Casual News – Feb. 20, 2009

Gamezebo interviews the makers of Mortimer Beckett; Upper Deck launches a sports-themed virtual world; and certain casual game publishers are still grumbling about Amazon. These headlines and more below.

News

• Tropical Towers named best casual game at International Mobile Gaming Awards
• UKTI launches casual games survey
• Offerpal Media raises $15 million for social monetization platform
• Upper Deck and Flying Lab launch UpperDeckU, sports-themed virtual world
• Roman and Mathieu Nouzareth leave Cafe.com
• Natsume sowing Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming for Nintendo DS this May
• Aurora Feint announces OpenFeint: Social platform for indie phone game developers
• Entertainment Consumers Association introduces new organization – the ECA Institute
• Majesco Entertainment announces Go Play Lumberjacks for Wii

Features

• Casual game leaders unimpressed with Amazon’s gaming push
• Interview with Duke Kostic and Aleksandar Kostic, Paprikari
• The Evolution of Indie
• Behind the Game: Totem Tribe
• Heyzap shows fast growth with its embeddable casual game widget
• Midnight Synergy’s Ten Best Free Games of 2008
• Dice Summit: EA CEO says game companies have to cut the fat, and focus
• 
  Persuasive Games: Video Game Kitsch
  
• Interview: Spiel Studios

Erin Bell