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Sneak Peek: December 2009 Mix-n-Match

Lura — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:05:37 +0000

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!

A Peek at Pogo’s Concept Art

Lura — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:24:26 +0000

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!

Monopoly Getting More Ranks

Lura — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:10:21 +0000

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.

Sneak Preview: Take a Trip PBA

Lura — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:52:31 +0000

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:

Poppit! – River Tubing Badge
Use a ”weight” power-up 40 times in 2 weeks!
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

Mahjong Safari – Wildlife Safari Badge
Complete a puzzle in 4 minutes or less 40 times in 3 weeks!
Win this badge plus 3000 tokens!

Bingo Luau – Hot Springs Badge
Correctly cover 500 numbers in 2 weeks!
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

Lottso! Express – Rock Climbing Badge
Complete 200 bingos in 3 weeks!
Win this badge plus 3000 tokens!

Dice City Roller – Nature’s Spirit Badge
Earn a ”clear bonus” by using all of the cards in a pile 20 times in 2 weeks!
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

Thousand Island Solitaire – Island Swim Badge
Get a ”Perfect 1000” on 100 piles in 3 weeks! (Play cards to make your piles add up to exactly 1000)
Win this badge plus 3000 tokens!

Turbo 21 – Scenic Route Badge
Get 20 ”5-Card Gimmies” in 2 weeks! (To get a 5-Card Gimmie, stack 5 cards without going over 21)”
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

Phlinx – Reef Diving Badge
Make 75 groups of 10 or more stones fall to the ground in 3 weeks!
Win this badge plus 3000 tokens!

KenoPop! – Palace Visit Badge
Play any power-up 15 times in 2 weeks!
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

Makeover Madness – Local Flavor Badge
Make it to the Supermodel Bonus Show 8 times in 3 weeks!
Win this badge plus 3000 tokens!

Take a Trip Album Completion Badge

Upcoming Mini Awards

Lura — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:29:01 +0000

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.

First Look at Puck’s Peak

Lura — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:16:56 +0000

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.

The more total meters you have built, the higher in rank you will be: 3000m will earn you rank one for example. As we noted before, this game will have 50 ranks and 5 rank badges.

The controls for this game are fairly simple. If you have a mouse with a mousewheel, you can left-click to select blocks from the left side of the screen and rotate the mousewheel to rotate the pieces. If not, you can use the arrow keys on your keyboard. We hear it takes a little time to get used to, but overall the placement and rotation of the blocks is simple (unless you’re like one of our sources, who says she needs to be more careful and stop knocking over her pre-existing blocks)!

The music for this game is very “electronic”, and the graphics in this game are cartoony and really fun! Here are some examples of what the game looks like:

To prepare your computer to play this new game, you will want to make sure you can currently run Beaker Creatures. Puck’s Peak is another Flash-based game, so if you can run Beaker Creatures you will probably be able to run Puck’s Peak when it’s released.

We don’t have a timeline as to when this game will be released, but it’s currently being tested and the general consensus is that it’s looking great! Be sure to check out our archive of posts about Puck’s Peak for additional information about badges, mini items, and more.

New PBA in Development: Cirque du Solitaire

Lura — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:13:36 +0000

Check out this cool new Premium Badge Album that Pogo is creating for us! It’s got ten badges and challenges — all in solitaire games — with an album completion badge, as usual. When it’s released, it will cost $5.99 or 86 gems.

First Class Solitaire – Classy Magician Badge
Complete 25 foundation stacks in 3 weeks!
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

Golf Solitaire – Surprise Swing Badge
Play a perfect hole 20 times in 3 weeks! (Remove every card from the playing field to play a perfect hole)
Win this badge plus 3000 tokens!

Thousand Island Solitaire – Circus Cannon Badge
Play 1000 cards in 3 weeks!
Win this badge plus 3000 tokens!

Aces Up! – Aerial Amazement Badge
Win 10 hands in 3 weeks!
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

Tri-Peaks Solitaire – Mystic Chest Badge
Get a ‘10 Card Streak’ or better 15 times in 3 weeks!
Win this badge plus 3000 tokens!

World Class Solitaire – Clowning Around Badge
Visit 8 cities in 3 weeks!
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

Rainy Day Spider Solitaire – Trapeze Net Badge
Win games without using 10 Bonus Free Cells in 3 weeks! (Each unused Bonus Free Cell counts after winning the game)
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

Payday FreeCell – Royal Revue Badge
Win 5 games in 150 moves or less in 3 weeks!
Win this badge plus 3000 tokens!

Perfect Pair Solitaire – Perfect Present Badge
Make 50 perfect matches in 3 weeks! (You must win the game for perfect matches to count)
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

Addiction Solitaire – Wild Ride Badge
Give 1 Token Gift in 3 weeks!
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

Cirque du Solitaire Super Badge – Album Completion

Puck’s Peak Minis

Lura — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:08:56 +0000

The graphic artists at Pogo have been busy creating a lot of artwork for our minis. Recently, the following images were created.

Please note: while sometimes game-related mini items may mean a game is going to be deluxe, this is not a deluxe game. In addition, these are not mini awards that will be awarded in game. Right now, they appear to be mini items that will be released either in coordination or shortly after the release of the game. (Pogo did this with Trivial Pursuit last year.)

Puck’s Peak-related Mini items: background, goodie, and costume:

These images may give us a hint to gameplay as well. What do you think?

Battleship Badges and Requirements

Lura — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:02:42 +0000

Here is a sneak peek at the five rank badges and two in-game achievement badges (aka “secret badges”) for Battleship.

Rank 10 – Excellent Ensign Badge

Rank 20 – Loyal Lieutenant Badge

Rank 30 – Clever Commander Badge

Rank 40 – Capable Captain Badge

Rank 50 – Astounding Admiral Badge

Battleship Bomber Badge
Sink 2500 Battleships to earn this badge.

Terrifically Tenacious Badge
Miss 50000 times to earn this badge.

PS: there’s a possible spoiler in the comments here. Good things come to those who read the comments. *laugh*

Battleship Due out This Month

Lura — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:02:38 +0000

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!