PopCap and Make-A-Wish Foundation Make An Aspiring Game Designer's Dream Come True

Posted by Blake Grundman on May 2nd, 2011

When it comes to organizations that are making a big difference in the lives of children strikened with life threatening diseases, the Make-A-Wish Foundation is among the very best.  So when they heard the sad story of nine year old Owain Weinert, who has been diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, they reached out to see how they might make his life a little brighter.  In this case, instead of asking to meet a famous athlete or rock star, Owain stated that he wanted to design his own video game.

Upon reaching out to the great folks over at PopCap Games, Make-A-Wish enlisted the talented development team to help bring the child's game design to life, in the form of the upcoming iOS title, 'Allied Star Police.'  According to TouchArcade, the is described as "a sci-fi real-time strategy game where you play as a base commander who must deploy 'automated battle machines' and 'targeted ballistic ordnance' in an effort to fight of a race of aliens known as the Flamions."  Owain has been credited as the app Lead Designer and has made trips out to PopCap on a weekly basis to assess the game's progress through the development cycle, providing his own input every step of the way.

Fox's Q13 News just ran a great segment on this uplifting story, which you can enjoy below.




It will still probably be quite some time before 'Allied Star Police' makes its debut in the App Store, but when it does PopCap has already said that 100% of the proceeds will be going towards the continuing efforts of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

When you hear stories like this, it highlights how many amazing people there are hard at work in the game industry.  Here is to hoping that the game is successful in launching Owain into the pantheon of amazing game designers.  Watch your back Cliffy B, you are going to have lots of competition incoming soon!