Village Gamer

Vancouver – Deep Fried Entertainment COO Brenda Bailey has embarked on a big adventure with new hubby Eli Gershkovitch, owner of Steamworks Brewing Co., one of our favourite places to go in Vancouver. They took off from Vancouver Airport yesterday in their single-engine Cessna 172 for a transatlantic flight to Glasgow, Scotland. The flight path will take them over the northern Arctic regions of Canada, Greenland, Iceland and then the UK. Brenda and Eli have planned stops in Williams Lake BC, Edson and Fort MacMurray Alberta, Stony Rapids  Saskatchewan, with Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit in Nunavut being among their last stops in Canada. Then it will be over to Kangerlussuaq and Kulusuk in Greenland, Reykjavik, Iceland and Vagar in the Faroe Islands before arriving in Glasgow. You can track their flight on GPS and follow their adventures on BlogSpot. We here at Village Gamer wish Brenda and Eli a safe trip, and we look forward to hearing all about their big adventures through the daily updates.

The Turtles are back – Ubisoft Montreal has announced that the remake of 1991’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Reshelled (developed by Ubisoft Singapore) has launched on XBL Arcade today. The download costs 800 Microsoft points, and has made the resident cavechild very happy – this was one of his favourite games when he was younger – and of course he now needs a new points card.

Pug Pharm Productions Inc. has announced that it has received funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP). This contribution, in addition to both technical and business-oriented advisory services provided by NRC-IRAP, will enable Pug Pharm to develop innovative games. The company’s strategic focus is on the intersection between social networking applications and online games – combining the best technical and design elements of both areas. Pug Pharm is committed to developing online games that combine the engagement of traditional video games with the technologies of social networking applications. Led by Bocska—formerly of Radical/Vivendi, EA/BlackBox, Disney Interactive, and co-founder of Hothead Games—Pug Pharm endeavors to leverage this combination into never-before-seen gameplay elements that appeal to global audiences.

“As a Canadian start-up, this generous support from NRC-IRAP is integral to our growth and development. It allows us to build new and exciting technologies that will facilitate deep, rich online social networking experiences,” stated Steve Bocska, CEO of Pug Pharm. “We are excited about the tremendous opportunities that are emerging with the convergence between online games and social networking technologies. We are looking forward to announcing specific games as they near launch.”

New Media BC has put out a call for entries for the Digital Springboard Mentorship Programme. This programme will pair successful applicants with a Mentor for 4 months or more to help you move forward with your company. Digital Springboard is a free advisory service and mentorship programme for emerging companies being administered by New Media BC and supported by the National Research Council – IRAP:

– 6 or more companies will be selected to be matched with veteran experts
– These mentors will provide free advisory service for at least 4 months
– They will help companies solve specific business/technical problems
– Deadline for submission: Aug 12, 2009

Eligible companies must be developing products for interactive entertainment (games), interactive design and marketing, digital animation/film and mobile content.

Audiokinetic will be taking Wwise on the road this fall, with stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Vancouver. The presentation will include presentations and training sessions for Wwise and SoundSeed, an audio post-mortem by an Audiokinetic customer and a networking cocktail. Wwise is the platform being used by Ubisoft to deliver the sound in Assassin’s Creed 2. Audiokinetic is also hiring – they are looking for a Senior C++ Designer/Developer and a Development Team Leader.

Toronto – The $250 million dollar Ontario Emergent Technologies Fund is now officially open for business, ready to co-invest – along with qualified venture capital funds and other private investors – directly into companies in high-growth sectors that are aligned with Ontario’s Innovation Agenda:

• Clean technology
• Life sciences and advanced health technology
• Digital media and information and communications technology.

The fund is designed to help innovative technology companies find the capital they need to grow in Ontario. It was announced by the province in March, 2009, in response to the current economic conditions and the reduction in investment capital available to emerging and high-growth companies.

Guidelines for investment are now available on the Ontario Capital Growth website.

“The Emerging Technologies Fund is one more step the Ontario government is taking to help ensure that innovative people and companies have access to the capital they need to continue growing their business and creating jobs in Ontario,” said Minister of Research and Innovation, John Milloy

QUICK FACTS

• Ontario’s Emerging Technologies Fund will address a lack of venture capital activity by co-investing with qualified investors directly into high-growth technology companies.
• Eligible companies must have a significant corporate footprint in Ontario.
• This initiative complements the $205-million (£112 million) Ontario Venture Capital Fund, a partnership between Ontario and leading corporate and institutional investors that is investing in venture capital and growth equity funds that support innovative, high-growth companies.

Don’t forget to give the Government your input on the Copyright Consultation process. The eConsultation web site has transcripts from the past Town Hall meetings held across the country, as well as areas for direct participation such as the site’s forum and the online submission centre which both give you an opportunity to respond to a few specific questions on copyright. You can also submit your own paper or report to on the site so that other people can view your work. Both the Copyright eConsultation process and the ongoing CRTC hearings have a direct impact on the digital media industry, so it’s important to get involved and have your say. The Education Medias web site also has important information for educators in regards to the new copyright process.

How many of you have been holding out for the new Palm Pre instead of snapping up the iPhone 3Gs? The new Palm Pre is now available for pre-order exclusively through Bell Canada in anticipation of its August 27 shelf date. The Palm Pre is comparable in price to the new iPhone – $199.95 with a three year contract or $599.95 without a contract, with a minimum 500 MB data plan. Bell smartphone clients can choose from a wide variety of voice and data plans, including Smartphone Combos that offer unlimited Internet browsing, personal email, text messaging and Windows Live Messenger.

Toronto’s digital distribution company YANGAROO Inc. has announced that, subject to regulatory approval, American media services company Horizon Media Inc. will acquire warrants to purchase 750,000 YANGAROO common shares. The warrants will become exercisable after various phases of a digital media workflow solution are successfully completed. These warrants will have an exercise price as permitted by the TSX Venture Exchange policies at the time of issuance and an expiry date of five years from the date of issuance.

Meanwhile, Science Daily has reported that researchers in the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering are developing programming tools to enable engineers in the defense industry to utilize the processing power of GPUs without having to learn the complicated programming language required to use them directly. These tools are designed to take advantage of videogame computer and console GPUs.

“As radar systems and other sensor systems get more complicated, the computational requirements are becoming a bottleneck,” said GTRI senior research engineer Daniel Campbell. “We are capitalizing on the ability of GPUs to process radar, infrared sensor and video data faster than a typical computer and at a much lower cost and power than a computing cluster.”

Read the rest of this entry »

After 4 days of seminars and networking events, I was beat. But, boy was it worth it.

Day 1

The first day was devoted almost entirely to the Casual Connect Leadership Conference organized and supported by Women In Games International (WIGI) and Women In Games Vancouver (WIGeh). Numerous speakers presented a variety of topics, each with a particular interest in the role that women play in games, games play in the lives of women, and the portrayal of women in games.

As a person interested in the breakdown of stereotypes, thus allowing everyone’s true potential to shine, I was very engaged in the presentations of the day, which in the end left me feeling very hopeful and empowered about the potential of gaming.

Not long after, a set of roundtable discussions were set up with a variety of topics ranging from working as a contract vs employed worker, owning a small business, and moving up in the games industry.

A networking event followed with the inclusion of other folks from a more general Casual Connect audience, and it was a great night!

Highlight of my day: Megan Gaiser of Her Interactive’s presentation on “The Importance of Leadership”

Day 2 (Day 1 of Casual Connect officially)

Audio day! The entire day had an option to hear speakers who are professionals in the audio for casual games environment. Great ideas were shared including a glimpse into how other professionals create their sound design assets. It was entertaining, welcoming, and I learned a great deal. Speakers covered a wide range of aspects including the creation of stings, sfx, composition, recording, and producing. I would recommend this to any person interested in the audio for casual games arena. A very cohesive day in the audio stream.

Highlight of my day: Barry Dowsett of Sound Rangers on “The Birth and Life of a Sound Effect”
Read the rest of this entry »

Toronto and Vancouver – StyleTap Inc. and Techneos Systems Inc. today announced the completion of an OEM agreement which allows Techneos to integrate StyleTap® Platform with its Entryware™ mobile survey application. The resulting Entryware 6.4 system enables customers to seamlessly obtain the benefits of the world’s most powerful and flexible mobile survey software on inexpensive and readily available devices running Windows Mobile™.

Entryware running on StyleTap

A primary benefit of the integration of StyleTap Platform and Entryware is the elimination of the need for separate installation and licensing of the two products. Although existing versions of Entryware execute on StyleTap Platform, Entryware 6.4 was enhanced to recognize the StyleTap environment and to take advantage of device-specific capabilities, such as high-resolution screens and support for cameras on Windows Mobile smartphones.

“Many of our key customers were already using our product with StyleTap Platform,” said Dave King, CEO of Techneos. “This integration makes it easier and faster to deploy Entryware on a wider range of devices, while maintaining a consistent user experience regardless of the hardware manufacturer. And for many of our global customers, the ability to use inexpensive devices that can easily be obtained in their local markets is essential to their use of our software.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Ottawa – Corel Corporation today announced that Kris Hagerman, who joined the Company as Interim CEO in May 2008, will assume the role of Corel CEO on a permanent basis effective today.

“We are delighted that Kris is joining Corel as its permanent CEO,” said Alex Slusky, Chairman of Corel’s Board of Directors and Managing Partner at Vector Capital, the Company’s majority shareholder. “Since joining the Company, Kris has been actively engaged in advancing all aspects of Corel’s business strategy, while steering the Company through a very challenging economic cycle.”

“I’m excited about joining Corel on a permanent basis and by the opportunity to drive the future of the company with a longer-term outlook,” said Hagerman. “In my time at Corel, I’ve been impressed by the quality and commitment of the team, and I’m excited about what Corel can accomplish in the years ahead as we look to leverage the many strengths of the company, including its vast customer base, the depth and breadth of its product portfolio, its reputation for innovation, quality, and value, and its global distribution channels.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Waterloo – Research In Motion today announced new and enhanced tools for developing web applications for BlackBerry® smartphones. The tools include the new BlackBerry® Web Development Plug-in for Eclipse and the BlackBerry® Plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio version 1.2. These tools are part of a complete portfolio of BlackBerry® developer tools for web and Java development and a rich set of APIs that enable developers to easily create a wide variety of mobile applications that connect BlackBerry® smartphone users to the information they care about. The BlackBerry application platform also incorporates significant advantages, including real-time push technology, unmatched security and highly efficient data compression and network bandwidth utilization, allowing developers to deliver optimized applications on the most powerful, secure and efficient platform in the industry.

“The BlackBerry developer tools portfolio aims to bring together the best of Java and web development for the creation of web applications that are integrated with core BlackBerry smartphone functions for a seamless, intuitive and robust user experience,” said Alan Brenner, Senior Vice President, BlackBerry Platform Group at RIM. “The evolving portfolio of web development tools for the BlackBerry platform allows developers to work in familiar development environments to create, debug, profile, test and optimize their web applications for BlackBerry smartphones.”

The BlackBerry Web Development Plug-in for Eclipse is a new plug-in that allows developers to create web applications and content for BlackBerry smartphones within the familiar Eclipse 3.4 environment. Using this plug-in, developers can debug and profile Internet/intranet web pages displaying HTML and CSS content in addition to more complex rich internet applications using AJAX, Silverlight, PHP, ASP, Ruby on Rails, JSP, and Python.
Read the rest of this entry »

Canada – Just announced late last night, Vancouver independent game designer and consultant Adrian Crook has been signed to design a console game for a new movie IP. Congratulations Adrian, and I am definitely looking forward to more details when they are released. This will be Adrian’s second freelance console game project.

Vancouver’s Annex Pro will be attending SIGGRAPH 2009 in New Orleans to promote several of the products they carry, including Vicon Boujou v5, PipelineFX Qube, Pixologic ZBrush, EyeonFusion, HP, Chaos Software V-Ray for Maya and the wide range of Autodesk titles, as well as StudioGPU with MachStudio Pro at the AMD booth. Please contact Kerry for a product and booth tour at the show.

I’d also like to send a shout-out to the folks at dimeRocker and Overinteractive Media whom I finally had the pleasure of meeting in person at last Friday’s Unity 3D Vancouver Users’ Group launch at District 319. It was a great event, and Unity 3D looks like a great development tool. In addition, and in support of Unity 3D’s Summer of Code initiative, dimeRocker would like to offer free office space for a lucky Vancouver candidate who receives support from Unity for their project. You will be surrounded by like-minded Unity heads, given a desk and chair in a cozy corner for you and your laptop as well as access to our humble amenities, including coffee throughout the week and beer on Fridays.  Those lucky individuals chosen by the gang in Copenhagen can forward their resume and brief description of their Unity-supported project to J.Joly at Overintactive Media. Thank you to Kerry Corlett of Annex Pro for the introduction to Micah Groberman, Executive Director of Vancouver’s Somatone Interactive Audio studio, and to Carolyn Carnes of Flash Fire Communications for bringing Corey Rollins of Shogun Gamer to our attention.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Ted Nugent, President of Genius Factor Games. His studio has a new title coming out in just a few weeks which will join their previous title, Gravity Well in the iTunes App store. Also keeping busy are developers John Warner, Mitch Lagran and writer Steve Waldman, all keeping busy at Greener Grass Games on “a free to play, full 3d, episodic, browser-based game that centers around environment exploration and features a compelling, mysterious story line.”

Just a reminder that we are holding a contest to give away a copy of PROTOTYPE for the 360. Entries close tonight (late entries not penalized, we just wanted to see how many people could make deadline), and the winning name will be randomly drawn by Kelly Zmak and Dave Fracchia over at Radical’s studio this Thursday afternoon.

Splinter Cell fans will have to wait a bit longer for the next title in the series. Ubisoft announced yesterday that Splinter Cell: Conviction™ and Red Steel® 2, whose releases were previously planned for the third fiscal quarter, will now be released in the fourth fiscal quarter. Ghost Recon® and I am Alive™, which were previously scheduled for release in the fourth fiscal quarter, will now strengthen the line-up for fiscal 2010-11. Read the rest of this entry »

Vancouver – Thank you to Adrian Crook for reminding me about the announcement last week from Telefilm and the Canada New Media Fund naming the successful programme applicants. This announcement happened while I was away at Casual Connect, and while I’m a tad late in publishing this, a little extra promotion never hurt anyone – especially when the news is good – plus I wanted to take the time to look up each company and provide links to their sites so that readers can easily visit them – with the exception of the few I could not easily find sites for, which is not good for those who wish to grow their corporate presence.

With such a wide range of projects receiving funding, this programme once again puts the spotlight on our Canadian talent and innovation in digital media. According to the CNMF press release, “independent websites and applications designed for mobile devices (iPhones and PDA’s) received the majority of support in the Western region; console or handheld-console games and independent websites fared very well in Ontario & Nunavut; regional funding in Quebec focused on console or handheld-console games and independent websites; and in the Atlantic region console or handheld-console games and applications for mobile devices received the most support.
Read the rest of this entry »

Montreal – Bug-Tracker Laboratories, one of the world leaders in quality assurance dedicated to the interactive entertainment industry, holding their main offices in Montreal, confirms it will widen its range of services by acquiring Monde Media Solutions, a young Montreal based institution specializing in translation, localization integration and cultural adaptation for video games.

“We are very happy with this new acquisition and the synergy that it creates between both companies”, declares Antoine Carre, President of Bug-Tracker Laboratories. “The combination of our respective services allows us to offer all-encompassing proposals to our customers, bringing an operational solution to recurring needs felt by many major players in the video game industry”.

Bug-Tracker’s presence in Canada, Europe and Asia affords many new outlets and opportunities for Monde Media Solutions in these territories.
Read the rest of this entry »