Village Gamer

Halifax – DHX Media Ltd, a leading independent international producer and distributor of television programming and interactive content is pleased to announce several significant international sales of its television series’.
DECODE Enterprises, DHX Media’s distribution subsidiary, has announced that Martha Speaks, a 40 x 1/2 hrs children’s animated series produced by Vancouver’s Studio B Productions, a DHX Media company, and WGBH Boston, has been licensed to the BBC’s children’s channel, CBBC. DECODE has also announced several sales of the hit preschool series Animal Mechanicals, and the recent licensing of Bo on the GO! to the largest commercial broadcaster in the UK, ITV Network.

Animal Mechanics

Animal Mechanicals and Bo on the GO! are produced by DHX subsidiary, Halifax Film. Neil Court, President of DECODE Enterprises said: “We believe that Martha Speaks will be an ideal fit for CBBC’s roster and are delighted to have concluded this major broadcast deal for the series following a strong
international sales launch this fall.”
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Toronto – G4BOX Inc., a North American publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment media, announced today that it is celebrating the holiday season with a special Holiday Present promotion and a special Mystery Holiday Gift Box sale price for its popular free to play MMORPG, Metin2. Hidden amongst these magical holiday gift boxes is a special Grand Prize that includes every item in the entire Metin2 Q Shop (item mall).

Beginning in mid-December, U.S. players of Metin2 will receive a Free Holiday Present which is a gift box containing a random mystery item. No purchase is required for players to participate. Players simply need to login to the in-game Item Mall. Once there, players will automatically receive a Free Holiday Present. Players must be at least level 35 or higher in order to qualify to receive the Free Holiday Present. The presents are also available to low level players who reach level 35 before mid of January 2009.
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Toronto – QuickPlay Media, the premier provider of mobile TV and video solutions, today unveiled the findings of its first quarterly consumer consumption analysis. The results—aggregate usage statistics from 15 representative QuickPlay-powered services over the third quarter of 2008—demonstrate that demand for mobile TV and video content is increasing steadily.

The results, compiled from July 1 through September 30, 2008, show mounting consumer usage of both mobile video on demand (VoD) and linear TV. Further, the increase in streaming video and video downloads per unique user shows consumers are becoming more engaged with this medium. Key findings include:

Video Downloads

* Total video downloads increased by more than 87% over the previous quarter*
* Average download per user increased by 42%, to 4 per user/month
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Kelowna, BC – Club Penguin is encouraging its players to embrace the spirit of giving this holiday season with a unique online giving opportunity that allows children to donate the virtual coins they accumulate playing games in the popular virtual world to real world causes that matter to them.

The second annual Coins for Change campaign runs from December 12, 2008 through December 22, 2008. During that 10-day period, the kids who play Club Penguin can choose to donate their virtual coins to one of three causes dedicated to helping children. At the end of the campaign, the donations will serve as votes which will help the New Horizon Foundation, an organization started by the founders of Club Penguin, determine what portion of a $1 million donation will go to charities selected by the Foundation to represent those causes.

“Our hope is that Coins for Change helps children in the Club Penguin community understand there is more to life than just earning coins, and encourages them to make a difference in the lives of kids throughout the world,” says Lane Merrifield. “Last year more than 2.5 million players donated in excess of two billion virtual coins. They’ve been asking us for another opportunity to give ever since and we can’t wait to see the results!”
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Ottawa – Corel Corporation today announced that the company will participate alongside members of its Corel® Painter™ Master program as part of a Macworld 2009 Conference & Expo® panel entitled “Digital Art Pioneers and Trendsetters.” The panel will feature noted artists including Andrew Jones and Jason Manley of Massive Black, Jeremy Sutton, Fay Sirkis, and Bruce Dorn, as well as Corel Painter Product Manager, Rob MacDonald. It is part of the show’s Users Conference “Inspire” sessions and will take place on Thursday, January 8, 2009 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. in Room 2002, West Hall.

The “Digital Art Pioneers and Trendsetters” session will explore the new trends and technologies that will push digital art to new heights, and how this will impact traditional art tools and techniques. The panel will also explore how their industries have evolved with the medium and offer their predictions as to where the market is headed. Attendees will learn about the latest digital art tools, techniques and technologies affecting a wide variety of professional artists including photographers, concept artists and graphic designers.
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Official Website: Puzzlegeddon
Format: PC
Developer: Pieces Interactive
Publisher: Pieces Interactive
Genre: Action
ESRB Rating: E – Everyone

Puzzle games are not really my thing, I get bored easily matching shapes or colours or putting numbers in some sequence; so when I was asked to review Puzzlegeddon I was kind of dubious to try it. After setting up my profile I decided to run through the tutorial, usually I regret doing this but not with Puzzlegeddon; the tutorial was informative, concise and you didn’t have to wait forever while some character told you what to do. A quick look at the puzzle board reveals squares of four colours, and placing five or more of them together and right clicking causes them to clear. On top of the puzzle are four meters of matching colours that fill up as you clear tiles from the board.
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Vancouver – The brand new Women In Games International Vancouver Chapter was officially launched last evening at a networking mingler hosted by Wired Woman at Subeez Cafe. Well over one hundred members of the local digital media industry were in attendance to welcome the new Chapter, witness a little guy vs. gal Rock Band play, network and win a few prizes.

The Women In Games International Vancouver Chapter came into being after a similar event was held in September, when strong local interest was expressed in regards to having our own WIGI Chapter. The new local Chapter, led by Krissie Franco and Maria Ruiz-Isaac is still in the organizing stages and new members are welcome to join. In the very near future, an Advisory Board, Board of Directors and Steering Committee will be formed. There will be ample opportunity for community input as solid goals and directives are investigated.

WIGI Vancouver will be striving towards adding value to the gaming community through mentorships, scholarships, industry awareness programmes and of course networking minglers. WIGI will be an active participant in local events such as VFS’ Game Design Expo and GDC Canada, and an online community willbe launched in the near future. WIGI Vancouver currently has a group page on Facebook, which interested parties are welcome to join.

Sponsors for the WIGI Vancouver Launch included: Big Fish Games, Radical Entertainment, Blue Castle Games, Vancouver Film School, Deep Fried Entertainment, 7 Group Digital Media, Hydrogen Whiskey, Relic Entertainment, New Media BC, EA Canada, Captain Morgan, Ketel One Vodka and Subeez Cafe – my apologies to any sponsors I may have missed. Many thanks to all of you for sponsoring, and for everyone else who helped to make this launch event a great night.

A Note From Social Media Consultant Monica Hamburg: Hi, I’m doing some promotion for a contest DreamBank.org is running. It allows a person to win an Ipod – or the equivalent amount of $ towards their “dream” which could certainly be money or prizes related to education (if that’s what they want). Please post if you feel it is appropriate to your audience.

Here is the info:

Contest Name: DreamBank Giving and Getting Survey
Deadline: January 10, 2009

More Info:
DreamBank is running a quick, three-minute survey about how you feel about giving and getting gifts.

By completing the survey and providing your email address, you’ll be entered in a draw to win an iPod Nano or the equivalent contribution to your DreamBank dream. (If you want to post a DreamBank dream, you can do so for free at www.dreambank.org.)

Vancouver bloggers “shocked” over last-minute nomination of Currents

VANCOUVER – Bloggers in the run up to a major vote in the tech mecca of Canada’s west coast are up in arms over a surprise nomination for the Best of 604 Awards.

A late-in-the-campaign nomination for Vancouver-based political commentator Jonathon Narvey under the Best Politics Blog category for his blog, Currents, has outraged some voters. They suggest Narvey’s blog should be disqualified on a technicality.

“It’s not really a political blog at all,” says social media consultant Dave Olson, author of the Choogle On With Uncle Weed blog. “Sure, he’s been on top of the crisis in Ottawa, and his posts on the local election were not entirely lame. But half the stuff Narvey writes about isn’t even politics. He wrote about his favorite iPhone song on Saturday! Sure, he’s a nice guy, but he doesn’t have the right experience.”
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A note from MDM’s Dennis Chenard – On Wednesday December 3rd the Masters of Digital Media programme held our first ever ‘Tournament of Hearts charity food drive event’…We had around 80 participants in the evening complete with a free poker tournament, pizza, pop & popcorn as well as ping-pong, big screen Wii and foosball.

Students, staff and players from companies like Threewave Software, ACRONYM, Bardel, Radical Entertainment, PowerUp Studios, Deep Fried Entertainment, Shift Control Media, Piranha, Fit Brains, Microsoft Game Studios, and many others spent time hanging out in ‘The Hangar’ of the Centre for Digital Media in an evening of casual games and networking.

With generous item donations from our friends at Annex Pro, EA, Microsoft, Radical, Hothead Games and Big Fish Games we raised $631 in cash (between our silent auction table and other donations) and pile of can goods and other food items for the Vancouver Food Bank!

Sidenotes:

1. The ‘Tournament of Hearts’ is actually a Curling Tournament… We borrowed the ‘Tournament of Hearts’ name as we located free old curling trophies and it seemed like the heart reference fit well with ‘giving back’ and poker!
2. The bounty prizes for knocking out our ‘Wanted players’ included a sheriff’s badge (Sheriff is a common term in poker) (The prizes were Wild West play sets purchased from the Salvation Army)
3. The ‘Big Fish’ prizes used at the final table also have a special poker reference as ‘FISH’ are players that are known to like to see a lot of cards while trying to catch a good hand

Photos courtesy of the MDM Tournament – you can see more event photos by clicking here