Village Gamer

The 2013 finalists for the Canadian Videogame Awards were announced today in seventeen categories. The winners will be revealed at the annual event to be held on November 21, 2014 at the Carlu in the heart of downtown Toronto.  Over 75 nominations for games released in 2013 were received from all parts of Canada, with ­­29 games represented in the list of finalists.  All awards are for work developed in Canada.  A body of industry experts from across the country will vote on the winners in each category. Members of the general public can get involved by casting their vote for the Fans’ Choice Award online. Voting will close April 21st. Read the rest of this entry »

The Princeton Review — one of the United States’ best-known education services companies — has issued its fifth annual report naming the undergraduate and graduate schools with the best programs for students to study video game design. The University of Southern California is #1 on both the undergraduate and graduate school lists (complete list is below) in the 2014 report which names 50 programs overall — 25 undergraduate and 25 graduate — in ranked order 1 to 25. The Art Institute Vancouver and Vancouver Film School were both named in the list. Read the rest of this entry »

To broaden access for users in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, HootSuite, the world’s most widely used social relationship platform, is introducing a refreshed set of Chinese app integrations in its App Directory: Sina Weibo, Tencent Weibo, as well as Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo Analytics by Klarity. Built for global social business, the HootSuite App Directory makes it easy for enterprises to localize reach and engagement with over 90 free and premium apps, including Mixi, Nexalogy, Statigram and YouTube Analytics. Read the rest of this entry »

SEGA® of America, Inc. and SEGA® Europe Ltd. today announced that fans of their critically acclaimed strategy game Company of Heroes™ 2 will see a standalone multiplayer offering launching in June this year for $19.99. Each individual army will also be available as a standalone purchase for $12.99 via digital download, providing new players with a minimal entry point into the massive Company of Heroes 2 multiplayer community. Read the rest of this entry »

Ubisoft invites you to dive into the Chicago playground with a new ingame-captured trailer, showing the depth and diversity of the upcoming Watch_Dogs title, which is scheduled for release on May 27, 2014 for PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC (with the Wii U release coming some time later this year…I hope). Read the rest of this entry »

There’s an abundance of content available for video game consoles and mobile devices – parents can sometimes feel a little overwhelmed. Parental control features on consoles and devices can help parents limit age-inappropriate content for their kids and restrict unwanted in-app purchases.  The Entertainment Software Association of Canada has partnered with tech experts Marc Saltzman and Carl-Edwin Michel to produce a new series of informative videos that help parents manage video games and other content in the home. Read the rest of this entry »

Via Press Release: In 2011 the Video Game Industry took in over $16 billion dollars, but despite women representing 45% percent of the game playing audience they directed less than 2% of the Games. In combination with the production company Autobotika, The Fine Young Capitalists, a Canadian-Colombian initiative, is running their first production round, allowing any woman to have a crack at creating a video game. Read the rest of this entry »

Montreal indie studio Kitfox Games, an Execution Labs-supported startup, invites you to enter the world of the Shattered Planet, where the player becomes a clone sent to explore a dangerous, ever-changing planet in the name of science. You’ll want to explore and experiment to find as many new species and technologies as you can before you (inevitably) die a horrible death. Available globally in iTunes as a free download, Shattered Planet is scheduled to be available for Android by April 10th. Read the rest of this entry »

The BANFF World Media Festival has announced that global entertainment producer Lionsgate will be the Company of Distinction honored at this year’s Festival, being held from June 8 – 11, 2014 at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, in Banff.  As the Company of Distinction, executives, producers and talent from Lionsgate will be featured during the four-day Festival in different facets of the event.  The Company of Distinction program, which was introduced in 2013 with CBS Corporation, allows the Festival to pay homage each year to a company demonstrating significant leadership in the world of screen-based entertainment. Read the rest of this entry »

The Ottawa Network for Education (ONFE) today hosted an Apps Showcase to show off the accomplishments of high school students taking part in the TechU.me Mentor Program.  The program’s industry and education partners – IBM, Adobe, and the four local school boards – were also on hand to announce new funding for the next phase of the program. TechU.me pairs elementary and high school students with industry mentors to develop mobile apps. In building these partnerships, TechU.me transforms student creativity into fundamental skills needed in the digital age – skills that will help these students succeed in their future careers. Read the rest of this entry »