Archive for June 2009

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the first ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Sun. June 28th: 50% off on Battles of Norghan

Mon. June 29th: 50% off on Crazynoid

Tue. June 30th: 50% off on Boulder DashREpisode II: Jive-n-Cave

Wed. July 1st: 50% off on Smiling Bubbles

Thu. July 2nd: 50% off on BoXplosion

Fri. July 3rd: 50% off on Jet Ducks

Sat. July 4th: 50% off on Solitaire Studio Tags: Discounts, downloads, PC Games

• Easy on the Hooptedoodle: How to be invisible when writing a book. You know… show instead of tell. [Link: The Blood-Red Pencil]
• Exposing Some Myths About Blogging Pay Rates
• 7 Ways to Rediscover Your Dreams
• Book Marketing 2.0: 5 ways you can use Web 2.0 tools to promote your book
• Namechk: See if a user name is available across many social networks.
• Twitter Logo Generator [Link: Crenk]

• Best Sites for Used Cars: Daughter has driver’s permit. Not gonna get her a new car. If anything, she’ll inherit hubby’s car once he gets a replacement.
• Star Trek does opera: Khannnnn! in Italian.
• Emo Babies: Not emo as in wearing black, but showing their feelings and emotions. Very cute.
• Wanna See a Kindle 2?

Image credit Flávio Takemoto

I love participating in Twitter chats. These bring together intelligent individuals with a common interest yet each one adds something unique to the conversation. I’ve already covered how to join Twitter chats. This post looks at the process of participating in the chat.

#journchat set many of the standards that other chats have adopted. While official standards don’t exist, it becomes clear what works and what doesn’t work after you participate in enough chats. These guidelines capture the practices that lead to productive and fun chats.

1. Let participants know how to submit questions: Some moderators ask for questions before the chat, during the chat or both. Different moderators have different submission preferences. It helps to receive questions in private rather than during the chat because people might start answering.
2. Announce topic before chat: Most Twitter chats have a topic for the conversation. This keeps everyone on the same page. Tweet the topic before the chat so everyone knows.
3. Announce guests before chat: Guests add to the chat by sharing their expertise. Letting participants know about the guest allows them to watch for them and follow them. Some twitter apps like Tweetchat let you enter a Twitter ID to highlight that person’s tweets.
4. Tweet chat reminder: People get busy and forget. It’s OK to tweet reminders along with the topic and guest ID. It helps grow your list, too.
5. Begin chat with rules: New chatters join, experienced chatters forget. It keeps everyone on same page.
6. Identify who chat targets: #Editorchat, for example, is for editors and those who work with them. It doesn’t mean you can’t join if you don’t fit, you can observe.
7. Start with introductions: Moderator can encourage specific information such as “Tell us who you are and what you do.”
8. Stay on topic: Of course, it’s OK to laugh and make a joke about a comment. In fact, Timberry said, “A wise competitor once said: I don’t care if you stand beside me on the pier fishing. There are plenty of fish.” adarowski followed up with, “You didn’t push him, did you? ” Gave us all a big laugh.
9. Play nice: Accept it’s OK to have a difference of opinion, just be nice and courteous about it. If we all agreed all the time, it’d be a boring conversation.
10. Listen: Moderators and guests take the lead. We all have something to contribute. Listening ensures you stay on track and avoid dominating the conversation.
11. Block spammers: Several spammers invaded Twitter chats. Everyone blocked them and stopped it. While this rule could say “Don’t spam,” generally the spammers aren’t really part of the conversation.
12. Begin questions and answers with Q1, Q2, etc.: This helps people connect the answer with the question. I admit it — I forgot a couple of times.
13. Add the chat name to tweet: If you use Tweetchat or Tweetgrid, it will automatically add it for you. Otherwise, add the name with # or else the group will miss your comment.
14. Watch the pitching and promoting: Several chats ask to save the pitches for the last five minutes of the conversation.
15. Take unrelated tweets out of chat: Go to the Twitter browser or DM the person. It’s hard enough to follow a chat without having irrelevant and personal comments cluttering the stream.
16. Warn friends: Some people don’t like it when their twitter stream fills up with a bunch of tweets from a person participating in a chat. Many folks enter a chat saying, “About to join chat. You might want to put me on www.twittersnooze.com.” Better yet, create a separate ID for chats. Put your main Twitter ID in your chat profile.

What else works or doesn’t work when it comes to chatting through twitter?

ShortURL to this post: http://bit.ly/19w1w7

Play the next part in the hit hidden object wedding series, Dream Day Wedding: Viva Las Vegas. As the hottest new wedding planner in the country, your reputation is taking you from the Big Apple to Sin City! A high rolling bride is placing all bets on you to prepare for her big day. The stakes are high as you manage important tasks while keeping the bride, groom, and mother of the bride happy in this opulent destination. Get ready to hit the jackpot!

• Try your luck in the casino to earn and spend points
• Adventure and escape puzzles
• Mini games and wedding crisis levels
• All-new “Choose a Story” – your decision could affect the path of the game

Try Dream Day Wedding: Viva Las Vegas.

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Sun. June 21st: 30% off on Farm Frenzy 2

Mon. June 22nd: 30% off on Farm Frenzy -Pizza Party!

Tue. June 23rd: 30% off on Alex Gordon

Wed. June 24th: 30% off on Beach Party Craze

Thu. June 25th: 30% off on Magic Ball 3

Fri. June 26th: 60% off on Nanotron

Sat. June 27th: 60% off on Lucky’s Puzzle Carnival

• Social Media and “The Flight Attendant Effect”: Excellent analogy that makes great sense. [Link: Scott Blitstein
• Five Levels Of Social Media Responses [Link: Dawn Foster]
• Children’s book writing month at Tumblemoose: Lots of advice, articles, videos and guests.
• Tweeting for profits: How retailers and other businesses are taking advantage of Twitter.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Darth McVader: This link is in memory of my dear friend Glenn.
• The Stapler Caper: Adorable wordless children’s book that encourages children to write the story. YouTube video tells more. Disclaimer: Creator is a dear friend of mine. Heard great story about a kid who hated writing. He actually produced an incredible story using this book as a tool. Wow.
• Tilt-shift Photos of London: Just makes me wanna get there ASAP! I love the UK and am eager to visit there as one of my first stops on the other side of the world.

This guest post is from Ben Johnson of Logoinn, a custom logo design service provider based in UK.

Your logo is the proverbial “calling card” for your business. The appearance, style and design of your business logo will be responsible for the all-important first impression to a potential customer or client.

Understanding the importance of your business logo, you may wonder what you should have and what you should include within the design of that logo. This article provides tips and pointers on what type of logo you need to have for your business enterprise.

Logo as an Iconic Representation

When you are considering what type of logo will be most suitable for your own business, you can learn a good deal from those very successful logos that have really proven successful over time. Some logos have become so widely recognized that they are iconic.

Examples of iconic logos include the Coca-Cola logo, the Starbucks logo and many other logos that have been around for a long time that have become a part of the consciousness of consumers from all parts of the world.

You can take tips and cues from these logos when it comes to the decision making process associated with your own business logo. For example, these logos have common factors and elements that you can translate into your own logo design efforts.
For example, these iconic logos have clean and clear design concepts, have basic color schemes and convey a sense of what the business is about.

Take Practical Considerations into Account

In addition to taking a look at what other successful businesses have done in the way of logos, you want to clearly take in account practical considerations. For example, want to make sure that your logo appropriately conveys at least an indication of the products or services that you are offering through your business venture. A logo that doesn’t convey a sense of your business type will become ineffective in branding at best and a devastating error in the worst-case scenario.

You also need to ensure that your branding devices appeal and attract the specific market niche that contains the specific consumer group who will be most interested in doing business with your firm or company.

Simple Is Better

When selecting a logo design, keep in mind that a clean and uncluttered look is the best selection and the best choice for your operation.

With a clean, clear and uncluttered logo, consumers will more readily connect with your business. A quicker, sounder connection increases the number of customers or clients that your firm or company will do business with both in the short and the long term.

Know Your Industry

While you definitely do not want to copy another business’s logo design concept, it can help you to analyze what other businesses in your specific industry are doing in the way of logos, branding and related issues. Some themes are commonplace and suitable within a specific industry. Therefore, it likely will behoove your business to incorporate these themes into your own efforts at designing the most effective logo for your venture.

This is a step that a professional design firm will undertake as part of its own effort at developing the most effective and appropriate logo for your own business enterprise.

Final Lines

If you take the time and make the effort to consider the factors in this article, you will be in a better position to understand what type of custom logo will not only be the most suitable, but also most effective for your business venture. You will be laying the groundwork for a successful and profitable business, the groundwork that will serve you well not only today but as your business grows into the future.

One of the first Windows-based computer games I played was Golf solitaire. I can’t figure out how such a simple game could be so addicting even years later. I bore easily with repetition, but not with Golf. And the game has received some amazing interpretation into adventures including Faerie Solitaire.

The story told in Adventure mode makes little sense even though the game delivers most of it in small bites. So I won’t even go into what it’s about. I’m not sure myself. But the game more than makes up for it.

First, here how the Golf solitaire works: You take cards off the table that are one up or one down from the card in the pile. So if your pile card shows a king. You look for any open aces or queens (they can’t have a card on top of them). Let’s say you find an ace, put that on top of the king.

Now you need either a king or two. Keep taking cards off the foundation until you have no more moves. Then take another card from the stock pile and repeat. Clear the table for a perfect game, a goal you’ll need to reach in order to move on in some levels.

Every level consists of nine rounds of solitaire and has its own goals. You need to reach those goals by the time you finish the nine games. If not, you’ll replay the level. Otherwise, you move on to the next location (it’s that story thing again). Goals can be X number of perfect games, X amount of cash, fill purple meter within X minutes or make X moves in a row (without taking a card from the stock pile). You get cash for every play you make.

Of course, you’ll have power ups and barriers to keep Faerie Solitaire — but not so much that it becomes a confusing mess. Every now and then you’ll get a bonus card between 1 and 10. You can use these cards like you do when you take a new card from the stock pile except these won’t restart your “moves in a row” number so use these cards wisely.

Some columns won’t budge because they’re locked in by a thorn. To unlock the thorn column, you need to clear out the column that has a rose over it. Same goes for frozen cards. You need to clear the cards in front of the fiery one so you can use it to melt the frozen cards, which are always face down.

When you clear a column, you might find a surprise. It could be an egg or one of three elements that you need to evolve your new pet. Eggs appear randomly throughout the game. Finishing Adventure mode won’t ensure you find all the eggs. That’s where the replay value comes in. You’ll want to replay the different modes so you can uncover more eggs.

You can buy special power ups from Faerie Land and visit the Hatchery to hatch your found eggs. Once hatched, the creatures are babies. Each creature has a required amount of elements you need to collect to be able to evolve them. The creatures on the lower end require fewer elements than those on the higher end. It’s not clear what it takes to evolve a creature because I’ve collected the things it needs, but it’s not evolved right away. Nonetheless, it’s still a fun and cool feature.

Special power ups give you another undo (undo the last move), help your pets evolve faster, see the next card in the deck, reveal more cards on the table and so on.

I never once replay a level in Adventure mode. It was a breeze for the most part. The hard part doesn’t come in until near the end and when you unlock and play the five challenge levels. Now those called for a lot of replay until I could beat them. You can also replay any level.

The game had one annoying bug that comes and goes. When you start a new level, it needs to give you the objectives. Sometimes it pops up on the screen before you play and others nothing happen. You can always access the objectives by going to the menu. The game should let you view the objectives without leaving the game.

This is not a lazy game. Golf solitaire requires some planning ahead. Faerie Solitaire with its added barriers and extras calls for more strategy than a basic game of Golf. Although the graphics aren’t impressive and the story pointless, the game had me hooked for the entire weekend and it’s become one of my favorite solitaire games. I still want to play because I want to find the rest of the eggs. But beyond that, I’ll have to move on to another game — but that’s part of a reviewer’s job.

Download Faerie Solitaire.

Love. Quirky family members. Wedding crashers. Beautiful brides. Bridezillas. Groom kongs. Who doesn’t love a wedding even with all of its craziness? Quinn returns in Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love! for a third helping as a wedding planner who happily serves her clients in this blissful (most of the time) time management series.

She is planning the biggest wedding of her life — her own to Joe, the photographer. One hitch: he doesn’t know about it! An opening came up in a hot spot and it was either grab it in six weeks or wait years. She asks cupid for help, but he has a backlog of his own. If she helps him through his backlog, he’ll help her with her situation.

Like the previous games, your job is to seat guests and keep them happy or else face Bridezilla and Groom Kong. Of course, Quinn has a few tricks for managing manage guests when the food doesn’t get to them fast enough. She has cocktail tables and bells that bring out the cherubs.

She holds weddings in interesting locales beginning with an aquarium followed by a barn and two others. The game receives a few new features to make it the best one in the series. The cherubs can add one or two hands in helping Flo carry food and gifts, but they’re upgrades.

Before you start the reception, you have to figure out what the couple wants. In the past, you picked the three things that best meets their requests. in Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love!, you also have to watch the budget and it’s possible to have several right answers. This is more enjoyable although it turns challenging in the later levels.

Guests may request champagne, the microphone to share a special message to the new couple, a song request or seating change. These give you bonus opportunities as well as chaining (doing the same actions in a row). Of course, Quinn has to deal with disasters ranging from over-celebrating bridesmaids and birds at the table to falling gifts and a missing dog.

The guests have personality traits to vary the pace. Some eat fast, others eat slow, one eats two of every course and one forgets to eat. While all of this sounds overwhelming, the game introduces new guests and features over time rather than all at once. The challenge level also slowly works from easy to tough.

Every venue comes with one cupid mini-game. Cute, but kind of pointless except to earn more coin. Cupid needs to shoot one man and one woman to match the given couple. Not only do you control the location of the arrow, but the strength of the shot.

As expected of Dash games, the game tells a great and fun story without overloading or confusing you. Two modes come in this one: adventure and endless. Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love! has the honor of being my favorite of the Dash series. Diner Dash is simply too hard and the customers are bland compared to Wedding Dash’s.

PlayFirst knows how to put on a great wedding and succeeds again with Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love!

Download Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love!.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Meryl Evans

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Sun. June 14th: 65% off on Holiday Bonus

Mon. June 15th: 65% off on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Tue. June 16th: 50% off on Xmas Bonus

Wed. June 17th: 50% off on Easter Bonus

Thu. June 18th: 50% off on Dark Souls

Fri. June 19th: 50% off on Magic Ball 4

Sat. June 20th: 50% off on Farm Frenzy