Frisky Mongoose » Bejeweled Blitz

Bejeweled Blitz Updates: Free Game Tips, New Daily Spin Feature

Brandy Shaul — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:30:41 +0000

It’s not often that we have Bejeweled Blitz news to share with you – even less often do we have not one, but two pieces of news to share concerning PopCap’s first foray into the “Blitz” genre. Today is an exception, however, as both the Facebook version of the game, and the PC download version of the game have been updated.

For the PC Version of the game, you’ll now be able to receive free game tips when you download the game. To be clear, this is just a small series of tips for the game available if you download the free trial (the free trial also comes with 50,000 free coins). If you were to purchase the full version of the game (available for $19.95 on PopCap’s official website), you’ll receive a whopping one million coins, and a full “Guide to Bejeweled Blitz Glory” as free bonuses.

In other news, the Facebook edition of the game has been updated to include a new Daily Spin wheel. This Daily Spin Wheel actually contradicts its own name, as you’ll be able to spin it twice per day – once every 12 hours.

The wheel functions as a slot machine with three wheels – obviously, matching three shapes across will result in you winning various amounts of coins. In the case of the blue gem, however, receiving even one allows you to win a small prize. One blue gem is 1,000 coins, while two blue gems is 2,500. For the other colors, you have to match all three, with the lowest prize in this respect coming in the form of 5,000 coins, all the way up to a whopping 1 million coins if you can luck into receiving all three blue gems.

In addition, you’ll receive 100 bonus coins for all of the friends you have that have installed the app, and you’ll receive an extra bonus of coins dependent on how many days in a row you’ve logged in and played the game. To put this into perspective, in the example below, I won 1,000 coins, but after adding in my 49 friends and my daily activity bonus, I wound up with 6,000 coins – not a bad prize for simply pressing a button.

Head over to the game’s page on Facebook to see how many coins you win today.

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Purchase Bejeweled Blitz, Get a Free Strategy Guide

Brandy Shaul — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:30:47 +0000

If you’ve yet to make the jump from playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook to playing the paid downloadable game proper, listen to this new offer that PopCap has for you. If you pay for and download the full PC version of Bejeweled Blitz, you’ll receive a free strategy guide of sorts, complete with tips and tricks on how to better succeed at the game (that is, how to better go about earning those high scores) straight from the team at PopCap.

Since PopCap is the developer of the game, what better source to go to for hints at how to play the game? Keep in mind that the full version of the game will set you back $19.95, but if that price doesn’t scare you off, head over to PopCap’s official website to take advantage of the offer.

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Get All Bejeweled Games At Once, Save Some Dough

Talor Berthelson — Wed, 19 May 2010 20:30:34 +0000

PopCap has announced their latest promotion for all of you awesome puzzle game fans out there. Bejeweled is quite possibly their most popular game and for right now, you can score an excellent deal when buying all three versions of it at once. The offer is called “The Bejeweled Bundle” and includes Bejeweled 2, Bejeweled Twist and Bejeweled Blitz. What normally would sell for $59.85 is going for just $39.95 when you buy the Bejeweled Bundle. That’s over 30% off, and I’m sure that anyone can appreciate a good deal when they see it.

You can find the deal right here. It’s unknown just how long the special deal will be available, so I’d jump on it as quickly as possible.

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PopCap and Nexon Utilizing Sometrics for Free In-Game Currency

Talor Berthelson — Thu, 13 May 2010 22:00:04 +0000

PopCap Games and Nexon, two prominent players in the casual free-to-play world have announced a partnership with Sometrics to use their system in order to offer players possible free currency and robust payment system in at least a few of their titles. Using Sometrics, players can complete targeted offer to earn virtual currency in many of their free-to-play titles. The offers that are presented to players include subscriptions, surveys and purchasing offers from brands such as Netflix, AT&T, Disney and more. In many cases, players can use these offers to acquire virtual money for free.

Sometrics CEO Ian Swansom commented on the move: “Sometrics couldn’t be happier lending our proven skill sets in offer-based solutions to the massive audiences behind the free-to-play games of Nexon and PopCap, and we’re sure their players will enjoy an easy, convenient way to earn in-game currency for free. The Sometrics Offer Solution platform is built for optimization, so we can deliver a variety of offers in the most efficient and effective way possible.”

PopCap has already implemented the system in the hugely popular Facebook game, Bejeweled Blitz. When purchasing virtual money, you are now given the option to accept offers from Microsoft, Netflix and Disney. Vice President of Social Games at PopCap, Michael Carpenter said “We’re excited about the revenue potential from Sometrics’ Offer Solution, this is an intriguing and potentially valuable partnership for us and a rewarding alliance for our customers.”

More options are definitely nice for those looking to get a little extra value out of their virtual currency.

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Popcap Says New Blitz Game Coming Soon

Sarah Gray — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 19:52:08 +0000

According to games.com, Popcap has confirmed that there are more ‘Blitz’ games on the way. Says Popcap CEO and co-founder John Vechey: “We’re definitely doing another ‘Blitz’ game, but we’re also doing some pretty experimental games.” The new ‘Blitz’ game is not a Bejeweled Blitz sequel, but an existing Popcap franchise adapted to fit the ‘Blitz’ model, including bite sized play sessions, frequently updated leaderboards and achievements. Popcap is targeting one or two additional Facebook game releases by the end of the year. These will also be tied to existing franchises rather than new IPs.

Popcap has so far declined to say which games they will next be adjusting to fit the social gaming market, but taking a glance at their games catalog can give you a good idea of what is available. Current fan favorites for a Facebook makeover are Peggle, Plants vs. Zombies, and Bookworm. You can play Popcap’s current offering, Bejeweled Blitz, here.

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Download Bejeweled Blitz, Receive Free Coins

Brandy Shaul — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:15:55 +0000

The newest edition of the Fizz, PopCap’s email newsletter, has announced a new promotion and incentive for users to try the full PC downloadable version of their insanely popular Bejeweled Blitz. The promotion sees PopCap giving out 50,000 free coins for use in Bejeweled Blitz just for trying the game.

There is no obligation to purchase the game – you can simply download the free trial and qualify for the free coins. After downloading it, you’ll be asked to connect to Facebook, and your coins will be rewarded. Remember, these coins offer more than just a nice object to collect in the game, as they can be used to purchase power-ups like free bonus multipliers, extra time, explosive gems and more.

Head over to PopCap’s website to download the trial and receive your free coins.

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Bejeweled Blitz Now Available as Stand-Alone PC Game

Brandy Shaul — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:30:58 +0000

Today, PopCap announced the release of Bejeweled Blitz on the PC. What started as a casual title on Facebook has exploded into one of the site’s most popular apps, challenging users to get as high a score as possible within each 60 second gameplay window.

Bejeweled Blitz on the PC takes the Facebook version and expands on it, with full screen gameplay, improved graphics and sound effects, and new achievements and badges to earn. Before you fear that you’ll have to abandon all of the time and effort you’ve put into the Facebook version of the game to play this PC iteration, know that the Bejeweled Blitz on the PC offers Facebook connectivity, allowing you to connect to your Facebook account from within the game and post high scores to your wall.

“Bejeweled Blitz is 10 years of the most popular puzzle game of the century packed into a minute-long experience,” said Jason Kapalka, co-founder and chief creative officer at PopCap Games, via a company press release. “It’s the purest form of Bejeweled that we’ve ever concocted, factoring in everything PopCap has learned from a decade of development and feedback from millions of fans. By adding social and competitive elements and a time limit, we’ve distilled Bejeweled down to its essence with Bejeweled Blitz, and the new PC downloadable version makes the game available in the largest, most vibrant form factor yet by far. For some players this could be the version that takes their Bejeweled Blitz game to new heights.”

Bejeweled Blitz can be purchased from PopCap’s website for $19.95.

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Reminder: Play Bejeweled Blitz This Week for a Chance to Win a Mazda!

Brandy Shaul — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:00:54 +0000

Here’s a friendly reminder for you Bejeweled Blitz fans out there – as we reported earlier in the month, PopCap has changed the prizes for Bejeweled Blitz to coincide with their own take on March Madness.

If you didn’t win the previously available iPod Touches or Garmin GPS Units, never fear, as the month’s biggest prize has yet to be given away. For the tournament ending March 30, users now have a chance to win a Mazda3 i Sport 4-door sedan! Yes, a real car!

As usual, to be eligible for this grand prize, your network (which consists of your score and those of your friends) must reach a total cumulative point total of more than 1 million points. With the game allowing you to reach 200,000 or even 300,000 points in a single minute’s time, it should be no problem for a group of four or more users to reach that threshold with ease.

Head over to the Bejeweled Blitz page on Facebook to make sure you are entered into the contest!

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March Madness Has Hit the Contest Area of Bejeweled Blitz!

Brandy Shaul — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:30:00 +0000

Considering how addictive Bejeweled Blitz is on its own, I doubt that there are many people who play the game specifically because of the contest that’s held every week, giving away PopCap games or a laptop, among other items. However, this Month, PopCap is set to make the contest a bit more interesting – perhaps to the point where it will be higher on our radar than simply a space-filler at the bottom of the screen.

The new prizes? How does one of 16 iPod Touches sound? That sounds like a good prize to this music lover, but what sounds even better still is the grand prize to be given away later in the month – a Mazda3 i Sport 4-door sedan! Yes, a real car will be given away to one lucky user who plays the game, signs up for email alerts, and is part of a network of users that reaches 1 million cumulative points for the final week of the month (running from March 23 to March 30).

The prizes will change every week this month – according to the game’s official rules, after this week’s run of iPod Touches, we’ll be eligible to win one of 8 Garmin NUVI GPS during the week of March 9-16, while from March 16-23, four lucky winners will receive said Garmin NUVI GPS in addition to a $500 BP gift card.

While the odds are still astronomical for someone to win these contests (as it stands, the game has over 10 million monthly active users), regardless of the change from one laptop to 16 iPod Touches, these new prizes definitely add some extra incentive to play just one more game; just one more game to get you and your network up to the 1 million point minimum to be eligible.

All told, it only takes one entry to win, so head over to the Bejeweled Blitz game page to earn yours now.

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Social, Casual or Both? PopCap Sells Cows, Gives Away Free Milk

Kate Hancock — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:08:03 +0000

In terms of wide-sweeping brand recognition, Popcap is to casual gaming what Nintendo is to gaming in general. Your Grandma knows about Nintendo, but your Mom might know a PopCap game or two. Founded a decade ago, the company does a spectacular job of keeping their games in the public eye and maintaining a friendly, unassuming aesthetic. It’s as if making boatloads of money is the pleasant side-effect of cranking out highly addictive puzzlers, and to be clear, casual games are doing big business. Most of their games are available on multiple platforms, with free versions hosted at PopCap.com. Because the games are both robust and replayable, it’s no surprise that their perennial favorite Bejeweled 2 hasn’t left the Top 10 Highest Grossing list on the App Store since that category was unveiled six months ago.

After venturing onto Facebook with a high-speed variant called Bejeweled Blitz (one minute to rack up the highest score possible), they proceeded to add this mode to the existing iPhone app as a free update. PopCap then spiced up the Facebook Bejeweled Blitz with boosts, which are stackable in-game bonuses that act like score-steroids for the following three games. The boosts add to the fun, and PopCap took this addition in two great directions. First, the boosts are completely free. They cost in-game coins, which can only be earned by playing the game. Players do not have the option of paying for them with real currency, unlike Facebook juggernauts like FarmVille and Mafia Wars. PopCap is currently integrating these boosts into the iPhone app as another free update. This sort of back-and-forth promotion (with try-before-you-buy appeal) casts a wide net that gently lures in new players, rather than bullying them with relentless Facebook Wall posts or in-game ads.

It’s an effective approach. Case in point – this blogger was hooked on the Facebook Bejeweled Blitz for no more than 2 days before happily handing PopCap $3 to play the iPhone version, despite knowing about it for months. It was the addition of Blitz mode that sealed the deal. While it’s tough to make lightning-quick moves on the iPhone, and thus my PC-and-mouse scores are consistently higher. However, it still scratches the same itch and was thus a worthy purchase.

Other titles, like Armor Games’ fantastic Crush the Castle, are available free online or as nearly-free, inexpensive iPhone apps. While some players may scoff at this model and play for free to their heart’s content, many others will be hooked and invest in the game. The flash version of Crush the Castle mentions the iPhone app as it’s booting up, just as the Facebook Bejewled Blitz encourages users to check out PopCap’s other games, both free and paid, on the web and iPhone.

Bejeweled Blitz is a fantastic union of social and casual games, though it’s clearly the same basic game that self-described non-gamers fell in love with ten years ago, and just happens to live on Facebook rather than PopCap’s own site. It’s the company’s first foray into social gaming, and could use more team-based elements. There’s some sort of outside contest that can be entered when the “team score” reaches a certain level, but it feels superfluous. An obvious (though overused) approach would be to reward the player with boosts if they recruited their friends to the game. Rather, PopCap has chosen to let the word spread organically, opting to sprinkle their free games with subtle reminders of the associated paid versions.

In the world of bite-size games, a powerful triumvirate is emerging – free Web version, free Facebook version and paid mobile app. Armor Games would be wise to follow PopCap’s lead and venture onto Facebook. With the minimal costs associated with porting games from one platform to another, expect to see more and more of this any place, any time, any platform approach. Consider yourself warned = ]

This article was originally published by Rich Jones on the TriplePoint blog.

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