MindSnacks, the blog!

We make games for your brain

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MindSnacks U.S. Geography is here!

Get ready to explore the 50 states with MindSnacks! Our newest subject, U.S. Geography, is now available for download in the App Store.

MindSnacks U.S. Geography goes far beyond state capitals, teaching you everything from state landmarks and flags to culture, history, famous citizens and more. With 8 addictive games and over 40 hours of rich content, our app is perfect for travelers, fact fanatics, and students of all ages.

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Meet a MindSnacker

Today we’re talking to Michael, who proudly serves as our Educational Content Director. Not only is Michael passionate about cramming all sorts of educational goodies into our mobile games, his optimism makes him a great guy to have in the office every day.

Hi, Michael. How’s your day going so far?

Honestly, today's been an amazing day--as has every day since I started at MindSnacks and moved to California. Who doesn't love waking up in the most beautiful city in America and getting to go to work to make educational games--and eating awesome meals from our company chef?

We’re going to go out on a limb here and guess that you love your job. That’s awesome. Also awesome are animal sidekicks. What animal would you pick to be yours?

The flamingo! I'm sometimes a little shy and introverted when I go out on my own, so who wouldn't want a bright pink skinny bird to help strike up a conversation with strangers? Plus, I could always borrow some of their feathers if I need a boa or something.  

We have to agree that more conversations should begin with “Nice flamingo.” Moving on, you might have noticed a few board games around the office. What board game would never bore you?

Well, I grew up in northern New Jersey and my parents took me to Atlantic City almost every other weekend as a kid, so Monopoly is my all-time fave. Just playing the game and seeing the street names brings me back to the Boardwalk.

It’s tough to go wrong with a true classic like Monopoly. So, if you were trapped in a TV show for a month, which would you choose and why?

Without a doubt, Seinfeld. Hey, I'm a Jewish kid from New Jersey whose parents retired to Boca Raton, Florida. So, in many ways I feel as though I've been trapped in Seinfeld since it debuted in 1989. Plus, I have a knack for being able to relate any event back to Seinfeld, even when no other human could possibly see the relationship.

So, in that you’re an avid Seinfeld fan, do you celebrate Festivus? Just kidding. Here’s your last question: What’s your go-to karaoke night song?

I don't always karaoke. Ok, I never karaoke--but when and if I do, I know my go-to song would be Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." Yeah, I'm still from New Jersey (see other answers), and it was almost adopted as the state song so that song courses through any good New Jerseyan's veins.

Hey, we can’t argue with The Boss. As always, it’s been a pleasure talking with you Michael. We look forward to seeing all the great content you pack into our apps. Have a fantastic rest of your day!

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MindSnacks ice cream field trip!

After a tough couple of weeks (we're working hard on some cool stuff for you guys!), we decided to take a field trip to Humphry Slocombe for a San Francisco ice cream treat. Deliciousness ensued....

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Meet a MindSnacker

Today we’re talking to Miguel, a software engineer and web developer here at MindSnacks. While he’s a wizard on the computer, Miguel is also trilingual and an expert in keeping a positive attitude.

Hi, Miguel. How’s your day going so far?

There's only one answer to that question: Everyday at MindSnacks is awesome. It's a lot of fun tackling challenging engineering problems while watching how it impacts the way people learn. Furthermore, I am fed by Alice!

Spoken like a true MindSnacker. We think learning is great, but we also think everyone needs an awesome animal sidekick – what animal would you choose?

I'd definitely choose a shark. Sharks are the new zombies -- they're getting very popular and are everywhere nowadays. My shark would help me while I surf, too. He would protect me from other sharks and scare other surfers... so I could ride more waves!

Sharks are the new zombies - you heard it here first, folks. On to the next question, if you could relive any decade, which would it be and why?

Oh boy. I feel old now that you're asking, but I'd go for the 90s. I'd love to relive the punk-pop explosion and the Internet boom. Yup, I'd love to go back to the times when Geocities and the marquee tag ruled the world.

You’re in luck because it seems like the 90s are making a comeback. So, what superpower would you like to have?

That one is pretty easy. The ability to stop time. There are many things to learn and so little free time. I strongly believe that if you don't have the natural talent but you try very hard, you can improve any skill you want.

Time control, huh? A fine choice, indeed. Lastly, what’s your go-to song on karaoke night?

‘In the Ghetto,’ but not Elvis Presley's version. The cover by El Principe Gitano is much better. He's a spanish singer and I actually learned how to speak English thanks to that performance. Haha!

So, if you could have your way you’d stop time in the 90s while surfing alongside your sidekick shark and singing El Principe Gitano’s cover of ‘In the Ghetto.’ If that’s wrong, we don’t want to be right. Thanks so much, Miguel!

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Meet a MindSnacker

It’s time once again to meet one of our talented team members. Today, we’re introducing Steven, our QA lead, who makes sure all our apps meet the high level of awesomeness our users demand. Good to chat, Steven. How’s your day going so far?

Finer than a frog hair split nine ways!

That’s great! Wait, frogs have hair? That actually brings us to our next question. We think everyone needs an awesome animal sidekick – what would you pick?

Does a Dragon count?? If not I'd have to go with a platypus or pug.

For the purposes of this questionnaire, dragons definitely count. Moving on, if you could relive any decade, which would it be and why?

100-110 AD! But, only if I was like really influential in the Roman Senate.  Otherwise, the 50's - Elvis; nuff said.

Yeah, ancient history could be pretty rough. At least they probably had board games back then. What board game could never bore you?

Imperial 2030 or Powergrid.

Imperial 2030, huh? That’s got a nice ring to it. Ok, last question. If you were trapped in a TV show for a month, which would you choose and why?

Buffy, without a doubt!  Be whoop'n up on some fang-faces! :D Wait, unless I was a fang-face. I don't wanna get staked! Can I just go with Andy Griffith show and play it safe with some fishing?

You can pick any show you want, but instead of choosing, why don’t we just combine the two shows into one and call it Andy Griffith the Vampire Slayer? Could be a hit. Anyhow, thanks Steven for taking the time and thanks to all of our readers for checking out our blog.

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Yum Alert!

Is that roasted lamb? Why yes it is! Thanks to Alice, our extremely talented culinary craftswoman, the parties at MindSnacks tend to be as delicious as they are rambunctious. The menu at our last shindig featured not one, but two whole roasted lambs, a spring veggie salad, and roasted apricots for dessert. If you think that sounds yummy, you should have tasted the cocktails. Deeeeeeeelish.

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Wine “For Serious” 101

In addition to world-class educational apps, Northern California is also known for exporting some pretty amazing wines. Naturally, we felt obliged to hold our very own wine tasting event. As for the rules, only bottles of $25 or less were allowed and epic amounts of fun were mandatory

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Burn!

What does a nosey pepper do?

It gets jalapeño business. 

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Sumo Showdown!

To celebrate the release of our Japanese app, our team gathered in beautiful Golden Gate Park for sushi, sake and….sumo wrestling? Yep, at MindSnacks that’s just how we roll.  In case you were wondering, the winner of our first ever Sumo Wrestling Showdown was none other than company co-founder Jesse Pickard. Congrats, Jesse!

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Co-founder Andy Mroczkowski made us all swoon in his high-falootin' get-up for this evening's soiree at the MindSnacks studio.  Photos of the lamb roast, MindSnackers, and our signature cocktail to follow!

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Hello again, and thanks for joining us! On today’s installment of Meet a MindSnacker, we’d like to introduce you to Mike, a  talented backend engineer here at MindSnacks!

Hi Mike, great to have you with us! How’s your day going so far?

It is going well! Turns out I recently got this job at a place where a bunch of nice and talented people work.

Aww shucks! We’d blush if we could. So, there’s been some debate, but we want your honest opinion on this matter. We think everyone needs an awesome animal sidekick – what would you pick?

A baby tiger and a baby bear. If I can only pick one then I want a tiger bred with a bear, but still a baby.

Baby bears and tigers, oh my! We’ll make an exception and let you have both of those for animal companions. Sound good? Now, if you could relive any decade, which would it be and why?

While technically not reliving, it would be the distant future when cyborg arms could be grafted on for cheap. Why? Because I could graft on cyborg arms! For cheap!

Always thinking about the future, we knew we liked you for a reason. Now back to the present! Tell us Mike, what superpower would you like to have?

Teleportation, where I get to control whether or not momentum is conserved. I would accept a toned down variation if my first choice is out of stock.

Looks like it’s your lucky day, you’ve just nabbed the last stock of teleportation superpowers! And note to the rest of the MindSnacks team – we are making Mike agree to not use his teleportation powers to become first in line for lunch. Thanks for reading, and hope you have a great weekend, everyone!

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Are you ready to jump for joy? Our SAT Vocab app now features Pounce, a sentence completion game that teaches contextualization.

Pounce will help you understand not just the literal meaning of a word, but also its proper usage in a given context. More importantly, its game mechanics mimic the multiple choice scenario you'll face on the SAT: as you try to complete each sentence, a posse of pesky cats will try to confuse you with semantically and visually similar distractors -- but watch out because only one of them is the right word!

By practicing with this and the other games in our SAT Vocab app, you can dramatically improve your verbal reasoning skills. (And who wouldn’t want that?)

You can play Pounce by downloading the most recent version of SAT Vocab from iTunes.

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Say “Konnichiwa” to our new Japanese app!

The app covers all three writing systems used when learning Japanese (kanji, kana, and romaji) and has an awesome toggle feature that lets you switch between the three as you play our app. We also added a brand new reference section that explains how kana works. Head on over to the App Store to download it now! http://bit.ly/13dgGpy

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Our chef Alice nearly brought us to tears with her super yummy chocolate peanut butter cake. Our artists couldn't resist returning the love. 

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All ready for GDC??  Check out which sessions MindSnacks is attending this year. 

We're totally psyched to be going to the annual Game Developers Conference...again (yeah, we're vets).  Here's a look at some of the sessions that got our engineers off their computers, out of the studio, and into the blistering fluorescent lighting of the Moscone Center:

The Simplest AI Trick in the Book

Game Educators Rant

Network Serializtion in WoW

Low-Level Thinking in High-Level Shading Languages

Experimental Gameplay Workshop

Whose Design is it Anyway? 

Ten Principles for Good Level Design

Going to the GDC?  Share which sessions you liked the best or would want to attend. 

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Welcome to a very special tradition over in these parts of town: Meet a MindSnacker. Today, we’re bringing you one of our rockstar engineers, Jacob!

Howdy Jacob! How is your day going so far?

Great, I found a new bike route into work that is much faster. 

Biking San Francisco is like an obstacle course, so we congratulate you and your bike on this accomplishment. Next question: everyone needs an awesome animal sidekick, what would you pick?

A capybara.

Whoa, that must be the largest rodent we’ve ever seen! In fact, that is exactly what a capybara is. We understand they make for good pets, too. So, if you could relive any decade, which would you pick and why?

The 640s so I could do everything in my power to prevent the fall of Alexandria.

That is quite ambitious of you. We wish you all the best with your endeavors. But back to the future, what superpower would you like to have?

The ability to hibernate … also time travel. But I guess hibernation is just a form of time travel … so just time travel.

Your superpower of time travel WILL allow you to relive the 640s so you can prevent the fall of Alexandria! Nicely played. Well dear readers, that wraps up today’s edition. Have a happy vernal equinox! 

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Happy π Day from MindSnacks!

We think math is delicious. So today, we celebrated 3.14 by learning how to make flaky, buttery pie crust. How delightful!