Super interesting news from Robin Hunicke — formerly designer and producer on games like Boom Blox, Journey and Glitch — and Martin ‘Pizzacity‘ Middleton, who joined thatgamecompany in 2006 to work on the PS3 port of flOw before creating much of the underlying technology of both Flower and Journey, as both have announced the foundation of Funomena, a new San Francisco based indie studio.

The duo have also announced that they’ll be collaborating with a number of TGC alum & friends including Journey and Monaco composer Austin Wintory, former thatgamecompany art director Matt Nava, and SuperBetter design director and San Francisco Global Game Jam organizer Chelsea Howe for their upcoming projects.

While there’s no formal announcement of their first project, Hunicke has hinted that they’ll be working with a non-profit on a game involving the use of pedometers, in an effort to tackle issues like childhood obesity — keep an eye on the Funomena blog to see more as the project takes shape.

Every month, as part of the regular monthly meetings of the Austin, TX independent game community JUEGOS RANCHEROS, we do a very casual & chatty rundown of the ten or so games from the previous month — both local and global, and both indie and occasionally a bit-bigger-budget — for the audience, to give people — especially those curious onlookers from outside the indie community itself — a look at what they may have missed.

In keeping with the tongue-in-tobacco-packed-cheek tone, we call these run-downs A Fistful of Indies, which are be presented here on Venus Patrol for your reference, each fully-annotated, -linked, and off-the-cuff blurbed, in addition to their home on the JUEGOS RANCHEROS site.

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