bsgLogoBlacksmith Games, the developer of the upcoming (and eagerly anticipated) iPhone game Plushed, has successfully inspired many of their fellow developers to get into the Spirit of the Season and offer up one of their apps for free. They have created a website called Appvent Calendar 09, on which developers have signed up to offer one of their apps free for a 24-hour period on one of the first 22 days of this month. While no free apps will be given away on the 23rd and 24th, Blacksmith promises that visitors will be treated to some other great surprises. The site is designed much like a traditional Advent Calendar, but instead of some words of wisdom or little piece of stale chocolate, inside each little door is a free app!

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So far Blacksmith’s Appvent Calendar has been rather popular, so much so, that Blacksmith had to move the site three times after the first day, just to find a server to host it that could handle the traffic it was generating. We have been really pleasantly surprised with the high caliber of free apps that have been offered in the first 3 days of the promotion. The first three games were 33rd Division (Craneballs Studios), TriDefense (Kalio Ltda.) and Snorkeling (Alfonso Bozzelli). As you can see, these are not cheapo apps that you probably wouldn’t have purchased anyways. Blacksmith deserves big kudos for being able to get commitments from such a great group of developers.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Blacksmith Games and all of the participating developers for their great generosity and all of the hard work that has gone into making this happen. Hopefully this will become a yearly tradition. If you haven’t already, make sure you visit appventcalendar.com every day to get your free app. Like a kid on Christmas Eve, we can’t wait to wake up each morning and see what gift we’ve received. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that Blacksmith Games will be joining in the fun themselves, surprising visitors with a free copy of Plushed as well.