Zoë Mode Blog

Music based puzzler Chime comes to PC and Steam with exclusive content donated by Valve for Charity game initiative OBG.

Brighton, UK, August 2010 – Today, Zoë Mode announced the move of the well received Xbox LIVE® Arcade for Xbox 360® puzzle title Chimeto Windows PC through the Steam® platform.

As well as including all the great tracks, fiendish levels and modes from the XBLA version, Chime on Steam® will have a wider range of controls suitable for PC and an exclusive 6th level based on the track ‘Still Alive’, written by Jonathan Coulton for Valve’s hit game Portal.

“Due to the critical success of Chime, we wanted to bring the title to other platforms and to continue the franchise” says Ed Daly, General Manager of Zoë Mode. “Supporting OneBigGame is very important to us. Thanks to Valve’s donation of the ‘Still Alive’ track, we have been able to create exclusive additional content, making the Steam version of Chime a unique experience that we hope will be particularly appreciated by Portal fans.”

Director of OneBigGame, Martin de Ronde said “Next to being extremely excited about this new extension of the Chime franchise, we are extremely grateful for them extending the links with OneBigGame’s charity efforts beyond the original game for Xbox and donating again to our initiative. Once again it was a pleasure to work with Zoë Mode on this and we’re confident the game, with the additional level, will delight fans of Chime.”

5% of all royalties of Chime for Windows PC will be donated to OneBigGame. 100% of the proceeds from the Xbox LIVE® Arcade version of Chime for Xbox 360® have already benefited OneBigGame since the game’s release.

Chime is available on Steam® from the start of September 2010, price to be announced. For more information, please visit http://store.steampowered.com/app/62100/

Chime is still available on Xbox LIVE® Arcade at the price of 400 MS Points. For more information, please visit http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/c/chimexbla/.

For more information about Chime in general, please visit www.chimegame.com

Download the PDF of the full press release here

Weekly Audio Horror Fiction

He says, “We’re receiving some great stories from authours around the world, so many it’s hard to manage the number of submissions. This is thanks to some generous regular donors, who have enabled us to make Cast Macabre a paying short fiction market, listed in writers’ resources sites, Ralan and Duotrope. Also, podcasters from around the world star as guest narrators each week.”

One of our smashing artists is also a great photographer. You can check out his work here and here.

Woot!

Fresh from the musical mind of our colleague, Stick.

Here it be.

Daito Manabe, alternative interface and sound artist, was commissioned by W+K Tokyo for Nike Japan to create these musical shoes. Using a combination of flex sensors and accelerometers the footwear was made ‘interactive’. The sound signals were then converted to awesome effect.

Our lovely Chime gang ran a Haiku competition… the winner is Eric Diepeveen:

Mesmerizing sounds
Clearing my mind of fragments
Moving, filling voids

Cool stuff! Thanks Eric.

Yes, apparently so. In a restaurant in Shanghai. Fancy that.

Photo: Grant Arthur © 2010

We do like this website: http://xkcd.com

Especially the latest edition:

If there were a Dadaist web design award then Yvette and her trusty sidearm, the ever reliable Yahoo! SiteBuilder, would certainly be on the shortlist for a Palme d’Or.

We love this site because it highlights just what a stylistic leveler design is, on occasion. Design isn’t just for the ivory towered, glass-housed Adobeites, it really can be for everyone.

Yvette, her passion, and a little help from MS Paint has proven this.

Check it out right here!

Our lovely Californian team have just relocated to a new office. All the gang in Brighton are trying very hard not to be jealous of their weather as we look out onto a wet and windy day.

Here they are:
594 Howard Street, Suite 300
San Francisco, CA 94105