Sometimes, even playing around can make a difference. At least, that's the thought behind video game publisher OneBigGame. The company had an idea to use the video game industry help make a real difference in the lives of others. Founded in 2007, OneBigGame is a not-for-profit publisher designed to raise funds for charity organizations by publishing games donated pro bono by established names in game development. Profits from the published games will benefit the Starlight Children's Foundation and Save the Children.

Last week, OneBigGame announced the debut title to be published under its label, Chime. Chime, developed by veteran game studio Zoë Mode, is scheduled for a release this Winter for the Xbox 360 via Xbox LIVE Arcade. The game is described as a unique block puzzle game fused with music creation elements. Chime task players with covering a number of grids with irregular shapes, each connected to a sound effect from different music tracks. The player tries to form the shapes into rectangular blocks, called quads. As gamers slowly cover the grid with quads, they build the song playing in the background a piece at a time. Since players build the music tracks a piece at a time, you could play the game over and over and never hear song the same way twice. Zoë Mode has made sure to pull some big music names for Chime as well, with musical contributions by Moby and Paul Hartnoll (Orbital), among other yet unannounced artists.

Zoë Mode is no stranger to music games. The developer has already had its hand in the development of Sony's popular SingStar games, Disney's Sing It! games, and Rock Revolution. The developer was also responsible Sega's uniquely interesting puzzle game Crush on the PSP. For Chime, all of Zoë Mode's services are provided at no cost to OneBigGame and all of the studio's royalties (in the case of the Xbox Live Arcade version a minimum of sixty percent of the purchase price) will be donated to OneBigGame.

Zoë Mode is only the first in a series of developers and designers who have been working on games for the charity publisher. According to OneBigGame, the publisher has more than fifteen games currently in development from various established developers, all with the goal of helping to raise funds for its children's charities. Some of the other developers joining Zoë Mode in their support of OneBigGame include Shiny founder David Perry, who will remake one of his favorite ZX Spectrum games, adventure games icon Charles Cecil, who is creating an adventure version of one of the most played casual games in the world, and the father of music rhythm action games, Masaya Matsuura, working on WINtA, a reinvention of the genre developed for the iPhone. All these games will be released in the course of 2010, following the launch of Chime this winter.

All participating non-profit games will be published and distributed by OneBigGame both through its own dedicated games portal and a number of digital download platforms on both console and PC. Games will be available for a limited exclusivity period, ranging from four to twelve months, during which all net proceeds will be going to charity.

OneBigGame always aims to donate a minimum of eighty percent of all donations to its charity partners, Save the Children and Starlight Children's Foundation. Save the Children (http://www.savethechildren.org.uk) is an organization fighting for the rights of children worldwide, and to deliver immediate and lasting improvements to their lives. The Starlight Children's Foundation (http://www.starlight.org) is dedicated to helping seriously ill children and their families cope with their pain, fear and isolation through entertainment, education and family activities.