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18th February 2009

Fuel Industries Develops Online Quiz for Microsoft

Microsoft invites IT professionals and software developers to prove their mettle

Fuel IndustriesOttawa – In an interactive game promoting the benefits of Microsoft certification, the software company asks IT and development professionals to prove their know-how in a series of tech knowledge challenges.

Created by Canadian interactive marketing and branded entertainment developer Fuel Industries, Are You Certifiable? is a Silverlight-based quiz game which will dig deep into the mental resources of technicians and developers alike in the process of determining who can meet and who can fly beyond the rigorous standards of Microsoft Certification. The game is a Are You Certifiable?unique approach which will not only spread awareness of the benefits of MS Certification and the Second Shot promotion, but also provide a valuable primer for professionals interested in taking an exam.

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18th February 2009

New Careers Emerging In Canada’s Digital Publishing Industry

Centennial CollegeToronto – Despite the global economic downturn, new technology and consumer media consumption trends have created a host of employment opportunities in Canada’s publishing industry.Centennial College

As the Canadian magazine sector rushes to adapt to an online audience, the shift is fueling a need for technology-savvy professionals who can help take the publishing sector into a brave new world, says professor Denise Schon of The Centre for Creative Communications, Centennial College.

“Traditional magazines are quickly evolving into a multi-platform medium including not only print, but online with the advent of web 2.0 technologies and live video streaming,” Schon says. “As such, we are seeing our grads working in a much wider variety of jobs across the magazine industry. Our program prepares students for that new world.”

The Centre for Creative Communications, Centennial College, has been offering its unique Book and Magazine Publishing program, known as a cornerstone of the industry, for more than 30 years. More recently, it responded to publishers’ needs with intensive, new courses in web 2.0 digital media publishing skills.

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16th February 2009

Game Developers Conference Canada First Sessions Announced

GDC CanadaVancouver – The Game Developers Conference Canada® is the premier forum for Canadian developers to share best practices for creating games with long production cycles, large development teams, and multi-platform releases. Unique to GDC Canada, is its focus on production cycle improvements every game professional can make to build innovative and quality games. Collaborate with industry veterans from EA, Propaganda Games, Next Level Games, Radical Entertainment, Relic Entertainment and more.

GDC Canada Featured Sessions

Concept/Preproduction Track Featured Sessions

  • Realism in Animation. Misnomer or Oxymoron? – Speaker: Owen Hurley (Relic Entertainment)
  • The IP Toolkit: Making Ideas Real – Speaker: Eric Holmes (Radical Entertainment)

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6th February 2009

Game Presentation Night At VFS Featured Some Very Original Projects

VFSVancouver – Wednesday night was Game Presentation Night at Vancouver Film School, with three teams presenting their projects. Before going any further, I would like to say that the instructors at Vancouver Film School have every reason to be proud of this term’s students.

All three projects were built on the Unreal 3 engine, and followed a platform puzzler format. Each project was original in its concept, with some very unique elements. The teams each presented their games, with all team members taking a turn in the project’s moratorium with support from visual slides and a game trailer. Going from concept to finished levels, the teams had to work through every step of the development process, just as if they were creating a title for a real game studio. The growth of the project included extensive focus testing and feedback, then working towards a game which met not only the team’s vision but also the expectations of the player.

The first game presented was Apex. vfs-apexThe purpose of this game is to use a hi-tech futuristic grappling hook to navigate through several industrial-styled levels built inside of a large tower. The game is played in the first person, and the player needs to solve various puzzles to work through each level, all the while evading and destroying the evil robotic hunters. Once the player reaches the top of the tower, he must defeat the mechanized villains by pushing three buttons.
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6th February 2009

MSP Partners Announces All New 2009 Education Program

Introduces “Master” Membership Level for Advanced MSPs

MSP PartnersOttawaMSP Partners, an alliance founded by Cisco, Ingram Micro, Intel, Level Platforms and Microsoft, with the active participation of over 20 leading IT vendors and thousands of solution providers and MSPs, today announced the launch of its comprehensive all new 2009 education program.

Based on demand from the large number of solution providers now moving to more advanced Managed Services, MSP Partners is today introducing a “Master” membership. Master members will benefit from a series of professional courses and live events addressing the challenges and opportunities they face in moving their business to the next level.

“Our new Master membership level demonstrates the vendor community’s ongoing commitment to help solution providers grow and prosper in their business transformation to managed services. Our 2009 content provides the research and education solution providers need as they launch and evolve their Managed Services businesses,” said Jim Hamilton, Executive Director of MSP Partners.

New 2009 content includes:

* A comprehensive suite of on-demand courses covering both foundational Managed Services concepts as well as advanced concepts dealing with marketing, sales, operations and best in class Managed Services practices, all based on extensive and exclusive new 2009 research.
* Eight 2009 live web events describing new Managed Services opportunities in networking, security, business continuity and much more.
* An MSP Benchmark tool that evaluates a solution provider’s Managed Services business and provides a detailed best in class analysis.
* An “Ask an Expert” feature, where industry thought leaders answer members’ Managed Services questions.
* Monthly analysis of current trends in the Managed Services market.

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5th February 2009

Co-founder of Sanctuary Appointed As Academic Director of Art Institute Vancouver

Art Institute of VancouverVancouver – One of the co-founders of the award winning science fiction show Sanctuary is bringing his gaming talents back to the classroom. The Art Institute of Vancouver is proud to welcome Marc Aubanel as Academic Director of Game Art and Design and Visual Games Programming.

Marc, originally from Montreal, took Communication Studies at Concordia University, On relocating to Vancouver in 1992, the lifelong hockey fan channeled this passion as Online Editor for the Canucks magazine, Winning Spirit. At an exciting, up and coming time for the gaming world, Marc found himself drawn to the industry and joined Electronic Arts Canada (EA), the largest 3rd party games publisher in the world. Marc spent 13 years and worked his way to vice president / executive

Marc Aubanel

Marc Aubanel

producer, working on such video games as chart breaking FIFA and Need for Speed Underground producing over 50 SKU’s for revenues generating more than a billion dollars.

Marc left EA around the same time as Damien Kindler left his role as co-executive producer on the hit show Stargate and they formed Vancouver based production company and full service visual effects house, Stage 3 Media. Deciding that there must be a better way of making entertainment in the new, emerging electronics market, they set about creating the first broadcast quality, High Definition dramatic series designed specifically for the internet, combining live actors and CG sets and backgrounds. In 2006 the web based series Sanctuary was born.

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3rd February 2009

Global Game Jam Vancouver – Creativity In A Box

Global Game JamVancouver – We dropped by SFU Harbour Centre on Saturday afternoon to check in on the local entries for IGDA’s Global Game Jam event.  There were 26 entrants for this inaugural competition, which was opened with a Keynote address given by Kyle Gabler (World of Goo). This was followed with the reading of the competition’s constraints and team formation.

The smallest team, Scorched Physics, was comprised of just 3 members, while One Tonne Global Game JamPunch weighed in with an 8 member team. Several participants came from UBC, SFU, VFS and the Masters of Digital Media programme at GNWC, while several were recent graduates now working in the
game development industry at studios such as Relic, Radical and Deep Fried Entertainment, with one competitor hailing from Seattle, who works at Satori Software. The only female competitor, freelance artist Rachel Curtis worked on The Treelings’ team.
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29th January 2009

SIGGRAPH Vancouver Presents A Prince of Persia Evening with Ubisoft

Modern Princesses: Bringing Elika to Life in Prince of Persia

Siggraph Vancouver VancouverACM SIGGRAPH Vancouver Chapter will be hosting an evening with Ubisoft Producer Ben Mattes and Team Leader Matthew Clark on Wednesday, February 11 at the VanCity Theatre in Vancouver. The evening’s topic will cover the design and development of Elika, the Prince of Persia’s new AI-controlled companion. As stated on the event’s Prince of Persiainformation page, “The science of creating a relationship between the player and the controllable, main character is a well-documented one. (3Cs, etc.) The same can be said about the art of establishing relationships between characters themselves. Therefore, the challenge for Prince of Persia was to create a bond between the player and a character over which he has no control. The presentation will explore and expose the animation and programming techniques used to create such a bond.”

Tickets for this event are now on sale, please check the event site for more details. Admission is $20.00 for non-members, $10.00 for members.

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29th January 2009

Registration Opens for GDC Canada

First Annual Game Developers Conference® Canada Announced: May 12-13, 2009, Vancouver, BC

GDC CanadaVancouver – Registration is now open for the Game Developers Conference® Canada (GDC Canada). Building off of the success of the Vancouver International Games Summit (VIGS), GDC Canada will be a forum for Canadian developers to share best practices for fostering ingenuity and quality games. Presented by Think Services Games Group and Reboot Communications, GDC Canada will take place May 12-13, 2009 at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre (VCEC) in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Conference is offering a special registration period for those who have attended past VIGS events. Paid conference delegates to either the 2007 or 2008 VIGS are entitled to special alumni savings of up to 25% on conference passes. Those who qualify for Alumni Rates will receive an email directly from GDC Canada which will give further registration details.

GDC Canada Conference Tracks

The Game Developers Conference® Canada emphasizes studying the challenges and opportunities of creating games with long production cycles, large development teams, and multi-platform releases. Unique to GDC Canada’s content lineup, is its focus on the production cycle of game development with tracks focused on:

  • Concept/Preproduction
  • Production
  • Finalling
  • Post Launch/Analysis

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28th January 2009

Astral Media Supporting Young Creative Talent During Adweek

Astral MediaAstral Media Inc. is proud to announce its support for the Institute of Communication Agencies and Virgin Unite during Canada’s 2009 Advertising Week. In the “A day in the life of an agency” contest targeting young aspiring marketing and advertising students Astral Media will contribute $100 000 in media space on the Company’s out-of-home and radio advertising platforms to the winning student campaign.

The 2009 Advertising Week takes place from January 26 to the 29, a week-long celebration of the business of ideas and communication. As part of “Youth Day,” one of AdWeek’s key events, Astral Media is actively sponsoring the A day in the life of an agency contest, which will involve 150 students working in teams with 15 agencies on a communications brief to promote a benefit concert for Virgin Mobile and Virgin Unite’s RE(*)Generation program. Students will be mentored by various ad agency teams in building a campaign during the course of an intense morning of brainstorming. The winners will have the benefit of seeing their advertising concept developed and publicized on Astral Media’s out-of-home and radio properties in Toronto and Vancouver during the course of the summer.

“This is an exciting opportunity for Astral Media to demonstrate its ongoing investment in developing tomorrow’s creative talent,” said Jacques Parisien, Group President, Astral Media Radio and Astral Media Outdoor. “We are always pleased to be able to showcase the country’s next generation of talent, and we look forward to seeing the creativity they apply to such an exciting project as Virgin Unite’s at-risk and homeless youth program, RE(*)Generation.”

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