Village Gamer

Ontario via GDC – Executives from the Ontario Technology Corridor are attending the Game Developers Conference (GDC 2010) in San Francisco to show digital entertainment companies that Ontario is the best place in North America to expand or relocate their businesses. The Canadian province offers a deep talent pool, strong and stable economy, and targeted incentives.

Ontario’s fast-growing entertainment and creative cluster produces $15 billion in revenue and over 200,000 jobs, contributing $12.7 billion to the province’s GDP. In addition, gaming and digital media graduates from Ontario colleges and universities have proven to be prized employees at companies like Pixar Animation Studios, Electronic Arts, Walt Disney and Microsoft.

“Our job now is to add to our tremendous home-grown crop of companies. 35 Ontario gaming companies are at GDC 2010 to showcase their world-class creations, make business connections, and help demonstrate that Ontario is a prime destination in North America for gaming investments,” said Larry MacKinnon, Director, Business Development, Technology with the London Economic Development Corporation, an Ontario Technology Corridor partner. The list of companies based or with operations in Ontario and attending GDC 2010 includes Digital Extremes, Ubisoft, FileCatalyst, and Frozen North Productions. Read the rest of this entry »

Vancouver – Clicktoy Interactive is pleased to announce the release of its software “The Meadow“for the Apple Mac. The award winning interactive software for children ages 1 to 5 is now available for purchase at local Canadian Apple Stores and select US Apple stores, and online at store.Apple.com.

Colourful 3-D graphics, nature sounds and original music bring nature to life on screen where children can join Mr. and Mrs. Bunny as they visit their friends living in The Meadow. With the simple press of a key, your child can guide the animals through the beautiful meadow environment.

“Any parent can tell you that when they’re working on their computer, the little one will come along and want to sit on their lap and press buttons,” said Ken Kavanagh, developer of The Meadow and president of Clicktoy Interactive. “As every key has a function, children are free to interact with the computer without worry.”

With The Meadow, parents and children can explore this charming and peaceful place together, featuring:

* Four detailed scenes
* ClickSafe locks the keyboard, prevents your child from exiting the application
* Stunning graphics and immersion in a virtual nature-walk
* Make up your own stories and imagine together

Available on the PC since 2008 “The Meadow” is now available for the Mac OS. Offered in over 17 languages the game sells for $24.95 and is available now for the Mac or PC.  Village Gamer congratulates Ken Kavanagh and Clicktoy Interactive with this new release – and fully recommends “The Meadow” to anyone who has a toddler and/or pre-schooler in their family.

Vancouver – Vancouver Film School is pleased to present the $30,000 Women in Games Scholarship for the second straight year. This Scholarship covers the full tuition for a female aspiring game designer to attend VFS’s acclaimed one-year Game Design program, named by L.A. Times as a Top 10 school “favoured by industry recruiters”.

With International Women’s Day on March 8 highlighting the achievements of women and the need to create a more equal and rewarding future for girls, the announcement of the Women in Games scholarship is timely. In an industry traditionally dominated by men – around 90%, according to Game Developer Magazine’s 2009 Salary Survey – the scholarship was established as a concerted effort by VFS to encourage greater opportunities for females wishing to pursue Game Design as a career. Read the rest of this entry »

Congratulations to the teams of Assassin’s Creed 2 and FIFA 10 for making the shortlist in the BAFTA Game of the Year nominations. The public are invited to vote in this category, so I hope you’ll head over to the vote page and support our Canadian products. The Awards ceremony will take place on March 19th at the London Hilton.

Vancouver – IUGO’s fantastical and ridiculously fun dual stick shooter, Daisy Mae’s Alien Buffet is now available in the App Store for the introductory price of $1.99 USD.  Daisy Mae’s peaceful, simple life in her little desert trailer park will never be the same. A full scale alien attack on earth has begun and Daisy becomes the unlikely heroine outta nowhere. Take hold of the steering wheel and help Daisy Mae shoot and blast her way to victory in this fun and quirky dual stick shooter. Aliens: you have been served!

Features:

* More aliens than you can shake a stick at!
* The baddest selection of weapons known to folks ’round these here parts
* Purty graphics and fancy sounds effects
* Sassy costumes to unlock for Daisy Mae’s alien hoedown
* Daisy Mae “taunt” moves to kill the aliens dead in their tracks
* Control options to suit every varmint’s needs
* VIP points to be earned towards an additional costume
* Global leaderboards
* Auto save

Toronto – The Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) proudly announces that it has invested $2.9 M in funding support through its Entertainment and Creative Cluster Partnerships Fund (PDF) to leverage an additional $7.1 M from 94 partners to support 17 innovative projects.

The Partnerships Fund was designed to help Ontario’s entertainment and creative industries invest in smart ways to grow and increase their competitive advantage in the global marketplace. The industries eligible for funding include book and magazine publishing, music, film, television, interactive digital media and commercial theatre. Read the rest of this entry »

Markham – AMD has announced that it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, under which the Ministry will award a five-year grant of $56.4 million CAD ($52.8M USD) to AMD Canada under Ontario’s Next Generation of Jobs Fund. The grant is expected to fund R&D activities by AMD’s Markham-based engineers in the development of its upcoming AMD Fusion™ family of processors, related software infrastructure and integrated computing platforms. Ontario expects to make its initial investment of $11.2 million CAD to AMD upon signing the formal agreement, with periodic payments occurring thereafter throughout the grant period.

In turn, AMD will commit to substantially invest in AMD Fusion processor-related R&D activities in Markham, and retain and create hundreds of high-value R&D jobs during the grant time frame. AMD also plans to increase collaborative activities with local universities.

“With this partnership, Ontario will be at the forefront of helping to bring this game-changing technology to market, and will deepen the province’s reputation as a seat of technology innovation,” said Dirk Meyer, AMD president and CEO. “AMD Fusion technology is set to enable significant breakthroughs in personal computing and our R&D facility in Markham, Ontario is playing an instrumental role in creating this technology. AMD Canada is a critical part of our global footprint, and a wellspring of our technical innovation.” Read the rest of this entry »

Aldergrove – As many of you are already aware, the Province of BC announced their new proposed Tax Incentive program for the digital media industry, to be combined with changes to the film industry’s tax credits last week. This is very good news not only for the video game sector, but also for many aspects of the interactive entertainment industry.

Speaking to the announcement, Tim Lewinson, Creative Director of Vancouver’s Massive Bear Studio, stated that “as a rising company in the Vancouver development scene, Massive Bear is happy to see the provincial government recognize the importance of sustaining British Columbia’s position as one of the world’s preeminent game development hubs. By working with government to reinvigorate job growth and investment in BC, we can continue to create some of the world’s best games. There’s too much talent and history in BC’s interactive entertainment sector not to take advantage of the opportunity to work with film, television, and animation industries in building a next-generation digital media hub right here. This announcement is an important first step in getting there.”

Sadly, the film industry is crying somewhat foul in regards to the changes to this program. Shawn Williamson of BrightLight Pictures was quoted in CBC’s coverage of the announcement as saying “”What they’ve announced is the increase for video games, which will put money into the pockets of the Pixars and Electronic Arts and large video game companies which are based primarily in Los Angeles,” Williamson told CBC News. “Those companies are likely to invest and be happy. Companies like ours who produce and finance our own productions that keeps the wealth effectively in the province didn’t get a bump on the tax credit.”

While I respect Mr. Williamson’s feelings, he perhaps doesn’t understand the long history of Electronic Arts in the local game development culture and the important role the Burnaby campus has played in the growth of our local industry. I would like to direct him to an excellent article in the Georgia Straight. Written by Blaine Kyllo, this article takes a look at BC’s video game development family tree and how the industry has grown since the day Don Mattrick and Jeff Sember released the first Vancouver-developed game, Evolution, in 1982. The global video game development industry, in comparison to the film industry as a whole, is quite young and Vancouver was right there in the industry’s infancy.

Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Kevin Krueger Touring Ubisoft Vancouver

For example, the first documentary filmed in Kamloops dates from 1912, and then during the 1930’s, several Hollywood studios began filming their “Quota Quickies” (today’s “B” movies) in Vancouver. One of the first TV series filmed here was the original Littlest Hobo, which was filmed at Hollyburn Studios in West Vancouver from 1963 through 1965. The point I am trying to make here is that Vancouver, and British Columbia as a whole, has had a presence in the early days of not just one creative industry, but in many.

Going back to Shawn Williamson’s comment about the “large video game companies which are based primarily in Los Angeles” – what he neglects to understand is that there are thousands of people employed in the digital media industry in BC – by small to medium-sized enterprise as well as by the bigger studios such as EA Canada, Radical Entertainment (Activision-Blizzard) and Relic Entertainment (THQ). Small studios such as Fit Brains, who may employ only a dozen people, and medium-sized studios such as Next Level Games, who employ a few dozen people will benefit greatly from this program. All of the above-named studios were producing product long before there any kind of provincial tax credits available to them. They didn’t stay because of a possible video game tax incentive some time in the future. They stayed because BC has talent.

I do have to wonder if Mr. Williamson has ever sat and watched the credits roll by at the end of a video game; just as in film and television production, there are many talented people employed for a game production beyond those who create the characters, build the environments and write the computer code. There are audio specialists, voice actors, office administration, human resources, marketing specialists, video compositors, musicians, motion-capture specialists, story and technical writers and so many more.

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Vancouver – A proposed new tax credit for digital media, combined with changes to provincial film tax credits, recognizes the convergence of these sectors and supports the continued growth, development and competitiveness of B.C.’s video game and film sectors and the related employment they provide, Finance Minister Colin Hansen announced today.

“This is a made-in-B.C. incentive package that recognizes convergence is taking place within the film, television and the increasingly important video game and animation sectors,” said Hansen. “We are responding to industry needs and recognize that film, television, animation, and visual effects companies contribute over a billion dollars annually to the B.C. economy and generate thousands of jobs.”

Subject to approval by the legislature, the planned tax measures include:

·New BC Interactive Digital Media tax credit for video game development of 17.5 per cent of qualifying B.C. labour costs.

*Production Services Tax Credit on labour costs for foreign productions increased to 33 per cent from 25 per cent.

*Digital Animation or Visual Effects tax credit bonus increased to 17.5 per cent from 15 per cent.

*Qualified B.C. labour expenditures cap increased to 60 per cent from 48 per cent of production costs.

It is proposed that the film tax credit changes be effective for productions with principal photography that begin after Feb. 28, 2010. The BC Interactive Digital Media tax credit will be effective for qualifying video game development projects that begin after Aug. 31, 2010.

“Our changes will promote an increase in B.C.-based production for these dynamic and rapidly changing sectors,” said Tourism, Culture and the Arts Minister Kevin Krueger. “They will serve to help keep B.C. at the forefront of the North American film and television industry, while providing a significant boost for video game production in our province.”

The enhancements to the film tax credits will help B.C. compete internationally. The tax rate changes, coupled with B.C.’s other advantages including a highly skilled and well-trained workforce, means B.C. will continue to be a leading and competitive production location.
B.C. is the third-largest film and television production centre in North America, after Los Angeles and New York. In 2008, a total of 260 productions were shot in B.C. This included 65 feature films, 56 television series (dramatic, documentary and lifestyle/reality), 102 television projects (TV movies, mini-series, pilots, shorts and documentaries) and 37 animated series or projects.

Vancouver – A brief reminder that the Women in Games Vancouver (WIGEH) Networking Event takes place tonight at the Wine Room, downstairs at the Steamworks Brew Pub. We invite you to join us at 7pm for an evening of socializing and information.  This event is open to both women and men, and we hope to see you there.

Ottawa – The Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI) has released its annual Knowledge-based Industry Survey. The study indicates that as of December 31, 2009, the number of companies in Ottawa’s knowledge-based sectors has increased by nearly half of one per cent while the number of employees has decreased by 1.3 per cent. The most current data, garnered from 13 industry sectors, indicates a slight increase of 0.4 per cent in the total number of companies to 1,857 up from 1,850 last year. The survey garnered responses from 88 companies whose primary business focus is in cleantech, contact centre/customer centre, convergent medical devices, defence and security, eBusiness, health and drug discovery, knowledge-based support services, photonics, semiconductor, software, telecommunications, wireless and digital media.

“We certainly expected 2009 to be challenging so we are not surprised by the decrease in employment but we also know that the best time to start a new business venture is during tough economic times. With 222 companies added to the database and a notable increase in employment for small and medium sized businesses we see that the support programs and tools available to new companies and entrepreneurs here in Ottawa are having a positive impact,” says Claude Haw, President and CEO, OCRI. “The entire city has rallied to provide support to help our companies become successful and there are examples of great collaboration all around us. Of course, we must continue to create an environment that is attractive to investors and actively leverages the various funding programs available for small and medium sized companies in order to fuel innovation and propel our economy forward.”

Ottawa’s cleantech sector demonstrated the greatest growth for the third year in a row, with several companies adding more than 50 employees to their staff base. This translates to a 25.2% increase in job positions for this industry sector. Also of note is Ottawa’s recent designation as one of the world’s top seven intelligent communities by the Intelligent Community Forum.

The OCRI report also points out the strength of the region’s digital media industry, stating that “the digital media sector has been gaining traction in our region. In October, Ottawa hosted the International Animation Festival, proving to many who weren’t already aware that Ottawa is a hotbed for digital media creativity. The cluster features 63 companies that have identified digital media as their primary industry and more than 120 others see digital media as their secondary industry. As a result, a formal digital media cluster, GENERATOR, was launched in December.”

Vancouver – Hive is a board game originally designed by John Yianni and released by “Gen Four Two Games” in 2001. Independent developer Lotusland Studios has developed Hive as a mobile game, and it is now available in the iTunes App Store for the iPhone™ and iPod touch®. Hive is categorized as an abstract strategy game and is highly unique as the pieces are simply placed on a flat surface without the limitations and constraints of a traditional game-board.

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Vancouver – IUGO Mobile Entertainment has announced a brand new title for Blackberry and iDevices. Escape is a tranquil game which offers limitless Zen puzzles. The objective is to help your character jump from stone to stone to eliminate all of the stones and solve the puzzles.

According to the game’s information page, Escape will feature:

* Endless levels and gameplay
* 3 difficulty levels for replayability
* Simple controls for all ages
* Minimalist graphics for maximum appeal
* Unique cerebral game play complimented by relaxing audio and visual effects
* Surprisingly addictive!

Alberta – Exalt Studios, and indepedent game studio operated by one-man development team William Sworin, is pleased to announce its debut title, Silas – a kart racing game for the PC. Silas delivers an immersive and fast gameplay experience that brings much needed innovation to the kart racing genre. Silas is scheduled for release on May 20, 2010.

Silas is the name of the planet the game takes place on and around. There are many different characters and creatures from this planet and others. In the fast paced gameplay you will discover many unique weapons and possibilities to win the races. There is also a great deal of gameplay options, customization and modes beyond racing.

Looking to fire 10 rockets into the air, control them in-flight, then bring them down on your enemy? You can do that. Or maybe you just want to grab a glider, take it to the skies, and chain gun someone to death? You can do that too. Or, switch into turret mode, and shoot a barrage of lasers 360 degrees? Why not and while you’re at it, deploy stationary guns, launch projectiles, blast cannons, place ice traps, and escape it all with a well timed boost! This is Silas. Get ready for one of the most fun and addictive multiplayer and single player experiences you will ever have!

Play online or through your LAN with up to 12 players. With 18 weapons to choose from, Silas really packs a punch. Use infinite strategies, plan your attacks, or just go in guns ablaze. Take the battle to the skies, form teams, capture flags, or just duke it out in classic deathmatch, whatever you’re into, Silas has it all! And if you like to race, yes, you can do this online as well. Or go solo, and chase after golden trophies all by yourself. Of course, this just scratches the surface of what Silas has to offer. Silas is a large game, with 20 different levels, a full 26 song soundtrack, hundreds of sound effects, 13 characters, and much more.

London – Info-Tech Research Group has launched a nationwide contest to recognize and reward both Canada’s smartest and greenest mid-market IT departments.

“In the true spirit of community, we’re issuing a challenge to Canadian IT professionals to share their stories, best practices, tips and aha moments through our website and social networks so that departments across the country can get smarter,” says James Alexander, Senior Vice-President for Info-Tech Research Group and one of the campaigns resident ‘Smart People.’

During the four month campaign the research firm will comb the country searching for and interviewing Canadian IT departments with a smart story to tell. The interviews can be viewed on YouTube and Facebook as well as at our Smartest IT web site.

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Vancouver – Local interactive industry folks are invited to the Help Haiti Pub Night being held on Thursday January 28th from 7-11pm at Steamworks Brew Pub and Restaurant (375 Water Street Vancouver). There are plans for a silent auction, with a few items already on the block, including tickets for Casual Connect to auction off! Two winning bidders will receive 1 year conference passes to Seattle, Hamburg, and Kyiv, 1 with speaker’s dinner. If you are interested in donating items for auction, please contact Bren at 604.765.7273. Net proceeds from this event will be donated to UNICEF for the purchase of water.

According to their website, UNICEF is working to provide survivors with family water kits, water-purification tablets and other supplies aimed at mitigating the deadly effects of contaminated water.

“Aside from simply delivering these essential supplies, we must also work to promote hygiene by providing soap and issuing messages in French and Creole on preventing and treating diarrhoea, cholera and dysentery,” said UNICEF Emergency Operations Officer Ainga Razafy. “Our priority is to prevent a second wave of disaster and ensure against the outbreak of any life-threatening, water-borne diseases.”

Canada – DFAIT invites Canadian interactive companies to participate in The Canada Programme at GDC San Francisco, March 10 – 12, 2010. For further information on The Canada Programme, please contact Victoria Hayes at 604.666.1409 (for BC Companies – please contact your local digital media association or DFAIT office in other parts of Canada.) For companies in Alberta, please contact Rene Smid from Digital Alberta. The deadline for BC applications is today, while Alberta’s deadline is January 25.

Prior to GDC, the Canada Programme offers Business to Business Matchmaking – DFAIT is currently collecting company profiles to share with foreign purchasers and developers attending GDC to determine mutual meeting interests and facilitate those meetings in advance.

Two webinars are also being offered, which are geared towards Canadian attendees making the most of their time at GDC in San Francisco. The first webinar is titled “Meet the Publishers” will be held on February 2 from 1-230pm. Major publishers (yet to be announced) will discuss what’s hot and what’s not, what the want to see in 2010 and how Canadian companies can best position themselves in 2010.

The second Webinar, “Make the Right Pitch, At the Right Time” will feature experienced industry leaders who will present on how to prepare and execute an effective 30-second and 10-minute pitch to both game publishers and potential financing entities (Angels and Venture Capitalists). The air details for this webinar have not yet been finalized.

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This post was updated to include further IGN Award Winners.

Toronto – Harlequin Enterprises Limited, the global leader in series romance and one of the world’s leading publishers of women’s fiction, and Big Fish Games, the multi-platform developer, publisher and distributor of casual games, today announced the launch of Harlequin Presents: Hidden Object of Desire. The hidden object game with a romantic storyline is the first game release following the announcement of the companies’ partnership.

Inspired by The Royal House of Karedes, a Harlequin Presents® Mini Series, Harlequin Presents: Hidden Object of Desire features Allie, a reporter on assignment covering the 30th birthday of the Prince of Aristo. Following her arrival in the Kingdom of Adamas with her photographer, a series of events occur and players assist Allie in her quest to solve the mystery by finding hidden objects and solving puzzles.

“We are thrilled to be working with Big Fish Games to introduce our readers to this new interactive experience,” said Donna Hayes, publisher and CEO of Harlequin Enterprises Limited. “Our partnership reinforces our commitment to brand innovation and we anticipate great success with Harlequin Presents: Hidden Object of Desire.”

“Big Fish Games and Harlequin are wonderfully aligned as our audiences are global and largely female,” said Jeremy Lewis, president and CEO of Big Fish Games. “The games we develop together – starting with Harlequin Presents: Object of Desire – will appeal to romance readers and casual gamers alike. We anticipate the partnership will lead to audience expansion for both companies.”

Harlequin Presents: Hidden Objects of Desire will be sold online for $6.99 USD exclusively at Big Fish Games. Players who download the game within the first year of its release will also receive a free digital edition of the first book of the miniseries.

Edmonton – Dragon Age Origins has won four more awards, this time from online game magazine IGN. Congratulations to the studio for their Best Xbox 360 RPG, Best PC RGP, Best Story and PC Game of the Year awards. Dragon Age Origins has also been nominated in several categories for our own Readers’ Choice Awards. Nominations for our awards close on December 31st – be sure to let us know which Canadian titles and studios you think should be in the running.

Congratulations are also extended to Capybara Games, whose new Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes won IGN’s Best DS Stragety Game Award and for Critter Crunch, which won for Best PS3 Puzzle Game.

EA Canada’s FIFA 10 has taken top spot for IGN’s Best PS3 Sports game and Best Xbox 260 Sports Game, while Ubisoft Montreal’s Assassin’s Creed 2 won Best Xbox 360 Action Game and Xbox 360 Game of the Year.

Ontario – Ontario is helping to drive innovation and stimulate economic growth in the creative sector by supporting early-stage development for television, film, mobisodes, webisodes, video games, internet properties and more. The Intellectual Property Development Fund is a one-year pilot programme administered by the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC). An extensive list of guidelines have been posted on the OMDC’s website.

The province is investing $10 million to support screen-based companies in moving ideas from the development stage into production and marketing. By providing funding for development expenses, the McGuinty government is promoting the continued growth of Ontario’s creative sector and helping businesses thrive as they develop new and innovative products.

If only there was this much support for the interactive industry in every province – we have the unique position of having a massive talent pool in this country, and yet there are many companies struggling to stay afloat. The Province of BC government would do well to take a serious look at what’s going on east of the Rockies in regards to the interactive and creative sectors.

Ontario’s creative sector is now the third largest source of employment in North America, following California and New York, and according to OMDC, total direct employment in Ontario’s cultural industries (businesses whose main purpose is to create and distribute arts and entertainment) was about 202,000 people. This sector was also responsible for generating almost $12.2 billion of Ontario’s Gross Domestic Product through film and television production, interactive digital media, music recording, commercial theatre, magazine publishing and book publishing.

Gormley – Digital Leisure is excited to announce that arcade classic “Dragon’s Lair” will soon be available on Nintendo’s DSiWare™ service.

No quarters needed! You’ll soon have your chance to take on all the “Lair” has to throw at you, right in the palm of your hand. For the first time on any handheld Nintendo® system, you’ll be able to play Dirk in his original animated form – no pixel graphics here!

On December 21st in North America and January 1st in Europe, you’ll take on the role of Dirk the Daring, a knight on a quest to rescue the fair Princess Daphne from the clutches on an evil dragon – Now using your Nintendo DSi! Dragon’s Lair is rated E10 by the ESRB forAnimated Blood, Fantasy Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes.

Toronto – The Cloud Slam Conference, which brings together leading companies and visionaries in business, technology, and cloud computing to showcase the hottest opportunities for driving profitability through sustainability, today announced their call for proposals. Taking place March 23-25, 2010 as virtual event , the conference is also proud to announce it has gathered hundreds of attendees passionate about cloud computing. These announcements reflect a growing trend involving companies that have committed to developing best practice cloud strategies for the emerging global economy that requires innovative, viable and profitable models for business success.

You are cordially invited to participate in Cloud Slam 2010 through paper submission, a workshop or a special session organization, a tutorial, an invited speech, a demo, a poster, an exhibit, a panel discussion, whichever sounds more appropriate and convenient to you. There will also be tutorial sessions, workshops, special sessions, demos, posters, panel discussions.

The conference will include invited presentations by experts from academia, industry, and government as well as contributed paper presentations describing original work on the current state of research cloud computing, their use in business, their design, performance and use, and their applications.

To encourage media coverage of the Cloud Slam 2010, the conference provides up to 2 free press credentials to verified media representatives from each organization. Media partnerships are also welcome, please send cross promotion proposals to media(at)cloudslam(dot)org.

Conference sponsorships are welcomed. To sponsor Cloud Slam or get additional information about event, contact Khazret Sapenov at 510-984-2312 or at sponsors(at)cloudslam(dot)org.

Vancouver – Aftercad Software is pleased to announce that Novedge LLC, a leading online CAD/CAM store, has become a distribution partner for Aftercad’s new 3D collaboration service Renderjam.com.

Renderjam.com is a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering that allows businesses to view, mark-up, manage and publish 3D assets onto the web, without the need for proprietary viewers, providing easy and instant access to project information by all stakeholders.

“Renderjam offers a new lightweight and very easy to use visualization product that enables anyone in the organization to access digital 3D assets. Being distributed as a service it has a very low impact on IT overhead and it is easy to deploy. Renderjam is the ideal tool for architects and industrial designers that need to share their project data.” said Dr. Cristiano Sacchi, CEO of Novedge.

Novedge will offer the Renderjam.com service through its successful Novedge.com portal. “Our partnership with Novedge gives us invaluable exposure and access to market” stated Chris Boothroyd, CEO of Aftercad “and we look forward to marketing this product with Dr. Sacchi and his team.”

Vancouver – The British Columbia Technology Industry Association (BCTIA) is pleased to announce the launch of PODIUM, their 2010 business outreach programme. The PODIUM program is designed to connect guests and media of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Games with technology sector business partners and media stories while visiting BC.

The centre-piece of the programme is the PODIUM digital guide, an e-book illustrating the talent and ingenuity that makes British Columbia a great place to live, work, study and invest. The PODIUM guide profiles over one hundred world-class companies and includes a number of companies whose technology is being used to power aspects of the Games. The digital guide will be distributed to thousands of contacts, including International Business Development offices, Olympic Sponsors and hosting organizations, Federal and Provincial governments, and media. The PODIUM guide will continue to evolve right-up to the opening ceremonies. The more great companies we have participating, the more buzz we’ll create.

To help guests and media connect with innovative BC companies, the BCTIA will be providing meeting concierge services – coordination services to facilitate introductions before, during and after the games. With non-stop activity during the 2010 Games, we are working to ensure that international business people and media call upon us to connect them with business introductions and unique media stories. Interested parties need only send an email to podium[at]bctia[dot]org.

Montreal – ELearning Alliance invites you to reserve April 14, 2010 to attend the event eLearning Montreal. This day is specifically aimed at training officers, human resources and people who have to acquire content and e-learning tools. Meet the leading Quebec companies active in this area and to attend lectures offered by industry experts. The location and details of that day will be announced in January.

Penticton -Earlier today, the Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway announced that a third ORIC location will receive funding support from the Federal Government’s Community Adjustment Fund programme in the amount of $170 000.00. Since its inception in August 2005, the not-for-profit organization ORIC has supported the job creation of over 45 high-paying jobs, has currently 5 high-tech companies in its incubators and has already graduated one successful company RFind Systems.

The focus of the new incubator in Penticton will be on Clean Energy Technologies and Wireless start-ups, emphasizing ORIC’s relationship with the National Research Council’s Radio Observatory (NRC-DRAO) and Okanagan College’s new Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Building Technologies and Renewable Energy Conservation, which is currently under construction. ORIC’s headquarters and first incubator is located at NRC’s Radio Observatory south of Penticton and its second incubator of 15,000 sq.ft. is located in downtown Kelowna.

“The Okanagan Research & Innovation Centre ORIC is very pleased to receive financial support of $170,000 from the Federal Government under the Community Adjustment Fund program to create a technology business incubator in Penticton. This will be our third incubator in the Okanagan Valley and it will be instrumental to the growth of the South Okanagan’s high-tech community”, says Peter Haubrich, President and Founder of ORIC. “Investing in incubators has proven to generate a $30 economic benefit for the region for every dollar spent according to the National Business Incubation Association NBIA, which has 1,900 members in over 60 countries”.

“Our Government, through the Community Adjustment Fund, is providing a timely, targeted stimulus to western Canadian communities, helping reduce the impacts of the global recession,” said Stockwell Day. “This project will help create jobs and maintain employment in the Okanagan Valley.”

“Business incubation is about transforming ideas into business success and accelerating skills acquisition, creating new high-tech jobs and sustainable economic value across the Okanagan, while stimulating new businesses in high growth sectors of the economy, attracting new investment, developing business capacity, and even attracting skilled people to the area” Added David Arsenault – Penticton’s Economic Development Officer.

Vancouver – The launch of a business case library with a focus on British Columbia technology companies highlights the province’s growing knowledge economy, while giving students unprecedented access to industry successes, challenges, and best practices.

The BCIC Business Case Library is a collection of business cases that cover an extensive range of topics, including entrepreneurship, technology management, sustainability, finance, and marketing. The venture was established by the BC Innovation Council, and led by the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business.

The library will be used by post-secondary students, instructors, entrepreneurs and industry professionals to gain knowledge from local companies. In addition, the library is expected to shine a light on the province’s burgeoning technology industry and marketing the province’s technology companies globally.

“The availability of these business case studies will benefit B.C. students and entrepreneurs wanting to learn relevant local content that realistically reflects the province’s business environment,” said Dean Rockwell, CEO of BC Innovation Council.

“This is an incredible learning resource for the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders in this province,” said Thomas Hellmann, the B.I. Ghert Family Foundation Professor in Finance and Policy at the Sauder School of Business, who led the project at UBC. “These case studies help students to understand the intimate relationship between business and technology. This is relevant for start-ups and established companies alike.”

Business cases are often used as part of the case teaching method, an experiential learning approach that is popular with some business schools, and one made well known by Harvard Business School. The library is available in its entirety online, with the individual cases free and downloadable.

The BCIC Business Case Library was developed with expertise from seven universities in the province: British Columbia Institute of Technology, Simon Fraser University, Thompson Rivers University, University of British Columbia, University of British Columbia Okanagan, University of Northern British Columbia, and University of Victoria. The initiative also received support from the W. Maurice Young Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Research Centre.

“British Columbia is a great environment for entrepreneurial spirit,” said David Demers, CEO of Westport Innovations, a leading developer of environmental technologies for vehicles, and one of the companies participating in the business cases collection.

BCIC Business Case Library — Case Studies by Company:

AbeBooks
Absolute Software
Ballard Power Systems
Blast Radius
Canadian Council for the Americas in BC
Carmanah Technologies
DelTech Manufacturing Inc.
Etraffic Press
Inland Glass & Aluminum Ltd.
Inproheat Industries
Kelowna Flightcraft
Moly-Cop Canada
OncoGenex Technologies
QLT
Sitemasher Corporation
Teampages.com
Terahertz Solutions Inc.
Westport Innovations Inc.
Wood Lake Publishing
YVR
Zengar Institute

Vancouver (via CDM) – A new Network Centre of Excellence (NCE) recently awarded by the federal government to 50 researchers at 19 universities across Canada, will be headquartered at the Centre for Digital Media, Great Northern Way Campus (GNWC). GRAND, an NCE in GRaphics, Animation, and New meDia, will explore, challenge, and advance the use of new media through collaborative, multi-disciplinary research, training, and innovation with a secondary focus on commercialization.

“Through GRAND, we will be able to develop further the evolving areas of research and commercialization of digital media,” said Dr. Gerri Sinclair, Executive Director, GRAND and CEO, Centre for Digital Media, GNWC. “Plus, we will have an opportunity to work with a top notch list of researchers and digital media companies from across the country.”

GRAND is comprised of 30 projects, supported by a multidisciplinary, cross-country network of investigators, researchers, and industry.

“A unique strength of the GRAND research program is the synergy between social science researchers and the engineering and computer science researchers who are collaborating on many of the projects,” explained Dr. Abby Goodrum, GRAND’s Director for Social Sciences and Humanities Research, and professor in the Faculty of Communication and Design at Ryerson University in Toronto.

The five themes to be explored include:

• New media challenges and opportunities
• Games and interactive simulation
• Animation, graphics and imaging
• Social, legal, economic and cultural perspectives
• Enabling technologies and methodologies

“The proliferation of social networks and new media represent one of the most significant popular adaptations of computer technology,” said Dr. Kellogg Booth, GRAND’s scientific director and a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia which is hosting the NCE. “This new network will enable research collaborators to address issues and explore opportunities in this fast-growing sector.”

Whether tackling new media issues such as intellectual property rights and privacy or introducing new technologies, the outcomes from GRAND aim to benefit Canadians as well as enhance Canada’s position as a global leader in new media.

GRAND was one of three NCEs announced by the federal government today. In 2008, NCEs were responsible for 110 patents, 4,300 papers in refereed journals, and partnerships with more than 1,997 companies, government departments, and agencies, hospitals, universities in Canada and from around the world.

Vancouver – Mingleverse Laboratories Inc., just six weeks after a very successful consumer launch of it’s Mingle Room service, today announced it has already hosted over 10,000 live mingles with participants from Canada, USA, Europe, and Asia and has just received a seed investment from Telefilm Canada for its upcoming uVenu project for entertainment based Mingles. Mingle Rooms are a youthful new audio/visual communications platform and an alternative to telephones that can easily connect 2 to 50 people instantly from around the world for live meet–ups using innovative 3D high quality voice within a web-based 3D visual environment.

“Telefilm is our first outside investment and is very strategic within our plan of providing the newest form of live online and mobile immersive communications to new markets like the entertainment industry where traditional services are not an option”, said Ron Stevens, Co-founder of Mingleverse. “Our uVenu program will allow a wider range of experts, radio and TV personalities, and guests to safely showcase their talent and interact live using natural voice with an internationally connected audience that is spending more of their time online. We will also go behind the scenes with a movie set service to allow movie fans to interact live with cast and crew.”

The Mingleverse uVenu project will initially provide simple web based venues that look like theatres, sports venues, and talk show studios like the “Daily Show” for up to 50 people to connect and interact live online with each other in a whole new fun and youthful way. “The focus will be on a smaller more intimate group setting that maintains the integrity of the live 3D voice communications“ said Daniel Ruscigno, Youth Marketing Coordinator for Mingleverse. “We have already generated a lot of interest from religious groups, media and sports personalities and we will have some exciting uVenues to announce in the New Year for live singing, comedy and quiz shows. “

“We are very impressed with Mingleverse’s platform and could easily see the potential of uVenu for the entertainment industry which is so important for Canada as well as for many other vertical markets” said Earl Hong Tai, Regional Director, Business Development, Western Region, Telefilm Canada. “Merging entertainment, 3D live voice and social communications technology has never been done before and this is an excellent opportunity to help the growth of the industry and to showcase this country’s talent to a worldwide audience.”

Surrey – KrabbitSoft is pleased to announce that KrabbitWorld Origins is now available on Direct2Drive for both Windows and Mac for $14.95. KrabbitSoft has burst out of the gate at full speed, garnering kudos from journalists, gamers and even lawyers. The Davis LLP blog says that “Indie developer Krabbitsoft has done what some thought was impossible, developing and releasing an exciting, graphics-laden Action/RPG based on their own IP.”

Furious hack n’ slash combines with customizable Krabbits and choice to play in Story Mode or Battle Modes including Arcade, Versus, Team and Survival. Six playable Krabbits can be leveled up to 99 in sandbox or linear gameplay style. No grind and loot aplenty, characters level quickly in Story Mode, gaining XP with every action. Building your Krabbit doesn’t stop at level 99. Continue building powers to 999. Character building includes gaining XP, building stats, and changing appearance any time. 3D drag n’ drop inventory and paper doll windows are featured along with account share bins, colour cloning bins, dye vendor, click map to travel and Ruby Slippers of ‘return to Adobe’.

KrabbitWorld Origins is a creative game focused on colour. Players are encouraged to experiment with dying their Krabbits to their heart’s content. Choose from 8 Realms of Origin colour palettes to design a Krabbit influenced by Darkness or Light, Death or Dreams, Solar or Contrivance, Beast or Archetypical KrabbitWorld. Transfer your Krabbits from an earlier version to a newer version or from laptop to desktop PC. Re-install a new version over an older one and still retain your already leveled Krabbits.

New Features This Week:
• Brutal Moves
• Built-in Patcher
• Elemental Bracers & Weapons Packs

There are still a few tickets left for Wednesday evening’s SIGGRAPH Vancouver presentation of Bringing Dragon Age to Life. BioWare’s Lead Animator Clove Roy and Lead Character Artist Shane Hawco discuss the challenges faced in creating digital actors for BioWare’s newest award-winning role-playing epic Dragon Age: Origins. This presentation will provide an in-depth look in how to tell a huge complex story through an interactive narrative complete with hundreds of emotionally engaging digital actors. I am so not missing this session – and tonight I am playing through the Final Onslaught and taking on the Archdemon for the first time. Soon all of you will be able to find out my thoughts on the entire game. If you missed my first 48-ish hours in Dragon Age, you can catch up here.

Montreal – As Day One of MIGS gets underway, all reports thus far say the seminars have been fantastic – along with the weather. Eidos Montreal kicked off their MIGS week with a very successful open house event which saw over 500 guests come through the studio – and get a few glimpses at Deus Ex 3 and Thief 4 goings-on. I’m feeling just a touch of envy here.

Also in Montreal, Bug-Tracker has announced that Wolfgang Klingel is its new General Sales Manager for Europe. This move closely follows Bug-Tracker’s expansion strategy into Asia and Europe and its ever increasing focus on those critical markets.

With over 15 years’ experience in the video game industry, Wolfgang Klingel will be responsible for extending the company’s foothold in the European video game market as well as strengthening its exposure to the publishers and developers in this area. Klingel’s duties will involve collaborating and developing synergies between the North American and Asian studios in order to improve communication throughout the whole group and thus enhancing overall customer satisfaction. Klingel’s past experience includes Director of Development at Vivendi Games’ Coktel Studio and Vice-President Europe of Enzyme Testing Labs, another major quality assurance and localization company, and helped contribute to its successful development.

“Wolfgang will greatly help reinforce and grow our presence in the market we started out in 10 years ago” declared Antoine Carre, founder and CEO. “He will bring together and integrate key components of Bug-Tracker’s worldwide studios, in order to shape, lead and create new market opportunities. Adding an accomplished European video game business veteran such as Wolfgang to our team demonstrates our commitment to continuously fortify our leadership role in the QA and localization industry.”

Calgary via Digital Alberta – Alberta’s minister of culture says the province’s film industry will finally be getting its own state-of-the-art film studio after reaching an “agreement in principle” with the owners of the Canada Olympic Park site to purchase land for a new facility.  The studio, which is estimated to cost $26 million not including the purchase of the land, will be built on four hectares to be purchased from WinSport Canada, which operates Canada Olympic Park. Blackett says he hopes to start building in the spring, but stressed that negotiations between WinSport, Calgary Economic Development and the Government of Alberta were still ongoing.

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