I am excited to announce today that I have officially joined the social gaming team at Playdom. This company has an unbelievably bright future and I make this move with deep conviction and enthusiasm. The last few months have been filled with an unusual amount of opportunities resulting from the launch of Storybook Anytime’s social game Reef Life. Since very early in the projects life I have been both humbled and inspired by the support of my friends and colleagues. It is that inspiration and support that has ultimately led to this opportunity — for that I am eternally grateful. Playdom...

The Launch. On September 8, 2009, Storybook Anytime, officially announced the beta release of “Reef Life“. A family friendly social game on the Facebook platform. This marks the long anticipated follow up to the “original” Facebook aquarium game, Sam’s Fish Bowl. Over six months of around the clock work by the Storybook Anytime team has produced an immersive underwater world that has combined elements of virtual world exploration and social gaming to truly raise the bar for social games today. What is really special is the uniqueness of the game. Coming from the...

I am very honored to be the featured developer profile in this month’s edition of Adobe Edge— the online magazine for Adobe developers. The article, “Behind the scenes of Sam’s Interactive Reader” chronicles the creation of Storybook Anytime and the production of our flagship Adobe AIR product, Sam’s Interactive Reader. Be sure to take a few minutes and check it out. The AIR Marketplace and AIR product team have been a fantastic champion of Storybook Anytime. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank them for their continued support.

The Adobe Air team presented Storybook Anytime during the Adobe MAX conference in Milan, Italy this past December. Robert Christensen presented a session titled “Monetizing Applications with Adobe AIR” in which he examined case studies that describe how developers are attempting to monetize and market AIR applications. The featured case study was Storybook Anytime and its products Sam’s Interactive Reader and Sam’s Fish Bowl (both developed by yours truly). It included a glimpse into the online social marketing  techniques used via Facebook (and now Twitter) to generate...

The first task that an online business will face is choosing a domain name. Sometimes this is as simple as extending the existing brand name online. Most often this is not an option because some one else already owns the domain. Successful Internet Marketing starts with understanding creative online brand name strategy and your target audience. In some cases companies such as Coca-Cola or Ford Motor Company already have a brand that makes choosing and owning a domain name a no-brainier. For most of us however, this process is difficult given that our company name was created well before we thought...

When I stumbled upon the imagery below from David Armano at Logic+Emotion it really fueled my thinking about business models in general. I have often been fascinated with the “agency model.” There are those, like myself, that believe the traditional agency model is dead. Strategically, creating a business around this model is the equivalent of agreeing to be a dog chasing it’s tale. A company that operates under this model must always be re-inventing itself. It must be the perfect blend of sales, creative and execution. If any of these three pillars fall short it will impact the...

Sam’s Fish Bowl allows you to become the caregiver of a super-unique fish. Your fish is alive and well and lives everyday on Facebook. He will require special care and feeding from both you and your friends, and will certainly become a beloved member of the family. Each time you feed your fish you will earn Super Feeder Points. These points can be shared with your child’s Super Reader Points within Sam’s Interactive Reader. You’ll love this casual game and it also helps spread the word about Storybook Anytime through everyone’s social network on Facebook.