Our friends and colleagues at Conduit Labs just announced that they have successfully raised a round of venture capital.

Its an exciting time in this strange little world of web-based social games, and we wish the best to Nabeel, Dan-O, Shadow, and company.

Congrats, guys. We promise we’ll leave some room for you! ;D

Hello, Alan!

Welcome aboard.

PS - When Jeremy gets back he’s gonna have to help me figure out how to embed these Flash movies directly in the blog post instead of these links…

Hi, my name is Alan Diekfuss and I’m the new art director and concept artist here at the ‘fin.

I first met with the team about a month ago and I was immediately impressed with what they had hidden up their sleeves.  Not only did they have a boatload of great ideas, but they knew what steps they needed to take in order to pull them off successfully.  Having worked exclusively for the big boys (Nintendo and Sony) for 2 1/2 years, I felt the guys here had a great understanding for what it takes to make exceptional games.  In fact, I was so impressed that I decided I had to help them out any way possible.  And here I am today.

So what is my role as art director?  Well that’s a good question and one that I plan to answer through the coming weeks.  Expect to see me posting everything from concept art, illustrations, and designs right here on site.  Here at the ‘fin, we believe in interacting with our audience throughout the development process and we feel it’s extremely important to get your feedback before we call it “done”.

Anyways, before I go, I wanted to leave you with a quote that I’ve kept close to my heart throughout all these years.

“The Pen is mightier than the sword, and considerably easier to write with.” - Marty Feldman