Chime

Brighton, UK – Nov. 24, 2010 – Chime, the launch title for the charity project OneBigGame, is finally reaching the end of the exclusivity period with the publisher-come-charity. Originally signed for five months, Zoë Mode doubled this exclusivity period to a total of 10 months with 100 percent of their royalties donated to OneBigGame.

After 9:00AM UTC on Dec. 1, 2010, the royalties from sales of Chime on Xbox LIVE® Arcade will fall in line with the Steam® version of the franchise, with five percent of all royalties continuing to be donated to OneBigGame.

“While 100% of our royalty is donated we feel we can freely encourage those who have not had a chance to purchase Chime to use this last opportunity to fully support the OneBigGame initiative,” said Ed Daly, general manager, Zoe Mode. “We have very much enjoyed working with OneBigGame on this unique venture and although this marks a change for Chime it is far from the end of the relationship.”

The title update that will debrand the product and alter the statement of charitable contributions also contains a gift to the hardened Chime players on XBLA. Players quite early on managed to defeat the game and gain extraordinarily high scores; however, the score maximum was capped resulting in what players dubbed ‘the Eight Nines’ and a leaderboard topped with identical scores.

“Now that this cap has been removed it will finally be possible to discover the best Chime players in the world,” stated Brynley Gibson, game director, Zoe Mode. “This fix has been a long time coming and is absolutely one made for the fans; we hope it tides them over until we can announce our plans for where we are taking Chime next.”

The project has clearly been a success for all involved and has proven that charity in games can work. Very shortly Zoë Mode will hand over a check to Martin De Ronde, director of One Big Game, for the soon to be disclosed final amount. De Ronde commented, “We could not be happier with the success of our first game at OneBigGame and once again thanks to everyone at Zoë Mode for their hard work and generosity and in particular for extending the fund raising period. The money raised is going to make a difference and will help children around the world as we pass it on to our partners at Save the Children and Starlight Children’s Foundation.”

Due to the critical success of the title the developer, who recouped not a single development cost from the XBLA project, continues to work on further fully commercial iterations.

Further Information

5% of all royalties from Chime for Xbox LIVE® Arcade and Chime for PC on Steam® will be donated to OneBigGame. 100% of the proceeds from the Xbox LIVE® Arcade version of Chime for Xbox 360® have benefited OneBigGame since the game’s release up to 1/12/2010.

Chime is available on Xbox LIVE® Arcade at the price of 400 MS Points. For more information, please visit http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/c/Chimexbla/

Chime is available on Steam® priced $4.99 (check Steam® for alternative currency prices). For more information, please visit http://store.steampowered.com/app/62100/

For more information about Chime, please visit www.Chimegame.com

About Chime

Chime is an addictive block puzzle experience with a clever musical twist. Players must place pentomino-shaped blocks together to form quads and by doing so, cover an underlying grid. As players work towards solving the puzzle against the clock, their actions reform and remix the music tracks. Every piece placed plays a note, every quad created triggers a musical phrase and as the coverage grows so does the backing track. The original Chime on Xbox 360® contained music from acclaimed artists; Moby, Paul Hartnoll (Orbital), Philip Glass, Fred Deakin (Lemon Jelly) and Marcus Schulz, all of whom donated their work to the charity initiative. Chime for PC on Steam contains an additional exclusive level based on the track ‘Still Alive’, written by Jonathan Coulton for Valve’s hit game Portal.

About Zoë Mode

Zoë Mode make games that are accessible; simple, social games that are effortlessly fun but don’t take themselves too seriously. Based in Brighton and San Francisco, Zoë Mode’s diverse work force is unified by its attitude to gaming. Zoë Mode believes that games are powerful ways of bringing people together; that there is more to life than gaming, but that gaming can make life better; and strongly believes that there is a game for everyone. Zoë Mode is part of Kuju Entertainment Limited.

All of Zoë Mode’s services are provided at no cost to OneBigGame.

To learn more about Zoë Mode, please visit www.zoemode.com or contact anna.morris@zoemode.com / T: +44(0)1273 573600.

About OneBigGame

OneBigGame aims to raise funds to help solve problems afflicting children around the world. The nature of these problems can be diverse, but the kind of projects OneBigGame supports will always revolve around a structural improvement in children’s lives, expanding their opportunities in life.

OneBigGame raises funds by publishing games kindly donated pro bono by established names in game development, in conjunction with support from the development community as a whole. The games will be published on the dedicated games portal OneBigGame.org, as well as through a variety of PC and console download channels.

OneBigGame always aims to donate a minimum of 80 percent of all donations to its charity partners Save the Children and Starlight Children’s Foundation. To learn more about OneBigGame, please visit www.onebiggame.org