Wildlife Tycoon Developer Donates To African Habitats

Author: by Staff

Indie developer Pocketwatch Games has announced that it's donating a percentage of its 2006 income from IGF fondation Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa to The WILD Foundation, a Boulder, CO based non-profit dedicated to protecting animal habitats in Africa. According to a statement from the firm, as well as donating 4% of its income from last year, Pocketwatch Games will also motivate others to support The WILD Foundation by providing a link to the WILD website in their upcoming game, Venture Arctic. The upcoming titles also requires players to deal with challenges facing modern ecosystems such as global warming and deforestation. The cash donation is significant since it is coming from an independent video game studio. Typically, "indie" studios operate on such a small budget that they cannot afford to make charitable contributions. Pocketwatch Games founder Andy Schatz, also the MC for the CMP Game Group-run Independent Games Festival for 2007, was the sole programmer and designer of Torque-powered PC title Venture Africa, which had a total development budget of 8,000 dollars. "When we released Venture Africa, we made a promise to our customers that we would help to protect the animals that inspired us," said Andy Schatz, CEO and Founder of Pocketwatch Games. "I know our donation to The WILD Foundation is working directly to protect the precious animal habitats in Africa."