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Last week, along with Microsoft Game Studios, we helped build and launch the Age of Empires Online website!

The Age of Empires game series has already sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. The online version plays just like the original “Age of Empires,” but adds some social aspects, like persistent gameplay, new multiplayer features, levelling up and quests that can be done with a group of online friends. According to Microsoft Games’ press release, “Age of Empires Online will feature a persistent online capital city that lives and grows even when you’re offline, and Cooperative multiplayer quests, trading and a level-based system that lets you progress at your own pace.”

A screenshot of the Age of Empires Online landing page 13 hours after launch.

We were excited to be a part of this new endeavor for Microsoft Games. The whole project had to be kept under wraps and super-secret, which meant all of the promotions, testing and design had to be done quietly and efficiently, and our timing for getting everything up and running had to be perfect. We stayed up until the wee hours of the night making sure the site was ready to roll.

We’re thrilled we finally get to spill the beans, although it didn’t take long for the word to get out thanks to tons of existing fans and the big announcement at GameCom. Within 13 hours of launch, Age of Empires Online site had already received over 2300 Likes on Facebook.

“We launched at 9 o’clock that night, and by 11pm it was already getting a huge buzz,” says project manager Jake Kinsley.

The new game even has its own Twitter account. People are really excited and cueing up to be game beta testers.

Check out the game online for yourself: http://www.ageofempiresonline.com

This is a great article discussing the future of digital agencies as a growing trend shows larger companies moving their business away from big digital agencies for leaner, faster, more-creative digital shops. The trend is toward the full-service boutique digital agencies…more

We are proud to announce that we were included at #18 on the annual Puget Sound Business Journal Book of Lists for Top Web Developers! The PSBJ Book of Lists is a great sales and marketing resource that highlights hundreds of the areas hottest companies in their fields, by ranking. The top 25 companies in each field are included in the Book of Lists. If you have not come across this resource you should check it out- since it represents one of the best target company research tools available for Washington State.  To learn more check out the PSBJ website.

We all know someone who has experienced some major downtime due to server failure.  It’s happened to the best of us!   

Vicky Tamaru will be speaking along with Joe Towner of Downtown Tech about a super new end-to-end solution for rapid disaster recovery as part of the Partner Lecture Series with the Business Continuity Center of Seattle (BCCS). The event will be taking place at the BCCS offices in Kirkland, WA on November 18th, where Vicky and Joe will be presenting the Plexipixel disaster recovery case study utilizing the Doyenz ShadowCloud platform.

What does this mean for Plexipixel clients?

It means our clients can breathe a sigh of relief in the wake of a disaster or server failure. With this instant access to a highly encrypted backup of our servers in the cloud, and available fresh facilities at the BCCS, we can be back online working immediately in the wake of a fire, earthquake or even invading zombies.  Regardless of the situation, we will have minimal downtime for our services. This way we can ensure that projects will be finished on time with or without zombies.

No zombies invited to the event, and with All Hallows Eve coming up we will be on the look out!  

Following up on my post a few weeks ago — the new comedy sitcom In The Motherhood, based on the MSN web series that Plexipixel worked on the original site design and initial development for, is set to debut Thursday March 26 at 8/7c on ABC!

Mark your calendar, set your TiVo, and be ready to watch the first episode featuring hilarious stories inspired by real life viewer experiences.

Recently, the In the Motherhood web series was featured in a list of “14 hilariously effective online campaigns” on iMedia.

The people at Suave and Sprint are clearly much smarter than we were. Their “In the Motherhood” series generates millions of voluntary views, driven by the quality of the stories and the decidedly female POV. By humorizing the daily lives and situations mom faces, “In the Motherhood” rings the bell for brand relevance and fondness.

My Allbusiness.com blog post Xbox: Advertising Game-Changer? is being highlighted and syndicated across a number of sites including the SF Chronicle, CBS News, the Washington Post, and CareerBuilder. Cool… I just wish that the editing tools let me fix that ugly typo (and a few poor grammar choices made way too late at night).

A recent article on iMedia highlighted some solid numbers from the Sprite Obey campaign headed by MediaVest that we helped develop a few years back. Working in partnership with MSN, we brought their team’s design to life by developing a website that was integrating with both MSN’s backend system and ispott’s mobile scavenger hunt platform. Using our proprietary Flash 3D engine, we created a pseudo-3D experience that engaged teens in the online scavenger hunt and kept them coming back for more.

“MediaVest reports 1.5 million teens participated and spent more than 3.1 million minutes online with the brand during the campaign, in addition to time spent scavenging for photos and encouraging peers to participate. Campaign analysis shows Sprite Obey resulted in a 26 percent increase in teens’ weekly consumption of the soft drink.”

Check out the full article at iMedia Connection.

ABC has picked up the highly successful “In the Motherhood” web series to turn it into a network sitcom. Plexipixel was responsible for the original site design and initial development using our 3D engine, which launched on MSN back in 2007.

Premiering this spring, Megan Mullally and Cheryl Hines will star in the new comedy, featuring stories inspired by real life experiences of viewers shared online. Check out the “In the Motherhood” site on ABC.com for more details and previews of upcoming episodes.

If you watched the CNN Inauguration Coverage for President Obama on Tuesday, you may already recognize this as it was a special feature in the broadcast. Our friends over at Photosynth, in partnership with CNN, released a special Inauguration Synth created from submitted photos the public captured at the event. Entitled “The Moment”, this Silverlight widget allows you to browse through the hundreds of photos that were taken using Photosynth’s technology that creates interactive 3D spaces from 2D photos.

Not so long ago, when the technology was first launched, we worked with the Photosynth team to create their first website. Be sure to check out the latest iteration of the Photosynth site where they’ve opened up the technology to the public to submit user generated content to create custom Synths that are showcased in the growing online gallery.

We’d like to thank Craig Elimeliah for his interview with Vicky, and the very kind title he gave it, “Hidden Wisdom” Not the mention the hilarious URL he made for it.

A designer-turned art director during New York City’s dotcom era, Craig is a designer, developer, and Senior Executive Producer at Freedom + Partners, and writes at Webicratic and iPro.com, a blog he created in order to speak directly to interactive producers.

Check out the full interview for Vicky’s thoughts on the Plexipixel team, the company’s best project, and the importance 1974 Vespa scooters had on the founding of the company.