14th July 2009

GDC China IGF Officially Announced

Hopefully this is a sign that GDC Canada will also be getting an IGF added to its roster in the future

GDC China San FranciscoThink Services has announced the 1st annual Independent Games Festival China (IGF China), to be held in conjunction with the 2009 Game Developers Conference China. GDC China returns to the Shanghai International Convention Center, October 11-13 of this year.

After 11 years of the main Independent Games Festival competition being held at GDC in San Francisco, the Independent Games Festival will present itself to Shanghai, China for the first time in 2009, in a competition specifically designed to encourage innovation and showcase standout games from smaller companies in the Asia-Pacific region.

The first-ever Independent Games Festival China encompasses three main components. Firstly, an Independent Games Summit event held on the opening day of GDC China will feature multiple sessions with smaller, entrepreneurial Chinese and Asian firms showcasing their work. Secondly, the IGF Pavilion will showcase all finalists’ games on Sunday and Monday (October 11th and 12th) of GDC China, with the Independent Games Festival Awards ceremony being held on
Monday evening.
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13th July 2009

The Next Global Stage Book Review

The Next Global Stage-Challenges and Opportunities in Our Borderless World
Author: Kenichi Ohmae
Publisher: Wharton School Publishing March 2005
Hardcover: 312 pages

In some ways, I was a little disappointed with this publication, yet in many others I was pleased to see Wharton School Publishing live up to the expectations I have of them in regards to the quality of their books. What I found disappointing in The Next Global Stage is that it is often repetitive. While certainly, there are points which may need reinforcing, I feel there were better ways the author could have approached the topic, and spent more time discussing global business for smaller enterprises instead of the large corporations.

The author did find a good balance of positive and negative factors to consider in regards to taking businesses out on the global market, but I found that the book focused too much on what governments were doing to enhance their share of the global strategy, and didn’t focus enough on individual businesses and what smaller companies could do to increase their global market share. We are not interested in outsourcing, which is covered extensively in this book. We keep our technical support in-house; primarily because we are global, and can offer support to those seeking our services in many languages, and usually from within their own country. The Next Global Stage, while doing a very good job of explaining how the global market is helping the economies of the countries this book focused on, it did not, in my opinion, adequately discuss the downfalls of outsourcing areas such as technical support services, and the public’s perception of this practice.
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13th July 2009

Digital Leisure Challenges You to Sudoku 100 Million

Digital LeisureGormleyDigital Leisure Inc. a leading developer and publisher of interactive video-based titles and console games, announced today the launch Sudoku 100 000 000of Sudoku 100,000,000 on the AppStore, designed exclusively for your iPhone and iPod Touch.

With over 100,000,000 Sudoku puzzles, you’ll never see the same puzzle twice in Sudoku 100,000,000. You can select the classic nine-by-nine Sukodu gameboards as well as Grand Sudoku, which challenges you to complete five intersecting Sudoku boards simultaneously! Just a beginner? Don’t worry – With three difficulty options, even the most novice player can complete a Sudoku with ease. But if you’re a seasoned pro, challenge yourself in ‘Expert’ mode and test your true skills. It’s time to get your thinking cap on and see how many Sudoku puzzles you can conquer!

Sudoku 100,000,000…the last Sudoku app you’ll ever have to buy is now available for only $1.99 usd on the AppStore.

Digital Leisure plans to follow up Sudoku 100,000,000 with classic arcade shooter Mad Dog McCree and other iPhone and iPod Touch titles in the coming months.

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13th July 2009

University of Waterloo Student Develops Privacy Awareness Programme

web2.0collageWaterloo – The majority of people consider browser history to be private, but that is no longer the case. Any website you visit can determine your browser history by exploiting the very features designed to enhance your Internet experience, a fact many people are not aware of.

Sample Collage - not ours

Sample Collage - Not From Our PC

Web2.0collage.com is a new site designed to illustrate how easily browser history can be sniffed by compiling a list of popular (and safe for work) websites illustrating which ones the user has visited. Once this list has been compiled it is used to produce a visual collage representative of the user’s browser history, providing an artful reminder to all who visit that their private history really isn’t all that private.

The first version of Web2.0collage.com was created in a weekend by Holden Karau (a.k.a. pantsd), a University of Waterloo student. What started as a quick hack to learn new programming techniques quickly gained momentum as interest in the privacy implications of the project spread by way of Slashdot. The University of Waterloo Computer Science Club (CSC) graciously provides the computing resources necessary to keep Web2.0collage.com online. As traffic to the site increased Anthony Brennan (a.k.a. hatguy), a fellow student and CSC sysadmin, quickly offered to help resolve critical scalability issues resulting from the crushing load of curious users. For the technically inclined the source code is made available for review under the terms of the AGPL.
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13th July 2009

World Cyber Games Canada Tournament News

WCG CanadaHalifax – Following a hard-fought tournament, 23 year old Matt Wood emerged as the undisputed winner of the FIFA Soccer 2009 Pan-American Qualifier on Saturday. The Windsor, Ontario resident will represent Canada at the next WCG Pan-American Championship in Guadalajara, Mexico, from September 11-13. All expenses will be paid for by WCG (air travel, accomodation and meals on site). Also known as “Wizikakor” to his opponents, Wood defeated FijiStyler in the final. Thanks to all who participated!

WCG Canada is also pleased to announce the first qualifying tournaments for the upcoming  World Cyber Games Canada Nationals.  This year, Canada will be entering players for Guitar Hero: World Tour and Virtua Fighter 5 on the XBOX 360 console system as well as Counter-Strike 1.6.  Another official game title will be announced over the next few days.

The Eastern Canada Qualification will take place from July 24-26, in the Greater Toronto Area.  Long time WCG Canada partner, LANapalooza, will be host of this important tournament.  This qualifier allows players to move on to the WCG Canada National Finals, which will be held next August in Toronto.

Participants must be Canadian citizen and must have a valid passport to travel to China where the World Cyber Games Grand Final will take place later this year.

Register now to take part in the only live qualifier in Eastern Canada this summer.  For more details about the tournament rules and registration, please visit www.zeropingevents.com.

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10th July 2009

Design of Things To Come-How Ordinary People Create Extraordinary Products

Editor’s Note: I’ve read and reviewed many, many books in the past few years. Over the next week or so, I will be sharing reviews with our readers of the books which, while they may be older, in my opinion, the information their pages contain is still relevant to today’s world – and in some cases may have been predictive of current times.

Design of Things To Come-How Ordinary People Create Extraordinary Products
Authors: Craig M. Vogel, Jonathan Cagan, Peter Boatwright
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Wharton School Publishing June 18 2005

Design of Things To Come is a must-read for anyone involved in business. This book not only goes through the innovative process, it covers other important information such as the wide variety of trademarks, from logos to trade dress. The authors have put this book together, and shared their knowledge in such a way that the principles they discuss can be used by practically any business to grow its market share.

This is the type of quality book I have come to expect from Wharton School Publishing, and one that I will make use of for many years to come. As a business owner, I was pleased to see many of the processes I have been doing correctly, as well as seeing many areas where we could improve – and the many ways in which they could be improved. The book is in no way overly-repetitive, and is written so well that it does not need an ample supply of diagrams to illustrate what the authors are trying to say.

Every page of Design of Things To Come contains useful information, and outlines innovative practices which can be easily adapted to the business at hand. The authors, in my opinion, have produced a goldmine for those of us who want to push our companies forward to the next level and beyond. Their advice on team building, motivation and rewards is invaluable. This is especially important for companies such as mine, which are globally situated and depend heavily on team work. This book also served to remind me of marketing and research practices I had learned way back in school, but had pushed into the background. Design of Things To Come has enabled me to get a lot of my primary focus back and work towards realigning, restating, and in some cases redeveloping areas of my business which were falling through the cracks. Read the rest of this entry »

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10th July 2009

Weekly News Bytes

CanadaCanada – As always, it’s nice to start our Fridays with some cool links and information from our favourite tech info guru, Bradley Shende of MEDIA2O and ConnectedLife. Bradley appears every Friday morning on Global BC’s morning news show. Today’s cool links included BoardTracker and BoardReader – two great services for busy people. Be sure to catch his segment next week for more great info. You can view past GlobalTV ConnectedLife segments on Global’s site – just scroll down the index and choose Connected Life. Also, congratulations are in order to Bradley and Sarah, who are expecting twins in a few months’ time.Avatar The Game

Ubisoft has launched the official dev blog for James Cameron’s Avatar The Game. There isn’t very much content up yet, but UbiGabe is working on it. The dev blog promises the latest news, links and info regarding Avatar. UbiGabe says he is also looking forward to telling some of the secrets which have been kept, well, secret about the game. Avatar is also available now for pre-order at most game store locations, and will be available for Xbox 360, PS3 PSP, DS and Wii.

Also announced by Ubisoft today is a chance to win a trip to Ubi Montreal to play Assassin’s Creed 2 with the developers. The cryptic details were released on Twitter, with a coded URL to follow. We will share the link with you right here – good luck in the contest. All you need to do is have an account on Ubi.com, grab and share the widget and hope you win. If you win, take us with you – we’d greatly appreciate it.

SheridanSheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning has released their comments about the recent Ubisoft Toronto announcement.
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9th July 2009

Vancouver Registration Open for California Marketing Boot Camp

Govt of Canadavia DFAIT – The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), in partnership with Launch Party Vancouver, present a one-day bootcamp on September 14, 2009, for new media and wireless companies interested in pitching VCs in California.   This one-day program will feature experienced investors from both the Silicon Valley and San Diego markets, and is specifically designed to help facilitate access to the California market.

Pitch Preparation topics will include

• What are California investors looking for?
• Presenting your go to market strategy and your business model. Is your business fundable?
• How to effectively present the problem, the opportunity and the solution.
• Presenting who’s on your team, establishing credibility etc.
• How to present your evaluation of the competition.

Pitching Session to a Review Board of Investment Professionals

• 10-minute company pitch to local and California investors
• Instant pitch feedback by the Board

Networking Event
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9th July 2009

Creaform Welcomes Two New Investors

creaformLévisCreaform, developer and manufacturer of the Handyscan 3D line-up of handheld and self-positioning laser scanners, and specialized in 3D technologies, announces an important investment from two major Canadian investment companies: Novacap and Capital régional et coopératif Desjardins (CRCD). Creaform had very positive sales results in Q1, enjoying a 35% increase in year over year revenue.

“Creaform now has two first-rate financial partners, said Charles Mony, president of Creaform. Their expertise in finance and economy will be very precious to us, in particular in the realization of future expansion and acquisition projects. Plus, Novacap’s and CRCD’s financial support will help us speed up our growth and strengthen both our well-established line-ups of products, Handyscan 3D and HandyPROBE, while carrying on with our R&D efforts.”

“Creaform is certainly a jewel amongst the Canadian high technology companies, and will rapidly become a world leader in its industry. Creaform is a great addition to Novacap’s technology portfolio, and we are thrilled to work with them going forward and to contribute to their success”, said Pascal Tremblay, general partner at Novacap.

“We are proud to join Novacap in supporting Creaform’s growth. Thanks to the quality and diversification of its clientele and the experience of its team of employees, Creaform is well-positioned on the growing market of 3D scanning”, said Luc Ménard, vice-president of Desjardins Venture Capital.

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9th July 2009

Entryware 6.4 Mobile Survey Software Released Today

techneosVancouverTechneos Entryware 6.4 mobile survey software was released today; we at Village Gamer can see many uses for this product within the game industry – especially at conferences and expos. Providing seamless compatibility with Windows Mobile devices and enhanced capabilities for mobile research, Entryware 6.4 provides a powerful set of capabilities for both face-to-face interviewing and diary studies using a wide range of mobile devices. This release, combined with the recent announcement of Techneos Entryware mobile survey software running on the Palm Pre, strengthens Techneos’ position as a global leader in mobile survey software. Techneos also provides rich tools for engaging people at the point of experience using Windows-based tablet PCs, Netbooks and Ultra-mobile PCs, as well as PDA and Smartphone devices running the Palm Operating System.

Highlights of this Entryware 6.4 upgrade include: improved look and feel for all handheld surveys; photo capture on Windows Mobile devices; 5-way navigation allowing for quicker and easier movement through a questionnaire; and an optional new “diary engine” which enables research managers to lock down Windows Mobile devices so that other applications cannot be accessed by mobile users.
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