Village Gamer

Vancouver Film School has announced that the 2011 iteration of its Game Design Expo will be held in Vancouver on January 22nd and 23rd. The school has also made exclusive session videos from the 2010 Game Design Expo available online. just made exclusive video from the most recent Game Design Expo available for free online at the Expo’s website. These interviews, panel discussions, and presentations let you hear from the makers of ModNation Racers, Mass Effect 2, Dead Rising 2, and many more.

Autodesk and EA Sports present the Game Developer Webcast, featuring a discussion with Simon Sherr, Animation Director for Electronic Arts Tiburon, focused on how EA Sports MMA heavily leveraged Autodesk® HumanIK® in their production of complex character interaction. In this session we discuss implementation of HumanIK features for EA’s Mixed Martial Arts fighting game including: dynamic Footplanting, Non-Uniform Player Scaling, Interaction-based player scale compensation, and partial body “Relative IK” interactions. This Webcast will take place at 10:00A.M. PDT on September 9th. The one hour session is free, but registration is required.

Attention all of you Mac-using Dragon Age fans: Bioware’s Dragon Age Origins Awakening is now available for your platform over at GameTree Online for $29.95.

“The Dragon Age franchise has been exceptionally well received by Mac gamers and we’re excited about continuing the saga through the release of this expansion pack and all DLC add-on game content for the Mac community”, commented Vikas Gupta, President and CEO of TransGaming. “Our strategic partnership with Bioware provides Mac gamers with some of the industry’s most acclaimed RPG games and illustrates yet another example of how TransGaming’s technology and distribution channels are empowering EA to bring their best games to the broadest consumer audience.”

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening is available now, plus Mac gamers can also enjoy great DLC add-on content packages such as Return to Ostagar, Darkspawn Chronicles, Leliana’s Song, and many more this year. Players are encouraged to sign up for GameTreeOnline news updates or Twitter alerts, as more great DLC add-on content releases for the Mac will arrive over the coming months, aligned with the PC releases.

Executive producer and Project Director on Mass Effect, Casey Hudson will reveal how BioWare navigated the challenge to create an (even more successful) sequel to Mass Effect in a keynote address at Future Game On. The new conference, which is the new European annual gathering for developers, creators and game and apps researchers in every field, will be held on September 9th and 10th at the Parc des Expositions de Paris – Porte de Versailles, hall 7.

Google Canada has thrown a bigger hat into the social games market by purchasing Toronto developer SocialDeck, which has released four titles: Color Connect, Pet Hero MD, Shake & Spell, and Shake & Spell 3D.

Capcom and Blue Castle Games are happy to announce that Dead Rising 2: CASE ZERO, the prologue to its upcoming game, Dead Rising 2, is now available exclusively on Xbox LIVE. Players who download Dead Rising 2: CASE ZERO will get their first glimpse into the world of Dead Rising 2 as they are introduced to the new protagonist in the series, Chuck Greene, along with new gameplay features of Dead Rising 2, ahead of its release on September 28, 2010. Explore the link between the original game and sequel and experience the full “Dead Rising” story like never before, only on Xbox LIVE.

For 400 Microsoft Points, the prologue will give players a first taste of the zombie-slaughtering fun of combo weapons and ‘psycho’ boss fights. Character attributes collected in Dead Rising 2: CASE ZERO will also carry over into the main game such as Player Level, to a maximum of five, Prestige Points alongside skills, Combo Cards and a number of alternate outfits.

Disney Interactive Studios and Propaganda Games have announced that a collector’s edition of TRON: Evolution will be available for both the Xbox 360® and PlayStation®3. The collector’s edition will be packaged in a special protective casing with a drawer for the game and will include an exclusive TRON light cycle collectible based on the in-game model from TRON: Evolution. The light cycle model is being created by renowned collectibles manufacturer Sideshow Collectibles. The TRON: Evolution collector’s edition will only be available in limited quantities and will have a suggested retail price of $129.99 in North America. The collector’s edition will be available on December 7 with the rest of the TRON: Evolution video game portfolio before the TRON: Legacy film hits theaters on December 17 in Disney Digital 3D™ and IMAX® 3D.

Desire2Learn recently demonstrated how it is enabling fire rescue services to reduce injuries and save lives by providing better training at last weekend’s annual Fire-Rescue International Conference, which took place in Chicago.

There are several indisputable facts in firefighting: one of these is that training saves lives – the lives of both the victims of fire as well as the lives of fire fighters. Through implementation of the Desire2Learn Learning Management System, better training which is learner-centric, quantifiable and in alignment with departmental learning objectives, can be developed and presented resulting in engaged learners, delivery of standards-based outcomes and a reduction in overall training costs.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to best serve the needs and requirements of our clients, Desire2Learn is providing organizations, like fire rescue services, with cost-effective means to deliver lifesaving training,” says John Baker, President & CEO, Desire2Learn. “There are many opportunities for leveraging Desire2Learn Learning Suite to enable our clients to realize extensive time and cost-savings.”

In one of the exclusive conference Solutions Showcases16, Desire2Learn Sales Manager Jay Murdoch, will profile the recent Case Study “E-Learning Implementation in Fire Rescue,” constructed in partnership with the City of Edmonton Fire and Rescue Services, who has realized a 3-year cumulative cost avoidance of almost $1.5 million dollars after deploying a limited number of courses through Desire2Learn Learning Suite.

Kobo has expanded beyond Toronto, opening a new office in New York City. The strategic location and addition of Jan Ehrlich, Director of Newspapers and Magazines, and Amy Greko, Senior Manager of Vendor Relations (Books), will allow the company to focus more on publisher relations and content acquisition for the US market.

“Publisher relationships are something we take very seriously at Kobo, and our work with them is growing at a frantic pace as we continue to add new vendors, deepen our retail relationships, innovate on devices, and manage the intricacies of agency relationships,” said Michael Tamblyn, Executive Vice President of Content, Sales and Merchandising. “As part of our ongoing expansion, we are pleased to open Kobo’s latest office in Manhattan and we look forward to growing our New York team as we continue to push the boundaries of this amazing market.”

The new office is located at 30 East 23rd St. and Madison Avenue. Hiring is underway for a director focused on US book publisher relations and vendor managers serving the educational, Science/Technical/Medical and professional publishing communities.

“Since its deployment in the last quarter of 2006, the use of the Desire2Learn LMS has contributed to substantial cost avoidance, direct cost savings, due diligence with respect to compliance training issues, and learning around critical incidents,” states Ellen Whybrow, M.Ed. PMP, E-Learning Project, Edmonton Fire and Rescue Services. “The implementation of an eLearning training methodology, and the significant results attained over the past three years, has proven the value of this technology as a corporate training tool.”