Howdy folks. Today's featured farm is a handsome design by Makiziki, a player who spends time over at the FarmVille Forums. Makiziki's farm caught my eye because it does something rather novel: paths. Paths may be common in other games such as CityVille, Empires & Allies, and FrontierVille, but in FarmVille, there is no easy way to make paths. All the dirt trails you see are actually created by hand placing the Lush Grass decoration all over the farm.
So not only is this farm a beautiful estate full of crops, animals, and items; but it also serves as a great design guide for other FarmVille artists. Using Lush Grass to cover a farmville tall grass makizikifarm hasn't been done too much, especially considering how nice it looks. Unfortunately, Lush Grass was a limited time English Countryside item that is no longer available. However, a different item, Tall Grass, can be bought in the decorations tab of the market for 1,500 coins apiece. The only difference is that Tall Grass is a little taller, so it will give farms a more wild, natural look.
In addition to the unique use of grass and desert background in order to make paths, the farm has a lot more going on. In an age where FarmVille players have absurd amounts of stuff, Makiziki's farm remains rather organized. Here's what they had to say about their farm:
Well, first of all, I love to design with paths. FarmVille doesn't actually have them yet. And I love a lot of green, so my design looks like a real farm. I worked about 3-4 hours to finsih this farm, and I was so tired when I was done :) But I love my new farm :)
-Makiziki
What do you guys think of Makizki's Lush Grass-filled farm? Add Comment
If you have an AWESOME FarmVille farm that you want to see featured on Games.com, please email a picture to editors@games.com, Include a few words about the inspiration for your design and maybe a few tips for people who need an assist.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Entertainment Games looks to revive soap operas in Facebook games
FarmVille may have killed the daytime soap opera, but it seems like soaps might have their heyday after all. Langhorne, Penn.-based Entertainment Games announced that it hired Michael Fairman (pictured below), a leading expert on daytime soaps (bet you didn't know such a job existed, eh?) to help the company develop a soap opera game with Heyday Games.
Working toward this announcement, the company has been surprisingly busy. Entertainment Games bought social games maker Heyday Games in late June. Then in August, the company changed the name it's had since 1992. Two weeks ago, the company struck a licensing deal with intellectual rights management firm CMG Worldwide to use pictures of celebrities for some "retro-based social game for Facebook, Google+, mobile devices and the open web."
Aside from admittedly banking on nostalgia, there are a few clues as to what type of game the company looks to make. Entertainment Games wants to harness Fairman's two decades of experience in the industry. The company wants his help to create a game that Entertainment Games's CCO F.J. Lennon says will "deliver a ground-breaking social gaming experience that both the gaming and soap opera industries will take note of."
Michael Fairman soap opera expertSince Facebook games came along, games and daytime soaps had been inadvertently at war over the same audience, namely, 25 to 54-year-old women. Unfortunately for soaps fans, Zynga's "television audience destruction machine" won the battle over All My Children and One Life to Live. But Entertainment Games isn't the only company looking to capitalize on this obvious demographic.
In an effort to generate more revenue, UK soap opera Coronation Street was turned into a Facebook social game called "Corrie Nation". Unfortunately, the game didn't last a year before it was taken down for a complete rehaul, with ATV network looking for a new game developer to take on the job. With soap operas dying and the first (and only) Facebook soap opera game ever made, out of commission, you'd think that no one would bother with another attempt, right? Well, here comes Entertainment Games, Inc. to prove us wrong.
From the sound of things, soap operas can find new life after television as Facebook games. On top of that, they're going to return vying for the same demographic as they once did against Zynga, but this time, they'll be on the same playing field.
Do you think soap opera social games have a chance at being the next big hit?
Working toward this announcement, the company has been surprisingly busy. Entertainment Games bought social games maker Heyday Games in late June. Then in August, the company changed the name it's had since 1992. Two weeks ago, the company struck a licensing deal with intellectual rights management firm CMG Worldwide to use pictures of celebrities for some "retro-based social game for Facebook, Google+, mobile devices and the open web."
Aside from admittedly banking on nostalgia, there are a few clues as to what type of game the company looks to make. Entertainment Games wants to harness Fairman's two decades of experience in the industry. The company wants his help to create a game that Entertainment Games's CCO F.J. Lennon says will "deliver a ground-breaking social gaming experience that both the gaming and soap opera industries will take note of."
Michael Fairman soap opera expertSince Facebook games came along, games and daytime soaps had been inadvertently at war over the same audience, namely, 25 to 54-year-old women. Unfortunately for soaps fans, Zynga's "television audience destruction machine" won the battle over All My Children and One Life to Live. But Entertainment Games isn't the only company looking to capitalize on this obvious demographic.
In an effort to generate more revenue, UK soap opera Coronation Street was turned into a Facebook social game called "Corrie Nation". Unfortunately, the game didn't last a year before it was taken down for a complete rehaul, with ATV network looking for a new game developer to take on the job. With soap operas dying and the first (and only) Facebook soap opera game ever made, out of commission, you'd think that no one would bother with another attempt, right? Well, here comes Entertainment Games, Inc. to prove us wrong.
From the sound of things, soap operas can find new life after television as Facebook games. On top of that, they're going to return vying for the same demographic as they once did against Zynga, but this time, they'll be on the same playing field.
Do you think soap opera social games have a chance at being the next big hit?
Bubble Saga maker King.com hires Microsoft exec as marketing head
Can none resist the dollar signs allure of Facebook games? King.com, maker of Facebook game ports like Bubble Saga, announced that it has hired ex-Microsoft exec Alex Dale as its chief marketing officer. Dale joins King.com after overseeing Microsoft's marketing efforts on products including Bing, Internet Explorer and Windows Phone.
"We have made several strategic hires recently in an effort continue this growth and even take it one step further, becoming a clear leader in the space," King.com co-fonder and CEO Riccardo Zacconi said in a release. "We are confident that Alex will be instrumental in helping us further grow our global user- and partnership-base and are thrilled to have him on board."
Dale joins a list of executives that have found themselves in the social games space. Sean Ryan, director of Facebook games partnerships, was at one time the CEO of now-defunct social network LiveJournal. Zynga head of mobile games David Ko comes from Yahoo, and most recently Flickr founder Stewart Butterfield moved on to make his own social game, Glitch.
King.com, which most recently launched Bubble Witch Saga on Facebook, now joins the ranks of companies like Zynga in its willingness to source talent from other industries. And King.com says in the announcement that Dale will be at helm of the companies global expansion. It seems that the company is looking abroad to reach the top five game makers on AppData--it sits pretty at number seven with just over 17 million monthly players.
Do you think King.com, making hires like this, can become an even bigger competitor in Facebook games? What do you think of games like Bubble Witch Saga?
"We have made several strategic hires recently in an effort continue this growth and even take it one step further, becoming a clear leader in the space," King.com co-fonder and CEO Riccardo Zacconi said in a release. "We are confident that Alex will be instrumental in helping us further grow our global user- and partnership-base and are thrilled to have him on board."
Dale joins a list of executives that have found themselves in the social games space. Sean Ryan, director of Facebook games partnerships, was at one time the CEO of now-defunct social network LiveJournal. Zynga head of mobile games David Ko comes from Yahoo, and most recently Flickr founder Stewart Butterfield moved on to make his own social game, Glitch.
King.com, which most recently launched Bubble Witch Saga on Facebook, now joins the ranks of companies like Zynga in its willingness to source talent from other industries. And King.com says in the announcement that Dale will be at helm of the companies global expansion. It seems that the company is looking abroad to reach the top five game makers on AppData--it sits pretty at number seven with just over 17 million monthly players.
Do you think King.com, making hires like this, can become an even bigger competitor in Facebook games? What do you think of games like Bubble Witch Saga?
Want exclusive freebies in The Sims Social? Register on the forums
I'd put away that credit card, if I were you, at least for the moment. I know, it's burning a hole and blah, blah, blah, but Playfish recently announced that it will give The Sims Social players exclusive freebies on a regular basis, but under one condition: You have to register on the Playfish forums. In fact, the game's community team created a new forum category just for this purpose.
Starting last week, Playfish gave away some free Relaxation--an ingredient used in crafting Fun Potions--in a short 24-hour window. So, it looks like, if you do decide to partake in the freebie-fest, you'll have to visit the Playfish forums on a regular basis to catch the next free giveaway that pops up. Perhaps eventually the developer will start to dole some beefier prizes like decorations for your Sim's house or straight-up Simoleons and Social Points.
EA and Playfish have been on a freebie frenzy as of late for all The Sims Social players. Just recently, the developer announced a week-long event in which it will post even more handouts on its Facebook page. At this point, we can't help but ask: Why? Well, considering just how close The Sims Social is to overtaking Zynga's CityVille as the number one game on Facebook in daily players, we're not surprised that Playfish would be pulling all the stops. To register on the Playfish forums, click right here.
Have you been reaping the rewards from Playfish on the forums and on The Sims Social Facebook page? What do you think of the game so far?
Starting last week, Playfish gave away some free Relaxation--an ingredient used in crafting Fun Potions--in a short 24-hour window. So, it looks like, if you do decide to partake in the freebie-fest, you'll have to visit the Playfish forums on a regular basis to catch the next free giveaway that pops up. Perhaps eventually the developer will start to dole some beefier prizes like decorations for your Sim's house or straight-up Simoleons and Social Points.
EA and Playfish have been on a freebie frenzy as of late for all The Sims Social players. Just recently, the developer announced a week-long event in which it will post even more handouts on its Facebook page. At this point, we can't help but ask: Why? Well, considering just how close The Sims Social is to overtaking Zynga's CityVille as the number one game on Facebook in daily players, we're not surprised that Playfish would be pulling all the stops. To register on the Playfish forums, click right here.
Have you been reaping the rewards from Playfish on the forums and on The Sims Social Facebook page? What do you think of the game so far?
Monday, December 12, 2011
FarmVille Friends feature finally launches; add neighbors without being Facebook buddies
For the past few weeks, we've been given you details about a then unreleased feature in FarmVille called "FarmVille Friends," which will - to put it simply - allow you to add new FarmVille neighbors without being Facebook friends. Finally, this feature has launched in the game, allowing you to browse through a list of possible neighbor suggestions to find just the right people for you.
You'll be greeted with this feature automatically once the update has rolled around to your game. From there, you'll have to take a trip to the "Add Neighbors" tab at the top of the FarmVille game page to see a list of five strangers at a time that you could add as FarmVille neighbors without actually adding them as Facebook friends. You'll see their first names, in-game levels, profile pictures (where available), locations and the last time they played. You'll then either have the option of sending them a neighbor request directly or visiting their farm to see if they have many of the game's newest features to be sure they're really an active player.
If you happen to have any mutual Facebook friends with that person, that information will be displayed as well, and you can tell who the mutual friend is by hovering over the orange banner, as seen above. If you don't wish to add any of those five strangers as FarmVille neighbors, you can click on the "See More" button at right to refresh your selection.
Keep in mind, as you're able to see others in this feature, so too can people see you. You may appear in players' groups of five, where others can add you as FarmvVille neighbors instead. You'll see these requests in the Zynga Messaging Center upon logging into the game, and can simply click to accept or ignore the request as you see fit.
If you'd rather remove yourself from this feature entirely (that is, remove yourself from the pool of possible neighbors, and not add any strangers as neighbors yourself), this is accomplished by scrolling all of the way down the Add Neighbors tab and unchecking the "FarmVille Friends" box, as seen below. Should you change your mind later, you can always check the box again to put yourself back in the pool.
Once you've become neighbors with these users, you'll be able to visit their farms and send them free gifts as normal, but it doesn't look like our interactions can spread much beyond that as of this writing. That makes this feature questionable in quality, but you can always try it out on a few neighbors to see if it positively changes your gameplay around the farm.
What do you think of this FarmVille Friends feature? Will you participate and add new players as neighbors?
You'll be greeted with this feature automatically once the update has rolled around to your game. From there, you'll have to take a trip to the "Add Neighbors" tab at the top of the FarmVille game page to see a list of five strangers at a time that you could add as FarmVille neighbors without actually adding them as Facebook friends. You'll see their first names, in-game levels, profile pictures (where available), locations and the last time they played. You'll then either have the option of sending them a neighbor request directly or visiting their farm to see if they have many of the game's newest features to be sure they're really an active player.
If you happen to have any mutual Facebook friends with that person, that information will be displayed as well, and you can tell who the mutual friend is by hovering over the orange banner, as seen above. If you don't wish to add any of those five strangers as FarmVille neighbors, you can click on the "See More" button at right to refresh your selection.
Keep in mind, as you're able to see others in this feature, so too can people see you. You may appear in players' groups of five, where others can add you as FarmvVille neighbors instead. You'll see these requests in the Zynga Messaging Center upon logging into the game, and can simply click to accept or ignore the request as you see fit.
If you'd rather remove yourself from this feature entirely (that is, remove yourself from the pool of possible neighbors, and not add any strangers as neighbors yourself), this is accomplished by scrolling all of the way down the Add Neighbors tab and unchecking the "FarmVille Friends" box, as seen below. Should you change your mind later, you can always check the box again to put yourself back in the pool.
Once you've become neighbors with these users, you'll be able to visit their farms and send them free gifts as normal, but it doesn't look like our interactions can spread much beyond that as of this writing. That makes this feature questionable in quality, but you can always try it out on a few neighbors to see if it positively changes your gameplay around the farm.
What do you think of this FarmVille Friends feature? Will you participate and add new players as neighbors?
FarmVille: Double Mastery on for this weekend on trees and crops
Even though there's no real holiday going on, that hasn't stopped Zynga from celebrating this weekend in FarmVille by turning on double mastery. This double mastery event will take place from now until Monday evening at 9:00 PM PDT. Within that time, all of your crops and trees harvested will count for double the mastery points, so there's a great opportunity here for mastery sign earning!
A couple of things to keep in mind: If you're going for crop mastery, you can activate a bushel when harvesting to earn three points of mastery for each square with this bonus. For tree farmers, you can also employ the orchard rotation technique, while earning double mastery on each orchard you harvest as well. Also, if you happen to own a Platinum Mastery Statue or recently re-released 2X Mastery Statue on your farm, this bonus will not stack on either crops or trees - you'll simply miss out on this event on that particular farm, as it only applies to those without such statues.
As one final note, this event does not give you double mastery points on animals. Why the FarmVille team hasn't decided to include our (mostly) furry friends in these updates hasn't yet been revealed, but I'm sure Zynga has its reasons. Either way, remember - this event will only last for the next couple of days. If you've ever needed extra incentive to play FarmVille on the weekends, this is about as good as it gets.
What crops or trees will you try to mastery during this double mastery weekend?
A couple of things to keep in mind: If you're going for crop mastery, you can activate a bushel when harvesting to earn three points of mastery for each square with this bonus. For tree farmers, you can also employ the orchard rotation technique, while earning double mastery on each orchard you harvest as well. Also, if you happen to own a Platinum Mastery Statue or recently re-released 2X Mastery Statue on your farm, this bonus will not stack on either crops or trees - you'll simply miss out on this event on that particular farm, as it only applies to those without such statues.
As one final note, this event does not give you double mastery points on animals. Why the FarmVille team hasn't decided to include our (mostly) furry friends in these updates hasn't yet been revealed, but I'm sure Zynga has its reasons. Either way, remember - this event will only last for the next couple of days. If you've ever needed extra incentive to play FarmVille on the weekends, this is about as good as it gets.
What crops or trees will you try to mastery during this double mastery weekend?
FarmVille Lighthouse Cove Model Farm rewards free items daily
While the Model Farm has long been a fairly useless feature in FarmVille, that merely lets you look at limited edition items currently available in the store in all of their "life-size" and (sometimes) animated glory, it seems that the FarmVille team really wants you to pay attention to this "neighbor" on your friends list, as they've taken to rewarding you for doing so. In this newest case, we see the Model Farm taking on a Lighthouse Cove theme, with plenty of trees, animals and buildings giving off that "resort town" feeling.
For visiting the Model Farm, you should receive 1,000 coins for free. Don't worry if the window doesn't pop up right away; there are simply tons of items to load (and plenty of price-tags as well), so it might take the game a few seconds longer than normal to reward you with your prize. We're not sure if the 1,000 coin prize is static across the game just for today's visits, or for your first visit to the Model Farm, so make sure to take advantage of the daily prize giveaways on this farm while you can.
We're told that we can "come back tomorrow to win again," and while the prize may just be more coins, free is free, right?
What sorts of prizes would make you want to visit the Model Farm, or are some free coins enough to do the trick?
For visiting the Model Farm, you should receive 1,000 coins for free. Don't worry if the window doesn't pop up right away; there are simply tons of items to load (and plenty of price-tags as well), so it might take the game a few seconds longer than normal to reward you with your prize. We're not sure if the 1,000 coin prize is static across the game just for today's visits, or for your first visit to the Model Farm, so make sure to take advantage of the daily prize giveaways on this farm while you can.
We're told that we can "come back tomorrow to win again," and while the prize may just be more coins, free is free, right?
What sorts of prizes would make you want to visit the Model Farm, or are some free coins enough to do the trick?
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