The old-school RPG that began its Kickstarter campaign last week, the one being worked on by Brenda “Wizardry 8” Brathwaite and Tom “Anachronox/Dopefish” Hall has a name this week: Shaker. The Kickstarter campaign is still ongoing, of course; the project hasn’t quite reached 25% of its goal, but continues to amass funds.

Maybe first-person turn-based RPGs just don’t command the same interest anymore as do isometric RPGs of the Project Eternity sort. Or maybe people don’t care about Anachronox and Wizardry anymore. Hopefully, it’s the former…the latter is too painful a reality to contemplate. This editorial certainly takes a dimmer view of the project. But it also labels Ultima cloth maps as mere “pedestrian” in-box trinkets, so make of that what you will.

Cryptic Studios have licensed the Simplygon 3D optimization tool for use on Neverwinter, and have announced a Halloween writing contest…the prize for which will be Neverwinter beta keys.

ArcheAge’s pet system was detailed this week. It’s interesting, to say the least.

Irrational Games is holding an election as to whom should be the subject of its next BioShock Infinite trailer. They’re also looking to hire an environmental artist and a level designer. Oh, and Ken Levine is apparently a playable character in the new XCOM game. Go figure!

Torchlight 2 received a minor update this week. Max Scahefer of Runic Games sat down with I.Eat.Games, and Torchlight 2 continued to rake in the (mostly) rave reviews. Perhaps the most amusing praise it has won, however, is Geek.com’s dungeon crawler showdown, in which Torchlight 2 doesn’t quite win out over Diablo 3, except in the really important categories.