In anticipation of tomorrow’s release of SnowGlobe Slots, we’ve added its ranks and awards to our full list of Ranks and Awards for all Big Sea Games.

In this game, the amount of tokens required to rank up in each sub-level is the same as usual, the token amounts are listed at the bottom of the main ranks and awards page.

Enjoy!

According to a hint in this week’s Big Sea Games newsletter, early next week Big Sea Games should be re-releasing SnowGlobe Slots. This version will have updated graphics, awards, and ranks! Looks like Christmas is arriving early for us Big Sea Fans!

With this week’s release of Big Fish Slots, Dive Deeper a few weeks ago, and now SnowGlobe returning, this chops the list of returning-soon games down a bit (way to go Big Sea team!):

Badda Bingo
Big Fish Slots
Diana Fortune
Dive Deeper
Lightning Bingo
Looking Glass
Madama Libra
Patchworkz
SnowGlobe!

Stay tuned here for more information as we get it!

Update 10/05/09: If it wasn’t confirmed enough for you before, here’s the official news article announcing SnowGlobe Slots coming back on Wednesday of this week.

Big Sea Games has written a news article about preparing for Big Fish Slots. You’ll probably want to read through the whole article, but here are the highlights:

* Big Fish Slots will be released on Wednesday!

* Before its release, there will be a period of maintenance where the Big Sea Games site will be down. This maintenance will begin Wednesday, September 28, 2009 at 8 AM Pacific Time (11 AM Eastern Time, 4PM BST). The site will be down 3-4 hours while they put up Big Fish Slots (and fix some other site-wide issues).

* Remember: you are beta testing this re-release. Have patience! There are still some bugs in Big Fish Slots and there will likely be more found as high numbers of players descend upon the site to play this long-awaited re-release. There may be stability issues as well.

As I said earlier, you’ll probably want to read the whole article. In addition, you may want to read over my last post on Big Fish Slots which gives information about rooms, tokens, and pre-existing ranks in the game.

And last, but not least… tomorrow, I’ll have some information for you on the 12 awards you’ll be able to earn in Big Fish Slots, so stay tuned!

Hi folks! We’re in the final countdown of hours to the launch of Big Sea Games! I’d like to thank you all for your patience — it’s been hard, as a fan of the game community just like you, to wait for the past eight months. (I personally have been a beta tester since OMG LAST DECEMBER.) I’m glad I was able to bring you as much news as I have (thanks to my contacts at Big Fish for helping me clarify when details were still fuzzy, as well as for helping me be able to release a few ‘sneak peeks’ before anyone else). With that said.. on to the news!

This thread will remain until the official launch of Big Sea Games and I’ll update below with questions and answers and the latest happenings.

Most questions can be answered by reading the news articles on the What’s New page from the old Game Community.

Update: Tuesday 8/18 8am EST/5am PST
We’re in the home stretch. The old Game Community site will be up until 9am PST. Go ahead and take in its last moments if you’d like — play your favorite game and add a few new people (like me, Lure) to your friends list. See you on the other side!

Update: Tuesday 8/18 12pm EST/9am PST
And, poof, the site is gone. The waiting period for Big Sea Games truly begins now! Stay tuned right here: I’ll keep you posted if I hear any news about their progress, but we should expect to be without games for 5-6 hours.

I took a screenshot of the final moments for posterity’s sake. Peace out, yo.

Update: Tuesday 8/18 2:30pm EST/11:30am PST
Official word is that everything is going smoothly with the transition! Everything is on schedule and no issues have come up! Hooray!

Update: Tuesday 8/18 4:30pm EST/1:30pm PST
The transition continues at a steady pace. :) *taps foot*

Update: Tuesday 8/18 5:30pm EST/2:30pm PST
They’re putting the finishing touches on the site and it should be up and ready soon. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they don’t run into any problems and we’ll be back in no time!

Update: Tuesday 8/18 6:15pm EST/3:15pm PST
And I quote: “We are very close to being done, only a few more minutes.” Hoooray!!

Update: Tuesday 8/18 7:00pm EST/4:00pm PST
Should be any minute now… “Someone here just said the magic words ‘We are good to go.’” Yay!

Q&A

* Will this web site remain bigfishgamer.com or are you changing your name to reflect the new Big Sea Games site?
I’m going to leave this site as bigfishgamer.com for a variety of reasons. The biggest reason is that there are a ton of people who know the site by name and I want to make sure they’ll still be able to find it. In addition, I’ll still be offering the daily new releases from Big Fish and from time to time writing about my latest downloadable addictions, so the name is still more or less appropriate.

* I don’t get it, what’s happening to Big Fish Games?
Only the Big Fish Games Online Community is moving to Big Sea Games. You will still get all of your favorite download and online games at Big Fish Games.

* Where can I get a sneak peek of the games and awards that will be available at launch?
There will be 19 games to play. All of them will feature updated graphics and awards, and some feature new gameplay! Check them out by clicking on the links to view either the awards you can earn or new screenshots of the games!

Deuces Wilder (awards, screenshots)
Fairway Solitaire (awards)
Farm 52 (awards, screenshots)
L.O.B.E. (awards)
Mahjong Towers Eternity (awards & screenshots)
Mush! (awards)
Oz Video Poker (awards & screenshots)
Plunder (awards, screenshots)
Riddle O’Day (awards, screenshots
Shape Shifter (awards, screenshots)
Suits Me Canfield (awards, screenshots)
Suits Me Free Cell (awards, screenshots)
Suits Me Pyramid (awards, screenshots)
Suits Me Solitaire (awards, screenshots)
Suits Me TriPeaks (awards, screenshots)
Suits Me Yukon (awards)
Team Bingo (awards)
Thunderbolt 21 (awards, screenshots)
Unwell Mel (awards)

* What’s the timeline for the launch of Big Sea Games?
Big Fish has recently posted their timeline — but the short answer here is that they’ll start the process at 9am PST. It’ll take 5-6 hours and during this time period both the old and new sites will be unaccessible. For most people in the US, we’ll be playing by Tuesday evening. (We discussed at length the difference in time zones all over the world and how to calculate your own time zone difference here, please don’t ask what time you’ll be able to play.)

* Is it true that you have to go to www.bigseagames.com to get to the new games?
No. There will be a link to bigseagames.com from atlantis.bigfishgames.com (and bigfishgames.com) for a while, but after bigseagames.com is available you may want to bookmark it on your first visit.

* Do we get to keep all of our tokens?
Yes, you’ll get to keep your tokens (and in some cases your game progress too). The details are here.

If you have any other questions, feel free to post them in a comment below.

Take note of the latest article from Big Fish Games about the launch of Big Sea Games. It goes over day-by-day steps you can do to prepare for the launch so that your transition will go smoothly. Most important from that article is this, the timeline for the actual launch day:

Tuesday, August 18, 2009:

• 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM Pacific Time – The countdown begins. Enjoy the final hours of the Big Fish Game Community website or the Game Community Beta. This is also your last chance to register an account. After this, if you want to play on Big Sea Games, you will be placed on a wait list. Remember, if you have multiple accounts, sign in to the account that has the game progress you want and play one last game.
• 9:00AM Pacific Time – Both the Big Fish Game Community and the Game Community Beta will go offline. Make sure to follow our progress on Facebook!
• Currently we expect the change over to take no more then 5 or 6 hours. Once the site is up you will be able to reach it at www.bigseagames.com
• Make sure to update your bookmarks when you arrive at your new home!

See you on Big Sea Games!

This answers a lot of the questions I’ve been getting lately about what time on the 18th we’ll be able to play. Given that the changeover will take no more than 5-6 hours, you can probably safely check around 3pm PST/6pm EST, though the site may be available before that if you must must must be one of the first online.

It’s finally ALMOST here — we’ve got just a week left until Big Sea Games is launched and all of the redesigns, awards, and new community features are going to be available to us. Recently, Big Fish Games posted a guide on how to prepare your account (scroll down to the heading “Get your Big Fish Games account ready to access Big Sea Games!”) when Big Sea Games goes live on August 18th.

Besides that, what are you doing to prepare?

For most of the awards, we’ll need to play the game after the awards have been implemented to earn them, but there are a few things I realized I could be doing in preparation before Big Sea Games is launched.

I decided to work on unlocking some courses in Fairway Solitaire. The “Beat the Baron” award requires you to “Finish The Baron with a score of par or better”. Since unlocking The Baron course requires you to unlock a few others (it’s the last course of the second installment of Fairway Solitaire), I made sure I had it unlocked so I’d be able to play for the award on launch day.

Big Fish Games also posted a list of awards that can be earned automatically on launch day if you’ve completed them prior to launch. They’re in Plunder, Unwell Mel, and Farm 52. They also detail a L.O.B.E. award you can prepare for by unlocking Mouse Untrap’s Hard Mode.

Check out the full list of Game Awards for reference and let us know what you’re doing to get yourself ready for the launch!

Suits Me TriPeaks is getting awards! Here are all twelve:

Carny Island
Achieve the rank of “Carny”

Fourtune Teller
Reveal of Four of a Kind on the tableau

Bumper Cards
Win 2 games back to back 3 times

Phasers on Fun
Complete 10 phases

No Cigar
Start a new game with 1 unplayed card on screen

Ferris Hilton
Achieve the rank of “Clown”

Midway
Earn the middle bonus, but not the left or right bonuses

Carnival Queen
Play 750 queens

Test Runs
Play a run of 14 cards in a row 25 times

Bah Barker
Achieve the rank of “Barker”

Full Funhouse
Finish 50 runs that include 2 of one card and 3 of another

E Ticket Ride
Play an ace through a ten in order without playing another card

When Big Sea Games opens to the public on August 18, all of the games released will be getting ‘awards’, which are in-game achievements you can earn and show off in your awards album. To see all of the awards you’ll be able to earn, check out our Game Awards page.

Another game getting awards is Suits Me Free Cell. Just like the other games, there are 12 in total:

On the Lamb
Don’t be sheepish, earn 10 Jackpot spins

Solitaire Confinement
Start a new game with 1 unplayed card on screen

Break Out Session
Win the game twice in one session

Spammer Slammer
Generate 100 rank bonuses

3 Stripes and Yer Out
Win the game 3 times

Phasing Charges
Complete 10 phases

Change Gang
Change to a new suit (in the current phase) 200 times

I Felon Love
Achieve the rank of “Felon”

Clinko de Mayo
Win a game on the 5th day of any month

Free Cell Block
Move a block of 4 cards 25 times

Bully for You
Achieve the rank of “Bully”

Scared Straight
Choose 4 bonus cards that are a small straight (i.e. 4, 5, 6, 7)

When Big Sea Games opens to the public on August 18, all of the games released will be getting ‘awards’, which are in-game achievements you can earn and show off in your awards album. To see all of the awards you’ll be able to earn, check out our Game Awards page.

Check out these awards you’ll be able to earn in Oz Video Poker at Big Sea Games (release date: August 18)! There are 12 in total and they are as follows:

If You Only Had a Brain
Lose 25 power-ups because all your slots are full

Click Your Deals 3 Times
Use 3 Extra Deals in one spin 5 times

The Great Spider
Get a score multiplier of 8 or more 25 times

Monkey Business
Lose the Golden Cap to the Flying Monkeys 15 times

Raiding Places
Raid the Monkey Lair

Every Witch Way
Meet the Witch in the bonus game 50 times

Four Travelers
Submit a hand with 4 or more across

Don’t Be Cowardly
Bet the Wizard (“Double or Nothing”) more than 5,000 tokens

Royal Historian
Get a natural royal flush

Yellow Brick Road
Earn a bonus (straight or better) on 2 hands in a row

Empty Handed
Submit a hand worth no tokens 250 times

No Place Like Home
Complete the game and return home to Kansas

A lot of games are getting ‘awards’, which are in-game achievements you can earn and show off in your awards album. To see all of the awards you’ll be able to earn when the community redesign is launched, check out our Game Awards page.

In addition to these cool awards, this game is also getting a slight redesign/makeover. Check out these new screenshots:

It’s a good thing we don’t have to wait much longer for these changes to be rolled out on our new favorite game site, Big Sea Games!

Here are the awards you can earn in Suits Me Solitaire (starting August 18) on Big Sea Games:

Six Shooters
When drawing bonus cards, select any 2 sixes

Giddyup
Win 50 games

Hitch in Yer Giddyup
Lose 50 games

Live Stock
Win a game with fewer than 8 runs through the deck (stock)

Santa Phase NM
Complete 3 phases

Cattle Drive
Win the game without double clicking to move cards

Hey Stacks
Uncover 2 tableau stacks before drawing a card

Lil Doggy Bag
Achieve the rank of “Lil Doggy”

Ace in the Hole
Deal at least 1 face-up ace 25 times

Yeehaw!
Earn more than 5,000 tokens in a Jackpot Spin 3 times

Come ‘n’ Get It
Generate a Rank Bonus 15 times

Round ‘em Up
Find all 4 bonus cards 50 times

A lot of games are getting ‘awards’, which are in-game achievements you can earn and show off in your awards album. To see all of the awards you’ll be able to earn when the community redesign is launched, check out our Game Awards page.