Game Developers Raise Almost $500,000 for Charity

Markus Persson, owner of an independent game development studio, dedicated the resources of his entire company towards a charity drive. 

By Julian Møller

Markus Persson, known as Notch, is the creator of the wildly popular game called Minecraft. 

This weekend he set up a 60- hour drive for charity. Being inspired by competitions, in which contestants produce a computer game in a just a weekend, his company Mojang set up their own so called "jam" over the weekend. 

The theme of the game the company should create was chosen by people on the internet via polls on Mojang's website. The most and least popular options were combined, which resulted in a game that should be an obscure mix between the Real Time Strategy and Shoot 'Em Up genres. The game should be set in a Steampunky Ancient Egypt.

The game jam got set up with help from the people behind the numerous so-called Humble Bundles. The Humble Bundles are collections of different games, that can be bought for whatever amount people feel like. The buyers can even decide, who their money should go to: the game developers, charity organizations, the people organizing the bundle or a combination of the three. These bundles have in the past been very popular, raising many million dollars both for a lot of indie game developers and charities.

This weekend, there were only one option, though: Charity. The money raised during the jam all went to the american Red Cross, Child's Play, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and charity:water.

During friday night, two more game studios joined the action and also vowed to create games for charity: Wolfire Games (the game developers behind the Humble Bundles) and Oxeye Game Studio. When Sunday had passed, the three companies had manage to raise $458,214.95 by selling 81,573 game bundles. 

So in the end, Markus Persson got to keep his beard, which he had promised to shave, had the bundle raised $500,000.

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Humble Bundle www.humblebundle.com

Mojang www.mojang.com

Wolfire Games www.wolfire.com

Oxeye Game Studio www.oxeyegames.com 

Electronic Frontier Foundation www.eff.org 

Child's Play www.childsplaycharity.org

American Red Cross www.redcross.org

charity: water www.charitywater.org