Game Description:

While on a routine mission to test a number of prototype fighters destined to replace the Earth Colonial Fleet’s aging Starhawk, the ECS Red Nova, your carrier, comes across an unknown alien fleet preparing to stage a sneak attack on the human colonies!

In order to give the Red Nova a chance to escape and warn the rest of the fleet you have volunteered to attack the aliens head-on. With a choice of any of the fighters on deck, you have to use your wits, your guns, and your ample supply of homing missiles to survive for as long as you can!

Game Features

* Universal app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad
* Game Center leaderboards
* Retina Display graphics
* 3 scaling difficulty levels
* 3 playable ships
* 4 power-ups
* 7 different enemies
* Dynamic camera zooms in when things get intense
* iOS Controller: use an iPhone or iPod Touch to control Red Nova on an iPad wirelessly
* Dynamic touch controls for faster reaction times; no more hunting for fixed virtual buttons when it counts

Future episodes of Red Nova will be released as free updates, adding different game modes and missions to the game.

Drum Studio: Platinum Edition from Vancouver developer All Seeing Eye Games is now available on  Xbox Live Indie Games for 80 MS Points. This follow-up to the award-winning Drum Studio allows players to record, layer, & edit their own drum songs on virtual drums customizable from a collection of over 320 drum sounds.

Drum Studio: Platinum Edition is a virtual drum recording tool that gives players the ability to build their own drum beats using their Xbox 360 drum kits or controllers.  Players can then go online to share their songs with friends, listen to each other play, and even jam together in real-time.

Lead Programmer Darren Joe says, “Music has always been about sharing. Drum Studio put music creation in the player’s hands. Now, Drum Studio: Platinum Edition allows players to share their music with each other and the world.”

It is no secret that the music game genre is in steep decline. Whereas the big names have rehashed the same gameplay mechanics a dozen times over and then some, Drum Studio: Platinum Edition pushes the genre forward with a music creation & sharing experience unlike anything any other title has to offer.

In addition to its extensive online features, Drum Studio: Platinum Edition also expands upon the award-winning original with all new art by graphic artist Terry Wong (Cirque Du Soleil, National Geographic, Electronic Gaming Monthly) and full Xbox 360 Avatar support, allowing players to turn their Xbox 360 Avatars into full-fledged animated virtual drummers.

Maid Marian Entertainment Inc. and Gene Endrody, sole creator of the indie hit MMORPG, Sherwood Dungeon has announced the arrival of, two new allies just in time for the holidays – the Shadowfey Knight and Priestess.

The Shadowfey are lost descendants of the Picts, an ancient Celtic tribe. Possessing ominous white skin and a dark mysterious gaze, this race of warriors will battle alongside players as they crawl through Sherwood’s perilous dungeons.

An additional feature for those who purchase pets in Sherwood is the ability for players to transform their characters into the form of their pets. Explore the world and fight monsters while transformed into a Dragon, Unicorn, Spider, Shadowfey, and more. If that wasn’t enough, the Wolf and Lion pets can now be ridden as mounts. Along with the Horse and Unicorn mounts, players now have plenty of options for striking fear into Sherwood’s minions while leading the charge mounted on these ferocious beasts.

You are cordially invited to check out the new allies and features, or just play in the snow at the holiday themed Sherwood Castle, head over to – no sign-up or download is required. With the addition of the new Zong SMS Mobile Phone Payment system, players all over the world can easily purchase premium companions for their enjoyment, without the need of Paypal or a credit card.

Cookie Jar Entertainment has announced long-term deals with Netflix, allowing consumers in the U.S. and Canada to instantly enjoy selected titles from Cookie Jar’s extensive library of animated and live-action programming. Terms of the agreements are confidential.

In the U.S., Netflix members now have instant access to four of Cookie Jar Entertainment’s most recognizable television series – Busytown, Johnny Test, Metajets and Strawberry Shortcake – for a total of almost 200 half-hours of children’s entertainment.

In Canada, the agreement covers nine classic titles for a total of more than 500 half-hours and includes Bunch of Munsch, Caillou, Country Mouse City Mouse, Heathcliff, Horseland, Inspector Gadget, Paddington, Wimzie’s House and Zoboomafoo.

“Internet streaming offers tremendous opportunities for leveraging our catalogue of nearly 6,000 half-hour episodes of television series, the second largest kid’s library in the world. With these ground-breaking agreements in hand, we are actively pursuing additional digital distribution deals worldwide,” said Michael Hirsh, CEO of Cookie Jar.

Those of you who own Joyride for Kinect will be able to download a Chevrolet Camaro, Corvette and Cruze for free on January 4, 2011. You can choose a color for your new cars or paint them using the Kinect sensor and then take them for a spin in any of “Kinect Joy Ride’s” six game modes. You can also use the cars in online races over Xbox LIVE. To unlock the new Chevrolet cars for Kinect Joy Ride simply select the Chevrolet ad in the Xbox LIVE Marketplace – keep your eye out for it – or you can unlock the Chevrolet cars by visiting Xbox.com.

This video has absolutely nothing to do with gaming whatsoever, but it is a timely bit of cheer from interior designers Colin & Justin. The dynamic duo have put out three Christmas songs on iTunes, with all proceeds going to support Cash for Kids. While we do have a Cash For Kids charity here in Canada, I do believe that these songs are to benefit the UK Cash for Kids organization. Either way, enjoy the video, buy the songs (I did, and I’m not even a huge fan of the Christmas season), but most importantly, support the kids – and please remember your local toy, clothing and food drives, too.

“This is a preview—it actually doesn’t start until tomorrow, but thank you for bringing us into your space.” The thanks was better expressed by the round of applause. “These shows, called Start, the goal of the program itself is to promote art games created in Toronto, and some beyond, and to let you play, and decide for yourself, what is art in the creation of video games? So I really encourage you to play and develop all the games that are here. There’s some really, really fabulous games. So you won’t be disappointed.”

And no one was. The mood was congenial, and while the crowd wasn’t made unruly by the games at hand, no terminal remained untouched. Spooky Squid’s Night of the Cephalopods was a featured guest, and I can happily attest to its continued popularity. Mr. Sternberg wasn’t at hand to speak again for his title, but the Hand Eye Society was well-represented in products if not people. Silent Skies, of Toronto’s SpyeArt had the advantageous position of being between the bar and the door; foot traffic was constant, and the game’s simplicity in both aesthetics and controls gave it grace. Once again Night of the Cephalopods suffered from poor acoustics; the Lovecraftian narration might have been missed if not for the presence of those already in the know.

The walls may have been festooned with projections, but the largest of these displays belonged to Shawn McGrath’s DYAD Games, which premiered at the event. A futuristic racing game with hook and pull elements, it shares visual elements with Audiosurf; that is a complimentary statement. After a tutorial from Shawn McGrath’s wife, he appeared himself to talk me through my attempts at further levels. It will be released between ten and thirteen months from now, but the specifics of its launch remain unknown.

“It’ll be on something that makes sense at the time. There’s no formal…whatever makes sense. Right now, it would be PS3. I don’t know where other platforms are going to be in ten months, so I don’t know.”

Over the course of our conversation, his artistic integrity becomes obvious, as does his fondness for START.

“What this OCAD thing really is is a way to expose students to artistic games, and that’s awesome…The Hand Eye Society is something I’m proud of. Everything with the Hand Eye Society is more or less great. START was organized partially by Emma Westecott and Benjamin Rivers,” He paused to indicate Benjamin Rivers behind him, “And Benjamin is a very active member of the Hand Eye Society, and the games here are …from members by the Hand Eye, so in terms of Toronto, Hand Eye is…awesome. There are some people who are not in Toronto, but by all means, most are.”

Toronto had, and has, more than enough professionals in the field of digital media to ensure a fantastic conference.  Upon my attendance at the cocktail hour Monday night, the mood was convivial, and all reports of the panels that day were favourable. Tuesday morning I arrived at the Carlu to see some panels for myself, and the atmosphere of the two nights prior remained intact. The first panel in the Concert Hall that morning, “The Anatomy of Branded Entertainment”, opened with an advocation of informality by the moderator, Chris Avadsun, and it paid off. The three guests each followed the mandate, to varying degrees. Branded entertainment, as a concept, depends on approachability. John Hall of Gone in 30 Entertainment, opened the floor.

“My company was started about six years ago as a response to what I saw, a need to form an alternative to traditional advertising. The reason this is called ‘touch-point marketing’, that I found when we were making <La Collection>, is that this isn’t just about television. It’s just where the process starts. …It really is predicated by this statement, that people are leaders, consumers, decision-makers, wearing a thousand different hats in the same day. We looked at a lot of different numbers, in this bourgeoning field, but we like to go with the twenty-six billion dollar figure, and most of it is from the big media of infomercials and product placements. Not to be snippy about it, but, again, the philosophy of our company is to provide our viewers with primetime entertainment, who want to watch our show, and we actually compete with those primetime shows. If art is at one end of the spectrum, and product placement at the other, there’s the whole middle range that really hasn’t been cultivated, and that’s where we’ve positioned ourselves.”

Gone in 30 Entertainment has grand ambitions, and it has made significant headway in making them reality. The success of <La Collection> isn’t debatable, and he is right; the viewer is now in control of their experience. <La Collection> succeeded through its ability to transcend media into reality through its clothes and the promotion thereof. ‘Interactive media’ was a buzzphrase five years ago; now it’s just the truth. <La Collection> is going into its second season this fall. Gone in 30′s new objective will be to demonstrate that lightening can strike twice. It’s a unique challenge that they’re clearly up to. But each panelist brought something unique to the table; Andrea Gagliardi, the second of the three, represented CityTv’s ‘Shorts in the City’ as the manager of Rogers Digital Media.

“Essentially in May of this year, we launched a multi-screen, multi-plaftorm, web-exclusive program. It included seventeen titles, five hundred episodes, and over thirty hours of program. We…licensed content from many partners, and we launched an iPad application–we were the first video iPad application–and we’re available on iTunes. …The reason for the launch of this program? As of May and June, our programming becomes rather slight… So we could continue to distribute video content throughout the summer months, we wanted to keep eyeballs on our sites consuming video.”

After a short display of the videos, the final panelist took the stage. Rob Tait, of Fresh Baked Entertainment, spoke from a place of experience with both internet and television branded programming.

“Technology has untethered media from format. In doing that, technology is giving control to them. They now choose when to watch video programming–just that, it used to be called television programming…You have to add something that publishes content. And a really good way to make sure that the content that you’re going to publish is going to get seen is telling stories.”

Storytelling would be the theme of the day. The Q&A session was a casual discussion of authenticity and subtlety in their work; upon its conclusion, I crossed the hall the Round Room to hear three very different people discuss their similar subject. “Transmedia Storytelling” featured three professionals using cross-media distribution for artistic and humanitarian purposes.

Katerina Cizek, Andrea Nemtin, and Christopher Bolton shared the panel and their projects with the crowd; Cizek and Nemtin both brought cross-media documentaries to the floor. Cizek’s interactive story archive High Rise focuses on the building communities around the world in suburban tower residences. To its credit, it does so with innovative use of OneTouch software and a true fondness for its subjects; the 360 degree music videos demonstrated were a strong touch, and High Rise’s welcome of further cities and stories ensures that it will continue to be a site to watch.

PTV Productions’ Andrea Nemtin represented ‘Inside Disaster’, a harrowing look into the world of the Haitian earthquake. The decision to work with such subject matter came naturally, if not  necessarily easily.

“Coming from a documentary background, it is a natural progression for us. We’ve been doing a project called ‘Inside Disaster’ following the Red Cross through a natural disaster. We didn’t know what disaster it would be, and it turned out to be the earthquake in Haiti. So when news broke, within 48 hours we had hit the ground, following the first team. We had always planned it to be an interactive and a  documentary, so we have a feature length documentary, three one-hours for television, and two interactive websites. When we thought about the website for this, we realized one of the conflicts of a documentary is the timeline. So what we did, for our first phase, we were able to do it in six or eight hours, we had done a lot of background work, and we sent a producer with the camera team to make updates for the site, every day, depending on the situation was, of what was seen on the ground. This allowed us to capture what Google called the volcanic spike in traffic that wanted to know what was going on in Haiti at the time. We got a French-Haitian woman in Montreal to start blogging for us, to maintain interest. The website has three different sections: there’s traditional things, bios, when there’re screenings….the second, because we’re working in the aid area, we thought there was a way to bridge the gap between the aid community, which can be very academic, and the general community. So there is a large amount of resources for people who are interested in getting involved, and Haitian background..As a producer, you get to learn such amazing things about a project. The third section is the most transmedia. It’s what we call ‘Not a Game’, and it’s here to deepen the film. And you can choose to roleplay a journalist, an aid worker, and a survivor. We had to combine both footage from the film and then go back and produce it. The footage is a little bit disturbing, so I just want to warn you.”

She was right; it was. The footage was powerful; if transmedia storytelling could be used for more noble purposes, they’re hard to imagine. Regrettably, the room’s combination of shadow and spotlight worked against displaying the video to best advantage.

The final panelist,  Christopher Bolton, stressed their use of conversational technology in their transmedia focus. “We have all of our content and projects, through the network, and brands take a gander at it, and if they like what they see, we sign on, and we see about integration. This project is now called ‘In Search of…’–working title–and the reason for that is it was born of a concept called ‘Rent-a-Goalie’ for Showcase, and I was trying to figure out how to go outside of the project, and even as I was developing this project, which is a 13×30 comedy series on the hunt for Gordon Lightfoot…We (Bolton and agencies) had a lot of conversations, and the conversations were not meshing. So I thought, ‘We’re going to not deal with this, and we’re going to deal with networks of the future, with people on the ground’. So there’s a soundtrack album, the guest-stars in the comedy series are popular in the Canadian music scene, and cover a Gordon Lightfoot tune…”

His presentation was accompanied by a web-chart of post-its on the screen–showing the connections between the graphic novel, the TV show, and the third party projects. It was a strong note to end on–the media of the twenty-first century has grown too fractured to ignore any medium at all.

His presentation served as a powerful reminder of the need for this convention; the branded entertainers need stories to tell, and the storytellers need finances to tell these tales. Interactive Ontario put on a strong conference, and it was obvious that every panelist was happy to be there. I was, too. IN Exchange will be on its sixth iteration next year; I look forward to being there.

Volume turned out to be the common noun of FanExpo 2010; whether referring to the sheer deluge of people on the outside of the complex, the amount of amazing content provided to those canny enough to buy passes ahead of time, or the fever-pitch of cheering throughout the center’s amphitheatres, it is debatable whether any other Canadian convention could compare in terms of variety. With balanced attention paid to the five pillars of nerd culture, there truly was something for everyone. And with the lines outside the building never abating, it felt as though everyone knew it.

Upon arrival, most attendees headed directly for the second floor. Home to the convention’s merchandisers, artists, and largest corporate sponsors, guests could enjoy demos of a select few holiday video games while collecting comics and autographs. The demarcation of the booth depended predominantly on the weight behind it; while individual artists may not have been labelled prominently, there was no missing the booth of Tron: Evolution. Chris Whiteside, the lead design developer for the title at Vancouver’s Propaganda Games, was leading a demo when I arrived. The game is very much a fluid experience–any and all of the blockiness in Tron’s past has been done away with completely. Musings on the game’s inspirations led Whiteside and I to the subject of Canadian industry specialties.

“We’re drawing from the best ground-based games, Prince of Persia, Assassin’s Creed…Canada has some of the best developers in the world for mobility based games. Obviously, Prince of Persias on its fifth iteration now? They’ve had plenty of time to work things out. There are examples from America–Uncharted’s very good. But a lot are done in our neck of the woods.”

Patriotism was put aside from then on. The giants beneath Tron: Evolution exist, but Propaganda looks neither back nor down on its predecessors.

“…There were certain things we wanted to refine from Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed—we wanted to get the player to wall-run everywhere, and from Assassin’s Creed, we wanted to focus on accessible controls.”

Throughout the combat scenes, the young man at the controls stood rapt.

“We wanted to make something that was totally Tron. We all sat down together with Kosinsksi and Sean Bailey (director of Tron: Legacy, executive producer of Tron: Legacy) and did the story-writing. As we knew the story of the film, we built it into the story of the game. The hardest thing was being so underground with the game; we only really showed it off at E3. We were worried about whether the fans would embrace the game as feeling like Tron…I watched the movie two months ago, and it was amazing to see the characters of the film reference events of the game, and see the physical geography be based on what happened in the game. It’s the first time in our business where this kind of cross-media pollination has been done to this depth, and it’s something Disney’s going to do, moving forward. It’s hard work, but it pays off.”

The hard work of the panel organizers paid off in turn. When I arrived in the auditorium for the noontime Tron: Legacy panel at 11:30, the hall was half-full; by five minutes before, there wasn’t an empty seat to be found. The show got off to a late start for reasons unexplained, but the audience was well-behaved. When a member of the throng attempted to start a militant chant of ‘Tron’, none joined, and most laughed at the attempt at disorder. The panels’ MCs, Innerspace’s Teddy and Ajay emerged to great cheers, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover I would be enjoying more of Chris Whiteside’s company. His enthusiasm was doubtlessly fed by the crowd—justifiably so.

“There are four great things about the game. This is not a movie game—this is the bridge between the original story and the film coming out this Christmas. The second aspect is the tactile gameplay; we want to make the players feel as though they truly are in Tron. Thirdly, there are multiple lightcycles in the game. In the single player, it is set-piece given, while in the multiplayer, it’s totally up to you. And the really important thing is we just solved the big problem that was haunting the game—we are happy to announce that as of Thursday, we have ninety degree turns in multiplayer.”

Unsurprisingly, this won a round of applause.

The following video showed the interaction between the filming crew and the team behind the game; for a few short minutes, Vancouver filled the hall. Following the Propaganda video, Whiteside returned to narrate gameplay. The landscapes looked even more beautiful on the silver screen, and the controls looked tight, with the exception of the apparently sensitive lightcycle controls—but upon considering the demands of a vehicle whose existence defies every law of physics, a high-strung control system does not seem out of the question. The audience was delighted by the footage—if Whiteside believes that the game’s chief difficulty was its lack of exposure, that fear can be put to rest. A gentleman to the last, he gave a birthday shout-out to a man in the audience before leaving the stage to the MCs’ care.

The impact of Tron was celebrated with a video of cultural references to Tron synchronized to Daft Punk’s ‘Around the World’–with Daft Punk as the primary artist for the Tron soundtrack, there could be no more obvious choice. Tron himself (Bruce Boxleitner) came out at the end for a Q&A session, which regrettably had to be forgone in order to catch the Q&A of the cast and crew of Riese: The Series.

To make it in anything even briefly resembling time required great haste; thankfully, the panel more than justified the sprint. With the Steampunk Canada crew in attendance, the cast and crew had the luxury of a loving audience—perhaps not as large as that of Tron’s, but equally passionate. The chief subject of the panel quickly became the nature of the relationship between webcreator and fan. Ryan Robbins and Ryan Copple led the panel, but the five members of the team formed a unified front.

“Starting as a webseries, you have a different relationship with your fans. There’s a sense of entitlement, rightfully so, because they’ve been with you since their discovery. So it’s really disappointing when you can’t give them anything, due to networks, and network decisions…The waiting’s the hardest part, waiting until we can say ‘Here you go, fans, here’s some stuff!’.”

And this the perfect day for stuff. Every anecdote from the panel, whether on costume decisions, eager actors who want to be on Riese, or angry kickboxing mishaps, was punctuated by laughter. We now know the episodes will be re-edited when re-released, and that it will be carried on one of the two Canadian sci-fi channels in addition to SyFy in the USA. That release date will be released within the next two weeks–and most mysteriously of all, a new character will be edited into the show. In addition, the tie-in game by Genius Factor Games was given some attention.

“It’s standing to be released at the end of September, early October, and it’s a card battle-game that takes place in Eleysia, and you play as either the Resistance or the Sect, and it’s all about the campaign to take over the nation. There’s a lot of fun story elements, and some behind the scenes things too. It’ll be a companion to the story, but also a stand-alone game. Following the iPhone game there’ll be an iPad release in glorious HD. I’ll tell you a little easter egg—when we were doing the card art, we did a photo shoot, and pretty much every card is us…I’m about fifteen of the cards. If you look closely, there’s the shaved head again….Christine plays herself. That’s good.”

Christine Chatelain was comfortable and relaxed. When asked about the difference between her roles on Sanctuary and on Riese, her answer was light-hearted.

“Well, I went from wearing no clothes to a lot of clothes….Actually, in Sanctuary, I wore a neon…condom-type…It’s awful! The director was very nice, everyone felt so bad for me that he actually wore it one day of shooting.”

As much as fans love pomp and circumstance, there was something to be said for the intimate atmosphere that the Riese crew provided for its fans. It stood in contrast with every other part of my day at the convention; between the sheer scale of the upper hall and the raucous fans of Tron, intimacy was out of the question in every other hour. But kindness was present on both sides of the stage. Fans cared where the money went from the tie-in game; Riese was happy to assuage their fears and encourage downloads of Gravity Well. The panel ended with the Steampunk Canada crew welcoming the speakers to their booth in order to enjoy the company of their fans; the relationship of Riese with its fans is admirable, and true.

While Vancouverite content was plentiful, Torontonian entertainments were slightly more difficult to find. Toronto businesses were well-represented upstairs, with the Silver Snail having a noteworthy booth. By mid-afternoon, the upstairs level was nothing less than a labyrinth. The Hand Eye Society was retroactively grateful not to have been placed on that second floor; by the end of the day, there was no blaming them. The chaos of arranging the flow of people took up much of the staff’s energy; my hunt was unaided by the program and attendants.

Thankfully, upon my arrival at the ground floor booth of the Hand Eye Society, Miguel Sternberg was more than happy to show off the contents of the Torontron, their modified arcade machine demonstrating the products of his Spooky Squid Games, one of the founders of the Hand Eye Society. Three people surrounded his station to the right–two of them were children. The game they were playing, The Night Balloonists, had many charms for the younger set. Between its simple one-button control system and the art nouveau aesthetic, the game naturally caught the eye. Upon his completion of the round with them, he then gave his full attention to the Torontron.

“The Night Balloonists is one of several games that we have on display. One’s a prototype from a larger game we’re working on Guerilla Gardening: Seeds of Revolution, and then we have Night of the Cephalopods and Cephalopods: Cottage Defence, which are both Lovecraftian horror titles.”

What could be more Toronto than a defence of cottage culture?

“It’s really good in that doing an event like this would be hard as an individual, but great as working together. We don’t really see each other as people to compete with; we’re working together to do well, and that benefits all of us. I’m one of the co-founders; it was Jim Monroe that brought us all together, and we came together to discuss what that should be, and it became the Hand Eye Society.”

Heavy Weather, one of the founding titles of the company, plays as simply as it should. Heavy objects fall, and dodging them allows the player to continue. All of the company’s titles convey the same mildly twisted sense of humour; the machine remained popular throughout my time at the booth. Night of the Cephalopods stood out with its pitch-perfect narration. Guerilla Gardening stands on the horizon as a downloadable game, and further down the pipeline an unnamed Xbox Live game will make a debut. The Hand Eye Society is on the rise; I look forward to seeing each step of the journey.

FanExpo was a strong demonstration of Canadian-made products on the rise–the only Canadian fiasco was the convention itself. With more booked time and space, it can be one of the greatest conventions on the continent; with restraint, more efficient and more intimate instead. No matter which path is chosen, fans will clamour at the gates–if the convention hears them out, we can all look forward to FanExpo 2011.

2010 has been a strong year for the Xbox 360, and the holiday season is sure to deliver a grand finale. There are comebacks for many of the console’s best-love franchises, and the debut of the much-talked about Kinect. Canadian offerings for the fall and winter land in both camps-with EA and Ubisoft both making particularly strong showings, and Big Park providing the Kinect with a joyous launch product, great games will arrive this winter from both sides of the border.

The doors opened at ten that morning; when I arrived at 10:04, the line still went out the door. The transformation to the club’s interior completely justified the mayhem. EA’s aisle was justifiably packed from sunup to sundown—with three instalments of powerful franchises on display, I was lucky to have the company of both Guillaume Voghel and Dana Sissons, who were eager to share their inside scoops on EA’s releases.

Guillaume Voghel is obviously proud of Dead Space 2 — with good reason. Dead Space 2 looks to deliver more in every imaginable way. The borders of the USG Ishimura have fallen away into the Sprawl, a fantastical space city on Titan that stretches into every plane of the screen. Changes have also been made to Mr. Clarke himself.

“Isaac’s got a face! We have given him a voice, he is no more the silent and vigilant guy. He’s more talkative, and more interested in taking strong action.”

Perhaps the most deliberate change in the Dead Space series is its passion for balance. The Dead Space 2 team has managed to both heighten the tension and pick up the pace by developing horrific new foes—the Puker stands out in this regard—and allowing Isaac to be ambushed by more than one foe at a time. The environment on display was the interior of a Church of Unitology; to have the Necromorphs descend from the aisles while a Tripod roars made my heart race. To compensate for the higher amount of enemies, Dead Space 2 allows the player to use the fragments of their corpses as weapons against them. In relation to this sped-up combat, Dead Space 2 also offers opportunities to indulge in a little classic puzzle-solving. The key puzzle on display was a challenge to use stasis and kinesis in turn to bring a gyroscope to a halt.

“It’s about taking what’s good in the first game and building on those basics. It’s really about revisiting a very rich story, a very deep environment, and having a really tight, horrific, gory experience. And being intense. And stressful in a good way.”

If any negative stress will come out of this game, it’ll only be from the tortuous wait. Thankfully, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit will be there to allow EA’s fans to blow off steam. Dana Sissons walked me through it.

“If you look at Need for Speed, there’s a couple different periods in its life. Before ‘Underground’, it was exotic cars and running away from the cops. With this, we’re trying to give it an homage. ‘Hot Pursuit’ is the first game ever that allows you a full career as a cop. You’re generating Bounty whatever you do, so whether you’re playing single player, multiplayer, online, you’re always levelling up. Criterion, with the Burnout series, they’re all about fun. They wanted to create that sort of competition, but they’ve pushed it a lot further than anything that existed up to this point. We created AutoLog, which made sure that you’re connected to your friends at all times. I don’t want to care if I’m better than someone who’s three thousand miles away. So AutoLog creates game play recommendations based on your friends’ game times. You can have a very dynamic game play experience.”

The game is beautiful—set in the fictional location of Seacrest County with four distinct regions, the inspiration is clearly the Pacific Coast Highway in all of its glory. The cops are suitably aggressive—with helicopters, spike belts, and supercars, this career path has notable allure. More than anything, this game is fun; whether driving well or driving poorly, the high-octane mayhem delights. This is going to be a competitive holiday season, with established names in most corners. But EA’s confidence is unshakeable.

“Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit offers hot racing action and this year’s most connected game. Some of them may have great multiplayer offerings, but our game is built around connectivity. To your friends, the world, the entire time in the game play section. It’s being published that way. You’ve got postings, comments—there is no more connected game than Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.”

Unfortunately, there was no one at X10 explicitly for NHL ’11; thankfully, the enthusiastic reactions of the demo’s players spoke highly on EA’s behalf. During my visit, Joseph Cariati held onto the controller with utter delight.

“It’s a lot more authentic, I think that’s what EA meant to do, and they created a whole new physics card. I think the fact that the sticks break is such a nice touch. It’s a great hockey game. I’ve always been an NHL fan, and it’s amazing that each year, you think, what can they do to make the game better? And they always do.”

However wonderful EA’s products, there was still plenty more to see. Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood has got to be one of the most quickly made games for the seventh generation; its launch date will be a year less

a day from the release date of Assassin’s Creed 2. In no way is this a slapdash production; the much ballyhooed multiplayer may not have been on display on Wednesday, but the featured footage was nevertheless fantastic. Christophe Grandjean was on hand to discuss the evolution of the series, and the singular delights of axe-throwing.

The demo featured the first playable sequence of the game, in which Ezio loses his villa and uncle to an attack from the Borgia family. The physicality of Ezio is still as fluid as ever; something that’s sure to delight fans of derring-do is the promise that Ezio’s steed will play a larger role in his adventures, due to the expansion of Rome itself-four times bigger than any city featured in the series so far.

Ezio has never been a more delightful assassin to play; Ubisoft listened to the grousing on AC2′s combat system, and has changed it up to allow for a much more aggressive style of play. During the fall of the villa, both the beautiful graphics and Ezio’s newfound bloodlust were demonstrated beautifully. The siege and bespoiling of the town are sights never before seen in a videogame, and if melee combat is nothing new, then perhaps its singular delight comes from the novelty of Ezio throwing an axe into an armoured guard.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood had a strong showing at E3 this year, with its introduction of the titular brotherhood—but the sisters, as ever, are still doing it for themselves. The Courtesan that made such a stir

back in June, was notably absent—but if Wednesday’s demos are anything to go by, every member of the fellowship will demonstrate equal power. The footage of the assassins released this time was sparse—but the specially-crafted demonstration of their power was just enough to satisfy. While it disappoints that one won’t be able to use your assassins to hail a storm of black bolts into Renaissance cardinals, only for you to pull off a coup inside the Pantheon, Ubisoft’s vision of their customer’s wants is spot-on. The brotherhood is certainly what the crew desires the most excitement for.
It’s a game they can be excited to release—the public, if the constant crowd of their aisle is anything to go by, is excited to play.

While the majority of the demos filled the main hall, the upper level of Fifth Social buzzed with energy as gamers got acquainted with the offerings for Kinect. While no representative of BigPark was personally available, the company’s personality filled the void at the Kinect Joy Ride booth. While the thrusting motions necessary to propel the vehicle took some getting used to, the exuberance of tricking the cars harkened back to SSX Tricky in the best possible way. Canadian content was ubiquitous upstairs; Canadian ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ veteran Blake McGrath was on hand to demonstrate Dance Central, and Ubisoft’s entry into the Kinect playing field, Kinect Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, was in frequent use.

While there were some difficulties with reception of my cross-kick in a skirt, the combination of minimalist aesthetics and maximized fluidity was effortless to use–no matter how vigorous the exercise, their patience will go untried. On hand was Nicola Godin to share the excitement. While many would be happy to simply

enjoy the innovation for its own sake, Godin’s focus is in parallel with the game’s.

“In terms of fitness, it’s so easily to do things improperly and get injured. But because of the tracking capabilities, we’re able to know where your body is. And we’ll be able to give feedback if it’s right or wrong. We’re just pushing the limits of fitness games, in ways that other titles weren’t able to do. We’ll do the same thing, and push it higher.”

“Now that we know what designs are working, we can help that game to evolve…If it’s going to exist, we have ideas. The DLC will serve at first, but we need to put all ideas on paper, and push the limits.”

Microsoft X10 demonstrated far more than the games. While Canadian titles were set to best advantage, American productions are only growing greater by the year. Halo Reach has clearly built on the decade of experience that the franchise has behind it; critics of the series’ realism will be delighted to discover how much more substantial the weapons feel, and those who enjoy a more fanciful future will find joy in the inclusion of the jetpack. The Halo property has always been about amazing multiplayer, and true to form, its benches were never empty.

Equally popular was the Fable III station. While demos by their very nature are small, Josh Atkins himself spoke proudly of the scope of the game.

“We’ve never been a big stats based game, but I think the combination of hardcore action, really fun accessible, good story–but then we have really good co-op gameplay that I don’t think anyone else has ever done. You can partner with another hero, and both get abilities. You could have a business relationship with another hero, you can get married to another hero–you can have a co-op experience unlike any other. There’s also a lot of Sims stuff, and there’s nothing like Fable. We’ve carved out our niche, and we’ve packed it with action….We’re proud of what we’ve made.”

All of this would be enough to win over a reluctant customer–but when pressed as to the main reason to nab a shy buyer, the answer was surprising.

“There are awesome games coming out, but the thing that has centered us this time is that it’s funny. It’s a funny world, even with a complex drama side, and it works. Fable III is a game that will make you laugh.”

The event remained thriving well through the night. Toronto can be proud to have put this on, and every developer can be proud of what they had to share.

I arrive at Genius Factor Games at 2:05 in the afternoon, and am welcomed by Ryan Arndt, the Director of Digital and Emerging Media. He’s as friendly as his position requires, and I’m invited to wait in the lobby until their previous meeting concludes. The offices are lowly lit, and sparsely furnished, with ecru sofas and a single glass table with two trade magazines.. Gravity Well may be their biggest success so far, but the few pieces of art on the walls are solely devoted to their newest project, a card game tie-in to Riese: the Series. The door into their meeting is left ajar, allowing me to hear an intent discussion of the viability of video game franchises as cross-media entertainment; I find myself more eager than ever to speak to the two men inside. When I’m welcomed into the office, an introduction to Ted Nugent, CEO of Genius Factor Games, is immediate—as is an introduction to his Australian Shepherd, Jenny, who sits at his feet.

I begin by asking how he feels about the success of the company’s debut; and immediately, his gratitude and modesty take centre stage.

“Well, I didn’t expect Gravity Well to…I think there needs to be a little bit of context around the whole thing. When we started with Gravity Well, it was really to learn the publishing system. So I didn’t expect the game to do more than one sale–one sale would have been a bonus. We released it in April of last year, and since then it’s done a lot better than I expected, and amazing… The reactions from the customers and from the people who are playing have been equally amazing.”

Gravity Well has been downloaded over four hundred thousand times; while Nugent and Arndt do admit to noticing a direct correlation between review quality and price point (Watch for Arndt’s blog post on the subject), the success of the title is still undeniable.

“…As a gamer, you get tunnel vision and you’re looking at this one thing, and you think it’s good, and you don’t really know, and you get to the point where it’s ready to release but you’re wondering if people are going to like it, but the reaction was really positive: everything that’s come out of it has been nothing but positive… We didn’t expect any money on it. It was to learn what it’s like to work with Apple as a publisher. At the time, it was a young market. It’s both performed well and had its lull points, but it has performed well…It’s been a huge learning experience. And brand awareness has built as well.”

The office is small—the offices in total are not much larger. But the pride he takes in the growing stature of the company is obvious. Upon inquiry into the origins of his studio, he doesn’t hold back.

“I have wanted to operate my own studios for probably ten years. I worked at EA for twelve, around my fifth year, I said ‘Alright, I want to do this on my own’, and I made an attempt, but it didn’t work. So I went back to the drawing board, was thinking about it, left in 2007, did some other work after that, and formed the company in 2008. By that point, the iPhone came out, and it was a game changer. It was a totally new device—but from 2003 onwards, it was a joke at EA, and other studios, that if you had mobile in your business plan, it would never make money. The environment of the marketplace wasn’t good—there was a million handsets, and anyone who went in lost money, because they couldn’t unify it. And then there was the iPhone—people were already buying music and tv on iTunes, so it was the final piece for me. I had my business plan and all the material that I’d put together from 2005 on, so I was prepared. The job I was at after EA, I was laid off from—a lot of us were, because they had run out of funding. I was the only one smiling that day, because I was set free. I incorporated the company the following day…and hired the other employees who had been laid off with me. We went right into full production the following day. It’s been a really natural transition, and it’s been fun. It’s been hard, but it’s been fun.”

His belief in the eventual supremacy of mobile gaming is obvious from the studio’s catalogue alone; both the present and future titles of the company have been for the iPhone, and considering GFG’s success, it would be understandable if they didn’t deviate from the mean. But Nugent is firm that Genius Factor Games does plan to experiment with other consoles.

“We do. We’re actually not an iPhone company, and that’s an important point: we’re platform agnostic. The iPhone is what we’re focusing on right now because the economics of developing for the platform are better. We all come from console–traditional console–experience. As the company improves over time, we expect to be expanding onto the old sort of markets. Or, more likely, as the new console, whatever the PlayStation 4, or the Xbox 720 is that’s going to come out after that, we’re planning on launching on those platforms as well. There’s no point now for us trying to compete with other guys in Vancouver, because that’s a declining market. That’s not really where we see the future of games, as a general rule: it’s mobile…The way people are playing their games is changing as well. The Twitter generation is more about short bursts of gameplay rather than the traditional six hours a day, and the emerging consoles that are going to come out are going to follow the mobile mindset, and this experience here is going to help us be in a stronger position later. Not just iPhone; we’re looking at Android, Nokia, and other mobile type devices, the PSP and Nintendo DS… This is a great seed stage that we’re in now, and it allows us to try a lot of things. Even when we get to that point, which we hope to do later this year, we’ll still be looking at the iPhone platform as a place to innovate and try ideas, as you can get a game to market very quickly, and you can build a follow-up very quickly. It’s a low cost to try in the market, so it’s much easier to get some exposure, some feedback, and to move on to something bigger.”

The conversation turns briefly to Gravity Well; an update for iPad is in the works, but Nugent is eager to speak instead of the upcoming tie-in to Riese: The Series, a locally produced steam-punk web series with definite mainstream potential. Nugent tells of their partnership.

“In the summer last year, we learned that it was hard to build a following without a brand. Gravity Well was a concept we tried; I had it ready to go when we started. When we started thinking about what was going to be after Gravity Well, we wanted to find a property that we could build a larger product on, and that was film…I got connected through some of my colleagues while they were still shooting the trailer, and they were trying to do the same thing we were doing—being independent producers. We started talking, and what they were building was amazing. Since they’ve been doing that, they’ve been on their trajectory, and we’re building a game with them; the trick was to build the game where they hadn’t been writing. We’ve been asking the bigger questions they hadn’t come across—that’s changed since, of course. It’s been great working with them. We hope to do more projects with their team in particular, because it’s been great.”

The story of Riese, with its solitary wanderer set against a vast government conspiracy, offers myriad options to a game designer—the decision to build a card game as the first title for the franchise is not obvious to those not in the know. The decision was actually that of Riese‘s production staff.

“They had a card game they wanted to build, and they had a concept in place already. That was what they wanted for their first game. And it was good for us, in that there are lot of other opportunities that that brings into the gaming space. People will understand it, like Magic, and the world that they’ve built—it plugs in well. Our first conversation with them was “We have a card game we want to develop.” We went through discussions and designs—what we talked about then and what we have today has quite a divergence.”

Divergence may exist between the theoretical and the practical notions of the Riese game, but it also exists in the very nature of the GFG portfolio. There’s very little in common between the casual puzzling of Gravity Well and the formal card system of the Riese title. To Nugent, that lack of trademarks is the trademark of Genius Factor Games.

“Like with the platforms…agnosticism. We are from a game-branding standpoint, well, we want variety. So we don’t just want games like Gravity Well. Certainly the casual, puzzle space is worthy to be active in. But as producers, we want variety. We have a connection in that they’re both science fiction, Riese being steam-punk science fiction, but whatever we build for that story, we build really well. The aesthetic is quality, continuity. We want the quality of the product to stand on its own regardless if you know of Gravity Well. Whether we’re doing a sports game, or something else, we want to be proud of it. We’ll hold off if it’s not ready, we take the Blizzard approach. Riese is in the same mindset, and what we have to date is something will hit very well with their fanbase. The steam-punk, science fiction both play into our longterm plan.”

When asked where they saw themselves within five years with said plan, the optimism of the company shines through.

“We’re trying to execute a good long term plan, and I hope to have 2/3 of that accomplished within the next five years. We’re trying to do things that are socially relevant, and do some good in the world at the same time. We’re working on things that I think are exciting, and have a lot of promise going into the future. I’d like to be close to three times our current size—we’re seven people right now. The economics of the environment are stabilizing; the changes from when I formed the company to today—fortuitous now, though it sucked at the time. It opened up talent, it forced the changes that are occurring in the industry, towards mobile and away from the business model of the music industry. It led us to be ahead of the curve, and aware of where we spend our resources. Great studios? Those are great to have, but that mindset is a leftover from the last part of the last decade.”

“Sometimes I bring in my espresso machine,” Ryan quipped, leading me to ask where he saw his department going through the next five years.

“Many more Facebook fans, and more interaction. I’m still learning, everyone’s still learning, so to get that growing, and comments, and have people interested, because they like the brand, and what it represents. On Facebook, we’re at 163 right now. I know that number every day.”

And with their constant volunteerism, that number is sure to grow. Once the recording stopped, the conversation turned to the different causes that Genius Factor Games supports. Gravity Well’s opening screen shows their devotion to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Canadian Cancer Society, and the BCSPCA. Genius Factor Games gives each employee three paid days to give back to the community. Both men are quick to point out how instrumental volunteerism was in bringing Arndt to Genius Factor Games—his work with the Ghoulash Bash in particular helped him garner attention, if not notoriety. Ryan laughs, but his point remains insistant.

“If successful in life, help others!” Ted speaks up, one last time.

“I believe in paying it forward, things come back in ways never expected. I want people here to be proud of where they work.”

The interview ends; I shake their hands.

The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design is mistitled, but only slightly so. For any designer or writer with aspirations of success in the gaming industry, this book will aid them. However, the book should not be the last guide an amateur buys,i nor the first. The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design is not ultimate, simply thorough, with solid advice for both novice and veteran writers. The book’s great weakness is that its authors only seem able to address half of their audience at a time; this is no one’s ultimate guide.

Each half is well-written and concise, if festooned with typos. The first half provides a walkthrough of the process of developing a strong, marketable property, and the second half teaches its readers how to see that property through the corporate minefield. The first half errs on the side of simplicity; it’s difficult to conceive of a would-be game designer unaware of the basic history of video games, or who would need to be reminded of the difference between onscreen and offscreen dialogue. A newcomer will benefit from the learning exercises provided, if they’re the sort of writer who works well with templates, but writers who fancy themselves experienced creators may find Dille and Platten’s fill-in-the-blanks approach demeaning.

The second half of the book contains valuable advice for staying hired at a development agency, but their suggestions about how to ease into the industry are not only basic, but common. Even a reader completely unconnected to the industry will find their advice rather obvious; in 2010, it is unlikely that aspiring designers are not already aware of their need to network and check for jobs online. Fresh hires will find the chapter on the various uses of lawyers, managers, and agents useful, but only if they can afford them, and the glossary will be useful only so long as the references are relevant—and references to plot devices like the Giant Rat of Sumatra may not be relevant as long as the authors seem to think.

The guide may be penultimate, but it does have its strengths. Dille and Zuur Platten both are warm, considerate writers who want their readers to succeed in the field. But the odds of any novice being guided to chairmanship through this guide alone are slim to none. The readers and writers both would be better served through an expansion of this book into a two or three volume set to give the writers the breathing room to be more cohesive, and the vast scope of readers more distinct attention. Dille and Zuur Platten have the necessary skills and ambition to make an ultimate guide to videogame writing; this just isn’t it.

Don Tapscott has a deserved reputation as a prolific, adept, and enthusiastic futurist author. However, his personal realities make him an ill-serving advocate for the ‘Net Generation’.  The book’s opening salvo of corporate approval rightfully informs a young reader of the work’s intended audience. This work is about the Net Generation, not for it, and if the axiom of never trusting anyone over thirty is to be adhered to, the sixty-three year old Tapscott deserves a double-dose of scrutiny.

According to Grown Up Digital, the twenty year span of individuals aged between eleven and thirty-one at the time of the book’s publication has acquired a reputation for being selfish, narcissistic, violent, and, worst of all things, unemployable. Tapscott supplies strong evidence to the contrary from the research conducted by his thinktank nGenera; with approximately ten thousand interviewees of all ages, no one can fault the project’s scope . And he is right–this is a bright generation, with ingenuity and conviction. However, he is perhaps more selective with examples than he should be if he hopes to address the needs and wants of the Net Generation at large. Effie, the Princetonian Google employee mentioned in Chapter Six, exemplifies only the most privileged of current graduates; his chapter on education advocates the proper introduction of technology into the classroom without mentioning how failing school districts should acquire the money to do so. Chapter Six may advocate a utopian, Googlesque workplace, but the capital investment required for such a heaven is too considerable to ignore.

The book does have its strengths; the writing itself is strong and concise, though Tapscott’s fondness for juvenile neologisms remains–Growing Up Digital introduced his readers to the word  ‘cyberbro’, this work gives us ‘N-Fluence’– and his tendencies towards self-aggrandization  are as strong as ever. He reminds us that he has eleven books to his name and a rip-snorting family band, but he can’t be bothered to include the name of the Ogilvy “young Australian” who developed the award-winning Dove ‘Evolution’ television spot (Tim Piper).

After eleven books, his ability to write a readable sociological text is not up for discussion, yet the book suffers from its clashing purposes. The first four chapters pay tribute to the strengths of the Net Generation; his only real concern is a generational ignorance of Facebook filters. This is not unwarranted, and the notion that a respected technological guru wants to shepherd the development of the Net Generation has its charms. But Tapscott is just as happy to tell marketers exactly how to get us to spend our money, and the final chapter, ‘In Defense of the Future’ is founded on concept that the future that young people strive for is one that Baby Boomers have good reason to fear.

Don Tapscott may be for the Net Gen, but I can’t say the same for Grown Up Digital. There’s no particularly strong reason for a twentysomething to read this book, but if you happen to be a middle-aged bureaucrat without a younger friend to connect with over a beer, this is the book for you.