2nd August 2011

Now You Can Be The Trailer Park King on XBLIG

Freelance GamesFreelance Games‘ second title, Trailer Park King, is now available for download through Xbox Live Indie Games for 80 MS Points. Trailer Park King is a departure from the Sci-Fi Universe of Starchon, Freelance Games’ previous title, into the Redneck Trailer Park.  So you’re probably wondering, just who is thetrailer park king Trailer Park King? Well, he is a gamer, a bootlegger, a photographer and a connoisseur of the Ladies. Basically, the Trailer Park King is one “purty” cultured dude.

Trailer Park King features a number of unique and interesting cast members. The role of the sexy Canadian Babe is being played by Celine.  Celine is actually part of the Freelance Games marketing department.  With just a few minor alterations and a tattoo,  provided by yours truly (with some help from our artist), Celine has been transformed into a shop keeper from Montreal.

In a nutshell, Trailer Park King is a fun adventure that tells a unique story in an interesting way.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNb-awmbYmI]

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2nd August 2011

Indie Game Pixel Blocked Now On XBLIG

pixel blockedVancouver independent developer Daniel Truong has launched his Xbox puzzler Pixel Blocked! on XBLIG for 80 MS Points. We saw this game demonstrated at a Full Indie event earlier this year, and it looked like a game that would keep puzzle fans scratching their heads and solving puzzles for quite some time.

Pixel Blocked! comes with 180 unique and challenging puzzles, all designed to put any gamer’s spatial logic, speed, and critical thinking skills through the gauntlet. According to the game’s site, the object of this simple and addictive puzzle game is to fill in the missing blocks in an outlined image by shooting blocks against an initial foundation. Players will advance through hundreds of increasingly difficult levels by learning to plan ahead and working with special game pieces such as Magnetic and Crumble Blocks.

Pixel Blocked! Features:

  • 8-bit inspired puzzle shapes
  • 180 increasingly difficult puzzles plus 6 mind imploding bonus puzzles
  • 3 difficulty levels – Apprentice, Artisan and Master
  • Music by Podington Bear
  • 80MSP retail price (approximately 1US dollar)

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHzTO5sSPtE]

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2nd August 2011

Text2Pay Announces Direct Billing for Rogers Bell Fido and Telus

Text2PayNew York-based online mobile payments provider Text2Pay has announced that Rogers, Bell, Fido and Telus customers can now use its mobile billing platform to pay for virtual goods and online content from participating merchants, safely and easily. Customers’ mobile phone accounts are billed securely, using a two-factor PIN/Postal code authentication for each transaction. Not only is this transaction method convenient and easy to use, the use of Text2Pay is more secure than using a credit card transaction.

Offering 95% carrier coverage in over 50 countries, the Text2Pay mobile payment platform enables merchants and mobile developers a simple, effective way of monetizing their online offering or adding depth to their current payment options. With no credit card details required, merchants are able to access a wider range of customers and can expect their conversion rates to soar across all customer segments. Text2Pay offers market leading transaction rates and customizes individual pricing solutions.

“We are very proud of our new product and believe this will pave the way to easier, faster and dynamic payment solutions for mobile users worldwide,” said Text2Pay CEO Mark Reiken. “Text2Pay utilizes the latest technology and software. Best of all – it’s white-labeled. Which means we don’t plaster our logo over everything, the client can customize anyway they wish. Working with the Canadian carriers Rogers, Bell, Fido and Telus will really push Text2Pay into the mobile marketplace and make the mobile experience easier.”

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2nd August 2011

Themis Solutions Announces Clio Bar Affinity Program

clioToday at the National Association of Bar Executives Annual Meeting in Toronto, Vancouver-based Themis Solutions Inc. announced its new Clio Bar Affinity Program which provides members of participating Bar Associations access to an ongoing discount on Clio, a cloud-based practice management system for small and solo law firms. The NABE Annual Meeting is being held at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel from today through August 4th.

The 77,000-member New York State Bar Association, the largest voluntary state bar association in the United States, has signed up for the Clio Bar Affinity Program so that its members can enjoy the benefits of Clio at a reduced price. Several other top bar associations in the U.S. have also joined the program, including the Connecticut Bar Association with over 9,700 members, State Bar of Michigan with over 40,000 members and the South Carolina Bar with over 13,500 members.

According to Jack Newton, President of Themis Solutions, “We are proud to announce the Clio Bar Affinity Program. Bar Associations across North America are realizing that cloud-based technology is becoming integral to their members’ success, not only as legal professionals, but as business owners. Themis Solutions is teaming up with Bar Associations to offer Clio at a discounted monthly subscription price, which is a true win-win situation. Bar members can tap the efficiencies offered by Clio, and in turn, Clio can be discovered by small firm and solo lawyers seeking greater organization and productivity for their practices.”

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2nd August 2011

Toonbox Gets Nutty with TACTIC

tacticSouthpaw Technology, a Toronto-based developer of production asset management (PAM) technology for digital content creation companies, has announced that Toonbox Entertainment, also located in Toronto,  is ToonBoxdeploying 100 seats of TACTIC to manage all of the assets and data for its first feature-length production, The Nut Job. The growing studio just completed the movie’s trailer, and is now rolling out TACTIC for the production of the stereoscopic 3D film, which is one of the largest productions happening in Canada at the moment. Read the rest of this entry »

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2nd August 2011

EA SPORTS Season Ticket Launches Today

EA SportsElectronic Arts has opened the doors for EA Sports™ Season Ticket (conditions & restrictions apply), an all-new program that provides premium benefits for a better gaming experience on five participating EA Sports titles. With an annual fee of $24.99 or 2000 Microsoft Points, subscribers will receive four all-new program benefits:

• Early Full-Game Digital Access: Three days before a game’s scheduled release, fans will be able to download and play the full version of all five participating titles on Xbox 360 and PS3™. The digitally downloaded game will time out when the game is available at retail and consumers have the option to purchase the same full game on disc at retail. EA Sports Season Ticket subscribers can transfer all achievements earned during the three-day download period to the purchased disc, resulting in an early edge over the competition.

• Discounted Downloadable Content: Subscribers will get a 20-percent discount on all available downloadable content for participating EA Sports titles. Downloadable content, which enhances and refreshes the core game experience, includes such items as Ultimate Team packs, accelerator packs and gear upgrades.

• Free Premium Web Content: Premium web content extends the game experience beyond the console to a web browser. All participating titles will feature premium web content that will be free to EA Sports Season Ticket members beginning with the premium Creation Center packs for FIFA Soccer 12. These packs provide a deeper set of customization tools and abilities within Creation Center to build your own teams and tournaments, and will be available to the consumer until the membership to the program has expired.

• Membership Recognition: Subscribers are easily identifiable with an exclusive membership recognition badge displayed both in-game and on their EASports.com profile.

GameStop will introduce EA Sports Season Ticket in North America with an innovative multichannel marketing campaign, including its PowerUp Rewards™ program of more than 11 million members.

EA Sports Season Ticket is available for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft beginning today. Fans can subscribe today through the Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation®Store for the PlayStation 3, and benefits begin with this month’s launch of Madden NFL 12. Moving forward, participating franchises include Madden NFL Football, NHL hockey, FIFA Soccer, Tiger Woods PGA Tour® golf and NCAA® Football.

“EA Sports Season Ticket is an exciting program for our core fans – it lets our biggest fans play earlier, play more and play better than anyone else,” said Peter Moore, President, EA SSports. “EA Sports Season Ticket is an important step in our vision for transforming how deeply fans connect with the sports games they love through digital products and services. We’re excited to continue evolving EA Sports Season Ticket as we listen to what consumers want most in their gaming experiences.”

GameStop President Tony Bartel added, “We are excited to be selected as the exclusive retail marketing partner for the roll-out of EA Sports Season Ticket. GameStop is in a unique position to deliver this digital product utilizing its multichannel network. We will continue to work with progressive publishers to bring great gaming experiences to our customers.”

To subscribe to EA Sports™ Season Ticket for the Xbox 360, go to the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, download and launch the EA Sports application, and follow the prompts after “purchase a subscription”. For PS3™ users, go to the PlayStation Store, search for EA Sports Season Ticket and purchase the program. EA Sports Season Ticket is available on PS3™ and Xbox 360 in North America, and Xbox 360 in Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

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2nd August 2011

3D3 Solutions Will Demonstrate High-Speed 3D Face Scanning At SIGGRAPH

3D3 Solutions3D3 Solutions, a Burnaby, BC developer of 3D scanning technologies, will be exhibiting at SIGGRAPH 2011 in Vancouver, where they will offer attendees at the conference free 3D face scanning demonstrations at their booth #879.

The face scanning process involves using a 3D scanner to capture an accurate 3D mesh and color texture directly from a human face. The output is especially useful in the video games, visual effects and medical imaging industry. 3D3 Solutions will feature the HDI 3D Scanner to demonstrate live face scanning at Siggraph. Their scanner uses white-light technology to capture high-resolution, color 3D scan in less than 1.4 seconds. Attendees will be provided with the 3D data of their face scans for personal use.face scanning

3D3 Solutions offers 3D scanning systems that are flexible in capturing human shapes, art sculptures, and mechanical parts for industrial inspection. 3D3 Solutions has also worked with a number of leading game companies and universities on developing custom high-speed 3D face scanners. In the latest development, the company’s custom face scanner is capable of performing a 3D scan every 0.2 seconds. “People have a tendency to move just by breathing alone and movement affects scan quality,” said Thomas Tong, President of 3D3 Solutions. “With the ability to generate 3D scans almost instantaneously, users will have cleaner, high quality scan data to work with.”

Please visit booth #879 at SIGGRAPH 2011 to learn more about 3D3 Solutions’ 3D scanning technology.

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2nd August 2011

Thinware Media Launches Cloud-based Asset Management

studioCAPVancouver’s Thinware Media Ltd (Thinware) has officially launched StudioCAP (CAP=Computer Aided Production), a completely new workflow automation and asset management solution for animation studios. This new cloud-based system enables studios to more efficiently store, track, and move 2D and 3D CGI (computer generated image) assets through the creation process without having to install and manage a costly IT infrastructure to do so.  StudioCAP is available immediately for site evaluation and trial.

The StudioCAP process was developed in a real-world production environment by Mark Rocchio, CEO of Thinware Media, while creating thousands of hours of high-quality animation projects. StudioCAP eliminates and/or automates many expensive and time consuming manual processes, improves control of digital assets, and features built-in project planning and budgeting.  Once created, studios can search for assets, reuse them as production sees fit, or re-purpose them for marketing, merchandizing, and other revenue streams.

StudioCAP combines asset management with a number of project management and communication features to move assets more efficiently through the creative process. Studios can assign user roles and staffing levels, send messages about asset status, set tasks, automate tasks such as rendering, and define milestones, timelines and deliverables. StudioCAP can also manage project budgets and tie asset creation to asset costs with insightful reports. Collectively, these features simplify asset creation and the management of highly complex productions.

As a completely Web-based solution, StudioCAP is HTML 5 compliant, supports many mobile devices, and does not require studios to install software or procure, configure, and manage hardware. Unlike other asset management solutions on the market, StudioCAP is billed like a utility, so studios only pay for what they use—with introductory prices starting as low as $145.00 per-user, per month. This unique combination makes it easier and more flexible for studios to get started, and far more cost-effective to maintain.

“We developed StudioCAP because there was no other asset management system on the market capable of helping us produce animations faster and more cost effectively,” said Mark Rocchio, CEO of Thinware Media. “Most asset management systems are either too complicated, too lacking in features, or require some sort of costly infrastructure set-up. StudioCAP addresses all of those issues with a feature-rich system that is flexible, simple to set up and use, and more competitively priced to operate than other asset management products available now,” added Rocchio.

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2nd August 2011

Hands On With Kula Blox

Finally. TransGaming

I’ve been waiting for months to have a go at TransGaming Studio’s upcoming title Kula Blox, in part because the studio staff have been taunting me mercilessly with each new iteration and character reveal. They haven’t been playing fair, to say the least – but I got my chance to try it on not just one, but two platforms at Casual Connect Seattle. Was it worth the wait? Most definitely. I really didn’t want to put it down, and I feel that this will be one of the top Canadian-made casual game titles of the year.

gametreetvMy first go-round with the game was on TransGaming’s GameTree TV platform, which puts games right on your smart TV. We don’t have a smart TV (we just got an LCD HDTV a few months ago – can’t rush these upgrades), so I was also getting a first look at this interesting new way to play. GameTree TV gives players the option of trying, renting, or purchasing casual game titles. Adding to the challenge was using the uWand controller, so this first play-through was a trifecta of new things to wrap my mind around.

I am impressed with the GameTree TV interface, which works via a set-top box to offer gamers a wide variety of titles. I watched many Casual Connect attendees pick up the controller and easily figure out how to pick and launch titles, as well as play them – no previous experience required. While I did get to spend a fair bit of time playing Kula Blox on GameTree, the title is still in development so the GameTree version was not yet fully optimized for the platform. Kula BloxEven still, the game has an over-all high appeal – the graphics are crisp and clear, the music is not annoying, and the sounds, while somewhat repetitive, were original and fit in well with the game’s environment.

When Kula Blox is released, it will be available for GameTree TV, Mac, PC, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Not that a release date has been confirmed as of yet; TransGaming Studios’ Creative Director Jason Azevedo would only commit to “late Summer but definitely by Fall” no matter how many times I tried to reword the question and get a confirmation from him. Unfortunately, if we go by this year’s west coast weather patterns, “late Summer” could be virtually never.  Although, it does appear to be summer today. Tomorrow could be a different story.

Kula Blox is an arcade-style game with a diverse cast of characters who have a habit of falling to Earth from some unknown skyward region. Perhaps they’ve been evicted from the Cloud. I’m not really sure. During this losing battle with gravity, players will use their animal character to eat up the other animals who are also Kula Blox The Junglefalling through the air. There is a catch to this feeding frenzy, though. The player’s animal can only lunch on those animals which are smaller in stature while carefully avoiding those which are bigger. The bigger animals are rather persistent though, shadowing the player through the air, hoping for an easy meal.

Watching out for the big bullies isn’t the only obstacle, either. That would be too easy. There are branches and rock outcrops (depending on which map you’re playing through) to avoid – and while the developers were nice enough to put arrows on the screen to let you know that an obstacle is forthcoming, we gamers have been trained to believe that arrow paths are where we are supposed to go. Wrong. Don’t go there, you’ll get splatted and lose health.

There are also power-downs in addition to the traditional power-ups. Each animal has its own special power that you can use once it’s charged up, giving you a distinct advantage over the enemy. The universal power-ups give you things like a turtle shell helmet to keep the big bullies from turning you into a lunch entree while power-downs such as bear poop (yes, you read that correctly) do things like make your animal character smell. If you are unlucky enough to have fallen through the bear poop, the smaller animals will avoid you, making it harder for you to consume them so that you can grow big enough to take on the bullies. However, in my mind, this is somewhat illogical because poop is a fertilizer…

When you do finally reach ground you will land with a resounding crash, breaking several (or at least one) wooden crate. These crates contain different types of prizes such as gold coins to reward you for losing Kula Blox monkeyyour battle with gravity. These coins can then in turn be used in the game’s store to purchase unlocks, which can also be accomplished through micro-transactions. None of the price points have been announced yet, which includes the purchase price as well as those for the in-game upgrades. I considered torture but I have a feeling TransGaming Studio’s Managing Director has ensured that the creative staff have a high tolerance to such measures, so I let that idea go.

Kula Blox gives gamers of all types and ages a challenge that is fun to pick up and play, whether it’s just for a few minutes or a few hours. The controls are very intuitive and allow the player to use either tilt mechanics or side-to-side pinball-styled touch controls. With GameTree TV, you could use either the controller’s side-to-side buttons or motion detection in place of touch control; they work in the same way. I found the pinball touch controls on the iPad easier to use, but that is just because I am rather inept with tilt and motion controls. Yes, I am one of those players; I prefer the Wii’s classic controller over the Wiimote.

I asked Jason where the concept for Kula Blox came from, and he told me that it actually started out as an Kula Blox Eagleentirely different game that was pitched during one of the studio’s “Pitch Your Game Day” events. These pitch days are often held at the end of a development cycle, and Kula Blox has retained some of the original ideas from that initial introduction. The quick, fun casualness of the concept stuck with the creative staff, and like their recent Garage, Inc. game release, Kula Blox feels fresh and new. It definitely has some of the characteristics of a casual game that I like – scores to beat, things to collect (or not collect, in the case of bear poop) and many levels to unlock and revisit.

I also tried to pin Jason down in trying to get him to choose between Garage, Inc. and Kula Blox, naming one of them as his favourite, but he wouldn’t commit to that either. He stated that the titles are like children, and he likes them both equally, but for different reasons. Not hard to tell he’s a parent – and he was a real trooper, too – he’d endured probably one of the worst flights from Toronto to Seattle ever, with a Kula Blox Jaguarlong flight delay and late luggage, but that didn’t put a dent in his humour or enthusiasm. In fact, everyone I met from TransGaming was very friendly, and as some of us had been conversing back and forth on Twitter for some time now, it was much like meeting up with a long-time friend. My only regret (aside from not getting away with the iPad & game) was that I couldn’t have stayed at Casual Connect for longer than one day, because I really wanted to play more Kula Blox and talk with everyone more about the studio and all of its aspects.

At launch, Kula Blox will have three distinct map areas – The Forest, The Jungle and The Savannah, each with its own characters, prizes and themes. I did pry a little bit of information out of Jason – there will be post-release updates with more items and levels. The only other pre-release information I could get out of him is that they are still working hard on some power balancing as well as polishing sounds and mechanics. Through my incessant pestering, TransGaming is also working on a video trailer for the game, which we will be showing in our booth (1018) next week at SIGGRAPH 2011 in Vancouver, along with trailers from several other Canadian studios.

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