Fancy taking a step back into a simpler time, where men were men, woman were women, and chocolates didn’t come pre-wrapped? Our latest Facebook game, developed for PlayFirst’s hit Chocolatier series, takes you there and puts you in charge of your own Facebook factory, churning out some of the finest cocoa treats this side of the Mediterranean.

The game includes features such as an expandable and fully customizable shop, dozens of chocolates to make, and  success tied to how many friends you add as neighbors.

Start your own chocolate shop right now–you’ll be conching before you know it.  Play Chocolatier: Sweet Society.

]]> http://www.fuelindustries.com/blogs/2010-05-25/chocolatier-sweet-society/feed/ http://www.fuelindustries.com/blogs/2010-05-25/chocolatier-sweet-society/ http://feeds.fuelindustries.com/~r/fuel-blogs/~3/ZhZ6OMCIvKk/ http://www.fuelindustries.com/blogs/2010-03-24/expression-studio-and-the-designer-toolbox/#comments Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:57:10 +0000 Nick Iannitti http://www.fuelindustries.com/blogs/?p=524 Our designers love designers.  So we built a site for them.  .toolbox is a new community experience for creatives and developers in the digital media space to learn and share as they create rich web experiences.

Microsoft’s Expression Studio is making waves in the creative professional crowd, and Microsoft wanted a hub where these communities could gather to learn more an explore the possibilities of Silverlight development.  If you’re new to the suite of products, this is absolutely the best way to check it out.

The site features free online video tutorials, customizable avatars, and a competitive badge system of achievements, so that designers can track their progress as they learn — watch the video below, and it’ll make a lot more sense.  And don’t be shy to dive in–all the project files and assets for the tutorials are available straight from within the site.  Enjoy!

That’s why the re-emergence of a 12-year old letter from Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi is especially refreshing.  Yesterday, the folks at LettersofNote dug up an encouraging letter from John K to at-the-time aspiring child Amir Avni.  The simple and supportive nature of the letter, along with scans of John’s handwritten letter (which, in the age of computer fonts, brings a touching legitimacy) have been enough to skyrocket John K from his quietly steady blogging into a new stratosphere of social media excellence, with Twitter and blogs like Boing Boing waking up to the story in a big way.

The subsequent buzz at Reddit just sweetens the story, with John K himself hopping on the link-sharing site with a brief “IAmA” and diligently answering fan questions, right down to “what is your favorite sandwich?” (Salami, Bacon, Smoked Meat and onions, by the way)  At the time of this post, the discussion has garnered 1157 comments and 2341 votes up.  Oh, and did I mention Reddit changed their logo to honor the cartooning legend?

Perhaps it’s because in the age when so many social media campaigns are strategized and planned to the hilt, it’s nice to see online communities still continuing to still deliver these natural gems, in this case on a private letter written over a decade ago.

TweetYouThere aggregates CES mentions from across the Twittersphere, categorizes it by brand and allows users to see the latest chatter in custom feeds by popularity, company name, and topic.

Still in beta, we’ve got big plans for the platform, ultimately growing it into a one stop destination for a number of top industry conferences.  We’ll be working with conference organizers to include delegate lists, even more party information, and advanced data parsing tools.

Head over to tweetyouthere.com to check it out and follow the latest news.  We’re also offering summaries of trends and even more info on the TweetYouThere Twitter account (@TweetYouThere)–and please keep up up to date on any bugs you find, as we’re still working on perfecting everything.

Enjoy CES!

To celebrate the season, we decided to get some of our staff together and record a few new takes on some classic Christmas tunes.  Everything you hear here was done in-house in the Fuel recording studio, under the guidance of our multi-talented Director for Fuel Sounds, Rob Plowman.  We hope you find they make a worthy addition to your holiday mix.

To catch a glimpse of the recording process, Alyssa (who you’ll hear as lead vocals on the first track) graciously put together a video chronicling some of the fun we had putting the songs together.  Enjoy!

In one of Microsoft’s first Twitter promotions, we helped create an opportunity for tech professionals to clear their minds while Windows Server 2008 R2 helped clear their server frustrations.

The site allows IT pros to create a haiku poem extolling the virtues of R2.  The site integrates with each poet’s Twitter account and tweets their creation to their followers, who can then vote the poem up or down in the ranking.  Most creative poem wins a home theater system and an XBOX 360.

The site has taken off within the tech community and has been featured on AdWeek, DM News, and ArsTechnica.

Exercise your right to peace of mind, and visit www.r2haiku.com.

Hop over to Gizmodo to take a brief look at the five games available.

The new Zune HD edition of Pool Service features a number of tweaks over the original thanks to the device’s more robust processor and graphics capabilities, including a new environment, new animations and an smooth framerate of over 50 fps.  The game also takes advantage of the Zune’s custom playlists, so players can skate to their own tracks.

For some video footage of Vans, and the other titles, check out the always sharp-tongued, not-always neck-braced Blair Herter at G4tv.