Village Gamer

Editor pre-amble: First, let me clarify that I was asked to review Krabbitworld: Origins last year, and as of yet haven’t done so. I have apologized in the past to its creators, and I will do so again now. I try to approach every game objectively and as though I have little to no gaming experience, except for franchises like Mass Effect or Assassin’s Creed, where I’ve played all of the titles. I have always openly stated that the PC is not my gaming platform of choice, I prefer console, and probably always will. I also try to find positive aspects in every product I look at; the Cavechild has no such compunction. He says what he thinks, and I guess, to an extent, that is also a commendable quality.

My initial experience with Krabbitworld: Origins was not a positive one, as I had problems with the game’s default command settings, and I honestly was not compelled to try the game again. I was not drawn in by the characters nor by the graphics. I’m not new to the RPG genre, I do play Guild Wars, but Krabbitworld just wasn’t doing it for me. Perhaps I didn’t give the game enough of a chance, I can consider that to be a possibility and easily admit that may be so. Perhaps I should have let the developers know at that time how I felt, and rightly so, but I kept hoping that I would get back to it, and it did cross my mind several times, and as my daughter so often points out, I have little concept of time, and all of a sudden it’s months later.

So why is the review being posted now, and why is the Cavechild doing it? Well, yesterday I posted a small rant on my personal Facebook page about Activision’s decision to shelve True Crime: Hong Kong, and basically stating that I will no longer be supporting the Call of Duty franchise with game purchases, and that no one here has ever liked any Halo title. (yes, I hear your collective gasps over that one). I further stated that we would no longer purchase any Activision title unless it was made in Canada, and that they’d better not be planning on putting the brakes on Prototype 2.

Understand that I personally know people who work at United Front, along with pretty well all of the local game studios including Radical, which experienced downsizing last year. They are “in real life” friends, and I am concerned for them and those who work at other studios, as one would be about friends in any other situation. The reply on that rant by one of the two developers considered my opinion laughable and called into question my support of local industry. I will not go into details, and I do thank other friends in the industry who have replied with positive messages in my defense.

That said, and as I stated above, I am remiss in not giving Krabbitworld: Origins a review, and I am willing to own that. I have two other game reviews also outstanding – one just because I haven’t completed the story, the other because I’m conducting experiments with it (which I have discussed with one of the creators, and he’s good with that). That said – all of these titles have been given promo in earlier posts, so it’s not like I am completely ignoring them, I just haven’t given them as much blog time as I should have.

I know it’s not easy to run a small company or to develop an original IP, let alone grow it; I have lots of experience in that department – however I also try to constantly research and learn, as well as connect with people who may be able to offer some form of advice. I also am able to take other people’s opinions and look at them from both sides and try to maintain an open mind on many issues, whether I agree with them or not. I imagine that there will be backlash to do with this whole issue, but I don’t care for drama, so won’t be going there. As an aside, here is one other review of the game which I found via Google, so you as a reader can easily find another opinion on Krabbitworld Origins.

As many of you already know, The Cavechild is a hardcore gamer – he will take on pretty well any type of game at least once, and has been successful on the competitive level at tournaments, to which James, one of our other reviewers, can attest. He is well-versed in the RPG, FPS and RTS genres and openly very opinionated (and stubborn), so without further preamble and heavy editing, here are the Cavechild’s honest thoughts on being tossed into Krabbitworld: Origins with no background on the game, its lore or much else other than it was an RPG-styled title. I did not tell him why the characters have big ears (as you’ll see), or what type of world the game was set in. I sent him the extra key and the download link and told him to play. He played it for about 30 minutes, which probably isn’t long enough for some circles, but if a game fails to engage quickly, chances are it will not easily make it in the open market.

On Playing Krabbitworld: Origins –

Well, let’s get this review on the way. First thought of playing Krabbit online was “Why the hell does everyone have giant ears?” and I thought this looked like a really bad rip-off of World of Warcraft, though I was wrong. This is worse than WoW, far worse. World of Warcraft looks better than Krabbit, plays better too and also lags less.

The customization of this game is the worst I’ve ever had to deal with. The colours are messed up and when you choose your character’s colours, they lag like hell while applying the scheme you chose. I made my giant-eared ogre a crimson reddish-looking colour and gave him a dark green vest and ice blue shoes. Now keep in mind I didn’t think I’d be getting a neon coloured ogre on an acid trip from hell, though.. guess what happened? I GOT A RAVE OGRE! BRIGHT COLOURS! Minus the techno music. The graphics however don’t mean much to me, if there is a good community and high player base to do co-op or fight against, then by all means I will play regardless, others should as well. Another thing that bugged me a little bit is that some of the animations are not complete, such as rolling, doing a side flip and such, it was quiet annoying but at the same time, laughable. Read the rest of this entry »

Montreal-based Di-O-Matic has revealed details about Voice-O-Matic v1.61 for Maya. Created to meet the needs of 3D character animators all over the world who require an easy-to-use, lip synchronization plug-in for their Autodesk Maya software, Voice-O-Matic is used by top 3D animation studios to achieve highly accurate voice-to-character matching. Voice-O-Matic v1.61 for Maya is available now for US $349.

Di-O-Matic heard your call animators. Spending hours to create lip sync animations for CG characters is tiring, and manually generating every lip movement is a long and tedious task. That’s why Voice-O-Matic was designed! Combining a user friendly interface with a highly efficient and time saving system. Some of the most admired CG characters including Batman, Spider-man and Superman carry Voice-O-Matic at the heart of their facial animations.

Designed for animators by animators, Voice-O-Matic v1.61 for Maya only requires an audio file to automatically produce an accurate lip sync animation. Afterwards, the results can be easily tweaked to perfectly match any style of animation. Voice-O-Matic v1.61 for Maya works with any type of character setup and with every language. Voice-O-Matic has also already earned its stripes with its use in leading feature films, popular television shows, commercials and award winning video games.

Oscar Marquez, coordinator of the 3D department at Cromosoma reveals “Not only did we manage to increase our productivity with Voice-O-Matic v1.61 for Maya, but it allowed us to focus on other aspects of our animated series. What we liked most about Voice-O-Matic is that it can be set up easily, the lip sync of several characters can be done at the same time and we barely need to modify the animation curves. If you make a good setup and integrate it properly you can have very good results. Thanks to Voice-O-Matic, we could do all the lip sync we needed in the series with just 10 mouth shapes and only one control for the most extreme poses.”

No matter which type of character setup you wish to use: from blend shapes to complex bone-based rigs, and no matter the language for which you wish to create lip synchronization, Voice-O-Matic v1.61 for Maya delivers, and can save up to 80% of the time it takes to manually animate lip synchronization. 3D animation artists can benefit by using both the automatic phoneme matching features and the manual tools to fine-tune the animated character to achieve highly customized results.

Interactive entertainment company Ludia today announced its ‘The Bachelor: The Videogame’ App is available on the App Store for iPhone, iPod touch for $2.99 USD and iPad for $4.99 USD. Based on the hit franchise created by Mike Fleiss, hosted by Chris Harrison and airing Mondays 8:00–10:00 ET/PT on ABC, the app features characters inspired by the actual Bachelors and Bachelorettes from the top rated series’ “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” including current Bachelor Brad Womack and the most recent Bachelorette, Ali Fedotowsky.

Fans of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” can now live their own show experience anywhere, anytime, as they compete in a collection of exciting mini-games and challenges to win the attention and, ultimately, the heart of the Bachelor or Bachelorette. Players vie for the final rose, playing as either a female or male contestant.

“The Bachelor is one of the most successful dating competitions in the reality genre, and we are pleased to bring the romance and heated competition that are the hallmarks of the TV show to iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users,” said Alex Thabet, Founder and CEO of Ludia Inc. “This release reinforces Ludia’s strategy of delivering highly entertaining games, based on the most popular television brands.”

Features of The Bachelor: The Videogame App include:

* Play to earn the love of the Bachelor or the Bachelorette, guided by Chris Harrison.
* Characters based on favorite Bachelors and Bachelorettes, including Brad Womack, Jake Pavelka, Jason Mesnick and more!
* 23 mini-game challenges to play in one-on-one or group date scenarios.
* 3 levels of difficulty to chose from.
* Humorous “Fantasy Suite” videos where your performance in the game determines the outcome; will you share an embrace in the hot tub or be hung out to dry?

For those looking for employment, Ludia currently has several positions that need to be filled.

The S-3D Gaming Alliance has just released the 2011 edition of the U-Decide Initiative. U-Decide is credited as the only S-3D gaming report shaped by consumer opinion, industry analysis, and hands-on experience. The initiative gives readers a candid outlook of what needs to happen to make stereoscopic 3D gaming successful in the long term.

“DDD is a leading provider of 3D game conversion software for the PC market, and our success is dependent on delivering what gamers want. The U-Decide report provides this helpful insight and more, and we recommend it to anyone that also markets to the growing S-3D gaming community,” said Chris Yewdall, CEO of Dynamic Digital Depth. Read the rest of this entry »

2K Games has unveiled the new web site for The Darkness™ II, the sequel to the million unit-selling 2007 title, The Darkness™, will be coming to the Xbox 360®, PlayStation®3 and Windows PC in fall 2011. Developed by Digital Extremes and based on the supernatural horror comic book series created by Top Cow Productions, Inc., The Darkness II takes players down a brutal and personal path as Jackie Estacado, wielder of The Darkness – an ancient and ruthless force of chaos and destruction.

The Darkness II breaks out of the sea of conventional first-person shooters with its fervid Quad-Wielding gameplay, which will allow players to slash, grab, and throw objects and enemies with their Demon Arms while simultaneously firing two weapons. The game is layered with the use of dark versus light, steeped in deep and twisted storytelling, and engulfed in stylistic violence that is visualized through a hand-painted graphic noir technique that stays true to its comic book origins.

“The Darkness II is a well of dark and imaginative violence, and it’s a stylized and beautiful nightmare,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “The Darkness II continues the 2K Games tradition of delivering quality, innovative games that are filled to the brim with atmosphere and deep storytelling. The game takes a unique stance on fighting in the dark versus light. Combined with the arsenal of weapons at Jackie’s disposal and the gruesome attacks of the supernatural Demon Arms and Darkness powers, we’re proud to announce another title that delivers on our core values of creating games for gamers.”

The Darkness II will feature award-winning comic book writer, Paul Jenkins, who will provide a tightly integrated narrative that weaves dark humor with hardcore tenderness.

Take a step back from the familiar and comfortable, and prepare to embrace The Darkness.

It’s been two years since Jackie Estacado, now the Don of the Franchetti crime family, used The Darkness to kill the men responsible for his girlfriend’s murder. He’s been unable to shake the memory of Jenny’s death since bottling up his supernatural power, and now The Darkness wants out. A sudden, unprovoked attack on Jackie’s life heralds the start of a full-scale mob war, which has clearly been orchestrated by some outside force. The botched attempt opens the door for The Darkness to reemerge, and sets Jackie on a journey to hell and worse, as he unravels the mystery behind the attack and the motivations of The Darkness itself.

“Sometimes that whooshing sound you hear is that of comic fans holding their collective breath,” said Marc Silvestri, founder and CEO of Top Cow Productions and co-creator of The Darkness comics. “So often disappointed when a favorite character gives birth to a lame movie or video game, us fans have come to expect the worst. And sometimes we get it. But not with The Darkness II. Yeah, call me biased, but this second installment of Jackie Estacado’s epic saga is – in my humble opinion – one of the most brutally cool games I’ve ever played. 2K Games hammered this one out of the park.”

Fans of TransGaming Studio’s Garage Inc. game will be happy to know that the title will be available on the Big Fish Games portal tomorrow – unless you’re a BFG Game Club Member, then you can play it via the portal today.

Today’s PlayStation®Network update will include the long-awaited demo for HOARD™, Big Sandwich Games’ critically acclaimed action strategy game about dragons and their treasure. The full game is already available for purchase on the system.

“HOARD™ is at its strongest with a controller in hand,” says Tyler Sigman, the game’s designer. “We know that the addictive gameplay really sells itself when players get a chance to try it. We also know that a lot of consumers still don’t know HOARD™ exists, so we’re glad to finally make the demo available and remove that obstacle to new people trying the game!”

The demo will allow gamers to sample their fire-breathing, gold-collecting skills on several maps and game modes, including a 2-player local (“couch”) co-operative level. The full game includes 4 game modes, over 35 maps, leaderboards, trophies, and any combination of local and online multiplayer making HOARD™ one of only a few great options for 4-person couch-party style play.

HOARD™’s innovative gameplay and design focus on rock-solid short-session experiences earned it a “Best Quick Fix” award and “Best Competitive Multiplayer” nomination in IGN’s Best of 2010 Awards.

The full version of HOARD™ is for sale now on the PlayStation®Network for $14.99, and includes dozens of hours of gameplay and over 100 unique badges to be earned. HOARD™-themed avatars and wallpapers are also available.

Building on Burn the Rope’s phenomenal success in the App Store, Big Blue Bubble, Inc. is pleased to announce its upcoming major update to the top-selling iOS game. Praised by critics and gamers alike, Burn the Rope will be better than ever with new bug types, fast-paced bonus rounds, a new world of 16 never-before-seen-levels and beautiful Retina display support! We have also created a new “Burn the Rope Lite” version for those of you who prefer the try before you buy approach. Read the rest of this entry »

Reminder: Confoo 2011 is March 9th – 11th in Montreal.

Digital Extremes, developers of the PC version for the upcoming HomeFront game is participating in a session on Video Games and the Next Generation of Literacy in partnership with the Child & Youth Network, London Public Library and the United Way of London and Middlesex. The session will take place at the Museum London, 421 Ridout Street North in London, Ontario on Thursday, February 10th from 4:30pm until 8:00pm.

There will be a Keynote presentation by Dr. James Paul Gee, Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University and author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. The event will also feature a panel discussion, networking and refreshments. Donations to support literacy initiatives are welcome.

Digital Extremes has also launched a new iOS title. Available now for 99 cents US, Retro Pinball includes three handpicked tables (Crash and Burn, Super Android, Pangea) from original creator James Schmalz, all with updated graphics and sound to enhance your gaming experience on your favorite Apple iOS device.

Eidos Montreal has released a new trailer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Take an up-close and personal look at player character and game hero Adam Jensen.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o39lpePeOp8]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is rated M for Mature by the ESRB and according to GameStop Canada, will be in-store on April 1st.

Puzzle Pond from Little Guy Games is a featured FreeAppADay game today, so hurry over to the iTunes App Store and grab this cute match-up game. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, you play Puzzle Pond by matching two creatures with a swipe of your finger to make them kiss and explode with joy. There are three game modes, Speed, Puzzle and Zen, with the ability to conduct combos and streaks for huge points and power-ups. There are currently sixty brain teasing puzzles in this Game Centre and OpenFeint-enabled game has twenty different achievements and a leaderboard.

Mike Farah, President of Production at comedy website Funny Or Die, and key members of his creative team will deliver a Feature Panel on the future of online comedy at BANFF 2011. Farah and his team will offer an in-depth look at the production strategy behind the phenomenal success of the site, which averages 8 million unique users and over 30 million video views per month.

“In only three years, Funny Or Die has become the destination for comedy fans online, with some of the best content out there,” said Ferne Cohen, Executive Director of the Festival. “We are all looking forward to what I’m sure will be a compelling and entertaining panel.”

As President of Production, Mike Farah oversees the creative day-to-day operations of the premier comedy site, along with Funny or Die’s television and feature projects. With Funny Or Die for over two years, Farah has produced the award-winning video “Prop 8: The Musical,” the Ron Howard-directed “Presidential Reunion,” and Marion Cotillard’s “Forehead Tittaes,” among many others. Under Farah’s leadership, Funny Or Die’s creative team produces over 25 original videos each month. In November 2010, The Hollywood Reporter named Farah one of the top 35 Hollywood executives under 35.

Montreal’s gogo6 inc., a leading provider of IPv6 products, community and services has released gogoCPE version 1.0 – a small v6 adaptor for the home that can be installed and providing IPv6 within a minute. Designed to work with, rather than replace home networking equipment, the gogoCPE can be used to deploy IPv6 using IPv4 or to deploy IPv4 using IPv6 – both resulting in a dual-stack home network. Early customers of the gogoCPE include SingTel, Comcast and Globe Telecom.

The gogoCPE is plug ‘n’ play simple and designed to be installed by the end user without any support. The gogoCPE uses the same code as the gogoCLIENT which has reliably provided IPv6 to over 150,000 users of the Freenet6 service.

The gogoCPE supports the most popular transition technologies including TSP, DS-Lite, 6RD, DSTM and L2TP. It is compatible with the gogoSERVER and other manufacturer systems. Its wide technology support allows it to work in any IPv4/v6 network scenario, including:

* Providing IPv6 to existing and new customers with IPv4 home routers in an IPv4 network.
* Providing IPv4 to new customers with IPv4 home routers in an IPv6 network.
* Providing IPv6 to new customers without IPv4 home routers in an IPv4 network.

“Hands down the most difficult part of introducing IPv6 into a broadband network is the home. This is where a majority of the IPv6 costs lie and where service providers have the least control. In a vast majority of the cases the home networking equipment is either not upgradable or owned by the end user making IPv6 synonymous with installing new equipment,” said Bruce Sinclair, gogo6 CEO. “The recent depletion of IPv4 addresses from the IANA pool increases the pressure on service providers to find a simple yet effective solution to offer v6 and v4 by way of v6. Service providers can quickly introduce IPv6 into their networks with a single 1U gogoSERVER and one gogoCPE per home.”

The gogoCPE is available today after being tested by service providers around the world. In addition to being sold in volume individual gogoCPEs are available on the gogo6 website. These units are preconfigured to work with Freenet6 making them plug ‘n’ play ready out of the box. Individual units cost $99 plus shipping and handling. Volume pricing is lower.

If I owned a Mac, I would be downloading the trial version of Office for Mac from Microsoft Canada right now, because they are holding a contest in partnership with LiveNation. Entrants could win a chance to see any band in the Canadian city—and seats—of his or her choice. Please see the contest rules for complete prize and entry details.

Roaring Penguin Software has updated its CanIt Reputation List, which collects IP reputation data on e-mail servers from a worldwide network of sensors. Roaring Penguin currently aggregates this data into four DNS-based block lists:

Spam Source: A list of IP addresses that have sent mostly spam and very little non-spam.
Dictionary Attackers: A list of IP addresses that have sent to many nonexistent recipients and very few valid recipients.
Greylist Stumblers: A list of IP addresses that have been thwarted by greylisting. Such machines are typically compromised personal computers.
Good: A list of IP addresses that have passed greylisting, have sent to very few nonexistent recipients, and have sent mostly non-spam. These machines are very likely legitimate mail servers.

To these block lists Roaring Penguin has added a new list called “Mixed” for hosts that send a mixture of spam and non-spam. Roaring Penguin found that the old “SpamSource” list would often list outbound mail servers for large e-mail providers. These servers tend to send a lot of spam, but they also send a lot of non-spam e-mail. The change to Roaring Penguin’s Reputation Lists means that about 5600 machines formerly listed on the “SpamSource” list are now listed on “Mixed”. This still leaves almost 1.9 million machines listed on the “SpamSource” e-mail reputation list.

CanIt 8.0 is available as:

* CanIt-PRO, an anti-spam / anti-virus appliance or a soft appliance.
* CanIt-Domain-PRO, spam filtering software that allows service providers such as MSPs to host anti-spam for their customers.
* Hosted CanIt, a fully outsourced anti-spam solution.

The Founder of the Online Party of Canada, Michael Nicula, will be holding a press conference on Saturday February 5, 2011 in the Art Room of the Gladstone Hotel to discuss CRTC policies in the context of decision 2011-44 to impose User Based Billing (UBB) on the whole Canadian market. Nicula will be joined by Iain Calder of TorFree.Net as well as affected consumers and small ISP providers.

In a move aimed to calm angry consumers, already dissatisfied with the internet service market in Canada, the CRTC president as well as many senior MPs vowed to review or strike down decision 2011-44. Internet service quality in Canada is not a new issue; it just happened that the latest CRTC decision has touched a nerve, as consumers are now enjoying data-rich social networking, livestream and television programs more than ever before.

Online Party of Canada wants to take the opportunity to broaden this discussion. Why has Canada slipped in the world ranking of country infrastructures in terms of speed and service quality? Countries like Romania and Bulgaria clock more than twice the average speed, and the leaders Korea and Japan boast speeds as much as three times faster. Is government intervention into the CRTC the right thing to do?

Online Party of Canada (OPC) is an Internet-based Political Party, pending registration. OPC is a non-traditional political party; it focuses on issues instead of platforms or individuals. OPC operates exclusively online and promotes an innovative voting system inspired from today’s popular technologies such as like/dislike, share, tweet, comment.

Capture the excitement and laughter as Pokémon™ fans of all ages play Pokémon™ Black Version and-or Pokémon™ White Version weeks before they launch in Canada. Special Pokémon guest, Pikachu will be onsite to greet fans along with Nintendo of Canada spokesperson Julie Gagnon.

There are two events scheduled for Canadian gaming youngsters:

Grand Court Metropolis at Metrotown in Burnaby
Saturday, February 12th 10am – 9pm and Sunday, February 13th 11am – 7pm

Kids-Fest at the International Center in Mississauga
Saturday, February 19th through Monday, February 21st 10am – 5pm

These pre-launch events will feature hands-on game play, colouring stations, face painting and Pokémon inspired giveaways (while supplies last), and those who purchase either of the new games between the March 6th launch and April 10th will be able to receive a special Liberty Pass via Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection (broadband Internet access required), which will enable them to catch the never-before-seen Mythical Pokémon Victini™.

Victini – the Victory Pokémon – is the first Pokémon that’s both Psychic- and Fire-type and cannot be obtained through normal game play. It is said that Victini creates an unlimited supply of energy, which it shares with others. This energy source may be the secret to how it brings about victories. Victini’s unique and exclusive Victory Star ability not only increases its own accuracy in battle, but also boosts the accuracy of all a player’s Pokémon in battle. Victini is a must-have in any Pokémon battle, and is especially useful in Triple Battles, which debut in Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version.

Available for the Nintendo DS™ family of systems, Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version include more than 150 never-before-seen Pokémon that players can catch, train and battle as they progress through the game. Both games are now available for pre-order from major retailers throughout Canada for a suggested retail price of $34.95 each.

Congratulations to the team at Relic Entertainment for cracking the Top Ten of 2010 sales list on Steam with almost $11 million dollars US with Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising, published by THQ, who yesterday announced that they have put the brakes on releasing Company of Heroes Online, citing a “reevaluation of its strategy of adapting certain Western content for free-to-play online games in Asian markets.”

There’s a new installment of the Dr. Mike tutorial video series about dealing with Swarmites. Watch closely and listen carefully as Dr. Mike teaches you how to score with a Swarmite in this upcoming action platformer from Hothead Games.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y33cr0Mw94]

For those unfamiliar with the game’s premise, you will take control of 50 utterly fearless Swarmites and drive them through an intense, entertaining and often suicidal battle of survival. Run, bash, huddle, boost, stack, jump, push and throw your way through gauntlets of death and destruction in an attempt to collect valuable DNA and ensure that at least one Swarmite survives.

Transgaming Studios has announced that the first update to the recently launched Garage Inc. is now live on the iPhone app store. This update includes Game Centre integration, Achievements and the ability to replay any completed day via a handy calendar. A second update is already in progress, which will include an Endless Day mode, which has been the most requested feature by both the press and gamers. The planned timeframe for the release of the second update is within the next 30 days.

Psychic Parrot Games has released a new title on Kongregate. Built with Unity, MudFire is a 4×4 racing game that you can control with either your keyboard or USB Xbox gamepad. The game features options for setting the graphics and audio to your liking (or your computer’s specs) and starts you off in the 4×4 Wander vehicle. Once you get into the winner’s circle, you can unlock the 4×4 Wander Paws, 4×4 Fire, the green Team Parrot 4×4, the Pink 4×4, Red Leader 4×4 and the Super Pickup 4×4. Recent improvements to MudFire include better in-vehicle cams and better vehicle handling.

Speaking of Unity, the Unity team has announced the continued expansion of its Asset Store. Announced at Unite 2010, the Unity Asset Store is a digital marketplace where developers can share and sell assets to each other to accelerate their workflows. It’s immediately accessible in the Unity editor under the Window > Asset Store menu so assets are at developers’ fingertips when they most need them.

Over the last two months, the Unity Asset Store catalogue has grown to more than 200 new items including a variety of assets such as free tutorials, open-source libraries, art packs and advanced script libraries. The majority of these assets have been produced by the Unity development community – who individually are bringing in revenues of thousands of dollars each month monetizing their assets. January’s top seller brought in more than $4,000. Top selling assets include:

· Unisky by Six Times Nothing
· GUIKit001 by Blackish
· EZ GUI by AB Software
· Sprite Manager by AB Software
· Shader Fusion by Kurt Loeffler

The Unity Asset Store features free assets that range from sophisticated terrain road and river tools to complete packages with learning materials. A popular release, C# Game Examples by Mark Hergaarden, includes five simple, but essential game examples to learn from and modify. Developers can spend hours programming obstacles to animate, swing, thump, follow paths and generally move around or accomplish the same thing in a matter of minutes with one of the top-downloaded free items, iTween, which brings intuitive and easy-to-use tweening animation to Unity.

“We’re getting great feedback from developers and it’s exciting to see content creators monetizing their assets and making thousands of dollars every month,” said Caitlyn Meeks, Asset Store Content Manager. “Our Asset Store user base has grown to more than 10,000 users in less than three months, and it’s quickly becoming the #1 marketplace of choice for Unity developers.”

Meeks continued, “An exciting growth area of the Asset Store can be found in the Editor Extensions category. The Unity editor is surprisingly extensible with editor classes so that the actual development environment itself can be customised to a degree that one would think only possible with source-level modification, including vehicle wizards, procedural sky systems, UI toolbars and added functionality to the workspace.”

Absolute® Software Corporation has launched a closed beta of Computrace® Mobile for the Android platform. This new solution will deliver asset administration, data protection and geolocation tracking for the popular Android line of devices, which generally includes tablets and smartphones.

Computrace Mobile for the Android platform will deliver:

* Reduced operational costs associated with managing mobile devices by leveraging the Computrace platform’s integrated Customer Center reporting for hardware, software and user information.
* An additional layer of data protection and increased compliance with government data breach laws through remote Data Delete capabilities.
* The ability to geolocate a device and display it on an internet map including current and historical locations (only performed with the prior consent of the device owner on corporate liable devices).

During the beta testing period, some of Absolute’s current commercial customers have privileged, pre-release access to Computrace Mobile for Android at no additional cost. Interested journalists and product reviewers may also request a demonstration of the solution prior to its general availability.

Computrace Mobile is supported on the following platforms: Windows Mobile® 5, 6, 6.1, 6.2, and 6.5 handheld devices; Symbian – S60 Third Edition and later releases; and BlackBerry® Mobile Versions 4.5 and later. Absolute Manage Mobile Device Management allows organizations to manage the Apple® iOS devices (iPad™, iPhone®, iPod touch®) in their deployment.

Co-op PlayStation®Network platformer Tales from Space: About a Blob is now available to North American PlayStation®Plus members! Developer DrinkBox Studios has also confirmed that the European release of the game will occur on February 9th – the same week the title will be made generally available to North American PlayStation®Store users.

DrinkBox CEO Ryan MacLean had this to say about the company’s release plans: “We’re very excited that the game is finally coming out! The release is definitely a big milestone for our studio. After two-plus years of development we’re ready to sit back and watch OTHER people have fun with the game!”

Tales from Space: About a Blob is a side-scrolling action-platformer about alien Blobs that land on an Earth-like planet and begin eating everything around them. The game features local co-op play, puzzles, special Blob powers and a healthy dose of humour.

Rusty Axe Games is proud to announce the first playable demo of Dungeon Brawl, a free, retro arcade-style RPG. This demo features the first 5 of 9 game levels, with the other levels are expected to be released in early March. Travel back in time with the studio’s free 80’s style arcade RPG dungeon romp, a browser based ode to the great games of our youth. No download is required, you can just click and play.

Wild Games Studio, creators of Dhaila’s Adventure, has released a trailer for its upcoming game Qwon Tribe, which is expected to be launched for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad in March. This energetic game is addictive and will come loaded full of surprises for players. The ultimate goal in latest mobile title is to survive through forty levels of high resolution game play to save the tribe Qwon.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8DvPCUnf84]

Just in time for all of the political fun going on in BC, D2D Campaign Solutions would like you to know about their online, mobile, volunteer management solution that provides election campaign managers unprecedented power in mobilizing door-to-door campaign volunteers, identifying vote-swinging issues, and growing candidate support at the grass roots level like never before.

Use D2D Campaign Solutions to unlock new voter power, make use of the latest mobile technology, and win your election. Central to differentiating the product are engaging more volunteers into the campaign and enabling real-time geographic and trend analysis allowing you to respond quickly with precision. D2D was founded by Julian Haigh and Andrei Iancu, is based in Vancouver and will soon be launching an app called Canvass2Go.

RTS game Battlegoat Studios has released a ten page PDF version of their comments and thoughts in regards to the Canadian copyright reform progress. The report looks at what the government has said, as well as what is right and what is wrong with the future of Canadian copyright initiatives.

New Vancouver studio Single Digit Labs has released Dog Booth, an iPhone app that puts dog faces on people’s bodies. Some dogs are funny, some are cute and some look mean. You can say endless things with this app.

According to the app’s description, it only takes seconds to take a picture, have the app find all the faces for you and put 3D dog heads on them. Editing an image is simple and fun, sharing it with everyone you know is extremely fast. Amaze your friends, show them what they don’t expect and make them laugh out loud.

Toronto’s DreamCatcher Games and parent company JoWooD Entertainment have officially announced the launch of ‘Painkiller – Redemption’, the newest addition to the Painkiller Universe. The player will continue the story of Daniel and Belial as they join forces for the first time to end the bloody conflict between heaven and hell. You will discover all new maps, fight off literally thousands of demonic fiends, and lose yourself in the intense gameplay rounded off with an absorbing heavy metal soundtrack.

Reinhard Pollice, Producer at JoWooD is looking forward to the release:”The newest addon brings the Painkiller franchise back to its roots. Breathtaking action, thousands of monsters and exotic weapons are a solid foundation for a Painkiller game! With Painkiller: Redemption we deliver 6 new, thrilling levels for an unbeatable price!”

The game also features a tactical component! While reaching your objectives in each level, you unlock Tarot Cards, which will soon prove to be very helpful! In additional to that, collecting souls of fallen enemies will temporarily transform you into a mighty demon!

Features:

· 7 to 10 hours of playtime
· Collect souls to transform into a demon
· Better graphics with detailed ambience
· Over 6000 enemies, more than any previous PK game!
· Equip yourself with powerful tarot cards which can be found in secret rooms
· Up to 1000 monsters per map to ensure an intense battle with the army of hell
· Two heroes – play as the characters Belial and Daniel
· Better AI – there is nowhere to hide! Enemies will get you

If you’ve been itching for a good fight, you’ll be pleased to know that the Fight Night Champion demo from EA Sports is now available on Xbox LIVE™ and the PlayStation®Network. The demo features four of the biggest names from boxing’s past and present and will be the first demo in EA Sports™ history to include head-to-head online play.

In the Fight Night Champion demo, players can jump into the ring for three rounds of action at the famed Boardwalk Hall boxing venue with heavyweight legends, Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali, or three rounds of welterweight action with current boxing stars, Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto.

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As the first EA Sports title with head-to-head online play included in the demo, players will also be able to take the four boxers online and showcase their skills to the world before the game is released on March 1, 2011.

Fight Night Champion, which is rated M for Mature by the ESRB, introduces a host of gameplay improvements to the long running, critically acclaimed franchise. The refined punching system, dubbed “Full Spectrum Punch Control”, brings the most accessible and responsive controls ever to a Fight Night title. A new anaerobic stamina system tracks individual muscle groups separately, punishing a player’s over-dependence on a single punch and encourages combination punching and diligent stamina management. In addition, improved visuals, multiple control schemes, realistic damage, boxer-specific animations and multiple stun states round out the key gameplay improvements players will experience in the demo.

Bioware has released a trailer for Dragon Age Legends, which according to the game’s information,  takes place thirteen years after a group of warriors led by the Templar Ravi banded together to prevent an abomination from destroying the Free Marcher city of Kaiten in a hedonistic orgy of narcissism and opulence.

The former Viscount Khedra spent most of his life as a venerated ruler, celebrated for his wisdom. Late in life, he started to change, beginning with the construction of a great coliseum where nobles’ chosen champions competed for pride and glory. What began as games of entertainment quickly devolved into great spectacles of carnage punctuated by outlandish pageantry. The lesser nobles of Kaiten no longer settled their disputes in court, instead grievances big and small were decided by sword for the pleasure of an increasingly bloodthirsty populace.

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The Viscount’s nephew, Ravi, and his allies discovered the source of Khedra’s odd behavior: Khedra was possessed by a powerful Pride demon and was now an abomination. These heroes were able to defeat the demon in a fearsome confrontation, and mysteriously, you were there to aid them.

Now, Ravi is the Viscount of Kaiten and you are one of his most trusted allies. When a mysterious set of circumstances begin to form around his son Eiton, you are the only one he trusts to save his son. Biwaore invites you to return to Thedas in Dragon Age Legends with your friends on Facebook, where you can battle demons and darkspawn in preparation for the launch of Dragon Age II next month.

EA Sports has also announced a major new update for FIFA 11 Ultimate Team, the new way to play FIFA 11 via downloadable game modes for the PlayStation®3 and Xbox 360®. The update, which includes new features Play A Friend Challenge and Friends Leaderboards plus over 50 improvements, will be live on February 17th. This is the first time major new features for FIFA Ultimate Team have been developed after the game mode released, as the FIFA franchise continues to lead the way in digital experiences for EA Sports.

“We have a thriving global community of over two million fans playing FIFA 11 Ultimate Team,” said Kaz Makita, Executive Producer for FIFA. “Our commitment to these fans is that we will continue to listen to their feedback to improve and enhance their experience year round. Play A Friend Challenge and Friends Leaderboards are both new innovations and features requested by the fans, and will enable players to better connect and compete with friends while playing FIFA 11 Ultimate Team.”

FIFA 11 Ultimate Team is a free-to-play, massively multiplayer trading and team building football game . Gamers and football fans are challenged to build a squad of the world’s best players by earning, buying, selling and even trading players with other FIFA 11 Ultimate Team gamers. Players can take their strategically crafted squads onto the pitch to compete in online and single-player tournaments which are updated weekly. FIFA 11 Ultimate Team gamers can access their console experience from the web for full auction and trading systems.

After only three months, FIFA 11 Ultimate Team continues to grow due to constantly updated weekly tournaments and daily item promotions. According to internal EA date, the game now boasts more than 65 million game sessions played, 171 million trades made, and 275 billion coins spent in the auction house. FIFA 11 Ultimate Team is available for free (restrictions and conditions apply, please see back of pack for details) and can be downloaded through the main menu in FIFA Soccer 11 on any connected PlayStation3 and Xbox 360.

The update also includes over 50 additional refinements that were included based on the feedback from the FIFA community. Some of the additional changes include updates to the auctions to make it easier to track auctions or repost expired items, Power Passing assistance is switched off by default in online matches, and a number of general stability improvements as well as the following:

Play A Friend Challenge

* Play A Friend Challenge enables you to test your skills against your friend’s Ultimate Team, even when your friend isn’t online. Take on your friend’s squad whenever you like with the CPU controlling your friend’s squad. Results are recorded and presented to your friend the next time they log on to their console. Now you can prove who has the best Ultimate Team whenever you are ready to play. Plus, when you return to your console, you can see who played your squad, left you a message, and challenge them to a rematch when you want to play.

Friends Leaderboards

* Compare your progress in FIFA 11 Ultimate Team against friends automatically with personalized leaderboards. Regardless of how you choose to play, you can now compete and compare your progress whether you are a trader, expert team builder, top entrepreneur in the auctions, or simply want to compare the value of your club.

Kobo Wireless eReader is now available at Best Buy Canada, both in-store and online. You can pick up the Onyx, Pearlized Lilac or Metallic Silver eReaders for $149.00 each from Best Buy, Chapters-Indigo or Walmart stores across Canada.

The 2011 Canada 3.0 conference has opened registration for this year’s event, which will take place in Stratford on May 2nd through 5th. The Early Bird rate of $495.00 + taxes and service charge will be available until midnight on March 3th, when ticket prices will go up to $695.00 + taxes and processing charge. There is a StartUp/Small Business/Non-Profit price available for $225.00 + taxes and service charge as well as ticketing options for students. If you register before February 18th you will automatically be entered for a draw to win a copy of MacroWikinomics, personally addressed and signed by author Anthony D. Williams. Please see the Canada 3.0 web site for this year’s confirmed speakers.

Monde Media and Bug Tracker have made two personnel announcements this morning – Jean-Robert Michel, Monde Media’s former General Manager has moved into the dual role of Production Director for both Bug-Tracker and Monde Media, while Monde Media’s former COO has become the new Client Relationship Director for both entities.

In other comings and goings, the BC Technology Industry Association announced today that its President, Pascal Spothelfer will leave the organization June 30^th to return to the corporate sector. Spothelfer was appointed President & CEO of the BC Technology Industry Association in November of 2007, and since that time has successfully raised the level of recognition of the organization and BC’s technology industry through his leadership, commitment to collaboration, and tireless advocacy efforts.

“My past three years at the BCTIA have allowed me to get to know our technology community on a very different level. It has been most rewarding both personally and professionally,” said Spothelfer. “I have met and worked with incredibly smart, engaged and inspiring people – experiences that will fuel my passion to assist in the further growth of BC’s technology industry not just until my departure from the BCTIA, but in whatever role I pursue in the future. “

Paul Gorton, Chair of the BCTIA commented, “We will greatly miss having Pascal’s passion and vision. On behalf of the Board, I thank Pascal for his commitment to the BCTIA, and we wish him the utmost success in the future.”

Pascal will continue to lead the BCTIA and work with the board on the leadership transition until his departure at the end of June. A formal search has been initiated by the BCTIA and will be facilitated by Odgers Berndtson. Please contact Caroline Jellinck at 604 602 2556 for more information.

Canadian developers seem to have a thing for hippos – here is some info from three Canadian enterprises which contain “hippo” in their names.

Rock Hippo Productions Ltd has launched the second closed beta for its cartoon-style third person action shooter, MicroVolts. This second phase of testing will continue for approximately two weeks in preparation for the official release day. In addition, the company has released all-new screen shots of the game and is holding a special “Free-for-All” tournament which will kick off Saturday, February 5th. Winning players will be awarded their choice of any weapon they want to use with the launch of the Open Beta. Players who visit the game’s website will be able to learn more about the game and the events as well as register for a beta key.

MicroVolts features fast paced, third person shooter action and pits players against each other in a secret battle that has been waged and going unnoticed right in our own backyard for years. No one knows for sure when or where the first toy declared war but rumor has it that the uprising began with four original limited edition figures, code named MicroVolts. Battle lines were drawn when Naomi, Knox, Pandora, and C.H.I.P.-the prototypes a-were soon joined by an endless number of modified versions. Now, toy figures around the world are engaged in an all-out war for valuable battery resources and supremacy of the Micro World. All we can do now is stay out of their way and wait for a champion to be declared!

With a ton of weapons, inventive character designs, and a huge list of customization features, MicroVolts is destined to invigorate and re-energize the Free2play space. Intuitive controls and a third person view make the game easy to play and fun for both newcomers and veterans of shooter games. Game modes include Free for All, Team Deathmatch, Item Match, Capture the Battery, and many more featuring various maps designed by toy concept.

Tiny Hippos, a start-up based in Waterloo, has a product which will be of interest to all of you mobile developers out there. According to its site, this product, which is named Ripple Emulator, is a multi-platform mobile environment emulator that runs in a web browser and is custom-tailored to HTML5 mobile application testing. Ripple aims to reduce the challenges being faced by mobile developers caused by today’s platform fragmentation in the marketplace.

Ripple is built as a Chrome extension, running as part of the Chrome browser and takes advantage of our back-end services to perform some of the more complex operations. It offers the ability to look under the hood of your mobile applications, gaining full visibility into what your it is doing. It also allows for the use of existing tools to perform JavaScript debugging, HTML DOM inspection, automated testing, as well as multiple device and screen resolution emulation in real-time without having to redeploy the mobile application or restart the emulator.

Meanwhile, just down the highway a bit from Tiny Hippos is Mercury Grove, an Ottawa-based developer who has an enterprise called Network Hippo, which according to Mercury Grove’s site connects to users’ email, address books, and social networks to consolidate all of their professional contacts, remind them to stay in touch with important people, and makes it easy to connect online or through email. Mercury Grove also offers a service called Web Collaboration, which is an online workspaces for internal teams, partners, and clients. Unlike other team sharing services, Web Collaboration can be setup in minutes and requires no download, installation or administration.

Another collaboration-style service I stumbled across is Vancouver-developed Jostle. I found this site because the person behind Jostle’s Twitter account retweeted one of my Game Design Expo live tweets. According to the Jostle web site, a People Engagement Platform™ that glues enterprises together. This platform enables innovative companies to clarify their organization, reveal hidden expertise and engage their employees. Jostle is enterprise software that is accessible from any web-enabled device and works like a website, without the need to install software.

Toronto’s Blue74 Labs has released a statement announcing that IIA, the studio’s critically acclaimed real-life massively multiplayer “outdoor” role-playing game sold tens of thousands of memberships in the first 48 hours of its release, making it the fastest-selling ARG game of all time. The IIA Spy Game is being compared to blockbuster hits “The Game”, “Spy Game”, and “Halting State”, a book by Charles Stross.

The IIA (International Intelligence Agency) is a real life multi-player game that gives players a real life, real feel, “off computer” role-playing game. Players don’t know about the actual game play until they are engaged in the game, which was made globally available on January 24th via a small posting on the popular “Ycombinator: Hacker News”, a web site for Internet start-ups. Expectations were less than 100 memberships to be sold the first day, Mike Curry noticed a very heavy load on his web server – realizing the game had gone viral. Registration for the game is $5.00, which interested players send via PayPal.

The company does have an official site for the game, however they are not releasing the information until its members exercise a critical classified mission. It’s believed that the mission entails a Remote Controlled UAV helicopter taking aerial photographs of the building that houses their website. It’s believed they are doing this to ensure the security of the building.

In an article released yesterday on Gamasutra, Nexon America VP of Business Development Won Il Sue spoke with reporter Chris Nutt about the million dollar Nexon iNitiative, during which the publisher asked for game dev submissions from studios around the world. Coming out at the top of heap with signed deals: One2Tribe from Poland, and Ontario studio Antic Entertainment. Nexon did not reveal exactly what type of game the London, ON Antic team is working on, other than to say one of the studios is working on a Facebook game and that both games, while somewhat of an unusual nature for Nexon, will be of the social media genre. In the meantime, check out Antic’s free to play Junk Battles, a browser-based free-to-play fast-paced vehicle combat game.

All’s fair in love and war in cartoon-land as TeleToon Retro couples pursue the love of fans and a spot in TeleToon Retro’s Hall of Fame as the Top 5 Sweethearts in honour of Valentine’s Day. Starting today and running until Sunday, February 6, viewers can vote online for their top 5 favourite cartoon love matches, for a place in TeleToon Retro history.

TeleToon Retro has narrowed the field to 18 classic animated admirers and is inviting fans to select which couples are the Top 5 Sweethearts of all-time. The list of nominees for the Top 5 Sweethearts is made up of the following cartoon couples:

Following the voting period, the Top 5 Sweethearts will be announced on Friday, February 11 and a special programming marathon featuring all five couples will air as part of the “Retro Rewind” programming block on Sunday, February 13 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET. These winners will be inducted into the TeleToon Retro Hall of Fame, joining the Top 5 favourite cartoon characters of all-time as chosen by the fans in December 2010.