I first reported on Village: The Game – think SimCity meets social entrepreneurship – back in August. At the time, the game's web site featured little more than a proposal and the passionate musings of its creator, Darian Hickman. I checked back in on Village: The Game today, and much has happened since August:

...we are targeting January 2007 to release an alpha of Village and get some real world feedback. Game demo design is complete. The first round of 2D concept art for buildings is complete, but we can change to make sure it matches well with other level art.

Darian and his team are hiring engineers/artists/designers to help them stylize the characters, buildings, terrain, and the rest of the game play environment. His latest blog post notes that he's hacked the Warcraft II map editor to put together his pre-alpha version. (Side note: I find it incredibly ironic that he hacked Warcraft to put together a game on social enterprise, don't you?)

In any case, it's great to see that Village: The Game is moving forward. Folks interested in the designer job (hopefully you’ve used Torque Game Builder before) should contact Darian directly – contact information is available on his weblog.

Hat tip: Audeamus