Village Gamer

BC analogue game studio Funleague Inc. has announced the release of its horse card game called “Perfect Stride”. It’s a fun gather-round-the-table experience designed primarily for those who love horses.

Perfect Stride is a horse-themed card game that can be fun and challenging for everyone, but it will hold particularly strong appeal for girls and women. “There are many games out there that are primarily directed towards boys,” said Kay Darby, President of Funleague Inc. “I decided that it was time girls and women, particularly those who love horses, had a game designed with their interests at heart.”

In the game Perfect Stride, players are horse riders who gallop across the countryside toward the finish line over a random course of jumps. The players must combine their skills as riders with their horse’s abilities as they attempt to clear each obstacle. Ribbons are earned along the way and at the end of the race the rider with the most ribbon points wins the game.

In addition to the engaging game play, there’s a lot of visual interest here to satisfy the eyes. Almost 100 unique pieces of art are in the game; each is drawn and painted with an eye for accuracy. “I wanted Perfect Stride to be fanciful, yet still believable and somewhat accurate,” said Kay Darby. “As a horse-lover myself, I always appreciated when horses were portrayed in a thoughtful and informed way.”

While Perfect Stride features a theme that is typically of interest to girls, the design was mindful of others too. “It’s an inclusive game that doesn’t indulge in stereotypes,” Darby explained. “We worked hard to keep the design open and approachable and make it inviting to everyone who would like to enjoy the game.”

In celebration of Mega Bloks’ 25th birthday, MEGA Brands will be launching its first iPhone and iPad application ‘Mega Bloks Playground,” a unique mobile-based toy designed to give younger children a fun and engaging experience developed by

MEGA Brands is proud to bring the realms of children’s toys and digital entertainment together with the release of their first-ever iPhone and iPad application based on its founding product ‘Mega Bloks Playground.’. This intuitive new app will be available October 1st, 2010. The preschool world includes two playable characters, a boy and a girl, who interact with a full set of playground elements, such as swing sets, slides, teeter-totters, playful animals, a lake with a sailboat, and even a hot air balloon. While playing the app, children will be delighted to collect piles of colorful bloks that will ultimately piece together to form new Mega Bloks creations every time!

New Quebec-based Budge Studios, the developer and publisher of the Mega Bloks app, specialize in creating children interactive products for touch devices and tablet computers. Budge Studios goal was to create the ultimate digital playset for preschoolers with the number one preschool construction brand, Mega Bloks.

Both iPad and iPhone versions will be released October 1st, 2010. Mega Bloks Playground is $1.99 (iPhone) and $3.99 (iPad) and available worldwide exclusively through the Apple App Store in the Game – kids section. Starting on the day of the launch, the app will be 50% off for 48hours.

Offers.com launched Offers.com Canada earlier this week to help Canadian consumers save time and money. Offers.com Canada is a one-stop resource that brings together the best money-saving offers available for online shoppers in Canada. The site helps consumers save money when shopping online and save time by presenting all the best offers in one well-designed site. Read the rest of this entry »

Our fifth annual Game Design Expo will take place on January 22-23, 2011 in Vancouver, BC. This two-day event features lectures and panels with some of the top minds in all aspects of game design, including designers, producers, artists, sound designers, and writers.

GDX is now accepting submissions from game industry professionals wishing to present at Game Design Expo 2011. They are looking for guest speakers with a desire to share their game industry expertise, and would like to encourage you or any of your colleagues to submit a proposal to speak at this event. It really is a unique opportunity to give back to the next generation of game designers and the whole community of genuine game-fans. The deadline to submit a call for speaker form (PDF) is October 4, 2010.

Haliburton-based School’s Cool is a participant in the online, global competition entitled the Best Brilliant Ideas for Humanity. The competition has three rounds and School’s Cool is currently in the top 12 as round one ramps to a close. Through participation in this contest, School’s Cool is launching a global social marketing campaign with hopes of providing services in Asia, Australia, the UK and elsewhere.

As part of their commitment to making kindergarten readiness skills available across the globe School’s Cool is proud to announce their involvement in the Best Brilliant Ideas for Humanity competition. This global competition allows School’s Cool to showcase its phenomenal 72 hour school readiness program throughout the competition’s various phases with an initial social media campaign. Read the rest of this entry »

Via DFAIT: Hong Kong has one of the most liberalized and sophisticated telecommunications markets in Asia. As of April 2010, Hong Kong’s mobile phone penetration rate reached 180% – one of the world’s highest. Currently there are five mobile operators serving 7-million highly tech-savvy Hong Kong residents. Four out of the five operators have deployed 3G services using HSPA, which support mobile data services such as downloads, multimedia services, video calls and mobile TV.

Hong Kong is a major test-bed market for new smartphones. Leading smartphone brands such as iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia, HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola, consistently choose Hong Kong as one of the first markets in Asia to launch their new phone. A recent survey (TNS) revealed that 50 % of mobile phone owners in Hong Kong carrry a smartphone. With a sophisticated telecommunications infrastructure and a highly tech-savvy population, the smartphone market is poised to grow at an even higher rate in the coming years.

To capitalize on the increasing popularity of smartphones, major smartphone manufacturers and mobile operating systems are encouraging development of mobile content and applications. Smartphone brands and operating systems currently active in Hong Kong include:

Blackberry – applications are being developed on Java, convertible to Blackberry platform and available for download from Blackberry App World. RIM has established an Asia Pacific alliance team in HK. One of the key functions of this team is to co-ordinate with mobile content/applications developers and promote Blackberry mobile content and applications in the Asia market.

iPhone – content and applications are being developed on iPhone platform and available for download on its dedicated App Store.

Nokia – content and applications were being developed on Symbian, but have now moved to open source Java; applications are available for download from its dedicated Ovi Store. Nokia is leading the market share in offering Chinese language applications with a flavour of local culture.

Android – a Google operating system; despite being a late comer to the market, its open source platform and free usage make Android OS increasingly popular for smartphone manufacturers such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung.

Windows Mobile – a Microsoft mobile operating system; similar to the desktop version of Windows and supported by business users.

The success of smartphones depends largely on the availability of content and applications that are user-friendly. While smartphone manufacturers and operating systems are increasing their downloadable content and applications through collaboration with local developers, some mobile phone value-added service providers in Hong Kong are acting as content providers and seeking to collaborate with Canadian developers of mobile content. Types of content that are of interest include: travel, games and entertainment, lifestyle, social networking and videos.

For more information on opportunities for mobile content in Hong Kong, please contact Eunice Wong, Trade Commissioner, Consulate General of Canada in Hong Kong.

For BC Developers: The British Columbia Ministry of Small Business, Technology and Economic Development is organizing a BC Pavilion at G-STAR 2010 in Busan, Korea this November 18-21, 2010.

G-STAR is Korea’s largest international game exposition and convention, and is endorsed by the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Last year’s event drew over 240,000 attendees and featured 198 exhibitors from 21 countries. The annual exhibition will feature a wide selection of local and international gaming presence, including PC and online gaming, console, and mobile. It is a largely consumer-facing event with its own mini-conference and B2B section for those looking to make deals.

Currently, Korea’s game industry is among the top in the world and is constantly expanding. In this year alone, Korea’s game exports created revenues of about 1.09 billion US dollars. G-STAR is Korea’s largest international game exposition and convention, and is endorsed by the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. It also features a concurrent International Content Creator’s Conference (ICON 2010). Read the rest of this entry »

Wicked Interactive, a leading North American MMO publisher, has announced that World Online Gaming League (WOGL) will organize a special ladder competition this weekend for its popular free-to-play shooter Mission Against Terror (M.A.T.). The competition, celebrating the second explosive week of the game’s open beta, begins today, Friday, September 24 and runs through Sunday, September 26.

“Our community has been instrumental in getting M.A.T. to this point so quickly,” said Stephen Tucker, CEO, World Online Gaming League. “While the game is still in open beta, we expect a fun weekend, with a strong turnout from some of our best players.”

The World Online Gaming League is a leading eSports company dedicated to providing competitive play for gamers around the world. WOGL is based in Florida and covers games such as Combat Arms and Alliance of Valliant Arms. WOGL is continuously expanding to new games and provides its clients with the ultimate in competitive gaming. WOGL also has a streaming media arm named WOGL.TV in which it casts live tournaments utilizing Silverlight Technology.

“We are deeply grateful to the WOGL community for their input,” said Sam Ho, Director, Wicked Interactive. “As we work on implementing it into the next upgrade, we thought we’d up the ante again with a no-holds-barred ladder event to showcase the open beta’s new modes. Kudos to WOGL’s talented tech team for making the ladder a reality.”

The Competition

Format: 5v5
Mode: Bomb Mode
The Payoff: Points rewards to winning teams + other in-game surprises
Ladder on WOGL
Official M.A.T. site

THE SKINNY:

The highlight of the open beta patch is the debut of one of MAT’s most popular game modes, the Phantom Mode. Phantom Mode is a spin-off of the highly popular Bomb Mode. In Phantom Mode, one team plays as the ghosts who are highly translucent figures that are difficult to see but are restricted to melee attacks only, and they’re out to bomb key locations around the world. The other team is identical to that of Bomb Mode–soldiers with anti-Phantom training who are out to drive the ghosts back and save these locations from being bombed. Read the rest of this entry »