Backed by a group of proven independent game developers, a new organization has launched with an aim to buck the traditional game publisher funding model by providing financing to up and coming game creators.

Indie Fund is comprised of Ron Carmel (pictured) and Kyle Gabler from 2D Boy (World of Goo), Jonathan Blow of Number One (Braid), Kelle Santiago from thatgamecompany (fl0wer), Nathan Vella of Capy (Critter Crunch), Matthew Wegner from Flashbang Studios (Off-Road Velociraptor Safari) and Aaron Isaksen of AppAbove Games (Armadillo Gold Rush).

The company’s goal is to, “is to support the growth of games as a medium by helping indie developers get financially independent and stay financially independent.”

Gamasutra has a Q&A on its site with Carmel, who offered some additional insight into the new venture. He indicated that funding discussions are already underway with several indie developers and that Indie Fund is equipped to back “a few games a year for two to three years.”

Carmel added:

Most developers today fund their games by bootstrapping or by signing a publishing deal. In many cases, those indies that sign a publishing deal don't really need a publisher; they just need funding and can easily handle everything else themselves.

Carmel will disclose more information on the project in a lecture at next week’s Game Developers Conference.

|Image from Flickr|

In a setback for Hollywood, an Australian judge has ruled that an Internet Service Provider (ISP) is not liable for the illegal downloads of its customers.

The case was originally filed in 2008 by the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) on behalf of 34 movie studios, including Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox and Disney. The suit, as noted on the Sydney Morning Herald website, alleged that ISP iiNet, Australia's third-largest, was liable for authorizing copyright infringement on its network because it did nothing to warn or disconnect users downloading illegal goods, despite repeated notifications from the movie studios.

iiNet, for its part, argued that it was not required to act upon “mere allegations” of copyright infringement and that customers were innocent until proven guilty. It likened the lawsuit to suing an electric company for things people might use electricity for.

The conclusion of an eight-week long trial saw Federal Court Justice Dennis Cowdroy issue a ruling in iiNet’s favor, in which he stated that the ISP was a legitimate communications company that was neither intended nor designed to infringe copyright.

Justice Cowdroy continued:

iiNet is not responsible if an iiNet user uses that system to bring about copyright infringement ... the law recognises no positive obligation on any person to protect the copyright of another.

AFACT’s Executive Director Neil Gane indicated that the decision would be reviewed before a decision on an appeal was decided.

He added:

…we believe this decision was based on a technical finding centred on the court’s interpretation of how infringements occur and the ISP's ability to control them.

Expect an appeal.


Thanks Grant and CMiner!

A recently released iPhone/iPod Touch game pins the U.S. recession on the collapse of a bank that was infiltrated by giant maggots from outer space.

The Bank, from Primus Productions, drops players into the game after the collapse of the one bank that started the whole economic downturn (Sun Valley Bank in Bells, Montana) and allows them to mow down said maggots while piloting a flying car named “Sally” that is outfitted with a variety of weapons.

A self-described $18.00 marketing budget resulted in the embedded video at left and a second that can be viewed at YouTube.

A video featuring game play footage can be seen here.

The Bank is available for $2.99 from the iTunes Store and is rated 12+.

Fighting a war on terror demands that military personnel be able to quickly react and adapt to enemy tactics—traits which improve from playing videogames.

Research currently being undertaken by the Office of Naval Research is showing that videogame training is having “surprising” results in helping military personnel adapt to the challenges of fighting terrorists, according to a story on the Department of Defense website.

Ray Perez, a Program Officer for the Office of Naval Research’s Warfighter Performance department, offered comment on what the group’s research has uncovered so far:

We have discovered that video game players perform 10 to 20 percent higher in terms of perceptual and cognitive ability than normal people that are non-game players.

Using the term “fluid intelligence” to describe such field adaptability, Perez believes that cognitive advances gleaned from playing games can last for up to two and a half years.

He continued:

We know that video games can increase perceptual abilities and short-term memory. They allow the player to focus longer and expand the player’s field of vision compared to people who don’t play video games.

We think that these games increase your executive control, or your ability to focus and attend to stimuli in the outside world.

Perez’s group is looking to advance the integration of videogames into training, eventually hoping to be able to “blur the distinction between training and operations.”

We’ve all been there as gamers—someone attacks the pastime we love and the immediate tendency is for us to come back firing wildly, casting our own dispersions (sometimes angrily) in the process.

A reflective piece on Bitmob cautions that this tendency to lambaste game critics doesn’t always reflect well on the gaming populace. In “Gamers Are Too Defensive,” Jeffrey Michael Grubb writes:

…the complications of hot-blooded passion often pave a path directly to irrational behavior and a tendency to be overly defensive. If a gamer wants to be defined by his passion, there isn't anything perverse about that.  However, the perception of gaming is tarnished when gamers defend it from every misconception and ill-informed pundit.

Grubb offers advice for dealing with the trolls:

They are a lost cause. What can be done about someone who looks even at the tiniest offense and becomes excited about having something to get enraged about?

While it is infuriating when cable news channels misrepresent a game to make it appear more violent or sexually explicit than it really is, we have to laugh these occurrences off -- as many of you already do.

Grubb offers a great analogy for dealing with game critics, saying that we should act like Barry Sanders, the all-world ex-Detroit Lions running back who used to simply hand a referee the ball after scoring a touchdown:

Barry Sanders treated scoring a touchdown as if it were no big deal to him, because he had been in the end-zone before, and he would be there again. That is how we need to treat our passion. Video games will take their place next to music, movies, and books simply because we know that is where video games belong.

Using Avatar as a benchmark, a USA Today opinion piece praises the mainstream adoption of fantasy in media such as movies, novels and videogames.

The author wonders if the popularity of World of Warcraft, The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter indicates that today’s society is obsessed with escapism, or the ability to leave the real-world behind for the chance to immerse oneself in a fantasy world.

The scribe answers with a resounding no, and offers a positive spin on the new state of geek (and gaming) culture:

I've met hundreds of gamers and geeks. Their reasons for embracing fantasy and gaming aren't about mindless escapism. Games teach social skills, leadership and strategy; they inspire creativity and storytelling.

They provide rites of passage, accomplishment and belonging, even belief systems. They let people safely try out aspects of their personalities — often dark, evil sides, or extroverted or flirtatious — that they can't or won't flex in "real life." The games connect folks to magical thinking, to nature, to a primal, pick-up-your-battle-ax and kill mentalities long suppressed by so-called society.

As an added bonus, the author writes, the ability to insert ourselves into a different world—even if only for a short time—allows us to mitigate the “minutiae of our modern, mundane troubles.”

Amen.

The New York State Senate has overwhelmingly passed a bill which bans texting, playing video games or surfing the Internet while driving, reports Buffalo Business First.

The measure, which previously was approved by the New York Assembly, now goes to Gov. David Paterson, who is expected to sign it into law. If so, the new regulations will take effect in November.

Newsday offers a comment from bill sponsor Sen. Martin Dilan (D):

This is a long-overdue safety measure for New York. Texting and burgeoning [portable electronic] technologies continue to pose serious, and sometimes fatal, distractions to drivers of all ages.

Violators of the new law will be subject to a $150 fine. However, the ban on portable electronics is considered a secondary offense, which means that it could only be levied if a driver is pulled over for another violation.