When November comes around it’s time to participate in the facial-hair-athon which is known in these parts as Movember. This involves growing a “Mo” for the whole month to raise awareness and money for 2 great charities: Beyond Blue, a mental health charity, and The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.

This year was no different than any other. We started off wondering what we would look like with facial hair, delighted at not having to properly shave for a month. However, as the month progressed, our chins and upper lips became increasingly itchy and hair had to be trimmed to stop it from sticking in our mouths! Yuck! As usual, by the end of the month we are ready to get rid of our facial monstrosities. Full shaves WILL happen tomorrow morning!

Except of course for Steven (far right), who thinks he looks rather handsome in a beardy kind of way. We’ve seen this before. There’s always someone who thinks they’ll carry on after the end of the month. But facial hair is hard to live with and in the end they all give up. We wonder how long he’ll last?

This year we’ve raised over $750. Many thanks to everyone who sponsored us. If you wish to donate, our Movember sponsorship page will be open long after November ends.

Go to our Movember 2011 album on Facebook for the rest of the pictures.

We knew our friends at Nintendo of America liked escapeVektor: Chapter 1. So when they asked us for some artwork to feature our game inside the US Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword box, we were so excited!

But they told us to keep it a secret until Zelda was released. After a few weeks of constantly biting our tongues, here it is! How cool is that! It’s like a dream come true to be associated with the great Legend of Zelda series.

Now, please just leave us alone while we get all emotional over it. Sniff!

As you know, we’ve recently issued each of the Pop modes as individual games for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

We’ve now issued an upgrade for Pop, making our original game (complete with all of the individual modes) fully iPad compatible. We think the game looks great on the iPad as you can see from the picture above.

Click here for more photos of Pop on the iPad or go straight to the App Store.

Nic was recently interviewed by UK games site Cane and Rinse. They wanted to chat about how a Scotsman ended up starting a video games business in Sydney and what WiiWare development is like. They also wanted to know about the design and music of escapeVektor: Chapter 1 and of course Spirit Hunters Inc. Have a listen to this illuminating chat.

Click here to be taken to the podcast

It’s still really busy at Nnooo HQ, what with the launch of escapeVektor: Chapter 1, competitions to win a copy of the game (check out our Facebook and Twitter pages), the release of our new versions of Pop for iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch (including FREE giveaways on Twitter), setting up our Movember team to raise money for charity AND a visit from video games show 5 Inch Floppy who interviewed Nic and had a look round the office.

Nic and Bruce are also off to the annual Australian games shindig in Melbourne next week, otherwise known as GCAP (Game Connect Asia Pacific). They’ll be meeting up with some old game dev mates, having some serious industry pow-wows, listening to a load of interesting & inspiring talks and meeting a whole heap of new friends. They’ll take a few pics too. (more…)