Round Up: Geometry, Assassins, Bravery

Today's round-up includes news of a new tiny-sized version of an Xbox Live smash hit, a new Redmond, Washington game representation and licensing service, and a newly founded concept art studio from an 8-year Lionhead veteran, as well as the latest Serious Games Source, Game Career Guide and GameSetWatch posts and Gamasutra job postings. - Sony BMG Music Entertainment has announced that the upcoming release of a mobile version of Xbox Live Arcade favorite Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, which the company will be both publishing and developing. According to the company, the new mobile version will be as faithful to the Bizarre Creations original as possible, delivering the same arcade-style gameplay to handsets. The mobile port will include simple, configurable controls, and 'spectacular' visuals that Sony BMG says will 'mesmerize players.' No release date or carrier information has yet been released. - Former Kemco staffer Douglas Boze has announced the foundation of Assassin Studios, a new Redmond, Washington company which it says will specialize in representing quality video games, be it from developers or publishers, as well as llicensing original music from budding musicians, and will provide game design consultation for an array of platforms: Wii, PSP, PS2, PS3, 360, DS, GBA and Mobile. Previous experience by studio founder Boze includes in game concept submissions, product analysis, final submissions for manufacturing, ESRB submissions, and also contract negiotiations, aquiring IP rights, marketing, manuals - essentially spanning the gamut of the game creation process. More information can be found on the studio's website. - Former Lionhead artist Christian Bravery has announced the foundation of his own studio, Leading Light, to serve as a specialised and dedicated concept art and design service. An eight year veteran of Lionhead, Bravery made 'significant artistic contributions' to many of the developer's top titles, including Black & White and Fable, and served as art director for Black & White 2. The company is currently working on projects for Criterion Games and Storm Front. On the foundation of the studio, Bravery said, “Concept art is the cornerstone of establishing the look and feel of a game. Now that the technical playing field is flattening, it is more important than ever for games developers to establish a stylish, resolved look for their product if it is to stand out from the crowd and compete for market share. Quality concept art can inspire teams, help secure publishing deals and set the whole art team on the right track and of course it’s always useful to have lots of eye candy for PR and marketing departments to use. Leading Light provides unique, original high impact concept art deliverables of extremely high quality.” - New updated on sister site Serious Games Source include a news story regarding the formation of TrainingPort Strategies for creating games for corporate training, and education site Game Career Guide has added info on the ACE 2007 conference. - The latest updates on Gamasutra sister alt.gaming weblog GameSetWatch include 1UP.com's latest retrospective on Grasshopper Manufacture, Inc, a Haiku contest related to GDC for poems about experiences with the Game Developer Conference (!), and a new indie flash game portal, Kongregate. - Also updated today: the latest Gamasutra job postings, including openings from Day 1 Studios, Electronic Arts, Incinerator Studios, NaturalMotion, Relic, Shiny, and Sucker Punch.