Realtime Worlds keeping 23 members of staff for MyWorld

Posted by Chris Holmes at 4:44pm on August 20th, 2010

The administrators dealing with the collapse of Realtime Worlds have officially confirmed that they will be keeping 23 out of 60 members of staff working on Project MyWorld. The remaining staff members will be continuing their work at the company’s Dundee-based headquarters. MyWorld is a platform that allows game developers to create new social games.

Joint administrator Ken Pattullo, of business rescue and restructuring specialist Begbies Traynor said: “As a smaller entity MyWorld is attracting considerable interest from potential buyers and 23 members of the team who had been working on the project clearly add value to it as a standalone business, hence the fact we have been able to offer a limited number of those jobs back.”

Here’s a video of Project MyWorld that the company released last month:

Industry News | News | Realtime Worlds | Social Gaming

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Wii Party Hands-On

Posted by Chris Holmes at 6:38pm on August 4th, 2010

When we went to Nintendo last week, Wii Party was not on our main list to play. However, after grabbing some Nintendo-made OJ and saddling up some seats, we settled to try it. All three of our epic staff members were perched around their delightful cubes, accompanied by their Wii-motes (including wrist straps for all) and the game begun.

This is where something we didn’t plan for happened: we actually enjoyed it. Wii Party was like a guilty pleasure, intoxicating our mind like a mainstream “indie” album from a hot woman in her 20s. The gameplay is like every other party game out there. You have to go around a board by rolling some dice. Only this time, you play as Miis and the board is actually fun. Random squares would bring up challenge dice, special treats and if you got lucky, a catapult to a square to the other side of the board.

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Nintendo | Nintendo Wii | Previews | Social Gaming

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Discovering the Mana Bar

Posted by Matt Purslow at 4:47pm on July 29th, 2010

We’ve all done it at some point. Crowded around a TV, Xbox and Guitar Hero; half a bottle of whiskey flowing through the blood stream and some bizarre cocktail of God-knows-what in our hands, attempting to beat Hysteria’s complicated bass line on expert.

Not all of us try and do this for a living, however. But for a few guys in Brisbane, Australia; the dream of playing Guitar Hero whilst drunk every night is now a massively successful profession. (Well, perhaps not being drunk, but certainly watching others do it from the other side of the bar.)

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Features | Gaming Culture | Social Gaming

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Google invests in Zynga

Posted by Chris Holmes at 12:56pm on July 12th, 2010

Google has invested around $100 million to $200 million in Zynga, the company behind Farmville and Mafia Wars. Zynga have raised half a billion dollars in venture capital over the past year, and it looks like Google’s contribution has confirmed that Zynga’s games will be part of a Google Games service when it’s released in 2011. Google Games will be focused on social games and will enable gamers to track what they’re playing. Zynga are currently rolling in money, with the company having made $350 million this year. That’s 50% of their operating profit. 2011 revenue is expected to reach $1 billion.

Industry News | News | PC | Social Gaming

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