NYC Councilor Urges Sex Game Boycott

Anti-violence advocates are taking a stand against a video game in which players stalk and rape a mother and her two daughters. The New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault called on all video game distributors in the U.S. to refrain from selling the title.

 

Large Animal Launches Twivia

New York based Large Animal Games have launched their first ever game for the uber-popular online social networking channel Twitter.

 

NYC's Cafe.com Closed For Business

Sources close to the company report that the NYC branch of Cafe.com, the former headquarters for the company, has shuttered its doors. Launched in 2007, Cafe.com published and distributed single-player and multiplayer casual games for its social gaming network. Since then, it has moved into developing applications for Facebook. Paris will now be the headquarters.

Emerald City Released

PlayFirst, Inc., the award-winning entertainment company that created casual game hits Diner Dash®, Chocolatier® and Dream Chronicles®, has announced the release of Emerald City Confidential(TM). This noir-inspired adventure game lets fans explore the shadowy underbelly of the Emerald City as Petra, a down-on-her-luck private investigator.

 

Creatives Make New York City Recession-Resistant

In an essay for The Atlantic Online, Richard Florida argues that New York City may not be as badly affected by the recession as other cities.  Although Wall Street layoffs are in the news, only 8% of jobs in NYC are in the financial sector.  Rather, NYC is home to artists, fashion designers, musicians, film directors, and other creatives.

 

Read an excerpt after the jump!

Quest to Learn Opening Fall 2009

New 6th-12th grade school will use design and game-like learning as pathways to creativity, college and career readiness.

 

Update 2/17/09

So it's been a while since the last update and the team has been pretty busy behind the scenes. There are actually a couple of new and useful features we'd like to quickly point out.

 

Narrative Games with Nick Fortugno

Are video games an empty entertainment or an emergent art form? If games are a form of fiction, where are its great works of emotional power? Nick Fortugno, co-founder of Rebel Monkey, looks at the state of meaningful narrative and drama in digital games and explores the strange new aesthetic possibilities that games offer.

 

NYC Game Dev Growing Despite Economy

One of our readers sent in a link to an article discussing the growth of the New York game development community despite the widespread global economic slowdown.

 

Meet N' Drink February 21st

nycgameindustry.com is having its first ever Meet n' Drink! Come on out and socialize with fellow developers while enjoying a few drinks and some great conversation. Oh, and be sure to bring plenty of quarters cause we'll be at the one and only Barcade in Brooklyn!

 

Update: Barcade is graciously providing everyone who shows up to this event Happy Hour drink prices all night as well as NYCGI reserved seating!