Round-Up: Digital Eel-ed, Gardner Eidos-ed, Left Behind

Today's round-up includes information on a publishing deal for a 'short game' PC title, an update on the whereabouts of former O~3 Entertainment president Bill Gardner, and news of games based on the popular Left Behind evangelical novels, as well as the latest product and job news. - Shrapnel Games announced that it will publish Digital Eel's PC space strategy title Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space, an IGF entrant for the 2005 competition and a sequel to a previous IGF award winner. The game offers a randomly generated scenario, dependent upon some initial choices fed into the game, which leads to a different story each time it's played. Weird Worlds is designed to be played in short bursts, with each complete session lasting between ten and thirty minutes. The game, whose prequel is referenced Rich Carlson's recent Gamasutra article regarding short games, in will be released soon for Windows-compatible PCs. - As an update to a recent story regarding the departure of O~3 President Bill Gardner, it's now been confirmed, via consumer site GameSpot, that Gardner has joined the SCi-owned Eidos Interactive to lead the company's North American publishing operations. Gardner was formerly a long-time senior figure at Capcom before founding O~3, the U.S. publisher of Alien Hominid. - The Left Behind series of evangelical novels, dealing with a post-Rapture world in fundamentalist eschatology, is being prepared for conversion into a real-time strategy game for PCs. Left Behind Games, an outfit formed with the specific intention of creating games based on the novels, will be developing the game, which requires the player to convert units before they can become a part of the Tribulation Forces. (No mention is made of whether multiplayer will allow a second player to control the opposing Satanic forces.) The game is tentatively due for release in early 2006. - Also updated today: product news including information on Havok's physics being used for games by Irrational and Pandemic, as well as the latest industry jobs from companies including Ageia Technologies, Blue Tongue, EA Tiburon, Ensemble Studios, Rockstar North, Trymedia, and VU Games.