“In Moshi Monsters, users “adopt” one monster from a range of six species to care for. Users are placed in charge of ensuring the monster remains happy and fed by purchasing goods from the local town (either food or furniture and items to decorate their monster’s home) and raises money to purchase these items by taking part in daily Brain Age style puzzles. Players can also play some games in town for fun, plus interact with other users by visiting their monsters’ homes and leaving messages on their pinboards — specifically those that have been designated as “friends” by players who know each other’s usernames.”

I’m filling in Worlds In Motion’s Online World Atlas now, which is a fun little gig exploring virtual worlds and then saying what I think of them. First up was this – a cute, very Pete Folwery monster raising MMO that I rather liked. Do pop by and say hello to my monster, Shibito!

“Developer D2C Games (founded by Madden veteran Scott Orr) has announced SPOGS Racing for WiiWare, and Gamasutra talks to Orr about why his firm picked Wii’s downloadable service over the others, and why he thinks the PSP platform is “a sleeping giant” in terms of possible sales.”

I liked Orr’s willingness to talk about his history in the game industry. It’s strangely thrilling to talk to someone involved in the development of Eagle Eye Mysteries, a classic “edutainment” title that’s similar to the Phoenix Wright games (sort of.)

“Veterans of the Medal of Honor and Fallout franchises have created new U.S. developer WhiteMoon Dreams, working with “a major Japanese publisher” on a new title – Gamasutra talks to the firm’s principals about the 12-person developer’s lean, mean philosophy.”

A new Q&A!

“Yes, we’re being very obvious by leading with Iron Man this week, considering that it’s everywhere anyway as this year’s first big “summer” blockbuster. However, and we have a feeling we might have mentioned this before, we’re sold on any film which recognizes that a trademark way to make your hero look as awesome as possible is to have them walk towards the camera with their back to an explosion – like they don’t even care!”

Also this week: an Over The Top film festival preview, including reviews of I Think We’re Alone Now, Frownland, Pop Skull (which is completely amazing and a top recommendation) and Hokuro Brothers: Full Throttle.

“CD Projekt’s PC RPG The Witcher has been a notable and perhaps surprising hit in the PC market – Gamasutra catches up with PR/marketing VP Tom Ohle to talk about the challenges of publicizing it, the state of PC gaming, and the place of PR in the current age of blogs and news aggregators.”

I think this is a really great interview (if I don’t say so myself) examining part of the industry people don’t tend to examine – the place of PR and marketing – along with some chat about the PC industry.