coming soon/rumors

According to the interview with Dan F., Pogo’s got a bunch of new games and features in the works, including two new games!

Gosh, there’s so much I don’t know where to begin. We have loads of great games coming out, including a really fun game called Flower Daze with a hilarious hippy character in it and a really cool Clue hidden object game. We’re also going to make it so that you can give all kinds of goodies to your friends on Pogo, which should be lots of fun. There’s lots more that I shouldn’t talk about, but let’s just say we’re adding tons of cool stuff that will be included in your Club Pogo subscription.

These two games will probably be a long time in the making, as we’ve still got Battleship, Risk, and Block Builder that are considerably farther along in the development cycle.

We’ll keep you posted as we find more news on both the upcoming changes to Pogo as well as Flower Daze and the yet-unnamed Clue hidden object game. Stay tuned!

Big thanks to Jessica who scoped out the newsworthy bits in the interview!

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Battleship is coming along nicely and should be released by the end of this month! The game is scheduled to be featured in the next game night (after tomorrow’s) on November 6th, so it should be released before then or Pogo’s going to have to change up their promotion! Thanks Chadd for pointing this out! It’s worth mentioning that we are assuming at least a week of “sneak peek” mode where the game is “out” but not generally released — ie linked on the Pogo home page — before the game would be used for a promotion or event.

The graphics in the game are coming along nicely, everything is very shiny and sharp. Behold a loading image:

Here are some details about the powerups you’ll be playing with while you battle to sink your opponent’s ships (thanks John2!):

Some powerups are always available:
* Heavy Shot
* Counter-Attack
* Reinforcements
* Sinking Shots
* Torpedoes

Some powerups are unlocked at certain ranks:
* Rank 5 – Skipper Powerup
* Rank 15 – Harpoon Powerup
* Rank 25 – Attack Squadron
* Rank 35 – Tomahawk Powerup (Only Active if you have very few ships remaining!)

We’re still waiting on the badge graphics and requirements for Battleship, but they should be out soon. As usual, stay tuned to BadgeHungry for the latest information, and look for this game near the end of the month!

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Here’s a preview of the 12 upcoming November 2009 Mix-n-Match challenges. As usual, these badges will cost you 16 gems each and they’ll be released on the evening of the last day of October.

Bingo Luau – Luau Lovin’ Badge
Get 3 bingos on Red cards in 5 days!
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens.

Jigsaw Treasure Hunter – Broken Drawer Badge
Solve a puzzle on any Skill Level in 15 minutes or less!
Win this badge plus 1,000 tokens.

KenoPop! – Rollin’ Around Badge
Play any power-up 30 times in 2 weeks! (Finish the game to check your progress.)
Win this badge plus 3,000 tokens.

Mahjong Garden – Paper Dragon Badge
Remove 1000 tiles using the ‘Geometric’ tile set in 5 days!
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens.

Mini Golf Madness – Mini Clubs Badge
Hit 50 Birdies in 2 weeks!
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens.

Pogo Bowl – Turkey Ball Badge
Get 5 Jackpot Spins in 1 day! (Bowl 150 or better to earn a Jackpot Spin)
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens.

SCRABBLE – Letter Factory Badge
Earn 25 Triple Letter Scores in 5 hours!
Win this badge plus 3,000 tokens.

Sweet Tooth 2 – Sweetener Badge
Win 25 games in 10 days!
Win this badge plus 3,000 tokens.

Tri-Peaks Solitaire – Tri, Tri, Tri, Again Badge
Get a 10-card streak or better 3 times in 3 days!
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens.

Word Whomp Whackdown – Surprise Whack Badge
Find 100 words in 5 days! (Words from the Main Round and the Speed Round count)
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens.

World Class Solitaire – Fear of Flying Badge
Get 25 powerups in 3 days!
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens.

Yahtzee Party! – Party Planner Badge
Roll 5 Yahtzees with ‘fives’ in 2 weeks! (Free Play and Super Yahtzees do not count)
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens.

And also look for this limited edition badge to be released sometime in November — it’ll cost 28 gems:

Yahtzee Party! – 2009 Thanksgiving Limited Edition Badge
Roll 22 Yahtzees in 22 days! (Free Play and Super Yahtzees do not count)
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens.

Here’s a look at the badges and challenges for the Out of this World Premium Badge Album. It should be released in October and will cost $5.99 or 86 gems. All of these challenges contain the number 51, as in Area 51. All of the information here is under development and is subject to change before release.

Click to view animated badges and challenges

Remember those mystery badges we speculated about in August? Well, they’re most likely for a new game Pogo’s got in development called Block Builder (this could be a ‘working title’). It’ll most likely be a puzzle-style game, but we don’t have much to go on at this point. It looks like this game will be tested soon, along with Battleship (already in testing) and Risk (soon to be tested).

I’ll update you with more information as we receive it.

Pogo’s working on a new Premium Album for us to enjoy in October. It’s called “Out of this World” and will have 10 badges and challenges, plus the usual album completion badge. We don’t have details on the specific challenges yet, but here’s a look at the badges:

Here’s a sneak peek at the 12 upcoming October 2009 Mix-n-Match challenges. As usual, these badges will cost you 16 gems each:

Aces Up! – Wing Walker Badge
Remove 500 cards in 3 hours! (Cards removed by planes do not count. Finish the game to check your progress.)

Addiction Solitaire – Bobbling Volcano Badge
Collect 100 Pogo Buddies in 2 weeks!

Crossword Cove – Lil’ Crabby Badge
Successfully complete 2 puzzles on Medium difficulty level in 12 hours! (Puzzles you have previously attempted will not count)

Harvest Mania – Bloomin’ Onion Badge
Win 7,000 tokens in 7 days! (Including Jackpot Spins)

Hog Heaven Slots – Spooky Hogs Badge
Get 5 Jackpot Spins in 2 weeks!

Jungle Gin – Tickle Me Tiki Badge
Win 1,500 tokens in 2 days! (Including Jackpot Spins)

Lottso! – Need Lots o’ Sleep Badge
Activate 40 gold-bordered cards in 8 days! (Super Lottso cards do not count)

Phlinx – Glowing Glyph Badge
Win 50 rounds in 5 days!

Quick Quack – Duck Disguise Badge
Earn 20,000 Quick Quack tickets (not tokens) in 2 weeks!

Rainy Day Spider Solitaire – Dark and Stormy Night Badge
Win 10 games on Normal difficulty level or higher in 3 days!

Trivial Pursuit – Patience Pie Badge
Earn wedges on 4 daily or calendar quizzes in 1 day!

Word Whomp – Turnip Juice Badge
Find 600 3-letter words in 10 days!

These badges should be available on the evening of the last day of September.

Oh, Pogo, you’re such a tease.

Mini Golf Madness can now be added to your favorites. In fact, you can browse the Mini Golf Madness game page all you want, but they’re not going to let us play it yet. At the time of this posting, there are no game rooms added and clicking on the Play Now graphic results in a “All Rooms Occupied” error.

This is going to frustrate some people to no end, especially since we aren’t able to give you a reason why this has happened (first guess is “big oops”, second guess is “it’s coming soon!”) nor a timeline on when we’ll be able to play this long-awaited game.

(Little fact: it was JULY SEVENTEENTH when they first told us on the News page that this game was “coming soon”. Yes, Christmas 2015 is coming soon too.)

We’re going to leave comments closed on this, since we can already hear the resounding thuds of heads on keyboards, the whooshing of fists shaking in the air, and loud cacophony of “WTF”.

(Thanks to pegasuszoe and travlinunicorn for the scoop, you’re our two most-valuable mystical creatures, err, readers this week)

Hang in there. We’ll keep you posted.

Update! We saw the latest Letters to the Editor UK and there’s this:

Sincere apologies for the delay to Mini Golf Madness, which was originally scheduled for release on Tuesday. When I posted last week’s column, I did honestly think that the game would be out by now – you know I’d never knowingly lie to you, right? :)

Having done some “probing”, the delay was due to a minor configuration error with the game. The latest info I have is that Mini Golf Madness will be released in the early part of next week. Pogo News will, as always, have full details when the game does finally launch!

Tuesday, then. We aren’t holding our collective breath, though.

Check out these five badges and chat icons that are in store for a new game.

There’s no official word on what game they will be used for yet, so feel free to take a stab in the comments and give us your best guess!

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