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Indie Fund selects The Swapper as next investment
Eerie and remarkable puzzle platformer The Swapper, last seen at Indiecade last year, has been chosen as the next financed title by the Indie Fund. The fund, put together by a team of indie developers, is designed to make sure developers of great games get the money they need to reach players. Past recipients of the Fund include games like Q.U.B.E. and Dear Esther, both of which recouped their investment very quickly.So if you weren't already on the lookout for The Swapper, time to get out the telescope. The game is made by two young developers from the University of Helsinki (who told Joystiq that the title's unique graphical look was made using pictures of models built with clay), and though they've said it will likely arrive on "PC and Mac, maybe something else," they haven't announced release plans just yet.
RMT company Live Gamer to work with virtual economist
Live Gamer, the legit Real Money Trading (RMT) company that handles all legal transactions for EverQuest II and other games, has brought on "noted virtual econonomist" Vili Lehdonvirta. Lehdonvirta is a former game designer who now researches virtual consumerism at the University of Helsinki and the Helsinki University of Technology TKK.The prominence of economists and other financial experts in the MMO and virtual world industries has been steadily growing in recent years. For example, CCP's EVE Online hired a full-time economist to work on its staff and to put together quarterly economic reports, among other things.Live Gamer's ambition is to transform an RMT black market that's causing the industry to bleed away potential profits and that's sending waves of instability and frustration through various MMO communities into a legitimate business that can be monitored and controlled by developers with their communities' and business' best interests in mind.[Via MMORPG]
