatened to run me down with it's motorized walker if I didn't give her a cookie. I took one look at her, flipped my curly blond hair to distract her, made a fist under my cape and KAPOWIE!! Right in the kisser!

And that's how I met Gable875.

The End.

Next time I ask her to write something nice for the About Us section, she might actually do it in a timely manner.

(wink, wink!) :-P

~Lattegato

David T. Wenzel


Immerse Yourself In An Enchanted World Of Fun...that was the theme and description of our site that was in my mind when I went on a search for fantasy images to place here on the Home page. After much searching on the Internet, I came upon Hobbit Panorama and fell in love with the vivid colors and style. We have now added images to each page and hope you enjoy the artistry as much as we do.

The artwork at the top of all of our pages are used with permission of David Wenzel, an extremely talented children's book illustrator and artist. We are so appreciative of his artwork and allowing us to use it.

His giclee prints are available for sale, individually signed and remarqued, and would make beautiful prints for in your home or as gifts. Please visit and support his site at http://www.davidwenzel.com/.