unreleased images

Here’s a quick look at some of the gameplay features in Puck’s Peak! Pogo has created this short and sweet flash animation to show some of the highlights of the game since it’ll be a Club Pogo only game (and they can use it to entice non-members to sign up).

For those of you interested in reading the How to Play/Rules for Puck’s Peak, Pogo’s got them up now too.

We can only assume these eight badges will be for Flower Daze, because of a recent interview with Dan F. wherein he bragged about “a really fun game called Flower Daze with a hilarious hippy character”. Check them out!

So far all we have is these badges, but as usual we’ll keep you posted as we find out more information about this new Pogo title. Stay tuned!

Here are the twelve badges for January 2010’s Mix-n-Match release. As usual they’ll probably be released on the last day of December and will cost 16 gems a piece. Also see the 2010 Happy New Year Limited Edition badge, listed at the end, which will be released separately and will cost 28 gems.

You may notice the badge graphics aren’t included in this post; it looks like they haven’t been created yet (maybe they’re a little short-staffed). We’ll be sure to add them in as soon as they’re available. Update 12/3: badges have been added below!

Addiction Solitaire – Pogoholic Badge
Win 15000 tokens in 4 weeks!
Win this badge plus 4,000 tokens!

Everyone Wins Bingo – Hollow Trunk Badge
Call 300 bingos with a wild pinecone in 4 weeks! (At least one daub in the bingo must be a wild pinecone)
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens!

Jungle Gin – Treetop Swing Badge
Go gin 15 times in 10 days! (Knock with no deadwood in your hand to go gin)
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens!

Lost Temple Poker – Land of the Lost Badge
Reach the Lost Temple Bonus Round 10 times in 10 days! (Get Tex to the Lost Temple to reach the Bonus Round)
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens!

Mahjong Safari – Winter Safari Badge
Match 700 tiles in 2 weeks!
Win this badge plus 3,000 tokens!

Payday FreeCell – Crown of Spades Badge
Win 10 games in 150 moves or less in 10 days!
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens!

Penguin Blocks – Frozen Lake Badge
Collect 400 pieces of seafood in 10 days! (Finish each round with $1 or more)
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens!

SCRABBLE – Floor Tiles Badge
Win 10 games in 10 days!
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens!

Squelchies – Giant Squelchy Badge
Clear 60 waves in 10 days! (To clear a wave match Squelchies so Chucky the Crab makes it across the finish line)
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens!

Thousand Island Solitaire – Mysterious Crate Badge
Finish a ‘Perfect Game’ 10 times in 2 weeks! (Play cards to make each of your piles add up to exactly 1000)
Win this badge plus 4,000 tokens!

Trivial Pursuit Daily 20 – Colored Suit Badge
Earn a wedge on 5 daily or calendar quizzes in 10 days!
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens!

Turbo 21 – New Tires Badge
Get 30 ‘5-Card Gimmies’ in 10 days! (To get a 5-Card Gimmie, stack 5 cards without going over 21)
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens!

Addiction Solitaire – 2010 Happy New Year Limited Edition Badge
Win 6000 tokens in 15 days!
Win this badge plus 2,010 tokens!

Here are the fifteen (up from the usual twelve, apparently) Mix-n-Match badges scheduled for December 2009. They are usually released on the evening before the first day of the month. Each badge will cost 16 gems and they are as follows:

Aces Up! – Nosedive Badge
Add 25 planes to your squadron in 10 days!
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens!

BATTLESHIP – You Sank My Battleship! Badge
Sink 10 battleships in 10 days!
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens!

Canasta – Canasta Carnival Badge
Win a four-player game in 10 days!
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens!

Dice City Roller – Dice City Winter Badge
Clear 50 ‘5 of a Kind’ cards in 2 weeks!
Win this badge plus 3,000 tokens!

Golf Solitaire – Hole in Sun Badge
Clear 25 holes in 2 weeks! (Remove all the cards from the playing field to clear a hole)
Win this badge plus 3,000 tokens!

Lottso! Express – Ball Boy Badge
Reach the third Goal 45 times in 2 weeks!
Win this badge plus 3,000 tokens!

Mahjong Safari – Holiday Safari Badge
Send 12 gifts in 10 days!
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens!

Makeover Madness – Hair Extensions Badge
Get 5 Jackpot Spins in 10 days!
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens!

MONOPOLY Here & Now: The World Edition – Digital Banking Badge
Go to Jail 5 times in 10 days!
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens!

Monopoly Slots – Ride the Reels Badge
Land on a Railroad once in 3 weeks!
Win this badge plus 4,000 tokens!

Payday FreeCell – Drawbridge Badge
Get 50 or more Bonus Points on a Payday Scratch Bonus Card 20 times in 10 days!
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens!

Pop Fu – I Know Kung Fu Badge
Win 1200 tokens in 10 days! (Including Jackpot Spins)
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens!

Poppit! – Cactus Claus Badge
Use a ‘pin’ power-up 15 times in 10 days!
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens.

QWERTY – Gophers Playing QWERTY Badge
Play 12 words of 6 letters or more in 10 days!
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens.

Word Search Daily – Backwards Badge
Find 60 words that are backwards in 10 days! (Only words that are horizontal words found without using the Hint button count)
Win this badge plus 2,000 tokens.

Also, look for this 2009 Christmas badge (Limited Edition, 28 gems) sometime in the month of December:

Lottso! Express – 2009 Christmas Limited Edition Badge
Complete 100 regular cards in 3 weeks! (Regular cards are 3×2 spaces and Gold, Silver or Bronze)
Win this badge plus 3,000 tokens!

On Monday of this week, EA (Pogo’s parent company) announced it would lay off 1500 workers by April of 2010 in an effort to reduce costs. It’s probably no coincidence that the same day they announced the acquisition of PlayFish, a maker of social networking games such as Restaurant City, a Facebook game Pogo is now heavily promoting on their web site. Unfortunately, the layoffs began on Monday and Pogo was not immune. We’re not sure how many people in total were laid off, but they lost at least one very talented graphic artist: Julia Lundman.

As fans of Julia’s Pogo artwork, we’ve been following her blog for about a year and a half now and were saddened yesterday to see the following:

For the past few years, I have been working at Electronic Arts online casual gaming company, Pogo.com, as a staff artist. I have been primarily designing game art, costumes, backgrounds, and badges. On Monday I was laid off due to overseas outsourcing. I feel sad about this, especially since every single day I came into work feeling excited and happy about the work I was doing. I always took every single project seriously, no matter how ’small’ or how ‘big’ the assignment was. I’ve always held that if an artist is a good artist, no matter what he or she touches, it should be of the highest quality and taken seriously.

Julia’s art speaks for itself — she’s talented and creative and undoubtedly she was the artist behind many of your favorite badges, mini costumes, and more around Pogoland. She spent most of yesterday posting some of her work to her blog, most of which we’ve already seen. (She was the creative force behind the cool Canasta beatnik art, the game rank images for Penguin Blocks and First Class Solitaire, and a ton of our favorite mini items.) Perhaps the most interesting to us is the concept art she posted for a Pogo Kids version and a virtual world concept that might still be in our future in some form due to the Hasbro contract.

These pieces give us a glimpse not only of Julia’s amazing talent but of some of the ideas that Pogo might be bouncing around behind the scenes at any given time. Check out the Pogo Kids avatars and the Pogo Virtual World concept art that she’s posted. Really neat stuff.

Her whole blog is worth checking out because you can see her influence on Pogo projects over time (or vice-versa!), but our favorite Pogo-related post is about last year’s Thanksgiving Mini release.

Julia: if you’re out there, best wishes from all of us fans. We’re really going to miss your unique style and creativity. Pogo is not going to be the same without you. No matter what company you’re exercising your creative muscles with, we’re sure your talents will take you very far!

Pogo has decided to add 50 more ranks to MONOPOLY Here & Now: The World Edition. There will be a total of 100 ranks and you’ll be earning new badges at ranks 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100. Here are the badges and requirements:

Monopoly – Become a Supervillain!
Pass GO 4,148 times to achieve Rank 60 and earn this badge

Monopoly – Clone Yourself!
Pass GO 4,748 times to achieve Rank 70 and earn this badge

Monopoly – Build a Private Zoo!
Pass GO 5,498 times to achieve Rank 80 and earn this badge

Monopoly – Get Extra Cheese on a Burrito!
Pass GO 6,488 times to achieve Rank 90 and earn this badge

Monopoly – Enjoy the Simple Life!
Pass GO 7,613 times to achieve Rank 100 and earn this badge

Of all of the games that Pogo has promised will get new ranks (cough, KenoPop, cough) and older games that surely could use new ranks (cough, Hog Heaven Slots, cough), we’re surprised to see Monopoly come up as the next one to get them. We guess Monopoly money really does talk! We’ll keep you posted if we hear when these new ranks will be added.

Pogo’s got yet another Premium Badge Album in development. This one, which will probably be released next month, is called “Take a Trip”. When it’s released, it’ll cost you $5.99 or 86 gems. It includes the following 10 challenges:

Click to view animated badges and challenges

We’re getting closer to having Mini Awards in some more games! The first batch is coming out of the gazillion we showed you earlier, and they’re for the following:

Quick Quack:

Shuffle Bump (this includes the oops freebie Puck Head we mentioned last week, which is sure to be removed from our closets now):

And the upcoming game Puck’s Peak will also have the following mini awards (originally we thought they’d be freebies or for-token purchases at the Mini Mall, but Pogo sure likes to keep us guessing):

It looks like the Stellar Sweeper awards will also be coming with this batch but they haven’t nailed down what levels you’ll be earning them at.

For those of you who are interested in claiming these awards the moment they come out, make sure you are at least rank 7 in Quick Quack, and rank 6 in Shuffle Bump.

Puck’s Peak is currently in the testing phase and we are starting to receive tons and tons of information on this unique, new game!

Puck’s Peak is a tower-building game with unlockable characters and levels where your goal is to stack blocks of different shapes and sizes to certain heights (500m, 1000m, et cetera). Each time a block falls, you earn a strike — so many strikes and you have to start over! Once you build a pile of blocks to the required height, it must stay standing for 3 seconds.

Click to read the rest of this article and view screenshots