Well, October 15th has come and gone and I successfully completed 24 hours of gaming for charity as party of the Extra Life 24 hour gaming marathon event! As promised here's my recap of those physically demanding 24 hours.

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Got plans this weekend? Cancel ‘em. Starting bright and early at 8am on Saturday, October 15th, our very own Andy Mindler will be live-streaming his attempt to play video games for 24 hours straight. Much to everyone’s relief, this is not some new hobby Andy’s picked up, he’s doing it for the children! Or, rather, for charity. It’s all part of an Extra Life 24 hour gaming marathon event to raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

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I love art books. Not art history books per se, but books about the design behind movies and video games. When you’re watching a movie or playing a game, it’s easy to forget just how much work goes into every frame. These art books let you see the thought process and design evolution of every element, from set design to clothing styles. A lot of these elements never even make it into the final product, so it’s incredibly inspiring for me as a designer to see how a design changes and develops from sketches into what you ultimately see on screen.

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This year's Charlotte ADDY Awards Show & Preview Gallery brought together a record 275 industry professionals to celebrate creative excellence in our community. The Mint Museum Uptown provided a gorgeous setting that matched the evening's award-winning, artistic achievements.

During the Awards Show, Studiobanks was presented with the following awards:

• Gold ADDY: Parker Poe Holiday Microsite
• Gold ADDY: Studiobanks Holiday Microsite
• Silver ADDY: CMA Awards Website
• Silver ADDY: CMA Country Christmas Microsite
• Silver ADDY: Muzak A/V Systems Website
• Silver ADDY: Reel-Scout Marketing Website
• Silver ADDY: Reel-Scout Search Website
• Silver ADDY: SAFER Barrier Website
• Silver ADDY: Varrow Website

Awards are an important part of our industry as they benchmark creative excellence and online success. We happily accepted these awards on behalf of the collabortive efforts and partnerships with our awesome clients.

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Santa's making his list and checking it twice, and needs your help deciding who's been naughty or nice.

Visit holiday.studiobanks.com to cast your votes for each Studiobanks team member and view the live results. And as an added twist, we created a 3D version of the site to spice up your viewing pleasure. Request a pair of 3D glasses on the site and we'll mail them to you for free!

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Lately, all the buzz has been around social media.

Facebook and Twitter can work well for some companies, but all the hype is overshadowing the fact that social media should be part of a larger digital marketing strategy. Including a fun, well designed online game in that strategy is often overlooked by companies, yet it provides an excellent opportunity to interact with consumers and highlight products. You’re probably thinking, "Oh well you only care about games because you’re a 20-something guy who’s never grown up and would play any game just because it exists." Well, you might be right but there’s some pretty solid data to show otherwise.

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Happy Holidays from all your friends at Studiobanks.

We have created another holiday game to celebrate the season. Enjoy!

Wow! As if 2009 hasn't been a tough enough year, you have now found your self at the worst holiday party ever. On the way in you passed some people talking about how the party was filled with really annoying people and you quickly realize this is the last place you want to be. You also overheard them talk about another really cool holiday party being thrown by Studiobanks. The objective of the game is to find a way to escape and get to the Studiobanks holiday party.

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The sold-out 2009 Charlotte ADDY® Awards & Gala Show once again provided a very fun evening for members of the Charlotte advertising industry. The night was especially memorable for the Studiobanks crew, as we swept the interactive categories and brought home a total of 16 awards: 2 Gold ADDYs, 14 Silver ADDYs and the award for Excellence in Art Direction for the Eric Hunter Website.

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