When we first saw upcoming RTS Planetary Annihilation earlier this month, it took me days to find my socks, they'd been blown so far away. My excitement was tempered, though, by the fact the amazing trailer was part of a Kickstarter pitch.

And we all know how that roller-coaster goes.

But good news! You and I weren't the only ones who thought it looked cool. Turns out everybody did, as the game has blown right past its target goal of $900,000, meaning not only will it get made, but there'll be more stuff added.

To celebrate, the team programmed a party robot. As you do.

The game looks like a cross between Spore and Total Annihilation, which should't be too surprising since this also has the word Annihilation in the title and is being made by guys who made Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation.

You're about to see some of the work of Carlo Balassu, an artist who spent over six years at RTS masters Relic before moving onto a freelance career that spans both games and film.

In addition to undisclosed projects on both side of that fence, he's worked on pretty much everything Relic has released in that timeframe, including Company of Heroes, the Dawn of War series and last year's Space Marine, where much of this art - primarily matte paintings and concept art - comes from.

Interestingly, he's also done some work for Blackbird, the small studio comprised mostly of ex-Relic staffers who are currently developing a game called Hardware.

You can see more of Carlo's work at both his personal site and his CGHub page.

To see the larger pics in all their glory (or so you can save them as wallpaper), right-click on them below and select "open in new tab".

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Jack Houston and the Necronauts is an adventure title from the same guy who, in his spare time, is working on that cool Han Solo adventure game. It had been up on Kickstarter, but after meeting its funding goal, it was time to get to work.

Until something happened. Something that should serve as a warning to anyone hanging their hopes on the service.

The way the service works is that when somebody pledges money, it doesn't actually come out of their accounts. That doesn't happen until the developer pulls the plug and goes to "cash in". While in the majority of cases the money comes through, there are plenty of reasons for it not to come through, ranging from dummy pledges to bouncing cheques.

When Stacy Davidson, Jack Houston's developer, went to "cash in" recently, he found that one of the all-important $10,000 pledges hadn't come through. Which dropped him back under his target goal. Whoops.

He's now setting up private payments to cover the gap, but if the drama reminds us of one thing, it's this: Kickstarter might sound great because it removes the need for publishers, and all the interference they can exert on a game.

But the flip side of a publisher is that publishing video games is what they do.

When Kickstarter Fails: Jack Houston Has A Problem [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

You might not have played the game, but if you've ever walked into a video game store in your life, you'll recognise the face: that of the Chessmaster, star of 1986 game The Chessmaster 2000.

That first game, developed by The Software Toolworks, would lead to a series that would span decades, with the last game released in 2007. It's a fine series, if chess is your thing, but for many, myself included, the most memorable thing about it would be the old man on the cover of the original, who would continue to stare out at you - normally from the budget section - on the front of every Chessmaster game all the way through to the 2002 entry, Chessmaster 9000.

Over that time his wizened old face has been seen by millions around the world. But just who was the Chessmaster?

It was a man by the name of Will Hare. An American actor who, while not instantly recognisable by name, starred in a few decent flicks like 1985's The Aviator and 80's cult horror classic Silent Night, Deadly Night. He may be best known to you, though, as Old Man Peabody from the first Back to the Future.

He was 70 when he appeared on the cover of The Chessmaster 2000, and that same image was used on Chessmaster games for the next 16 years. A professional actor to the very end, Hare passed away in 1997, not in a hospital but on stage, during a rehearsal at Manhattan's famous Actor's Studio.

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The Chessmaster Died in 1997 [VCG]

I do love me some arcade marquees. The colours, the hand-drawn art, it's all so very Roger Dean.

This set are from Namco, before the company merged with Bandai, and could just as easily have worked as the logos for mid-80s thrash bands. Which is equally awesome.

Namco Arcade Logos [VGJunk]

I love my iPad for gaming, but only for certain types of games. Usually the ones that don't ask you to move a lot. Anything that requires a virtual d-pad, or joystick, or buttons, gah, no, kill it with fire.

Unless...unless there was a tablet like this one. Archos' GamePad is an upcoming Android tablet that sticks two sliders, a d-pad and some face buttons on the side of a tablet, turning it into an enormous custom gaming handheld. Specs are thin, but consist of "a dual-core processor @ 1.5 GHz combined with a Mali 400mp quad-core GPU".

Which would be awesome for Android games, but think about it, it would be even better for all those old PC games you've got lying around the house.

Because Android's Ice Cream Sandwich OS now supports game controllers, Archos reckons over 1000 Google Play titles support the sticks and buttons. If GTA III is one of them, that would be great.

It'll go on sale in October for "less than £130" (USD$205).

This is a screenshot from Sonic Generations. It's difficult to tell whether it's an excess of optimism or just straight-up trolling.

Sonic [HybridShadowz, via Tiny Cartridge]

It's not often we get screenwriters going into so much depth ahead of time with their work, but then, when they're adapting a video game, there's not much to keep secret. Especially when it's God of War.

The guy gets angry, kills gods, and kills them brutally. Spoilers!

Still, those wondering just what kind of overall shape the upcoming adaptation is currently taking, here's what Patrick Melton (one of two writers alongside Marcus Dunstan) has to say:

In the game... there's that attack from the barbarians and Kratos has to call upon Ares to help him. Really, that's going to be our first act break. Before then, he's going to be mortal, and he's going to have his family. We're going to learn about him and understand how he operates. So it's potentially 30 minutes — give or take — of building up this character so that, when he does turn and becomes the Ghost of Sparta, we understand him as a human and we understand the journey that he's going to take. We're emotionally invested, so that it could go beyond just this one movie.

Then comes the killing and more killing and killing.

Meanhile, Dunstan likens the project to Chris Nolan's Batman trilogy, stripping back a character's exploits to see the actual character behind them. "In the same way that Batman was grounded with Christopher Nolan's rendition, we were attempting to do that with Kratos so that when we meet him — like they're doing in this newest game, which is sort of a prequel to the original — we're seeing him before he became the Ghost of Sparta, when he was just a Spartan warrior and he had family and kids."

If you were wondering what kind of budget the movie had to work with, this doesn't sound like a straight-to-DVD kind of deal. Melton says Sony is spending around $150 million on the project, which given the fact they don't need to spend much on wardrobe, should hopefully mean some impressive effects.

Shame it won't be like this, though. I liked that pitch better.

What's in Store for the God of War Movie? [IGN]

It's been nearly 20 years since Nintendo last made a Mario movie. If they ever decided to make another one, and for whatever reason didn't go the Paper Mario route, this might work.

I mean, it's barely Mario at all, but then, that didn't stop them in 1993. At least this would have guns and martial arts. Lots of martial arts.

This fabulous image, done as an inspiration for a competition over on the Papercut forums, makes me sad. Sad that this isn't a game I can pick up right now and play until my fingers curl up and fall off.

[SHOWDOWN] - Contest Brief [Papercut]