Village Gamer

The call for submissions to present lectures, roundtables and panel sessions at the 2012 Game Developers Conference® (GDC) is now open through Tuesday, September 6^th. Organized by the UBM TechWeb Game Network, GDC 2012 is the game industry’s most comprehensive and longest running professionals-only event where game developers converge for a week of learning, networking and inspiration. GDC 2012 will take place March 5-9 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California. Session proposals can be submitted via the official GDC website.

The GDC 2012 advisory board welcomes a slate of new members primarily aiding in the content planning for the Business, Marketing & Management, Production, and Visual Arts tracks including:

Chris Charla, Portfolio Director for XBLA, Microsoft Game Studios
Prior to joining Microsoft, Charla served as VP of business development at Foundation 9 Entertainment as well as editor-in-chief of Next Generation Magazine and launch editor of IGN.com.  In his new role at Microsoft Game Studios, Charla helps to shape Microsoft’s first party digital games portfolio.

Rod Fergusson, Executive Producer, Epic Games
As executive producer for Epic Games’ blockbuster Gears of War franchise,
Fergusson led the production of Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360) and the 2006 Game of the Year, Gears of War (Xbox 360, PC), in addition to collaborating with creative talent on the Gears of War novels, comic books and film. During his 10 year tenure at Microsoft, Fergusson also produced a number of game projects including Train Simulator, Blood Wake and Counter-Strike (Xbox).

Lee Petty, Project Lead & Art Director, Double Fine Productions
Since 1996, Petty has worked in the game industry in a wide variety of art production and leadership roles.  Petty has shipped numerous console and PC titles at companies such as Accolade, Infogrames, and Crystal Dynamics. Petty is currently at Double Fine Productions, where he serves as art director and project lead; his work includes 2009’s Brutal Legend and 2011’s Stacking.

Justin Thavirat , Senior Art Director, Blizzard
Thavirat is a senior art director at Blizzard Entertainment and has been working in the video game industry since 1994. He has contributed game art, concept art, cinematics art and marketing illustrations for many of Blizzard’s games in the Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, and World of Warcraft series. Most recently, Thavirat served as lead artist on World of Warcraft, art director on World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, and is currently art directing Blizzard’s unannounced massively multiplayer online game.

Ru Weerasuriya, Art and Creative Director and Co-Founder, Ready at Dawn Studios
Weerasuriya is the art and creative director and co-founder of Ready at Dawn Studios. 2006 saw the release of their first game, Daxter, to critical and commercial acclaim, earning them a nomination for the BAFTA awards. Formerly a senior artist with Blizzard Entertainment, Weerasuriya initially worked on Starcraft: Brood War and then contributed to the blockbuster Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Weerasuriya’s work has been published in several books and magazines, including The Art of Warcraft, The Art of World of Warcraft, Dungeons & Dragons books and Monster Manuals.

“The GDC Advisory Board has made improving the quality of presented talks its number one goal,” said Meggan Scavio, GM, Game Developers Conference Events. “With our new board members and the introduction of a new submissions system, we are able to continue to present talks that are representative of interesting and current work happening in game development each year.”

The Khronos Group has announced a 3D content development contest with a $500 cash prize for the winner. The open COLLADA format is ideal for creating compelling experiences, but a great example is worth a thousand words. This is where you come in. Help Khronos show the power of COLLADA by creating a compelling piece of 3D content the group can use as an example for its large and growing developer community.

Deadline is Sunday August 7th, 2011 at 11:59PM PST. The winner will be announced at our event at the SIGGRAPH 2011 conference in Vancouver and be awarded the $500. For full details on how to take part please read the Design Brief on the contest page.

Raindance Canada presents an intensive weekend workshop designed to give young filmmakers hands-on experience in screenwriting, producing & directing a short film. Participants in the Weekend Film Workshop For Teens will form film teams and get hands-on experience shooting a film as they take on the key creative roles in film production. A short film will be produced by each team by the end of the weekend, then screened in a mini-festival the following week.

This course is designed for aspiring young filmmakers age 14 and up interested in making films and knowing what it takes to create a viable filmmaking career. The Workshop will be held on August 13th and 14th  at the Centre for Social Innovation – Annex on Bathurst in Toronto. The cost for this workshop is $349.00 (+ tax) for non-members, or $319.00 (+ tax) for Raindance Canada members. Announced mentors for this workshop include James Cooper, Yaw Attuah, Charles M. Scott and Brian Smith.

Day One of the workshop will feature a  Hands-on Shoot Pre-production session, where participants will undertake the following:

• Writing: Participants complete a short film script using essential story structure.
• Directing: Participants practice shot composition and learn about directing style, storyboards, working with actors & shoot to edit.
• Producing: Participants prepare a script breakdown, budget & negotiate fees, crew and production requirements.

On Day Two, the groups will move on to a day of production in  Let’s Make a Movie, where, under the mentorship of industry experts, participants work with actors and a camera operator to direct a short script and bring the film in on time and on budget. By the end of the weekend, each team will have completed pre-production and production of a short film.

For students interested in documentary filmmaking, there is an opportunity to join the documentary team under the mentorship of award-winning filmmaker Chuck Scott to create a documentary project covering this creative weekend.

Participants in this weekend intensive workshop will receive mentoring from industry professionals on the art, business and discipline of a working filmmaker’s life and receive valuable insider advice on starting a viable career in filmmaking in Canada. Participants could also win a chance to be part of the crew to film Raindance Canada’s next Trailer.

After the weekend workshop, there will be a screening of all the completed short films. Each team’s film will be edited by a Film Editor and the completed films will play at an invitation-only screening party at Raindance Toronto. Parents and friends are welcome to attend this red carpet event and celebrate the work of these young filmmakers.

IndustriOS Software Inc., developer of IndustriOS manufacturing suite integrated with Sage ERP Accpac is honoured to support the Coast to Coast Against Cancer Foundation with the IndustriOS Golf for Kids with Cancer tournament being held Wednesday September 14, 2011.

The IndustriOS Golf for Kids with Cancer tournament offers IndustriOS and Sage Software customers, partners, friends and family, with the opportunity to enjoy an afternoon of fun-filled golf while raising funds for the Coast to Coast Against Cancer Foundation.  Included with the $100 registration fee per golfer are the Green Fee, Electric Cart, Crested Tee Package, Hat, Lunch and Dinner.  Friendly competitions, prizes and a 50/50 draw round-out the day for the golfers.  Online registration is available.  This event is being hosted from 12 Noon to 8:00pm at the Turtle Creek Golf Club in Campbellville, Ontario.

In support of the Coast to Coast Against Cancer Foundation, which benefits children’s cancer charities, this tournament follows the IndustriOS Software tradition of supporting charitable organizations and events such as Tour for Kids and the Arthritis Society’s Joints in Motion, and now Coast to Coast Against Cancer Foundation.  This impressive charitable organization raised $4.7 million in 2010, and is the only national childhood cancer charity in Canada. All receiptable funds, obtained through initiatives and events that promote healthy living, are delegated to charities and programs supported by the Coast to Coast Against Cancer Foundation to help improve the survival and quality of life of children and their families afflicted with cancer including research, clinical care, and children’s cancer camps.

The company is proud to host the IndustriOS Golf for Kids with Cancer Tournament, and eagerly anticipates sharing this fun-filled day with IndustriOS customers and partners this autumn, and are honoured to support the Coast to Coast Against Cancer Foundation.

Sirius XM Canada today revealed the winning communities for the inaugural Face the Music Summer Concert Series. After earning the highest average score within their region playing SiriusXM’s Face the Music Challenge, residents of Telkwa BC, Sault Ste. Marie ON, Baie-Comeau QC, and Sussex NB will receive an exclusive free summer concert experience in August courtesy of SiriusXM Canada.

Launched in June, the Face the Music challenge tested Canadians music knowledge for an opportunity to win an exclusive free concert experience for their hometown. The game awarded points for correctly identifying songs based on SiriusXM’s commercial-free music playlist. With more than 100,000 games played since launch, participation was strong with many Canadians taking to Twitter and Facebook to encourage their friends and neighbours to compete for their communities.

SiriusXM Canada subscribers and local game participants will be invited to the exclusive concerts. A number of select promotional tickets will be made available to area residents.

In addition, a grand prize consisting of a trip for 2 to attend the concert of the winner’s choice, spending money and a Sirius Satellite Radio with subscription will be awarded to the individual with the highest score. Nine secondary prizes will also be awarded.

The four exclusive free concert experiences include:

“We’re thrilled that Telkwa, Sault Ste. Marie, Baie-Comeau and Sussex are our Face the Music winners,” said Paul Cunningham, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, SiriusXM Canada. “It was terrific to see such strong community participation and with over 100,000 games played, it seems that everyone had a lot of fun. We’re proud to reward the winning communities with a free and exclusive concert experience from these incredibly talented Canadian artists.”

“Really looking forward to getting out to BC and rocking for you folks,” remarked John-Angus MacDonald of The Trews. “Congrats on the big win and thanks to everyone who participated. I’m sure it’ll be a grand ol’ time. Cheers!”

“From all of us in Broken Social Scene, we just want to thank the people of Sault Ste. Marie that took the time to play the game,” commented Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene. “We’re really looking forward to heading out and playing for all of our fans out there.”

“It’s cool that the Sirius Face The Music Summer Concert series puts the power in the hands of local communities to bring one of the shows of the summer to their hometown,” said Eon Sinclair of Bedouin Soundclash.  ”You have to know your music, listen in, answer quickly, and rally your people online to make it happen – looking forward to sharing a wicked night of Canadian music with everyone in Sault Ste. Marie.”

“I think it’s an incredible idea to give people a chance to put their musical knowledge to use to try to win my show in their city,” says Marie-Mai.  “Rock on Baie-Comeau!”

“Congratulations to all those who played and who know their rock,” commented Alfa Rococo.  ”We cannot wait to play in Baie-Comeau!”

“It’s great how many people played to get us to come to their hometown,” said Dallas Green of City and Colour. ”I’m really looking forward to coming to New Brunswick and performing for everyone.”

The Internet Marketing Conference is coming to the Renaissance Vancouver Harbourside Hotel on October 3rd and 4th (Monday and Tuesday). This conference features an experienced roster of speakers who will present their thoughts on the many challenges faced by today’s moderner marketer, with a focus on the following:

• Are the web marketing lessons of the past 10 years still relevant?
• Do we still need to be “site” focused?
• What is our Cross-Platform Content Strategy?
• Who should manage our social media initiatives? Is it replacing PR?
• Should social commerce be managed separately from social media?
• Should we spend more on campaigns, technology or people?
• Is now the time to test mobile? What does a mobile strategy look like?
• Should we invest in an app or mobile site? What kind of results should we expect?
• How do we win the budget for more advanced digital marketing programs?

The digital eco-system has expanded across multiple platforms through multiple devices putting pressure on marketers to not only manage multiple touch points, but make sense of new behavior, sentiment and intent. At IMC Vancouver you will have the chance to explore, discuss and debate today’s challenges, opportunities and solutions in four different tracks:

Content, Community, Campaigns and Insights:

• Content Strategy: Email, Video, Website Content, SEO
• Community Strategy: Social Media Management and Participation
• Campaigns: Paid Search, Display, Social and Mobile
• Insights: Voice of Customer, Analytics and User Experience

Why You Should Attend:

• Take home practical, tactical advice you can apply immediately
• Get up to speed on marketing technology without becoming an engineer
• Improve your ability to manage multiple campaigns across multiple platforms
• Learn how to get insights out of data without becoming a statistician
• Align online marketing with overall business goals

Double Early Bird pricing for this conference is available until July 30th, with Regular Early Bird prices available until September 9th, when Regular prices come into effect.

Last night at Casual Connect in Seattle, Toronto’s  TransGaming Inc. announced that Yo Deshi by Scottish developer Proper Games had been declared the winner of the company’s $ 50 000.00 GameTree Developer Competition.

Yo Deshi is a cerebral martial arts-themed board game that challenges players of all levels with a unique multi-player puzzle experience. Gamers can experience the excitement of incredible gains and stunning losses as they engage both real and simulated opponents with a range of thought-provoking strategies. Featuring highly immersive and fully customizable gameplay, the game was chosen as the grand prize winner of TransGaming’s GameTree Developer Competition.

The influential celebrity judges included actor, director, producer and writer LeVar Burton, President of Development at Jerry Bruckheimer Games Inc., Jay Cohen, and Lorne Lanning, co-founder of Oddmobb, Inc. The competition was launched in January,  with developers being offered the chance to win $50,000 and have their game featured on the GameTree TV platform for Smart TV, making it accessible to millions of Smart TV users as the GameTree TV market adoption continues to grow.

“We were highly impressed by the level of skill that all the finalists demonstrated. In the end it came down to talent, attention to detail and the overall quality of the winning game,” said panel judge LeVar Burton. “We’ve been able to offer developers the chance to reach a global audience with GameTree TV, a fantastic opportunity for a new developer eager to make their mark on the industry. It’s an exciting time for developers as the way we all interact with games and entertainment on a daily basis is changing rapidly, and TransGaming is playing a vital part in that process.”

If you are interested in developing titles playable on the GameTree TV platform, visit the GameTree Developer Portal to find out how to have your games published on Smart TV systems around the world. Other games in this first competition included Smiles HD by Canadian developer Sykhronics Entertainment and Bubblenauts: The Hunt For Jolly Roger’s Treasure by Western Star Entertainment of Oregon.

“Our passion for discovering, promoting and distributing the innovative content developed by the incredibly talented independent game development community is the main reason we decided to run this competition. We received an overwhelming response from developers around the world and were thrilled by the quality of the submissions,” commented Vikas Gupta, CEO & President of TransGaming. “GameTree TV is emerging as a top new gaming platform and we are extremely happy that Yo Deshi, and all of our finalists, are going to be part of the experience. My sincere congratulations go out to Yo Deshi and Proper Games.”

Village Gamer will be at SIGGRAPH 2011 in Vancouver, and in keeping with our mandate of promoting Canadian digital interactive media, technology, film and TV to the masses we invite you to take part. We will be situated in Booth 1018, please see the map below to see where Orby is camping his spot.

We are looking for sizzle pieces and trailers that we can show in the booth, along with products and swag to put in gift baskets that we’ll be offering as prizes in business card draws. If you have postcards promoting your “Made In Canada” game, software, product, studio, association or services we are offering our booth as a point of distribution. If you would like to provide bags, pens or other swag to hand out, that is welcome too.

Ideally we would like to put together promo packs to give out encouraging businesses to Outsource to Canada. Please contact me with this special event address if you would like to help us help you. Your trailers must be available for us to download in the highest playable quality possible, preferably in 1080p – our screen is a 42″ HDTV, and we want to show your trailers in their best possible light.

For Vancouver area companies – if any of you have trade show equipment such as collapsible chairs,  TV stand, portable tables (like those tall, round, bar style), etc. that we could borrow for SIGGRAPH, we would be most grateful and of course acknowledge your contribution with promotional considerations. All equipment must be easily movable, as we have to move everything in by hand without the benefit of type of dolly cart unless we hire convention centre staff to move everything in from the loading dock, which we don’t have a budget for.

In keeping with our community theme, we’re trying for a “fireside chat” type of feel to the booth, so that our “on the spot at SIGGRAPH” interviewees can site comfortably while being interviewed on camera. If you are feeling generous and would like to help us purchase our own trade show equipment, we would also be eternally grateful – at the least we  will place your logo on our site as a supporter.

As mentioned above, we will be conducting in-booth interviews with Canadian attendees, so if you would like to represent, stop by and take a seat in front of the camera. Of course, we will also be covering as much of SIGGRAPH as we possibly can, and will have a roving video camera or two so don’t be surprised if you get recognized and hi-jacked while wandering the convention hall.

Also to be officially unveiled at SIGGRAPH will be our new project. We don’t want to reveal too many details just yet, but we can tell you that it will involve community, marketing and the creative Canadian spirit that has made this industry great. We will also be introducing our new collaborative partner, Code-name Alex  – and devs, Alex has an iPad – so, if you would like people to be able to play your game or try your app while visiting our booth and have a download code to spare, please send it via the contact link above, along with the game title, studio name and info page link, with the subject line SIGGRAPH iPad. Please note – this is only for games and iPad apps  made in Canada. Each of the games or apps loaded for SIGGRAPH will be included in our table-top info catalogue for attendees to browse through.
[paypal-donation]
We also have need of two or three more volunteers to work alongside Alex and our lovely booth hostess Megan and the infamous CaveChild and assist in promoting the Canadian interactive industry. Ideally, we are looking for students, recent graduates or those already working in the creative development sector – this would include game designers, entertainment business managers, project management, marketing, or film students (a stationary video cam with an external mic for the in-booth interviews would be most awesome too).  You would need to be available for expo floor hours, which are as follows:

If you are interested in this volunteer position, which will include a SIGGRAPH expo pass, please contact me with your information and reason for wanting to help out with the show, with SIGGRAPH volunteer as the subject line.

Supply chain execution software solutions provider Accellos announced today that it will be holding a Summer Conference single day event in Toronto, along with stops at Newark, Chicago, San Francisco and Atlanta.

Accellos Visions 2011 is designed to give supply chain professionals across North America the opportunity to join in educational sessions, networking opportunities and engaging dialogue with Accellos experts, customers and partners like Microsoft and Psion Teklogix. The event provides a forum for attendees to spend time face-to-face with their Accellos team, meet new colleagues with similar business interests in their area and industry, and learn how to drive even greater returns from current and future Accellos solutions.

The daily agenda (PDF) includes educational sessions covering topics meaningful to Accellos’ 3PL, Warehouse Management, Transportation Management and EDI customers and partners. The sessions will focus on profit-building strategies, industry insights, best practices, in-depth product information, technology road maps, and the vision for Accellos going forward. Speaking guests include Accellos top executives, product and brand managers, and representatives from Microsoft and Psion.

“We developed Accellos Visions with the aim of bringing together our customers, partners, and supply chain professionals from coast to coast,” said Accellos CTO Ross Elliott. “Our attendees will have the chance to learn about how our latest products can help them drive ROI, hear expert speakers from Microsoft and other partners talk about topics like Cloud Computing and Mobility, and get a glimpse of Accellos’ vision for the coming months and years. And the best part is that, rather than host a single event in one location, we will be bringing the show to our attendees.”

Early bird special registration pricing for Accellos Visions 2011 is available until July 22.

On Sunday July 27th, the final votes for the 8 developer selections for the Indie Games Summer Uprising were tallied and the organizers are now ready to announce the titles of the games which will headline the promotion:

The next step in the competition will begin on  Monday, August 1st and run until Sunday August 14th, when fans will have the opportunity to choose two titles that they would like to see as part of the promotion on any of the remaining candidates from the IGSU entries page. Voting will take place on the IGSU Facebook page. Winners will be announced during the #IGSU Twitter Chat.

The #IGSU Twitter Chat will be held on Tuesday Aug 16th – 9PM EST, and the gaming community will have the ability to speak directly with the developers, organizers, and journalists in a roundtable style chat. As mentioned before, the two winners from the fan vote will be announced at this time as well.

Indie Games Uprising Summer Schedule:

August 1st – August 15th: Community voting for 2 additional titles they would most like to play.
Tuesday August 16th – 9PM EST: IGSU Developer Twitter chat, community winners announced
August 22nd – September 2nd: Promotion and release of 8 developer and 2 community voted titles