Zoe Mode creating not-for-profit XBLA puzzler for
children's charity

click to enlargeOneBigGame, a non-profit games publisher founded in 2007, announced today that its first title will come from Zoë Mode, creator of games such as Crush (PSP), You're In the Movies (360) and co-developer of the SingStar franchise (PS3) with SCEE. Called Chime, the music-based puzzle game will launch this winter on Xbox Live Arcade.

The first screens, while sort of soothing in their minimalism, don't exactly explain anything about how the game's played. Thankfully, Zoë Mode goes into detail about the gameplay on its newly launched Chime site.

The developer is the first of what OneBigGame says are many others currently creating 15 titles, with at least 80 percent of all revenue made from them going to two charities: Save the Children and Starlight Children's Foundation. Zoë Mode developed Chime pro bono and has committed to giving all the royalties it receives from the XBLA game -- which it says will be around 60 percent of its purchase price -- to OneBigGame.

Other developers signed on to produce games include Shiny founder David Perry, PaRappa the Rapper creator Masaya Matsuura and prolific adventure game designer Charles Cecil (Beneath a Steel Sky, Broken Sword).

Gallery: Chime

Zoe Mode creating not-for-profit XBLA puzzler for children's charity originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 4 Review

It was bound to happen eventually. After releasing three increasingly wonderful episodes, the Tales of Monkey Island series has finally taken a step back. Now that's not to say that Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 4 - The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood is bad -- far from it in fact -- it's just that, for the first time, the latest entry in the series isn't the best.

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Warren Spector So Not Done With Deus Ex [Deus Ex]

Warren Spector, creator of Deus Ex, isn't letting the fact he no longer has access to the series stop him from dreaming up more games in the series. Well, maybe not series. "Series".

Spector - currently at work on Epic Mickey - has told Variety that prior to picking up work the Disney gig, he and his wife had been kicking some ideas around for new projects, one a massive piece of original IP, the other a "spiritual successor" to Deus Ex.

He says that at one time he tried to get the rights to his game back from publishers Eidos, but they weren't willing to part with it, so Spector was forced to come up with a Go-Bots to Deus Ex's Transformers.

"There were and still are ?Deus Ex' stories I would like to tell. That story is not done for me," he told Variety. "[For the sci-fi game] I sort of filed the serial numbers off. ?Deus Ex' was very much a game of the millennium."

Behind the scenes at "Epic Mickey" ? Part One [Variety]

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Independent Games Festival 2010 competitors
announced

Each year, indie developers from around the world submit their creations to the Independent Games Festival Main Challenge in hopes of becoming the next cola-to-Cristal success. This year, the IGF has received a whopping 306 entries (last year: 224) competing for the top prize of $20,000. Last year's winner, Erik Svedang's Blueberry Garden, was picked up for distribution on Steam.

Screens, videos and details on all 306 entries can be perused on the IGF website, while many of the games are either downloadable or directly playable from their developer's homepages. Finalists will be picked in January, with the winners in various categories -- including art, design, audio, and innovation -- set to be announced during GDC 2010, which runs March 9-13, 2010.

[Via Eurogamer]

Independent Games Festival 2010 competitors announced originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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World Train Royale Review

Don't judge a book by its cover. This saying, along with the ability to be patient, should be kept in mind when it comes to World Train Royale, a new game by developer versus-software. The combination of match-3, time management, and tycoon elements surely sounds promising, but as always the mixture of different genres can be a tricky case. While the game is far from perfect, players who enjoy details and a real challenge might still get hooked on it easily.

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Square Enix Fire Some People [Disturbance In The
Workforce]

It's already been announced that the severance payouts to Taito employees has drained money from parent company Square Enix. Those were the only cuts Square Enix has made post Eidos-buyout.

"There's an ongoing process of reshuffling people, but that's not something we do just because of integration," Square Enix president Yoichi Wada explained to website GamesIndustry. "As an ongoing process that's taking place all across the organization looking at all of our foot prints — Square Enix Tokyo, Taito and ex-Eidos offices, have seen about 10 per cent reduction of headcount globally."

Previously, we floated the rumor that Square Enix Japan has reduced its workforce by somewhere between 200 and 300 workers.

Wada describes the integration of new developer Eidos in the Square Enix corporate framework as "smooth" — smooth being a relative term and certainly not referring to those who have suddenly found themselves redundant.

Square Enix: Global headcount reduction around 10% // News [GI]

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This sounds necessary: A videogame based on The
Host 2

A videogame adaptation of The Host would have turned out pretty bad, I imagine, but there's no way it could (theoretically) top the upcoming first-person shooter based upon The Host 2.

Now I know Jonathan recently listed some horror movies he'd like to see as videogames, and as fate would have it, he had some ideas for how The Host could be retold as an interactive experience. Based on the first details for The Host 2 (the game, not the movie), his ideas were too good for such a project.

As I mentioned earlier, it's going to be an FPS. But wait, it gets better: the game stars "mutant humanoids graced with superhuman skills." And finally, it's headed to every platform imaginable -- even mobile phones.

So, basically, the game is going to be an awesome licensed title that is in no way an attempt to make easy money. Gotcha.

[Via Bloody-Disgusting]

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Set course for new Star Trek Online gameplay
footage

We've got a double dose of Star Trek Online video goodness for you today, as Cryptic has seen fit to not only release part two of the "Future Past" series, but also a new gameplay trailer. The trailer -- handily embedded above -- is comprised mostly of pitched space battles and ground encounters. It's also packed with more phaser and disruptor beams than you can shake a tribble at. One more thing: Borg cube.

After the break, see part two of "The Future Past," which details the outcome of the Klingon / Nausicaan / Gorn war. In short, the Klingons are pretty much bad guys again by 2409, the year in which Star Trek Online begins.

Continue reading Set course for new Star Trek Online gameplay footage

Set course for new Star Trek Online gameplay footage originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filmmaker Robert Zemeckis Is Bad At Video Games
[Hollywood]

Robert Zemeckis, director of Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, is good at making movies. He's good at writing them. But he's not very good at video games.

Zemeckis tells MTV, "I love what they do in the technology, the way they move those images, I'm fascinated by the amount of code-writing those guys do to make those games work. But I just have a problem sitting there for hours and hours and hours knowing that I'm always going to end up losing. It's such a fatalistic mindset, I know I'm never going to get to the highest level...but I'm gonna play anyway."

Somebody tell Zemeckis about easy mode and co-op play! Games aren't that hard — not like watching his thriller What Lies Beneath or anything. That was painful.

Robert Zemeckis Sucks At Video Games (And He's Fine With It!) [MTV] [Pic]

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NCAA 10 Showcases the Charm and Bad Calls of
Hoops' Top Home Courts [Screens]

NCAA Basketball 10 isn't just about the announcing teams and pretty graphics, it still faces the tall order of presenting all the arenas of every major conference member. Another 15 screens show us what to expect.

This package delivers Lousiville at Pitt's Petersen Events Center (Big East); Michigan State at Illinois' Assembly Hall, one of 47 such-named arenas in the Big 10; Texas at Kansas's Allen Fieldhouse representing the Big XII; Florida vs. Kentucky in Rupp Arena (SEC); Cal at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion, because only in the Pac-10 do they play in pavilions; and of course, Wake Forest whistled for a charge against Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium, because for no other ACC team is such a call ever made. Larry Rose must be an unlockable classic ref in this game.

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