Michael Newman and his Los Angeles-based interactive development and product design company Pomp Productions has created an interesting game called Video Game Sans Video. Recently shown off at the 2013 Maker Faire, and highlighted by Discovery, Video Game Sans Video is a clever contraption that lets players navigate a space ship in four directions (up, down, forward and back).

THQ's former president Jason Rubin offers high praise to Metro Last Light developer 4A Games, describing the challenging conditions that the company was in as it developed the latest game - Metro: Last Light - in the popular post-apocalyptic first-person shooter series. Rubin also took a few jabs at the game's new publisher for its PR push related to the game, but a representative from Deep Silver decided to punch back at Rubin's allegations.

The Peter Thiel Foundation (founded by the former CEO and co-founder of PayPal) announced the third set of young entrepreneurs to be awarded 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowships. These new "Thiel Fellows" will receive $100,000 from the Thiel Foundation as well as mentorship from the Foundation’s network of entrepreneurs over a two year period.

Three former Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) America employees have struck out on their own to create a new independent and digital content publishing company located in Los Angeles called Acttil. The name is an acronym for "acceptance +creativity +teamwork +trust +innovation +love." The studio features the talents of long-time and now former NIS America employees Jack Niida, Hiroko Kanazashi, and Nao Miyazawa.

Digital Eel's Rich Carlson let us know that the Kickstarter for the next chapter in its rogue-like space adventure game, Infinite Space 3: Sea of Stars, managed to raise $36,661 from 1,764 backers. Digital Eel was originally asking for $30,000, but managed to rake in a little extra.

Four coding schools just for young girls and women are trying to change the number of females that program (and give girls more STEM-focused educational opportunities) in the United States - as highlighted in this ReadWriteWeb feature. The start-ups catering to women and girls aspiring to learn how to code include Girl Develop It, Black Girls Code, Girls Who Code, and Girls Learning Code/Ladies Learning Code.

Develop offers an interesting feature on Global Gaming Initiative founder Elizabeth Sarquis, who details why she started the mobile game development studio. GGI will release a new mobile game in May called Sidekick Cycle for $0.99. Sidekick Cycle downhill biking game challenges players to cycle through hazardous levels to deliver bikes to children in need.

A DePaul University report says that the Chicago game development space once dominated by titans such as Midway Games and Electronic Arts is now being mostly powered by independently owned and operated small to medium sized game studios. These studios are focusing on mobile platforms and social games, and many feature a mix of both industry veterans and newcomers trying to make a name for themselves in the industry while remaining faithful to the area.

Over the weekend, a Philadelphia skyscraper was transformed into the world’s largest video game by a Drexel University professor who used the building’s lighting system to display a working version of Pong.

The gigantic game of Pong was the creation of Drexel professor Frank Lee, who has spent the last five years working on the idea.

The former staff members of Zynga Boston have managed to raise $2.25 million for a new game development start-up called Proletariat. The new studio managed to raise all of its funds through an equity funding run, according to an SEC filing by the new company.

Harvey Smith's new book Big Jack is Dead is now available on Amazon.com, and it draws quite a bit of inspiration from his own life.

IndieCade announced today that it is now accepting game submissions from independent game artists, creators, and designers. Those interested in getting in on this indie game competition can submit interactive media of all types for the 2013 International Festival of Independent Games through the IndieCade website. Works-in-progress submissions are also encouraged.

Project Awakened recently suffered a major setback when the Kickstarter campaign asking for $500,000 in crowd-funding missed the mark by $161,502. Being so close to the goal and garnering the support of 6,287 backers,

Phosphor Games has decided that it will try again - but this time it will do it without the help of Kickstarter. Right now those backers who want to see this open-ended super powered action game world come alive can fund it again at www.projectawakened.com.

A man sentenced to ten years in prison for robbing two men for $110 and their driver's licenses in 1999 spent a good portion of his time playing chess and developing a new puzzle-based game that uses the classic board game to teach children how to make good choices in life. Nkosi Brown said that he spent much of his time in prison playing chess to avoid fighting with guards and other inmates and during his time in solitary confinement he would play chess with other isolated inmates by yelling out moves and using a chess board scrawled onto the floor.

Eurogamer details a bittersweet story of one Total War: Rome 2 fan who was immortalized in the game, but the 24-year-old named "James" who inspired developers Creative Assembly when he visited the studio, would later lose his fight with liver cancer.

Media Molecule co-founder and studio director Siobhan Reddy has been named Australian Woman of the Year in the U.K. for 2013. The award is sponsored by Qantas Airways and the networking organization Australian Business.

Reddy was born in Sydney but migrated to the United Kingdom in the 1990s. She is in charge of the Guildford, U.K.-based studio that developed the LittleBigPlanet series and is hard at work on its latest IP called Tearaway. She was honored with the award last night in London.

Polygon has an interesting interview with Plague Inc. developer James Vaughan, who reveals to the publication that he has been asked to speak to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. Plague Inc. is a unique strategy game for iOS that lets the play take control of a deadly pathogen and infect one person - patient zero - with the end goal being to spread the plague to every corner of the globe.

A new Kickstarter campaign has been launched to raise $125,000 to create a documentary about the "queer side of gaming," or the LGBTQ presence in the game industry and in the gaming community. The documentary is called "Gaming In Color: Queers and Gaymers of the Pixelated World" and hopes to expose the masses to another side of gaming culture - a side that is often hidden among the dudebros and gamer gurls of the community.

inXile raised millions with its first Kickstarter campaign for Wasteland 2, and within six hours of launching its latest crowd-funding campaign for the spiritual sequel to Planescape: Torment, it has hit its goal of $900,000. It looks like they'll be spending the next 30 days left in the campaign to come up with crazy stretch goals. Torment: Tides of Numenera is a single-player role-playing game, and a sort-of spiritual successor to Interplay / Black Isle Studios hit CRPG Planescape: Torment.

Valve has revealed the next 12 software titles that have been approved by the community as part of its Steam Greenlight system.

Over the weekend, two Newtown, Connecticut residents opened a family friendly video game arcade in the town called the Sandy Hook Arcade Center (as reported by Polygon). The all-ages arcade is meant to help the town heal and promote family values in the aftermath of the elementary school shooting in December where 26 human lives were lost as the result of a shooting rampage by a lone gunman.

Kill Screen Daily points out some inspiring news for gamers in general and for Legend of Zelda fans in particular: Dark Horse Comics and Nintendo's collaborative hardcover book on the history of Hyrule, "The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia," is the top selling book on Amazon and has managed to top the