They are called tough decisions for a reason.
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Showing posts with label making. Show all posts
Showing posts with label making. Show all posts
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Making Open Graph Apps International-Ready
Facebook has posted a walkthrough that illustrates how apps built in Open Graph can be translated into various languages (a.k.a. making your app “I18N-ready”).
As the social network expands beyond the United States into global markets — which make up an estimated 75% of Facebook’s audience — localization becomes a key to developer success on the platform. Facebook has been increasingly aware of the need for translation and localization tools for developers, recently experimenting with a Microsoft Bing-powered “Translate” feature that allows users to view Page posts in their native language.
Automatically translating apps into various languages, however, is a function that can be performed in Open Graph. Developers need only apply Open Graph meta tags to objects with specific locales so that the app returns the correct strings for that locale. In the example posted, Facebook demonstrates how the meta tags would be applied to translate an Open Graph object into French and Spanish:
Once the strings are returned and the object locales declared, the translation process continues in one of three ways:
Inline by users of the app viewing translatable strings by the app.Bulk through the Translation App.Bulk through the
Monday, October 31, 2011
'Zynga is making games for accidental gamers,' studio VP says
Look, nobody gets hooked on FarmVille by accident--there's always that friend. Zynga studio VP Bill Mooney (pictured) recently spoke to students at The University of California at Santa Cruz during its Research Review Day about the company's design philosophy. During his talk, titled "Social Games: An Overview and Exploration," Mooney said, "Zynga is making games for accidental gamers," according to IndustryGamers. The studio head was implying that Zynga doesn't create video games for hardcore or traditional gamers. Sure, that's stating the obvious, but it's vitally important to remember when looking at Zynga's games. They're not exactly technological marvels, accessible to those who just don't get the complexity of controllers and traversing 3D space. But as players progress, they become well-versed in increasingly complex interfaces, thus becoming, well, gamers.
Regardless, social gamers still aren't the same as traditional game fans, and probably never will be. (At least until another friend introduces them to something new.) And because of these "accidental gamers" have a different understanding of what a game should be, Zynga says it caters to that understanding. "You're not shipping a product, you're running an amusement park," Mooney told the students.
And traditional game companies are trying to keep up with that philosophy, wary that even hardcore gamers might yearn for that experience. (Just look at Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty Elite.) "Don't be like work, don't ask too much, be social, help me connect," Mooney said. That, ironically enough, might be the burgeoning industry's greatest challenge, if you ask the right folks.
[Image Credit: Josh Lowensohn (CNET)]
What do you expect from your social games these days? Have you come to expect this level of "connectedness" from other games or services, too? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
FarmVille: Free Mystery Game Darts making the rounds
If you've yet to try this week's FarmVIlle Mystery Game, filled with Halloween-themed animals and decorations, make sure to go into your game pretty quickly, as you'll be able to play for free! That's right, another free dart as started rolling out to players, and if you haven't already claimed yours, you can do so right now! When you login to your farm, you'll likely see the Mystery Game pop-up automatically, telling you that you have a free dart. If not, you can go into the store and click on the Mystery Game manually as though you were going to pay to play. There, you should see that you have a Free Play available, in place of the button that would normally charge your Farm Cash. If this is anything like previous free Darts, you can hold onto it for future use, if this week's items don't do it for you.
For your reference, this week offers the following prizes:
Dragon Fountain
Haunted Theater
Nightmare Duck
Nightmare Pegasus
Scuba Chicken
Witch House
Remember, the prize you'll end up with is random. For instance, I won the Dragon Fountain with my free dart, but you may have better luck and walk away with the Nightmare Pegasus (you lucky farmer, you)! Either way, make sure to claim your free dart as soon as possible, even if you don't use it right away, as it's likely it won't be available forever.
Did you receive a free Mystery Game dart when logging into FarmVille? If you've already thrown it at the board, which item did you end up winning? Sound off in the comments.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
KIZTEK Socializer Pro with front web cam and powerful processor. Great for watching movies, reading e-books, surfing the net, social networking, making web calls, playing games, and more.
7" Tablet PCSunday, September 4, 2011
Cafe World Money Guide – The Cafe World On Facebook Money Making Guide
Are you looking to make lots of money in Cafe World on Facebook? Well if you want to make millions of coins for your cafe, you have to keep in mind 2 things:
- What food items to cook
- How to maintain your Buzz Rating
Make Lots Of Money Quickly By Knowing What Food Items To Cook
Knowing what food items to invest in to cook for your customers is an important part of your money making process. To maximize your earnings from your food, you must only choose the food items that will give you the best return on your investment.
Lets use the Bacon Cheeseburger as an example on how to calculate return on investment. We know that the burger takes 5 minutes to cook, serves 13 people and costs 15 coins to purchase ingredients and sells at the total price of 52 coins. You then use these numbers and take (52-15)/15 = 2.46 or 246%. From this information, you can compare and contrast with other food items know what foods will offer the best return on investment.
Make Lots Of Money By Maintaining Your Buzz Rating
You may not think that maintaining a high Buzz Rating is important for making coins, but your ratings actually directly affect how much money your cafe makes. The higher your Buzz Rating, the more people enter your restaurant, thus the higher your earning potential. This is why maintaining a high rating for your cafe is very important.
To maintain a good Buzz Rating:
- Create an efficient layout so that you servers can get to each table quickly
- Place dividers between the customers path from the door to their table to allow more time for your servers to run food and clear tables
The higher your Buzz Rating, the more customers will enter your cafe, so remember to always keep your customers happy.
Knowing exactly what food items will give you the best return on your investment combined with the perfect cafe layout will make you a Cafe World millionaire. But how do you know which food items are the best to cook and how do you create the perfect layout to maintain your Buzz rating?
Know Exactly What Foods To Cook And How To Create The Perfect Layout With The Cafe World Secrets Guide
To know exactly what foods offer the best return and how to create the perfect layout for maximum efficiency requires a lot of thought and research. If you do not want to spend hours on research and just want to learn how to make millions of coins now, it is highly recommended to get the Cafe World Secrets Guide.
This guide is made from all the best kept secrets that only the pros use to make millions of coins. Within the Cafe World Secrets Guide, you will learn exactly how to create your own system to generate millions of coins for your cafe quickly and easy through step-by-step instructions and detailed screenshots.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Cafe World Tips - Making Coins in Cafe World
Cafe World from Zynga is a terrific online game featured on Facebook and other social sites. One of the best ways to achieve success in this game is to accumulate as much coins as possible. Accumulating Cafe cash can be difficult but there are plenty of opportunities to to gather coins pretty easily. They can really add up so don't overlook this opportunity by no means. Here are a couple of tips to help you accumulate a lot of Cafe Coints which have worked well for me.
Plan the schedule of your Cafe around YOUR schedule
If you had all the time in the world to play Cafe World, you could become very successful at accumulating a lot of coin. However most players are limited in this regard so the objective is to develop a strategy which lets you make a good amountof coin without being online all the time.
So how can you do this? Well to begin with, eliminate most/all of the items which need to be cooked immediately. Unless you can access the game on a frequent basis throughout the day, you shouldn't cook cheeseburgers, etc. which only take a few minutes to prepare. You should focus on items which have a cooking time more in line with your online schedule. For instance, if you can only access the game once per day, try cooking pot roast or stews since they can take a full 24 hours to prepare.
On the days (like over the weekend) when you know you can be on the game much longer and more frequently then feel free to add some quick cook dishes. In any case you need to be sure your menu choices fit your schedule. Otherwise you'll have alot of spoiled food which will cost you money and waste the coins you do have.
Menu preparation
Ok, so you've planned out dishes which fit your schedule best. Before you commit them all, check out the coin per hour rate. You want to maximize this in order to earn more coin. The way to do this is to divide the number of coins you will make intotal by the number of hours it takes to prepare the dish. So if you prepare a dish which earns a total of 75 coins and it takes three hours to cook, then your coin per hour is 25 coins. Try to maximize this number and you'll accumulate more coins quickly.
Help Your Friends
As often as you can, visit your neightboring Cafes and help them out. You can earn 20 coins for each visit and you can visit up to 20 times/day. Not a bad way to make an extra 400 coins!
There are many things you can buy with your coins. But the more coins you accumulate, the more purchasing options you have. Take my advice and optimize your schedule, choose the right dishes, and help out your neighbors to earn more coin and achieve greater success with Cafe World.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
A Guide To Making Money On Farmville Level Up Fast And Be The Richest Farmer
FarmVille is a great place to go to escape the rigors of everyday life. You can get back to nature and enjoy the peace and tranquility that comes from working on the land. However, not everything in FarmVille is an escape from the ordinary. You still need money for just about everything you do. You have to buy the seeds to plant, and you'll even have to pay a small sum for each plot of land you plow.
These costs are easily managed of course because you're harvesting and selling your crops for more than it cost to plant them. There are a lot of other items you can buy in the FarmVille market to decorate and build up your farm, and you won't be able to get these without some significant sums of cash. Buying these items will also get you some much needed experience points to help you advance to the next level, so you'll have to find a way to make sure you have enough money for all the discretionary items you want to buy.
Earnings Per Hour
Because you'll be needing your coins for so much in FarmVille, you need to maximize the earning potential of your farm. The best way to do this is to figure out which crops pay out the most coins per hour. For example, strawberries sell for 35 coins per plot of land harvested and they take 4 hours to grow. Pumpkins, on the other hand, take 8 hours to grow and sell for 68 coins per plot of land harvested.
That means, for the same acreage planted, you'll earn 8.75 coins per hour by planting strawberries, while the pumpkins will only get you 8.5 coins per hour. This may seem like a small difference, but these small amounts can add up fast. Of course, you won't be getting your money's worth unless you can harvest the crops as soon as they're ready and immediately replant on that land.
A Quick Turnaround
If you're not going to be able to get back to your farm for 8 hours, you're much better off planting the pumpkins. The longer you leave a crop after it's done maturing, the less you'll be getting per hour once you harvest it. You can only make money fast on crops that mature quickly if you're going to be able to harvest and replant as soon as they're ready for sale. Make sure you take these details into consideration when you're selecting your seeds at the Market, and you'll be seeing your bank account swelling in no time.
Check Out FARMVILLE SECRETS And Build That Dream Farm
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Harrison Ford is making a Facebook game, and it's eco-friendly
by Joe Osborne, Posted Mar 7th 2011 11:40AM
No, that is not a typo--Indiana Jones is making a Facebook game with Los-Angeles-based developer Talkie and Conservation International to promote the health of the environment. It's called Ecotopia, and it is a city-building game scheduled to launch this spring, according to the Hollywood Reporter. As vice chairman of Conservation International, Harrison Ford said, "I'm excited to be involved with Ecotopia because I see it as a great way to engage millions of people in our fight to protect our planet by taking action online and in our daily lives."
No, that is not a typo--Indiana Jones is making a Facebook game with Los-Angeles-based developer Talkie and Conservation International to promote the health of the environment. It's called Ecotopia, and it is a city-building game scheduled to launch this spring, according to the Hollywood Reporter. As vice chairman of Conservation International, Harrison Ford said, "I'm excited to be involved with Ecotopia because I see it as a great way to engage millions of people in our fight to protect our planet by taking action online and in our daily lives." This game will pit players with the task of taking their initially disgusting city and turn it around through in-game missions and their friends' help. Like in most social games, you will be able to send your friends gifts and help their cities out. Environmental villains--which of course you will need to defeat--will be introduced to Ecotopia as the storyline progresses.
But here's the hook you've been waiting for: Players will be rewarded with in-game rewards for broadcasting their real-world green efforts through the game. While the rewards won't be huge, according to Talkie CEO Chris Swain, posting them along with a picture and having friends verify the contribution will result in huge paybacks. Video will be integrated as well through Ecotopia TV, which will allow players to view and create their own videos relevant to Conservation International's efforts.
Ford believes that his first Facebook game will spur involvement in and awareness of the movement toward a healthier planet. While we doubt Mr. Solo is behind the computer writing code, he is serving as a consultant on the game, pointing at how key environmental issues could be introduced into Ecotopia, Talkie chairman Larry Bond said to Hollywood Reporter. Ultimately, the game will serve as another way for Fords' organization to spread its message. As for the game's enjoyability, we remain cautiously optimistic. Hey, if the guy can survive a 747 crash and look good in a man purse, Ford can do anything.
[Image Credit: Lucasfilm]
[Homepage Image Credit: Accidental Mommies]
Would you play this game just to see what Harrison Ford can do for a Facebook game? How deeply do you think his involvement will shine through? Speak up in the comments. Add Comment. Bookmark this site!
Tags: Conservation International, ConservationInternational, eco-friendly, ecotopia, environment, Facebook games, FacebookGames, han solo, HanSolo, harrison ford, HarrisonFord, indiana jones, IndianaJones, los angeles, LosAngeles, social games, SocialGames, talkieEmail This
