Round-Up: Disney's Game Cafe, Game Calendar, Neighbors

Today's round-up includes news of Disney's new casual game portal, information on a charity video game calendar, and a 'serious game' from Champlain College dealing with differences in class, as well as today's product news and Gamasutra job postings. - Disney Online has launched Disney's Game Café, a Disney-branded site for downloadable and casual web games. The site, which is meant to cater to an older audience than the existing Disney's Online Game Downloads, will premier with 20 games in its catalog. Among the initial offerings are Cubis 2 Gold, Word Mojo Gold, Diner Dash, Subway Scramble, Bejeweled 2, Chuzzle, Zuma, Bookworm, Rocket Mania, Insaniquarium, AstroPop, Typer Shark, Dynomite, Pixelus, and Big Money. The games will retail from $9.95 to $19.95. - The 2006 CCT Game Calendar, which features concept art from recent and upcoming games, is now available for preorders shipping January 2, 2006. The calendar will include art from titles such as Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone, Dark Age of Camelot, The Witcher, Dragonshard, and Alone in the Dark. Half of the profits from the calendar will be donated to the Józef Tischner Fund of Home Hospice for Children, a Polish charity for terminally ill patients. Those interested in preordering a copy can place orders and see sample artwork at the calendar website. - A cross-departmental exercise in serious game development will result in Neighbor Keepers, a project recently launched at Champlain College in Vermont. The game will serve as an educational aid in elementary schools on the subject of socioeconomic class differences and social mobility. The two-year project is being headed up by professors in various disciplines, including Market Research, Consumer Behavior and Research, Oral History, and Electronic Game Design and Development. A working prototype of the game is expected to take shape in 2007, with the final release later that year. - Also updated today: product news, including Di-O-Matic's release of its 3DS Max Character Pack, and the latest Gamasutra job postings, including positions from Activision/Raven Software, Activision/Vicarious Visions, Amaze Entertainment, Blue Fang Games, Factor 5, Heavy Iron Studios, Networking People, Perpetual Entertainment, Point Of View, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Ternary Software, and THQ.