Village Gamer

Calling all secret agents – Rocketfuel Games has announced your latest assignment. Step One is to download the free app from the iTunes App Store and unlock the clues at a museum, science centre, zoo or aquarium in a city near you – see below for the currently available locations.

Upon completion of your mission sync your award to Discovery Kids: Seek Your Own Proof to earn tokens and special rewards. You can continue your career as a secret agent by customizing your avatar, playing online missions and puzzles, and defeating the villains of I.C.E.

While currently-available sites are limited, Rocketfuel invites their secret agent corps to submit locations for further investigation.  The free to download Discovery Kids Field Missions is rated 4+ and is compatible with  iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad devices running iOS 4.0 or later.

*Current Investigation Locations*

Canada

Lethbridge, AB – Galt Museum & Archives

United States

New York, NY – Discovery Times Square
Seattle, WA – The Burke Museum
West Palm Beach, FL – Johnson History Museum

Going Loud Studios is proud to announce that “Lair of the Evildoer” is now available on the Xbox Live Indie Games marketplace. Gamers can download it from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace for 80 Microsoft Points.

“We strove to make a game that is fun to play from moment to moment but also has a driving force that makes it compelling to explore levels, collect weapons and improve your character.” said Ben Kane, founder of Going Loud Studios. “Twin-stick shooting can often be a shallow experience. The variety of enemies and levels as well as the vast arsenal of weapons available gives Lair of the Evildoer the depth to make it worth playing, worth finishing and worth playing again.”

The evil Dr. Odious has you trapped in his lair. He’s also not very fond of you. Make your escape by battling through hundreds of monsters, collecting over 25 weapons and leveling up as you go. Procedurally generated levels will keep you on your toes in this action RPG shooter, ensuring a different experience with every playthrough.

Game Features:

Procedurally generated lair:
Dr. Odious’ lair consists of 20 levels procedurally generated by pure evil, ensuring unique experiences with every playthrough. Take the fight through the laboratory, the dungeon and even the wood-panelled decor of Dr. Odious’ 70s-era office. The wood panelling may be the most evil thing in the lair.

Over 30 types of enemies:
Standing between you and the exit will be hundreds of monsters of varying levels of evil. Classic creations like skeletons and the undead are flanked by Dr. Odious’ mechanical Killbots, automated turrets and even his zombie accountants. Not one to rest on his laurels, Dr. Odious has given the walking dead a set of wheels, creating what he likes to call “Zoombies”.

Weapon affix system, featuring 25 weapon types with dozens of variations:
Your only allies in your attempt to escape the lair have names like “Boomstick”, “Tommy Gun” and “Sledgehammer”. Fortunately, each of the 25 different types of melee and ranged weapons can come equipped with a variety of properties and special attributes. Keep hunting for the best loot! The “Trusty Axe of Slaying” could give you the edge you need.

Level up your character to survive:
Everything in Lair of the Evildoer is governed by a stats system that you can customize as you progress through the game. Improve your accuracy and ability to carry ammo if you prefer ranged combat. Beef up your melee striking power and reduce the effects of knock-back if you prefer to get up close and personal.

From the telephone to the BlackBerry, from satellites to walkie-talkies – it’s all telecom, and it’s all Canadian. Today, Canada’s Telecommunications Hall of Fame proudly announced that the 2011 Telecom Laureate Awards will be held Wednesday evening, November 2nd, 2011 at the new Ottawa Convention Centre in Ottawa. Mark your calendar now and plan to join over 400 telecom business and government luminaries to celebrate excellence in Canadian telecommunications and to honour the Class of 2011 Telecom Laureates who have made significant contributions to the industry throughout their careers.

The Telecom Laureate Awards gala is the annual flagship event staged by Canada’s Telecommunications Hall of Fame, the not-for-profit organization with a mission to safeguard, promote and celebrate the past, present and future excellence of Canadian telecommunications. The Telecom Laureate Awards Gala is an important celebratory night for the telecommunications industry featuring extensive networking reception opportunities, speeches and awards presentations by key industry and government leaders, as well as exciting audio-visual staging and lighting. It is one of the few annual events where the industry can unite together to celebrate its success and promote its future.

“We are expecting an excellent turn-out for our 7^th annual gala dinner and induction ceremonies,” says Lorne Abugov, Founder and Director of Canada’s Telecommunications Hall of Fame. “Over the years, our guests have included senior executives from Canada’s largest telecommunications companies, suppliers to the telecommunications industry, Government of Canada and Provincial officials, members of the CRTC, Industry Canada and the Competition Bureau and the family and guests of the Telecom Laureates and award winners. This is a premiere networking event.”

The Class of 2011Telecom Laureates and a Special Recognition Award recipient will be officially inducted into Canada’s Telecommunications Hall of Fame joining a prestigious list of 42 other remarkable Laureate and Special Recognition Award inductees who have received the industry’s highest distinction since 2005. Profiles of previous inductees can be found in the virtual Hall of Fame, along with photo and video galleries that display images of the past six Awards gala events.

“The Telecom Laureate Awards gala is always the culmination of a year’s work for Canada’s Telecommunications Hall of Fame, and we are very pleased this year to have secured one of Canada’s most spectacular event venues in the new Ottawa Convention Centre”, adds Lorne Abugov. “On behalf of all of our volunteers and the members of our Board of Governors, I cordially invite all of those who serve within or support this great Canadian industry to gather on November 2^nd in Ottawa for what has quickly become Telecom’s Golden Evening.”

Ontario’s ARCAD, Inc. has introduced the new DC Arc Flash Analytic (DCAFA V1.0) software program for arc flash and shock hazard analysis in DC power systems including but not limited to photovoltaics, battery banks, rectifiers and telecommunications equipment.

The program takes system voltage, available short circuit current, gap between electrodes, circuit time constant, electrode material, protective device type and rating or a preset arc duration value, and determines incident energy released by arc flash, hazard risk category at working distance and flash protection boundary.

For systems with variable gap between electrodes, for example when gap is not fixed and distance between electrodes is anticipated to increase by separation of contacts, the program will examine power and energy released by an arc as a function of arcing voltage and current, arc duration, electrode materials and calculate maximum incident energy that could be released by the arc within two seconds time interval. A person exposed to an arc flash will move away quickly if it is physically possible and two seconds is generally accepted as a reasonable maximum time for arc flash calculations.

Among various key capabilities, the DCAFA V1.0 performs analysis using metric or imperial units, saves input configurations and calculation results for future reference or printing, and generates customized arc flash warning labels in electronic formats.

The Quebecor Fund Board of Directors is pleased to announce the names of the four production companies and three distributors whose projects will receive second-round funding under the Event and Film Production Assistance Program (EFPAP), following June 3, 2011 submissions. The distributors whose projects were selected will share a total of $675,000 in funding. The following companies are involved in those productions: feature film producers Go Films L.P.R.S. Inc., Christal Films Productions Inc., Les Films Camera Oscura Inc. and micro_scope inc.; and distributors Alliance Vivafilm Inc., Christal Films Inc. and Filmoption International Inc.

Quebecor Fund’s EFPAP program seeks to capture synergies with all industry stakeholders in order to:

• support the production of Canadian French-language feature films;
• support multiplatform exploitation of feature films and, in particular, foster integrated marketing strategies with an interactive component, starting from the development stage;
• enable the creative and production teams to produce a work as close as possible to their original creative vision;
• support television coverage of French-language events with Canadian content;
• support television coverage of events with integrated promotion and distribution on multiple platforms, including TV on demand;
• help recipients realize a return on investment in order to increase the Fund’s impact.

Quebecor Fund, a major source of financing for the production of Canadian television content, is an independent fund with a mission to support the production of Canadian content intended for television broadcast. Quebecor Fund backs television and film production, as well as the production of related interactive multimedia components that use new information and communication technologies, particularly platforms such as high-speed Internet, interactive television (ITV), video on demand (VoD), and/or various fixed and mobile devices.

Quebecor Fund was established through Videotron Ltd., which provides over $7.2 million annually in broadcasting distribution undertaking (BDU) contributions to the Canadian industry. Under its new Event and Film Production Assistance Program (EFPAP), launched in September 2010, Quebecor Fund has granted financial assistance totalling more than $1.5 million in its first two rounds of funding.

RECIPIENTS

FILM PRODUCTIONS

L’Affaire Dumont

• Producer: Go Films L.P.R.S. Inc. - Distributor: Alliance Vivafilm Inc.

Michel Dumont is charged, tried and convicted of sexual assault, all the while protesting his innocence. A 10-year-long David and Goliath saga set in modern times that raises basic questions about guilt and innocence.

Pee-Wee

• Producer: Christal Films Productions Inc. - Distributor: Christal Films Inc.

A 12-year-old hockey player must overcome multiple obstacles to lead his team in the world pee-wee hockey tournament in Québec City.

Roche-papier-ciseaux

• Producer: Les Films Camera Oscura Inc. - Distributor: Filmoption International Inc.

A young Aboriginal man and a depressed crime kingpin become friends; a ruined Italian man risks everything to save his wife; a banned doctor flees the Chinese triads. Because of a mad Mafia boss, their paths intersect.

Inch’Allah

• Producer: micro_scope inc. - Distributor: Christal Films Inc.

Chloé, a young Québec obstetrician, works in a Palestinian refugee camp. She experiences the checkpoints and the separation wall; she sees war and those who wage it.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) launched an online consultation to seek input on the renewals of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) radio and television licences. The CRTC will be looking at the CBC’s overall mandate in terms of programming and conditions of licence. The comments and discussions resulting from this consultation will be considered for the upcoming hearing beginning on September 12, 2011, in Gatineau, Quebec, as well as form part of the public record.

The CRTC is seeking Canadians’ views on the following questions:

• How can the CBC be relevant and meaningful in the future?
• How can the CBC best deliver content to all Canadians?
• Should the CBC only provide different programs and services than private broadcasters?
• Does the CBC’s programming meet all of its objectives?
• What more (or less) should it be doing?
• What should it do differently?
• Do you feel the CBC reflects your specific Canadian interests and needs?
• Does the CBC fill your need for reliable and authoritative news and information?

The online consultation will conclude at midnight (EST) on July 18, 2011.

The CRTC Reference document: Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2011-379

For nearly forty years SIGGRAPH has inspired, educated and influenced the direction of research, production and artistic communities. At SIGGRAPH 2011 in Vancouver this August 7th through 11th, the conference is introducing the SIGGRAPH Symposium: The Business Think Tank. This one-day event on August 7th will bring together leaders to address the past, present and future of the global computer graphics industry.

The Business Think Tank introduces an opportunity for industry leaders and visionaries to discuss issues related to finance, strategy, culture, and creativity in a conversational environment. This full-day event features discussion groups and two enlightening featured speakers intended to spark frank and honest interaction about the industry in the 21st century.

“The intimate, interactive nature of this inaugural Business Think Tank is the ideal forum in which to inspire idea-sharing and problem-solving among some of the visionaries within the global computer graphics community,” says Jill Smolin, SIGGRAPH 2011 Director from 3ality Digital. “This highly interactive day will feature conversations and presentations of industry-specific issues and challenges within our local and global community.”

Planned participants include:

Featured Speakers:

• Gail Currey, Head of Studio, PDI/DreamWorks
• Andy Hendrickson, Chief Technology Officer, Walt Disney Animation Studios

Business Session:

• Victoria Alonso: EVP, VFX and Post Production, Marvel Entertainment, LLC
• Rory Armes: CEO, Gener8 Digital Media Corp.
• Dan Glass: EVP, Senior VFX Supervisor, Method Studios
• Namit Malhotra: CEO, Prime Focus
• Don McGowan: General Counsel, The Pokémon Company International
• Marc Weigert: Executive Producer, VFX Supervisor, CEO, Uncharted Territory, LLC

Culture Session:

• Steve Bocska: CEO, Pug Pharm Productions Inc.
• Kim Davidson: Co-Founder, CEO, President, Side Effects Software Inc.
• Warren Franklin: CEO, Rainmaker Entertainment Inc.
• Jenny Fulle: Founder, Visual Effects Producer, The Creative Cartel
• Shannon Gans: CEO, Co-Founder, New Deal Studios, Inc.

This Symposium is a new initiative for SIGGRAPH, and is intended to accommodate approximately 200 people who are on the business side of the industry. They might be artists who are now company leaders or leaders who work with artists. They are the people who look to each other and other leaders to define and run the industry.

Registration for the SIGGRAPH Symposium: The Business Think Tank is now available – space for this event is very limited, so register soon if you plan on attending.

In years past, they were the Canada New Media Awards. Now they are the Digi Awards, and they are looking for nominees in two areas. According to the newly-launched and re-designed site, companies and individuals can be named to The List, and from there be nominated for a Digi Award.

“The List is our way of bringing together the top tier of the entire Canadian digital ecosystem in a single place, and will serve as a crucial resource for anyone in this country and around the world looking to get a sense of who’s making waves in Canada.” states an About paragraph on the event’s web site. “Expert juries from across Canada will select the top entrants in each category listed below to make up The List, which we’ll take to the world online, in trade periodicals, and in live events across the globe.”

Nominations are now open, with an Early Bird entry rate of $149.00 in effect until until August 12th, 2011. I couldn’t easily find what the entry rate will be after August 12th. The Digi Awards will still be presented at nextMEDIA Toronto on December 6th, with the Digi Award finalists being culled from those nominated to The List. Categories for The List are as follows:

Canada’s Top Digital Companies – Presented by Deloitte
Canada’s Most Promising New Digital Companies
Canada’s Top Digital Executives
Canada’s Top Digital Producers
Canada’s Top Digital Design Teams
Canada’s Top Development Teams
Canada’s Top Social Media Mavens
Most Innovative Digital Media Technologies
Best In Branded Entertainment
Best In Community Campaigns
Best in Online Advertising
Best Use of Social Media
Best In Location-Based Services
Best in Mobile Marketing
Best In Mobile Applications
Best In Tablet Applications
Best In Cross-Platform: Kids
Best In Cross-Platform: Entertainment
Best In Cross-Platform: Factual
Best Web Series: Reality and Lifestyle
Best Web Series: Comedy
Best Web Series: Drama
Best Web Series: Documentary
Best In Web-Based Gaming
Best In Mobile Gaming
Best In Tablet Gaming
Best In Digital News and Current Affairs Publishing
Best In Tablet-Based Publishing
Best In Digital Lifestyle and Entertainment Publishing
Best In Online Video Portals
Best In E-Learning
Best In Canadian Culture

Categories for the Digi Awards:

Canada’s Top Digital Companies – Presented by Deloitte
Digital Executive of the Year
Social Media Maven of the Year
Best Interactive Campaign
Best In Mobile
Best Cross-Platform Project
Best Web Series
Best In Gaming
Best In Digital Publishing
Best In E-Learning
Best In Canadian Culture

Edmonton’s Amos Studios has launched Scam Detector, a new iPhone application that reveals in detail over 350 of the most common scams in the world. The scams are separated into nine categories: auto, face to face, telephone, travel, and internet, which is broken down into five areas: social networking, financial, employment, housing, and online auctions.

“People need to be aware there are others out there, who given the opportunity, will not hesitate to victimize them”, says the application’s developer, Sorin Mihailovici. “This has been made easier through advancements in technology, as crooks are finding new ways to ply their trade around the world. It took almost a year to re¬search the content and it is now at the point where I am confident Scam Detector can save people from becom¬ing victims. The Pro version of Scam Detector provides ongoing protection with free updates.”

While users can easily navigate the menus learning about scams, they can also launch a search to see if they are about to be victimized. The search feature is optimized to find words within the scam descriptions. So if some¬one is approached by a con artist, who has a proposal that seems too good to be true, saying for instance, “you can earn more money working at home”. All the user of the app has to do is input a keyword or two fitting the situation and it will find the Work at Home scam, and all related scams.

Scam Detector for iPhone is available for $1.99US with a limited Lite free version of the app also available, but lists fewer scams. Scam Detector versions for iPad and Android platforms are in the works and will be available soon.

Independent Nova Scotian publishing imprint AIM Comics has released its first book, “The Brutal Blade of Bruno the Bandit”.  The book collects stories from the archives of the long-running web comic Bruno The Bandit. In using digital distribution methods, including formatting the book for Amazon’s popular Kindle reader, AIM Comics is breathing new life into once popular but lately overlooked web comics, while at the same time helping to close the gap that still exists between traditional web comics and the new trend of portable readiing devices.

“Bruno the Bandit” is a web comic that ran for over 10 years from July, 1998 to October, 1999 that was  created, written and drawn by Newfoundland cartoonist Ian McDonald. The comic was hosted by web comics publisher Keenspot and was nominated in 2002 for best fantasy comic by the Web Cartoonists Choice Awards.  It is a sword and sorcery parody strip that lampoons current events and trends as much as it does the tropes of its own genre. Previously collected by Plan 9 Publishing, the collections were available in print only and no move was made to package any sort of digital collections of the work.

In 2011, AIM Comics was started by independent artist Mike Dominic as an imprint for self-published, creator owned works.  The flagship title for this imprint is a new collection of Bruno the Bandit strips, “The Brutal Blade of Bruno the Bandit”, a 72-page magazine-sized book collecting the first 13 stories from the strip’s archives.

Although small and new, AIM Comics has already achieved global distribution by using the best of the new publishing channels for the comics format, including print on demand from Amazon’s Createspace service, as well as digital distribution through Wowio, DriveThru Comics and MyDigitalComics.com.

While the book has been available through those channels since February, AIM Comics’s latest move allows them to embrace the portable reader platform by making the book and any future offerings available via Amazon’s Kindle reader.  Although this means many hours of reformatting the material to fit the new device, the rewards are seen to be worth the effort as this opens up the book to a huge potential audience who may no longer be looking to their browsers or their desktop systems for reading material.

As the ubiquity of portable devices increases, more readers will stock their libraries from the wireless connection built into their device of choice, which means they will be spending less time exploring those kinds of materials through browser based interfaces.  In order for webcomics creators to enjoy the audiences they’ve held for the last decade, they’re going to need to start making their work available in collected versions aimed at the portable market.

In addressing the portable market, comics publishers have focused their efforts on the iOS-based devices from Apple, but have not yet made a strong move to embrace the wide variety of other portable devices currently available.  In releasing their first book for the Kindle, AIM Comics is exploring the portable market for comics and hoping to show that distribution to these devices will be feasible and rewarding.The second volume of “The Brutal Blade of Bruno the Bandit” is slated for August, 2011 release through all channels, including the Kindle.  Also, AIM Comics will be releasing a second title, “The Journals of Simon Pariah”, adapted from the web comic by Mike Dominic, in Fall of 2011.