Village Gamer

Reminder: Last chance to register for the BCTIA and Mac McIntosh Marketing for Leads and Sales sessions on February 22 in Kelowna, February 23 in Victoria and February 24 in Vancouver.

Voting is now open to elect 5 new IGDA Directors, and all eligible IGDA Members should have received a special election email with the subject line Voting has begun! – IGDA Board of Directors Election. This email will contain not only the link to the ballot page, but also the registered email and unique voting password for your membership account. The voting process will be open until March 18th, giving you time to research the candidates and issues before you cast your vote. You can also follow the discussion on Twitter with the #igdavote hashtag or you can subscribe to the RSS feed (note, this will open your RSS feed reader).

Hothead Games is holding a contest – they want to know how you would kill a Swarmite. Submit your ideas now – the winning entry will be animated and added to the game. Need some inspiration? Here are some graphic examples of ways to dispose of Swarmites courtesy of the warped minds that creep around the Halls of Hothead:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Hg0bVLdRgA]

The National Call has gone out for Entries & Curriculum for Merging Media 2011’s Transmedia Seminar+Lab. Covering the complete value chain from “Conception to Consumption,” this inspiring one-of-a-kind syllabus presented by Merging Media Productions and CMPA-BC has been tailor-made by Anita Ondine, one of the world’s foremost Transmedia practitioners, for our rapidly evolving industry. Anita’s unique workshops for “Transmedia Next” in London, UK and the “Binger Filmlab” in Amsterdam have been highly successful in energizing the Transmedia community in the UK and Europe.

For the very first time, 20 participants will be selected from across Canada for this groundbreaking Lab. The 2 day immersive sessions will bring together select mid to senior level digital media, game design, film & television practitioners to develop projects under Anita’s invaluable guidance, while exploring essential Transmedia business & creative tools, strategies and concepts. The M+M 2011 Seminar+Lab agenda includes:

• Transmedia Fundamentals, Business + Creative Development: A Parallel Process, Identifying + Implementing your Operative Ideas
• Business Strategies: Financing Transmedia, Exploring new Revenue Streams, Pitching Transmedia Projects, and more
• Creative Toolkit: Story Architecture + Bible, Using Social Media + Technology, Involving your Audience and more

Apply now to be part of this exclusive group. Merging Media welcomes writers, film/television producers, digital media/game/mobile developers, marketing/social media specialists, broadcasters, commissioning editors and educators. Apply online and then fill in the Master Class Lab Application (PDF). Send your application to Merging Media by March 31st.

Seminar+Lab – CMPA Members: $265.49+HST, Non-members: $398.23+ HST
Seminar Only– CMPA Members/Student: $26.49+HST, Non-members: 39.82+HST

Highly subsidized rates have been made possible by our Merging Media 2011 Partners.

UBC Certificate in Entertainment Administration is offering friends of Merging Media a 10% discount on courses in its Spring term. Enhance your business and management skills for the entertainment industry with the award-winning UBC Certificate in Entertainment Administration courses in entertainment law, marketing, distribution, financing, digital media etc. See the course page for more information or call 604-822-1420. Discount code: MEDIAFILM1420 for all Spring 2011 term sessions except BC Film Orientation course.

Wired Woman Toronto is hosting a seminar titled Tap Into Your Hidden Talents: Unlock Your Potential to Build a Successful Career on the evening of Tuesday, March 1st at the Sutton Place Hotel on Bay Street. Three prominent career coaching leaders will be presenting discussion topics which will provide you with practical professional advice. At this thought-provoking event, you will have the opportunity to learn how to assess your personal skills and strengths and also gain insights into the importance of building a personal brand and creating your professional image. The scheduled speakers are Barbara Kofman, Principal at Career Trails, Nadia Baboo, Principal at The Image Factor (site currently under construction) and Donna Messer, Principal at ConnectUs Communications Canada. Tickets for this session are $35.00 for Wired Woman Members, $45.00 for non-members and $25.00 for students.

Meanwhile, Wired Woman Vancouver is hosting two upcoming seminars. The first seminar, Writing Resumes and Cover Letters that Work, features Communications Specialist and BCIT Instructor Geraldine Eliot, who will teach you how to write a winning resume and killer cover letter to get the job you want. Whether you are a recent graduate, changing careers, or want to make sure your resume is up to date “just in case”, Geraldine will focus on helping you create a targeted job application package that gets you to the top of the pile. She’ll cover the purpose of a focused job package, the dos and don’ts of resume and cover letter writing, and help you create a unique resume that gets you noticed. It is recommended that you bring a copy of your current resume to this session, which will take place on the evening of Tuesday, March 29th in the YWCA building at 733 Beatty. Tickets for this session are $20.00 for Wired Woman members and $25.00 for non-members.

The second Wired Woman Vancouver seminar will be held at the YWCA on the evening of Wednesday, April 27th and is titled A Blueprint for Implementing a Successful Mentorship Program. Dina Grskovich, Wired Woman Director Mentorship & Sponsorship will lead you through this hands-on workshop leaving you with a tangible blueprint for implementing a successful mentorship program in your organization. Dina will answer your questions about the difference between mentoring and coaching, the different types of mentoring programs and how to create a successful mentoring program. Other covered topics will include matching mentors and mentees as well as how to gauge the success of your program. Tickets for this session are $35.00 for Wired Woman members and $40.00 for non-members.  If you aren’t a Wired Woman member and taking advantage of discounted ticket prices, remember that membership is free.

A new location-based social media game has hit the mobile market from developer MobyWan. Mobeo is an app that, according to the product site,  allows you to “connect with your friends based on where you are in the real world. Leave items on your way to work or school for your friends to ‘trip’ on, ‘throw’ items at the mall or grocery store where you think your friends might be, or just leave notes at random locations around your city for your friends to discover. Mobeo pits you against your friends in a casual gaming environment to see who can outsmart who. Mobeo was developed with your privacy in mind, and includes powerful privacy controls to ensure your location is only shared with the people you choose.”

Mobeo is available now as a free download for iPhone and will be available later today in the Android Market.  The Blackberry version will be available later this year.

EA Sports™ has launched globally two major new features and over 50 improvements for FIFA 11 Ultimate Team, the massive online community of fans building, managing and competing with their ultimate football team in FIFA 11 on the PlayStation®3 and Xbox 360®. The features and improvements will be live in Asia on February 24.

FIFA 11 Ultimate Team is free-to-play (Restrictions and conditions apply – requires FIFA 11 to play) with a massive online community of more than two million fans. It is the most popular and successful DLC ever developed by EA Sports, according to internal sales data. FIFA 11 Ultimate Team challenges community members to build a squad of the world’s best footballers by earning coins from competing in weekly tournaments and then spending them on packs in the in-game store or as currency to bid for players in the very popular auction market both on console and the web app.

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.The FIFA 11 Ultimate Team title update released today also features:

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 their 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. Catering to how you choose to play, you can now compete and compare your progress as a trader, expert team builder, top entrepreneur in the auctions, or owner of the most valuable club.

In a effort to give back to its community, EA Mobile has launched a new Deal of The Day promo that will deeply discount games or even make them free. The Deals will last all week with Saturday February 26th being the last day. The promo will include both iPhone & iPad codes over the 6 days, each day being a different mix-up of genre & style of game. You can find out what the Deal of the Day is by following EA Mobile on Facebook or Twitter. The game up for Deal of the Day, as chosen by the EA Mobile community is Mirror’s Edge, which is on sale in the iTunes app store right now for 99 cents USD.

PocketGamer has begun naming its Top 50 mobile developers for 2011 with the release of studios placed 41-50th. IUGO weighs in at #46 while two other Canadian studios are named to the list for the first time. Big Blue Bubble makes it debut at #47 and Bight Games took the #41 spot. More Top 50 developers will be added to the list during the week, culminating on the Top 10 of the Top 50 on Friday.