Casual Gaming Studio Gamer-Party Opens In UK

Gamer-Party Limited, a casual games developer founded by two former employees of Atari, Electronic Arts, and Vodafone, has opened in the UK and launched a free-to-play portal. The new site, titled Gamer Party, is currently in its alpha phase and is slated for a beta release in the fourth quarter of 2010. So far, the portal only has one title, an online multiplayer version of Atari's Worms-like strategy game Dinky Bomb. Gamer-Party says it has started development on two more unannounced titles, and that it plans to release its casual games across "various platforms". The studio is enlisting the help of volunteers from its community to not only influence the development of its new titles, but become directly involved in their production. "We want to provide a really deep online experience for people and have enlisted the help of those who will be playing the games," says Richard Jeffery, co-founder of Gamer-Party Limited and formerly an online community coordinator at Electronic Arts. Jeffery adds, "The casual games industry really represents a lot of opportunities to us right now, and we’re hopeful of rolling out a full beta release of our games and site by the end of this year."