According to a press release that was distributed today, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has teamed up with Zynga to bring Martha Stewart to the hit social game Castleville. It's a good thing--but it's also a strange thing.

Gaming and salty snacks go together like--well, gaming and salty snacks. Zynga has revealed a promotion with Frito-Lay that offers virtual goods from FarmVille, CityVille, and CastleVille via codes packed in with select Frito-Lay snacks. After all, what says "farm-fresh food" like deep-fried chips and corn puffs?

Dean Takahashi of Venturebeat has written what amounts to a book about the growth story that is Zynga. Seriously, it’s 12 web pages long and my guess is that they’ll turn it into a for-pay e-book once Zynga goes public this week. In the meantime, read it for free here.

In other Zynga news, the company is planning to go public in what could be the biggest game company IPO ever. As luck would have it, or as game launch strategy and a huge marketing campaign would happen, the top 5 games on Facebook are Zynga games this week, driven by the new release of CastleVille and renewed popularity of Word with Friends.

And someone at Zynga needs to send a gift to Alec Baldwin for giving them and Word with Friends the greatest public relations gift alive on the week of going public. Here’s the SNL skit if you’re curious.

It hasn't taken long for Zynga's latest release to reach blockbuster status, as the developer has announced that CastleVille has now surpassed five million daily active users in just its first six days of release.

CastleVille isn’t the kind of release that will revolutionize social gaming. It doesn’t remake the wheel or have any crazy ambitious concepts. It’s a game that sits firmly in the framework already established by games like FrontierVille and Ravenskye City. But thanks to some subtle but very welcome tweaks and arguably the best visual and audio experience on Facebook, it’s still a great game. It may not be the most original, but it’s definitely one of the best.

Zynga’s CastleVille allows you to save a dying kingdom from the grips of the gloom that has overtaken it. Fight off the evil and build a beautiful kingdom just the way you want it. Decorate it with quaint cottages, productive workshops, and amazing royal buildings. Gather resources and create goods to use in your kingdom. Farm, fish, raise animals, and help your neighbors with their kingdoms as well. Create your own happy ending in this never ending fairy tale. Gamezebo’s CastleVille quick start strategy guide will provide you with detailed images, tips, tricks, and hints on how to play your best game.

Where’s My Water? is getting its own web series. Rumors continue to swirl about feature films based on FarmVille and Angry Birds. Popular mobile and social games are now becoming popular brands, and along with that comes the slew of media tie-ins. Of course, some games are better suited to the film and television treatment than others. We’re still not quite sure what a FarmVille movie will actually look like. But there are plenty of other options and we’ve rounded up our favorites here.

CastleVille is Zynga's biggest release in some time, and the first new "Ville" game since CityVille. It's also now live on Facebook.

If FrontierVille was crossed with Tangled, it’d probably look a whole lot like CastleVille, the next big release from Zynga. It’s a game that offers some familiar core gameplay mixed with new, and in some cases quite interesting features, and wraps it all up in a very Disney-inspired fantasy world.

Game developer Zynga has helped out a number of charitable efforts through Zynga.org, and a new partnership between the charity arm of the company and the upcoming game CastleVille continues in that tradition.