Round-Up: Child's Play 2005, Hermie & Friends, Telltale Does CSI

Today's round-up includes the launch of the Child's Play Charity game-related effort for 2005, as well as Digital Praise's latest God-conversing PC title and Bone developer Telltale Games' latest forensic-related project, plus today's Gamasutra job postings. - The official site for the 2005 Child's Play Charity, which dispenses toys and games to children undergoing long-term hospital therapy, has been launched. The 2005 campaign now includes recipient hospitals in multiple countries, with two in Canada and one in the U.K., as well as 12 in the U.S. Contributors can either buy toys through Amazon.com gift registries, or donate money directly to the charity through a PayPal link. The 2005 contribution target is $350,000, of which roughly $30k has already been donated, so many more contributions will be required to meet the goal. More details are available at the website. - Digital Praise, a developer of Christian-themed games, is developing a title based on Max Lucado's Hermie & Friends video series. FLO: Return of the Water Beetles, meant for children aged 3 to 6, will include several minigames based on the water beetle characters, such as Antonio's Seed Zapper and Webster's Stream. In addition, the game will feature sequences similar to the show where characters talk directly to God to learn life lessons. "Hermie, Wormie, Flo and the rest of the garden gang are engaging, fully-developed characters any young person can identify with," said Digital Praise CEO Tom Bean. "We're looking forward to giving children a richly rewarding play experience through the release of FLO: Return of the Water Beetles." - Ubisoft has announced a new game based on the CSI TV show, to be developed by Telltale Games. Unlike Telltale's other current projects, adventure titles based on the Bone comic book series and Sam & Max: Freelance Detectives, the new CSI game will be standalone rather than episodic. "We take the crime-solving team back to Vegas in a gorgeously rendered 3D environment complete with all the forensic science, tools and technology that players love to use; they will feel like they are part of the Las Vegas team!" The game is scheduled for release on PC in spring 2006. - Also updated today: the latest Gamasutra job postings, including positions from Activision/Shaba Games, Mattel, Realtime Associates, SkillJam, and Smart Bomb Interactive.