Village Gamer

As announced on August 6, the Canada Media Fund (CMF) will embark on a cross-country consultation this fall as part of a comprehensive consultation process. The consultation includes focus groups in 18 cities, in all provinces and territories. The following calendar was updated to reflect times and locations for each focus group. The CMF’s focus groups will be led by Valerie Creighton, President and CEO, Stéphane Cardin, Vice President, Industry and Public Affairs or Nathalie Clermont, Director of Program Management. Read the rest of this entry »

Ten Canadian women directors and actors who have had an outstanding year have been selected for tribute by a pan-Canadian selection committee made up of journalists specializing in the arts, culture and entertainment. The 10 women will be honoured on September 11, 2013, at the Maison Birks’ Bloor Street W. store in Toronto during the inaugural Birks Diamond Tribute to the Year’s Women in Film, in partnership with Telefilm Canada. Directors Louise Archambault, Deepa Mehta, Alanis Obomsawin, Sarah Polley and Chloé Robichaud, as well as actresses Évelyne Brochu, Geneviève Bujold, Sarah Gadon, Jessica Paré and Alison Pill, were selected for this honour. Read the rest of this entry »

Kalypso Media Digital is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Hegemony Rome: The Rise of Caesar for Windows PC. Developed by Longbow Digital Arts, Hegemony Rome: The Rise of Caesar will challenge players’ strategic battlefield skills as they manage huge armies through the massive historical battles of first century BC.  In this, the sequel to Hegemony Gold: Wars of Ancient Greece, players will wage war on battlefields beautifully rendered by an upgraded graphics engine as they strive to dominate the known world – via conquest, or by starving out their enemies. Read the rest of this entry »

HootSuite, makers of the most widely adopted social relationship platform, has expanded its App Directory with the addition of SugarCRM, the company that makes every user a customer expert. SugarCRM, the customer relationship management tool who recently received $40 million in private equity funding from Goldman Sachs, helps organizations by increasing efficiency and control of the sales and customer service pipeline. SugarCRM joins HootSuite’s existing enterprise-focused apps such as Salesforce and Yammer, to help companies manage social marketing, social customer service, and social selling and is available immediately to HootSuite’s seven million users; and is free for all HootSuite Enterprise clients. Read the rest of this entry »

Montreal’s Miranda Technologies, a Belden Brand, a global provider of integrated solutions for production, playout and delivery systems for television broadcasters and multi-system operators, announces that Maidstone Studios, the UK’s largest independent TV studio complex, has installed Miranda routers, control, multiviewers and cross-conversion technology as part of a major HD upgrade. Read the rest of this entry »

Today at Unite 2013 in Vancouver, California-based developers of award-winning facial animation and 3D real-time software Reallusion showcased the latest edition of iClone Animation Pipeline, which now includes the first universal facial control system for any 3D character. Once requiring a team of animators and weeks of work to bring characters to life, game developers who work in Unity are now able to accomplish their goals in a matter of days and with minimal production staff using the iClone Animation Pipeline. Read the rest of this entry »

From Unite 2013 in Vancouver: American 3D character animation pioneer Mixamo has announced the launch of Face Plus, a technology that brings facial animations to 3D characters with just a simple webcam and the Unity editor. Independent developers can now enrich their games with emotional experiences without the high cost and complexity of existing facial animation solutions.  With Face Plus, developers are now able to capture their own facial expressions via standard webcams and transfer them in real time onto a 3D character. A Unity plugin, Face Plus leverages the upcoming Unity 4.3 blendshape technology. Read the rest of this entry »

Nintendo has outlined a campaign that will offer consumers unprecedented levels of value and variety this holiday season. Gamers can look forward to the following great deals from Nintendo for the Fall and Winter season in 2013: Read the rest of this entry »

Via Merging Media: Heads Up, Cross-media Producers! Do you have a killer cross-media or transmedia project in development? For the first time, the annual Merging Media Pitch 360 Competition this year is open to all Western Regions – British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Enter your latest cross-media project NOW until September 30th for your chance to win a cool $10,000 Cash Development Prize! Inter-Provincial applications are also eligible, where the majority co-applicant is from the Western Region. Read the rest of this entry »

Scoring consistently high on nearly all categories of the entrepreneurial environment, Canada ranks among the top five countries in the EY G20 Entrepreneurship Barometer 2013, which was released today. The EY G20 Entrepreneurship Barometer 2013 introduces a model for scoring countries across the five pillars of entrepreneurship. The purpose of this model is to help identify areas of relative strength by country and where opportunities for improvement lie. The model is composed of qualitative information (from our survey of more than 1,500 entrepreneurs) and quantitative data based upon entrepreneurial conditions across the G20 economies. Read the rest of this entry »