Latest news with #CaliforniaFireReliefBundle
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Tunic and 400 other games can be yours for just $10 thanks to a charity Itch.io bundle
Developer Necrosoft Games has assembled another huge bundle of games on to support a good cause. It includes more than 400 games that can be yours if you pony up at least $10 to support wildfire relief efforts in Southern California. Tunic, one of our favorite games of 2022, is arguably the highest-profile game in the California Fire Relief Bundle. Buying this beautiful, Zelda-esque adventure on Steam right now would cost you $30. That alone makes the bundle great value, though it includes over $3,200 worth of games. There are a few other particularly notable games on the list. You may have heard of restaurant sim Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!!, the fairly self-explanatory SkateBird or the utterly ridiculous Octodad: Dadliest Catch. There's also Hidden Folks, a charming puzzle title that we reckon is a great way to help you destress. Hundreds of other lesser-known games await your curiosity too. For instance, there's a pretty puzzle-platformer called Hoa that I've been meaning to get around to. Along with video games, there are physical table-top roleplaying games (including a Bugsnax card game you can print and play), asset packs, books, comics and other projects in the bundle. You'll find a few Playdate games in there as well. Note that there are no Steam keys available through this bundle, but it's not too complicated to set up an launcher on Steam Deck. Organizers are aiming to raise $100,000 for CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort). The Los Angeles-based organization "offers direct monetary support to survivors of the fires and supports projects for fire resilience in affected areas (and potential disaster zones)," the bundle's page states. Save for processing fees, all proceeds will go to CORE. The campaign, which will run until just before midnight ET on March 13, is already over three-quarters of the way to its goal. The wildfires that struck Southern California in early January damaged or destroyed more than 18,000 structures and led to the evacuation of more than 200,000 people. As of February 12, 29 people are known to have died in the fires.
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Just $10 Will Get You Tunic And Over 400 Other Neat Games In The New California Fire Relief Bundle
Over 300 indie creators have pooled their games to create the California Fire Relief Bundle on to get funds into the hands of survivors of the recent devastating wildfires in Southern California. You can help a great cause and play some incredible games for just $10. 'There are more than 400 games, TTRPGs, asset packs, and other projects in this bundle, and we encourage you to donate above the minimum whenever possible,' reads the bundle's description on the DRM-free PC gaming store. 'The fires are now contained, but the people who lost their homes and loved ones will be dealing with this for years to come. We hope you will donate generously.' There are obviously way too many games to name them all, but some of the better-known bundle highlights include the beautiful atmospheric Zelda-like Tunic, the wonderfully illustrated interactive map game Hidden Folks, and the lovely little sci-fi puzzle adventure Cosmic Express. Also the familial destruction physics sim Octodad: Dadliest Catch. I have no idea what most of the games in the bundle are and that's the best part. A small $10 donation (or, if you can, hopefully much more) gets you a ticket to explore tons of interesting creations you might never have engaged with otherwise. Who knows, your favorite game of all time could be sitting in the California Fire Relief Bundle just waiting to be discovered by you. 'Hundreds of game and tabletop game developers have gotten together to create this bundle in support of easing this pain,' the page continues. 'All proceeds, minus processing fees, go to CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort), a Los Angeles-based organization which offers direct monetary support to survivors of the fires, and supports projects for fire resilience in affected areas (and potential disaster zones).' . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
WIRED
27-01-2025
- Entertainment
- WIRED
How an Indie Studio Got 400-Plus Games Into a $10 Bundle to Help LA Fire Victims
Jan 27, 2025 5:47 PM As wildfires and other effects of climate change threaten the future of the region, devs are pulling together to raise funds for those affected. The Hughes Fire grows near Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park and the community of Santa Clarita on January 22, 2025, in Castaic, California. Photograph:Since January 7, wildfires have been burning their way through Los Angeles. The aftermath is devastating, with over 16,000 homes destroyed, drinking water contaminated, and more than two dozen people killed. As longtime residents attempt to rebuild, relief has come in all forms, from donations made to the American Red Cross to people giving to individual families' GoFundMe efforts. Soon, those looking to help will have a new way to give: by buying a video game bundle. The California Fire Relief Bundle is the work of indie studio Necrosoft Games and a collection of volunteers the company's director Brandon Sheffield organized to compile the bundle. From January 12 through January 19, they collected 422 games—including popular titles like Tunic , Octodad: Dadliest Catch , and Hoa —on independent game platform From those, Sheffield says, the collective aims to create the California Fire Relief Bundle, which it'll sell for about $10 a pop, a good price for hundreds of titles. Proceeds from the bundle, which Sheffield aims to launch 'ASAP,' will go to relief efforts aimed at helping Los Angeles-area residents get back on their feet financially. 'I've seen many [people] get priced out because it can be an expensive place to live,' says Sheffield, a California native. 'So when a fire like this reduces total housing, inspires landlords to do price hikes, and gets unhoused folks into even more vulnerable positions, it feels like those of us in stable living positions should do whatever we can.' Los Angeles holds a special place in the heart of the video game industry. It's home to hundreds of developers and studios such as Riot Games, Naughty Dog, and Santa Monica Studio. Before E3 shut down, downtown LA was the conference's longtime home. It's the location of The Game Awards, and the venue for many smaller annual game events. It's in part because of that association, Sheffield says, that developers from everywhere are stepping in to help. But there's another reason, too: climate change. A warming world is increasing the likelihood of wildfires in California. The same is true of hurricanes and other natural disasters. For video game developers, whose work has its own substantial carbon footprint, these environmental impacts are 'a big deal for everyone,' Sheffield says. 'This crisis has deeply affected our teams, with some Rioters losing their homes and many others still evacuated,' Riot wrote in a statement about the fires. The game company also announced its own in-game fundraisers to be held within Valorant and League of Legends . Other video game companies such as Activision and Sony are also donating to relief efforts. According to a recent report from the organizers of the Game Developers Conference, 16 percent of devs surveyed said they'd been impacted by natural disasters in the last year. Seventy-three percent of respondents to the 'State of the Game Industry' report, for which organizers surveyed over 3,000 people, specified that they were impacted by water-related incidents, including hurricanes, floods, and storms. 'Hurricane Milton did some damage at my home office, causing me lots of unexpected financial hardship,' wrote one developer in Florida. 'I'm no longer able to pour money into my business as much as I did before.' Other developers in tropical regions pointed to intense flooding that kept them stranded, or worse. 'Four people in our team were affected by the flood [in the] south of Brazil in May 2024,' a developer wrote. 'One of our colleagues had to seek shelter and couldn't work for three weeks.' Sheffield's own team was also hit hard, and not just by the LA fires. 'This year alone with my small team of eight, we've seen people having to shelter or evacuate from storms, tornados, hurricanes, and wildfires,' Sheffield says. 'One of our artist's parents had to evacuate for this fire event specifically.' Video games, like many organizations in the tech world, play a part in the ongoing climate crisis, from the electricity they use to the environmental issues that arise in their production. Developers are well aware of this. In the past few years, some have made games specifically to help raise awareness; major companies like Epic Games and Microsoft implemented energy-saving features into their games and platforms, respectively. But the rise of artificial intelligence—an unpopular move already among many developers—is doing increasingly more damage as the use of AI balloons. AI also requires a huge amount of energy, which tech companies are currently scrambling to suck up. 'Not only is AI contributing to climate change through emissions, they're driving up energy prices,' says Sheffield, whose LA fires fundraising bundle specifically rejected games that used generative AI. 'A lot of game developers are complicit in this right now, and should maybe give that a real thought.'
