The 2013 Thanksgiving event has come to a close and it is time to announce the winners. Before I do that I would like to share with you some of the things I still have planned for the game before the year comes to an end. While I still have the mobile version as my top priority, I have run into some difficulties that have delayed its release. I still have some kinks in the primary game navigation system that must be worked out before I am satisfied and ready to release it. I think the move to mobile is so important that I do not want to rush this critical piece of software and/or release a version that I will come to regret.

It is also important to me that the full PC version of TBG continues to expand and that I find new ways to entertain players who have moved into the higher levels and are looking for new things to do. To that end I started feverishly working on a new game feature about two weeks ago and I hope to have it released to the game (in beta form) before the upcoming Christmas event.

TBG will soon feature weekly style contests. Each week players can compete in contests against beers of the same style to win ribbons for their labels. Ribbons are attached to your label image and players looking to buy a new beer will have no doubt as to the quality of those beers that advance into the 'award winning' category. Each label can be entered multiple times (whenever that style is up on the contest calendar) and rack up as many ribbons as you like. A label starts out in the contest with points equal to the beer label quality and must have the highest score at the end of the contest. The judging does not end with beer quality however, you must still convince the judges that your beer is best. Read on!

In those weeks when you do not have a label to enter in the contest, or if you just don't feel like entering in the contest then you can become a contest judge. It is easy to become a judge but very difficult to be a good one. A brand new judge has 10 "judge points" that can be awarded to the various beers in the current contest. A judge earns more judge points by taking tests. Although these tests may vary over time the initial version of the tests are given out on a limited frequency and require you to really understand beer recipes. They are deliberately designed to be very hard to make earning a top spot on the judges list a challenge. You will have to earn the right to sit for each test by drinking a wide variety of beers and then you will be asked to identify ingredients that are likely to be in one of the beers that you have recently drunk. There will be a mix of chance and skill required to pass each test.

There is no limit to the number of judge points that you can earn and I will include leaderboards and achievements to recognize the most skilled. More importantly a player who has earned hundreds of judge points can significantly influence the outcome of a style contest by awarding their earned points to the beers that are entered in the contest. As a player judge you keep your earned points after each contest but they must be maintained (through continued training/tests) or they will be slowly lost.

The code for these new game features is nearly complete and I expect no significant delays (this time) to introduce the new gameplay to our loyal players. Thanks for sticking with me this past year and I hope you continue to play and enjoy TBG!

The Thanksgiving Holiday winners are...

The #1 player in each list has earned $1000 in brew bucks! And although I didn't announce it at the start I have also awarded $500 to the #2 player in each list and $100 to the #3 player! Congratulations to the winners! In addition to the grand prizes a butt load of cash and brewing ingredient prizes were given out all week. There were over 40 winners of the football team contest including 4 very lucky $5000 winners (BoCoMobrews,Jim_Brewer,DrEvil,warra48). $35,000 brew bucks were given out in this one contest alone.

Stay tuned for the upcoming Christmas event when Santa Clyde will once again make an appearance and you know that the bootie will be good!

Brew beer... Drink beer... Play! What else do you need to know?

-Robc