PopCap Games is auctioning 34 pieces of art related to its games with proceeds going to the charities SpecialEffect and Starlight Children’s Foundation.
The auction will run on eBay from 8pm 14 June until 12 July. Each wave of auctions will last seven days and will consist of up to nine items.
Pieces on offer include original illustrations of PopCap’s games, such as Bejeweled, Plants vs Zombies and Peggle, and exclusive commissions.
Two of the commissioned pieces come from Irish freelance artist Mick Minogue, who has worked on a range of projects, including book illustrations.
‘Bjorn’ is inspired by Peggle, a take on how playing games helps gamers lose track of time. ‘Final Wave’ is inspired by Plants vs Zombies and consists of a DIY box to represent a computer or phone screen and contains a recreated scene from the game.
These pieces, along with other original pieces from PopCap’s Seattle studio, will be displayed in the Filmbase Centre in Temple Bar, Dublin, from today.
PopCap will donate 100pc of the proceeds to UK charity SpecialEffect, and the US charity Starlight Children’s Foundation, both targeting those who are either seriously ill or are disabled.
“SpecialEffect has long been a fan of PopCap and their dedicated outreach to helping children in need,” said Dr Mick Donegan, director and founder of SpecialEffect, and associate senior researcher fellow at SMARTlab, University College Dublin.
“We’ve used several of their games for the disabled young people we work with – a particular favourite being Peggle, because with our specialist support, it can even be played by young people who are paralysed – just by moving just their eyes.
“An auction of this magnitude is sure to not only raise the spirits of those winning the items, but also the spirits of those who’ll be helped by the proceeds. With our sister research facilities in Dublin, the research that this will fund could have major benefits for physically challenged people,” said Donegan.
