We’re back, we’re on video, and we’re giving away all new prizes for this week’s Free Stuff Friday. We’ve got special prizes for The Cave and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. The packs are so good that we’re giving away two of them for a total of four prizes this week!

On the Block

1. The Cave Figurines – We have two of these special packs featuring all of figurines for The Cave, our upcoming Double Fine Adventure game created by Ron Gilbert. Originally debuted at Penny Arcade Expo, these are very rare and very cool.

2. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed game & Lanyard – Pick your preferred platform from Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or Wii-U, you’ll also receive a special lanyard from our recent activity at New York Comic-con! Two packs are available.

How it Works

1. You must be following us on Twitter to be eligible. (If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can create one by going to http://www.twitter.com and click the green “get started — join!” button in the center of the page.)

2. At random times on Friday, we will announce the prize we are giving away, a word or phrase, and what number of response you need to be to win. Send us a direct message (DM) via Twitter and be that number to win the prize. (@ replies do not count as entries!) We only accept one direct message per person per prize!

Example:

We tweet “GIVEAWAY: Sonic T-shirt, size L. Be the 15th person to DM “Sonic Adventure” to win!”

You see this, and want to win it, so you send us a direct message that says “Sonic Adventure”. If you are the 15th person to do so, you are the winner!

Quotation marks do not matter, capitalization does not matter, but spelling does matter!

3. All followers are eligible to win all prizes, unless a restriction is noted. Restrictions are usually due to the prize being region-locked. For example, US games that won’t work on UK gaming systems. There may also be age restrictions due to the rating of the game.

4. We will announce the winner on our Twitter feed once eligibility is confirmed.

Other Assorted Information:

• Free Stuff Friday duties alternate between the London and San Francisco offices and are done during business hours (usually mid-morning) in our respective time zones.
• No, you can’t know what number message you were – so please don’t ask! We will tell you that the information is classified!
• If you have questions during the giveaway, please contact us with an @reply. As you can imagine, we get a whole lot of direct messages during the contests and there is a very good chance we will miss your question if it is sent as a DM.

How to Send Direct Messages on Twitter

Due to a change in our account status with Twitter, you should be able to send us direct messages without us following you if you are using the Twitter website. However, third-party applications may not allow you to.

There are a few ways to send us a Direct Message on Twitter. The easiest way is:

1. Log in to your Twitter account.
2. Click on the person icon and select Direct messages from the drop down menu.
3. You’ll see a pop up showing your Direct message history. Click the New message button, highlighted below.
4. In the address box, type the name or username (SEGA) of the person you wish to send a message to.
5. Enter your message and click Send message.

You may also select the “direct messages” tab from your Twitter homepage, and select SEGA from the drop-down menu at the top of the page. Again, if you don’t see our name there, it’s probably because we’re not following you. Let us know, and we’ll follow you. If you still have questions on sending direct messages, please visit Twitter’s Help Section.

There are also many Twitter clients that you can use instead of using the website. These include TweetDeck, Twitteriffic, Tweetie, and Twhirl. Each of these programs works differently, so you’ll want to figure out how to send a direct message on the program you use. If you want to send us a test message, we’ll let you know if we received it or not. Please make sure your message says “test” somewhere.

Hail! A new update, for Spiral Knights!

It’s easy to forget, but the Knights on Cradle weren’t born there – crash-landing and finding refuge in the town of Haven, they have ventured ever inward towards the Core, for the sake of Knightly honor and adventure.

Still, Knights need a place to hang their helmet — a rack for their swords. A place to hoist a flagon and discuss things of great import.

Guild Halls. What I’m getting at is Guild Halls.

Existing Guild Halls are now open for upgrades – turn your guild’s simple living space into a mighty fortress! Decorate, train, and commune with other knights … and make a bulwark against the darkness to come, for Spiral Knights has only just begun to explore the true depths of Cradle…

Guild Hall Expansion – Features

• Customize and expand your Guild Hall with Design Mode, accessible from the guild Command Console
• Purchase vendor and service rooms
• Buy furniture and decorate your new rooms from the Birdson Emporium
• Guild Upgrades: Increase guild roster size and guild storage.
• Special training hall for guild members!
• Open your Guild Hall to the public: meet prospective recruits or throw a lavish party!

Click here to read a more detailed description of features.

Homecoming Celebration & Guild Creation

Eventually, a house – or a planet – stops being just a house and becomes a Home. Expanded guild halls seems like as good a time as any to hang that “Home Sweet Home” sign, and so, here’s to a Homecoming Celebration!

As such, presents:

-Each Knight will receive a Battle Stand furnishing item, Honor Blade sword, and Honor Guard shield just if they log in during the Homecoming Celebration event.
-Additional gifts will be awarded based on Mission Ranking.
-Click here for more details on rank & item awards.

Additionally, the cost for creating a guild is now set at 50,000 Crowns. These are instantly deposited into a guild’s Treasury upon guild creation. Money from the guild treasury is used to purchase guild upgrades, and cannot be removed once deposited.

As a special bonus, all current guilds will receive an extra 50,000 Crowns deposited into their Guild Treasury!

Haven Garrison

The Spiral Order has also decided to run with the theme of home, setting up a permanent Garrison, on the Eastern side of the Haven town square. The Garrison contains the Hall of Heroes, the main Guild Hall, and additional facilities still being worked on . . .

• The Garrison Guild Hall allows you to access your personal Guild Hall, or any other Hall open to the public
• Exiting a Guild Hall will deposit you back outside the Guild Hall in the Haven Garrison
• Hall of Heroes has been given a visual overhaul