Windstorm Studios shows off two concept art pieces
Since the closure of Ensemble Studios there have been many teams working on exciting games. We have seen iPhone games from developers FuzzyCube and NewToy and now its time to get a first glimpse at a larger scale game as Windstorm Studios headed up by past Ensemble Programmer Dusty Monk today releases two concept art images for the mysterious MMO game.
Dusty Monk has been eager to launch an MMO title for sometime and worked on the Halo MMO at Ensemble Studios considerably. We hope now that with the right investment and publishing partners Dusty will be able to fulfill his dream of getting his own MMO out there. Hopefully with the GDC soon coming up Dusty will be able to prove the project is exciting and maybe we’ll get some more information about the futuristic (flying cars and all that) game!
For more details and wallpaper friendly versions of these excellent images head over to the Windstorm website!
Dave Pottingers Lego mission is complete + NewToy launch new iPhone game “Words with Friends”
Kicking off today’s ex Ensemble Studios members updates is Dave Pottinger who has updated his blog over on the Robot Entertainment with the final installment of the Lego Robot Logo design. With a bunch of new pictures and text discussing how the board came to be mounted proudly on the wall of Robot Entertainment can be found on the website.
Carrying the Logo
In case you were wondering from the last blog what the mini lego adventures were on each letter of the logo I can reveal from the blog that the list is as follows:
• Star Wars for the ‘r’
• Indy for the first ‘o’
• Medieval for the ‘b’ (hey, we did do Age2 after all!)
• Pirates for the second ‘o’
• Batman for the ‘t’
And here’s what they look like:
Mission Complete!
But of course all this wouldnt of been possible with out Mr “Lead Designer” Dave Pottinger and his family!
Standing proud with the family… away from the Bad Guys!
But thats not all!
Its been a little while but it looks like NewToy one of the iPhone development companies that formed out of Ensemble has released thier new game titled “Words with Friends” the game follows in the “With friends” series with NewToy’s last game, “Chess with friends” proving to be a real hit on the Apple App Store. NewToy is lead by the Bettner Brothers of Ensemble Studios. You can download thier latest game right now from the App Store!
Be sure to read all about it on the New Toy website!
Graeme Devine working at Apple’s iPhone group on mystery project
Graeme Devine who was Ensemble’s Lead Designer and Lead Writer for Halo Wars has now confirmed that he is working for Apple in the companies iPhone group. It seems yet another ex-Microsoft employee is working for products on Apple’s iPhone along with the Bettner brothers (NewToy) and FuzzyCube software.
What is Graeme working on at Apple? Well we wont have much longer to wait to find out as he is currently preparing for the WWDC on Monday. Perhaps he will be leading a new in house Apple games unit? Who knows, but hes certainly someone to be looking out for at the WWDC.
More news tomorrow when we should find out what hes up to! Good luck at the WWDC Graeme!
Link: http://kotaku.com/5281682/halo-wars-7th-guest-dev-lands-job-at-apple
“World War Robot” the next iPhone game to come from NewToy
NewToy formed by ex Ensemble programmers David and Paul Bettner who left Ensemble before its closure have announced thier second iPhone game “World War Robot”. The official press release from NewToy follows:
WORLD-RENOWNED CREATORS JOIN FORCES FOR NEW IPHONE GAME
May 5th, 2009 – McKinney, Texas – Newtoy, an independent video game developer, is pleased to announce it is collaborating with acclaimed artist and creator Ashley Wood, renowned for his work on the graphic novels Popbot and Zombies vs. Robots and credited with creating one of the world’s first digital comics for the Sony PSP – Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel. Newtoy is partnering with Wood to bring his WORLD WAR ROBOT universe to life in a new game designed exclusively for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
In World War Robot, the human race is split by religion and politics as they wage a savage war between Earth and Mars. Giant robots augment the destruction with incredible battles, intense human/robot drama, a little black humor and some political intrigue thrown into the mix in this epic story.
“We share a dream for a new kind of game development,” said Paul Bettner, creative director at Newtoy. “World class game makers from around the globe – artists and illustrators, designers, musicians, coders – joining forces to craft the highest quality entertainment experiences on the most cutting edge game platforms. We are moving away from the monolithic studio model of development. We want to redefine the way video games are made. This collaboration with Ashley is that dream, realized.”
Of the partnership, Wood says, “I’m excited to team up with game creators who I have admired and, more importantly, whose games I have enjoyed playing over the years!”
About Ashley Wood
Ashley Wood is an internationally acclaimed artist and creator. He lives with his wife, three children and cat in Australia. Ashley has been making up pictures and ideas for a long time and has worked with major publishing and entertainment companies, including Dreamworks, Warner Bros, Sony, Konami, Vivendi International, Random House, Marvel Comics and Todd McFarlane Productions. Ashley’s work has appeared in books, movies, magazines, comics, television and video games. Ashley is a three-time Spectrum Award winner and a two-time Communication Arts award winner and the co owner of 3A Toys. His personal website is: http://ashleybambaland.blogspot.com.
About Newtoy
Founded in 2008, Newtoy is the realization of two brothers, Paul and David Bettner, creators of the internationally best-selling Age of Empires series and most recently the highly anticipated Halo Wars strategy game for the Xbox 360. Paul and David bring nearly two decades of industry experience to Newtoy, with over twenty million units sold and multiple “Game of the Year” awards. Together, they share a vision for creating revolutionary games for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Newtoy’s website is: http://newtoyinc.com.