Casual News – April 17, 2009

Game designer Ernest Adams discusses the "creeping return of the adventure game" in his latest Designer’s Notebook column for Gamasutra; NASCAR star Jeff Gordon tells us how much he loves the Wii; and Gamezebo goes behind the game with The Tales of Bingwood and Wandering Willows. These headlines and more behind the cut.

News

• Her Interactive announces collaboration with MSN Games to distribute popular Nancy Drew series
• Create toys and treats in new PC game Everything Nice
• Nintendo to launch this summer the long-awated Wii MotionPlus to improve controller accuracy
• MTV Games, Harmonix and EA reveal contents and European pricing for The Beatles: Rock Band
• Outspark invites game publishers to cash in on casual MMO game portal
• Scoreloop launches social gaming platform for iPhone
• Professor Heinz Wolff’s Gravity drops into retail
• hi5 partners with PlaySpan to launch micropayments for virtual goods and premium content available to its 62 million member community
• TikGames and Creat Studios to release Booster Packs for three PlayStation Network games

Features

• Late to the iPhone, Digital Chocolates’ Trip Hawkins falls in love with it
• The Designer’s Notebook: The genre that would not die!
• Report: WiiWare’s minimum sales threshold affects developers
• Wii king, "Rock Band" star drummer Jeff Gordon
• Behind the Game: Wandering Willows
• Behind the Game: The Tales of Bingwood: To Save a Princess
• Interview: Inside WildTangent’s Quieter Life
• Interview: Halfbrick Studios

Erin Bell