Village Gamer

Editor’s Note: I’ve read and reviewed many, many books in the past few years. Over the next week or so, I will be sharing reviews with our readers of the books which, while they may be older, in my opinion, the information their pages contain is still relevant to today’s world – and in some cases may have been predictive of current times.

Design of Things To Come-How Ordinary People Create Extraordinary Products
Authors: Craig M. Vogel, Jonathan Cagan, Peter Boatwright
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Wharton School Publishing June 18 2005

Design of Things To Come is a must-read for anyone involved in business. This book not only goes through the innovative process, it covers other important information such as the wide variety of trademarks, from logos to trade dress. The authors have put this book together, and shared their knowledge in such a way that the principles they discuss can be used by practically any business to grow its market share.

This is the type of quality book I have come to expect from Wharton School Publishing, and one that I will make use of for many years to come. As a business owner, I was pleased to see many of the processes I have been doing correctly, as well as seeing many areas where we could improve – and the many ways in which they could be improved. The book is in no way overly-repetitive, and is written so well that it does not need an ample supply of diagrams to illustrate what the authors are trying to say.

Every page of Design of Things To Come contains useful information, and outlines innovative practices which can be easily adapted to the business at hand. The authors, in my opinion, have produced a goldmine for those of us who want to push our companies forward to the next level and beyond. Their advice on team building, motivation and rewards is invaluable. This is especially important for companies such as mine, which are globally situated and depend heavily on team work. This book also served to remind me of marketing and research practices I had learned way back in school, but had pushed into the background. Design of Things To Come has enabled me to get a lot of my primary focus back and work towards realigning, restating, and in some cases redeveloping areas of my business which were falling through the cracks. Read the rest of this entry »

Canada – As always, it’s nice to start our Fridays with some cool links and information from our favourite tech info guru, Bradley Shende of MEDIA2O and ConnectedLife. Bradley appears every Friday morning on Global BC’s morning news show. Today’s cool links included BoardTracker and BoardReader – two great services for busy people. Be sure to catch his segment next week for more great info. You can view past GlobalTV ConnectedLife segments on Global’s site – just scroll down the index and choose Connected Life. Also, congratulations are in order to Bradley and Sarah, who are expecting twins in a few months’ time.

Ubisoft has launched the official dev blog for James Cameron’s Avatar The Game. There isn’t very much content up yet, but UbiGabe is working on it. The dev blog promises the latest news, links and info regarding Avatar. UbiGabe says he is also looking forward to telling some of the secrets which have been kept, well, secret about the game. Avatar is also available now for pre-order at most game store locations, and will be available for Xbox 360, PS3 PSP, DS and Wii.

Also announced by Ubisoft today is a chance to win a trip to Ubi Montreal to play Assassin’s Creed 2 with the developers. The cryptic details were released on Twitter, with a coded URL to follow. We will share the link with you right here – good luck in the contest. All you need to do is have an account on Ubi.com, grab and share the widget and hope you win. If you win, take us with you – we’d greatly appreciate it.

Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning has released their comments about the recent Ubisoft Toronto announcement.
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via DFAIT – The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), in partnership with Launch Party Vancouver, present a one-day bootcamp on September 14, 2009, for new media and wireless companies interested in pitching VCs in California.   This one-day program will feature experienced investors from both the Silicon Valley and San Diego markets, and is specifically designed to help facilitate access to the California market.

Pitch Preparation topics will include

• What are California investors looking for?
• Presenting your go to market strategy and your business model. Is your business fundable?
• How to effectively present the problem, the opportunity and the solution.
• Presenting who’s on your team, establishing credibility etc.
• How to present your evaluation of the competition.

Pitching Session to a Review Board of Investment Professionals

• 10-minute company pitch to local and California investors
• Instant pitch feedback by the Board

Networking Event
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Lévis – Creaform, developer and manufacturer of the Handyscan 3D line-up of handheld and self-positioning laser scanners, and specialized in 3D technologies, announces an important investment from two major Canadian investment companies: Novacap and Capital régional et coopératif Desjardins (CRCD). Creaform had very positive sales results in Q1, enjoying a 35% increase in year over year revenue.

“Creaform now has two first-rate financial partners, said Charles Mony, president of Creaform. Their expertise in finance and economy will be very precious to us, in particular in the realization of future expansion and acquisition projects. Plus, Novacap’s and CRCD’s financial support will help us speed up our growth and strengthen both our well-established line-ups of products, Handyscan 3D and HandyPROBE, while carrying on with our R&D efforts.”

“Creaform is certainly a jewel amongst the Canadian high technology companies, and will rapidly become a world leader in its industry. Creaform is a great addition to Novacap’s technology portfolio, and we are thrilled to work with them going forward and to contribute to their success”, said Pascal Tremblay, general partner at Novacap.

“We are proud to join Novacap in supporting Creaform’s growth. Thanks to the quality and diversification of its clientele and the experience of its team of employees, Creaform is well-positioned on the growing market of 3D scanning”, said Luc Ménard, vice-president of Desjardins Venture Capital.

Vancouver – Techneos Entryware 6.4 mobile survey software was released today; we at Village Gamer can see many uses for this product within the game industry – especially at conferences and expos. Providing seamless compatibility with Windows Mobile devices and enhanced capabilities for mobile research, Entryware 6.4 provides a powerful set of capabilities for both face-to-face interviewing and diary studies using a wide range of mobile devices. This release, combined with the recent announcement of Techneos Entryware mobile survey software running on the Palm Pre, strengthens Techneos’ position as a global leader in mobile survey software. Techneos also provides rich tools for engaging people at the point of experience using Windows-based tablet PCs, Netbooks and Ultra-mobile PCs, as well as PDA and Smartphone devices running the Palm Operating System.

Highlights of this Entryware 6.4 upgrade include: improved look and feel for all handheld surveys; photo capture on Windows Mobile devices; 5-way navigation allowing for quicker and easier movement through a questionnaire; and an optional new “diary engine” which enables research managers to lock down Windows Mobile devices so that other applications cannot be accessed by mobile users.
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Toronto – KOEI Canada today announced that the best-selling WARRIORS OROCHI®2 is coming to PSP® (PlayStation® Portable) system on August 25, 2009. Based on an original work by Omega Force, play is for 1 to 2 players with Multi-player play available via ad-hoc wireless.

With four different storylines featuring characters from SAMURAI WARRIORS® and DYNASTY WARRIORS®, WARRIORS OROCHI 2 includes three new game modes: Dream, VS and Survival, as well as “Tag Team”-style matches that pit fighters in head-to-head arena combat.

A star-studded lineup boasts 96 playable characters from the DYNASTY WARRIORS and SAMURAI WARRIORS series including the massive boar-like Gyuki and the faceless Dodomeki. New playable characters not found in the original console release include the graceful San Zang and the warrior-monk Benkei. Shattering time and space, the venomous Serpent King Orochi kidnapped history’s greatest warriors in a scheme to test his might. The heroes eventually defeated Orochi and his menacing army. Now the slain Orochi lies in the netherworld, and a mysterious alliance is hatching a plan to resurrect Orochi.
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Global – Think Services, organizer of the industry-leading Game Developers Conference (GDC) events, is pleased to announce that submissions are now open for the 2010 Independent Games Festival (IGF). Entries to the 12th annual festival are due in both Main and Student Showcase categories by November 2009, with Main Competition finalists to be announced January 4, 2010.

Games selected as finalists will be available in playable form on the GDC show floor and will compete for nearly $50,000 in prizes, including awards for Excellence in Design, Art, the Audience Award and the coveted $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize. Winners will be announced on stage at the prestigious Independent Games Festival Awards on Thursday, March 11, 2010, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

“We’re delighted to return for our twelfth year of the Independent Games Festival,” said Simon Carless, Chairman of the IGF. “We’re really looking forward to see what the independent game community comes up with this time around. Good luck to all entrants!”

The Independent Games Festival Awards are held alongside the Game Developers Choice Awards and both award shows are part of the 2010 Game Developers Conference. GDC 2010 also includes the 2010 Independent Games Summit, which is entering its fourth year and offers two days of inspiration and practical lectures and rants from the top minds in the independent games
world.
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Vancouver – As Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts prepares to relocate to its new home at 149 West Hastings in downtown Vancouver, three arts-savvy staffers have recently joined the project’s team.

Now helping to guide the artistic vision for SFU at Woodward’s are:

* Sabine Bitter: Curator, Audain Gallery

In addition to her teaching duties in SFU Visual Arts, internationally recognized multi-media artist Bitter will curate the Audain Visual Arts Teaching Gallery, opening in Feburary 2010. The new gallery will exhibit contemporary visual arts, and initiate a range of projects in connection with the Audain Visiting Artists program.

* Michael Boucher: Director, Cultural Development & Programming

Boucher is a seasoned director and programmer who has produced several international festivals including the World Stage Festival and International Children’s Festival in Toronto. A native Montrealer, he will serve as the university’s impresario, coordinating cultural events to ensure SFU at Woodward’s is a dynamic player in Vancouver’s arts scene. His first challenge: to oversee the production of the inaugural program, kicking off with Robert Lepage’s The Blue Dragon/Le Dragon Bleu in February, 2010 in the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre.

* Vanessa Richards: Director, Community Engagement

A native Vancouverite who came up through Vancouver’s independent arts and music scene in the 1980s, Richards will help SFU at Woodward’s to fully integrate with the surrounding community through non-academic arts initiatives. An internationally published poet, jazz musician and cultural facilitator, she has earned a reputation both at home and abroad for bold arts initiatives and intercultural collaboration. Richards’ position is funded by a grant from the Vancouver Foundation.

Celebrate the 80th Edition of the All-Star Game with Strategy First today

Montreal – Strategy First and Out Of The Park Baseball 10 invites Baseball Fans and Gamers everywhere to take advantage of this limited time give away. For the first time ever Strategy First will release a five hour interview featuring Red Sox Hall Of Fame Pitcher Bill ‘The Spaceman’ Lee.

In four separate sit down interviews with Strategy First’s Emanuel Wall and the Red Sox Hall Of Fame pitcher covers the highs and lows of his career and personal life. The entertaining, and informative interviews cover a wide range of controversial topics and interesting stories as seen through the eyes of Bill ‘Spaceman’ Lee.

“Bill ‘Spaceman’ Lee is an incredible person and we are thankful to have been able to conduct these interviews. Very few things in this world are free and we want to offer Gamers and Baseball fans alike an opportunity to watch these incredible interviews and no purchase is necessary, feel free to celebrate the all-star game with us.” Says Business Development Manager Emanuel Wall.
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Burnaby – Electronic Arts Inc announced today its initial Downloadable Content (DLC) plan for Fight Night Round 4. Recently named the Game Critic Awards “Best Sports Game of E3 2009”, Fight Night Round 4 has been winning over reviewers since its release on June 23rd.

The first DLC pack, which will be available for free to both Xbox 360® and Playstation®3 users by early August, will include a new training gym, new gameplay sliders, as well as a host of new equipment that can be used for outfitting boxers. Xbox 360 users will also receive an exclusive alternate version of Sugar Ray Leonard in their first DLC pack, courtesy of Pizza Hut.

EA SPORTS™ will also be releasing a free downloadable game update by early September that will allow gamers to use face buttons on the Xbox 360 and PS3 game controllers to throw punches, hooks, uppercuts and haymakers.

“The depth and variety of new content we have planned this summer is going to make one of the most critically acclaimed games on the market even better,” said senior producer, Dean Richards. “Among the new content in development, our new button control scheme will give fans a choice for how they want to throw punches in the game. We strongly believe that the refined Total Punch Control is the most intuitive way to throw punches in Fight Night Round 4, but we also want fans of the franchise to have an option.”

Fight Night Round 4 is currently available for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360® video game system from Microsoft. This game has been rated T for Teen by the ESRB.