Glu Mobile LLC is an American developer and publisher of mobile games. It was founded as Sorrent in 2001 and acquired Macrospace in 2004. Both companies collectively rebranded as Glu Mobile in 2005. In April 2021, the company was acquired by Electronic Arts.
Diner Dash is a strategy and time management video game initially developed by Gamelab and published by PlayFirst. It is now owned and published by Glu Mobile. It was one of the top-selling downloadable games of all time, available in multiple platforms such as PC, Mac, consoles, and mobile.
Diner Dash: Flo on the Go is the third installment to the game series Diner Dash. It is published by PlayFirst and was released in October 2006.
Virtual Villagers is a series of village simulator video games created and developed by Last Day of Work, an independent video game developer and publisher. Each game contains puzzles the player must complete to uncover the ethnic and cultural backgrounds surrounding fictional Polynesian island called Isola (EE-zoh-la). There are five portions to the island in which the game is set, representing the cardinal points and center of the compass.
PlayFirst, Inc. is a Delaware based American publisher of casual games founded in 2004 by industry veterans. PlayFirst produced the Diner Dash series, which won the 2008 Annual Casual Game Awards. and has seen over 550 million downloads. The popularity of Diner Dash series prompted spin-off series like Wedding Dash and Cooking Dash. The company’s game portfolio also includes the retro-style strategy-based Chocolatier series, and the adventure/hidden object-mixing Dream Chronicles series.
Aliasworlds Entertainment is a casual game developer based in Minsk, Belarus. The company was founded in 2001 and released its first game, Gold Sprinter, in 2002.
Diner Dash: Hometown Hero is the fourth installment in the Diner Dash series of casual games. It was developed and published by PlayFirst, and was launched on September 25, 2007.
Gamezebo is a website which reports on and reviews video games. Founded in 2005 by Joel Brodie, it was billed as the first website to solely cover casual games and expanded its scope to social games in 2009. After being acquired by the causal game company iWin in 2016, Gamezebo was redesigned and expanded its coverage to PC games. Gamezebo is based in Walnut Creek, California.
Mystery Case Files is a video game series originally developed by the internal studios of Big Fish Games. Sequels were then developed by Elephant Games between 2013 and 2014 and Eipix Entertainment between 2015 and 2019. The newest installments are developed by GrandMA Studios since 2020. The Mystery Case Files series is known for its hidden object puzzles where, in order to progress through a game, the player plays the role of a Master Detective and must find a certain number of items hidden somewhere on a painted scene.
Wedding Dash is a series of strategy casual video games by PlayFirst. It was released on October 18, 2007 as a spin-off to the Diner Dash series of games.
Chocolatier is a casual strategy video game with action game elements, developed by American studio Big Splash Games and published by PlayFirst. The game was released for download on May 1, 2007, and was followed by a CD-ROM release on September 27. Players assume the role of a young chocolatier, who must navigate 14 cities around the globe while buying ingredients, manufacturing chocolate confections, and selling them to chocolate shops. Two modes of play are available: in story mode the player must rebuild an almost-bankrupt chocolate empire and acquire 64 chocolate recipes from around the world; in free mode players start out with scant resources and must become successful chocolatiers.
Nicholas Fortugno is an American game designer and educator. Fortugno is CCO of Playmatics LLC, a New York City-based game development studio focusing on casual games and co-founded with Margaret Wallace.
Playfish was a short-lived developer of free-to-play social network games. Playfish was founded in 2007 by Kristian Segerstråle, Sebastien de Halleux, Sami Lababidi, and Shukri Shammas. It closed in 2013. Playfish in the past had tended to attract up to 55 million users a month, with over 37 million users coming from Facebook users. In October 2008, they secured US$17 million in venture capital funding from Accel Partners and Index Ventures. The company was acquired by Electronic Arts in 2009, with the last of Playfish's games being retired in 2013.
Dream Chronicles is a 2007 adventure, hidden object, and puzzle casual game developed by KatGames and published by PlayFirst. It is the first installment in the series.
Drawn is a casual game series developed by Big Fish Studios and distributed by Big Fish Games through their digital distribution portal. The games are adventure games, with Hidden Objects and Puzzles elements.
Diner Dash 5: Boom! is the fifth installment of the Diner Dash series. It was developed by PlayFirst and released on March 16, 2010. The game features voice-acting to give more life to the characters.
The D.I.C.E. Awards is an annual awards show in the video game industry, and commonly referred to as the video game equivalent of the Academy Awards. The awards are arranged by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) and held during the AIAS' annual D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas. "D.I.C.E." is a backronym for "Design Innovate Communicate Entertain". The D.I.C.E. Awards recognizes games, individuals, and development teams that have contributed to the advancement of the multi-billion dollar worldwide entertainment software industry.
The 9th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards was the 9th edition of the Interactive Achievement Awards, an annual awards event that honored the best games in the video game industry during 2005. The awards were arranged by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), and were held at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 9, 2006. It was also held as part of the Academy's 2006 D.I.C.E. Summit, and was hosted by stand-up comedian Jay Mohr.
The 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards was the 13th edition of the Interactive Achievement Awards, an annual awards event that honored the best games in the video game industry during 2009. The awards were arranged by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), and were held at the Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 18, 2010. It was also held as part of the Academy's 2010 D.I.C.E. Summit, and was hosted by stand-up comedian Jay Mohr.
The D.I.C.E. Award for Mobile Game of the Year is an award presented annually by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences during the D.I.C.E. Awards. This award recognizes a game "for a mobile device platform such as a mobile phone or tablet. These games demonstrate a skilled usage of the device's software and hardware features to offer a unique and addictive play experience. All game genres are eligible. Mobile platforms include, but are not limited to iOS or Android". All active creative/technical, business, and affiliate members of the Academy are qualified to vote for this category.
