Village Gamer

Burlington – Available now on Xbox LIVE Indie Games, Curling 2010 brings the sport of curling to a new (less-old) generation. The first release from newcomer dadoo Games hopes to blow the dust off the often mocked sport by demonstrating the strategy and skill required to curl.

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

Curling 2010 features multiple game play modes, from traditional matches to target competitions to a fully featured practice mode. Most importantly, the game features a guided tutorial and detailed explanations of the rules of curling to give those new to the sport a fighting chance. Online play against up to three other players over Xbox LIVE allows curlers to compete for worldwide bragging rights. Competitive computer opponents come in three levels of difficulty to make learning to curl enjoyable for all ages. Download the free trial from the XBox marketplace today, or purchase the full game for only 240 MS points!

Montreal – EA Mobile™ has announced that it has signed an agreement with THQ Wireless, a division of THQ Inc., and independent software studio Team17 Software, which grants EA Mobile the worldwide publishing rights to the existing mobile Worms™ catalogue and the license to develop future Worms games on mobile phones. As part of the deal, the first new title in development at EA’s Romania studio is WORMS, which is now available to download for mobile phones around the world.

The classic turn-based comedy war game returns to mobile with a bang. Celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, the original experience is being updated for 2010 with all the favourite weapons and outlandish fun of the series. WORMS also includes a host of new features such as weapons, modes, levels and enhanced graphics to keep players worming their way back for more explosive fun.

Effective immediately, the catalogue of existing games licensed to EA Mobile also includes Worms 2008, Worms 2007, Worms Forts 3D, Worms Crazy Golf and Worms 2. Team 17 retains the rights to existing and future iPhone/iPod touch versions of the Worms franchise.

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There is so much going on across this vast country of ours – it’s becoming a massive challenge to keep up on the digital media events while I have one eye on the Olympics and two hands on the 360 controller. It may become necessary to hook up a second TV in the living room so that I can game while watching The Games. Regardless of the controversy, warm weather, glitches, whining, protests and other Olympic foibles, I am really proud to be a Canadian (not that I wasn’t before the Olympics) – the inspiration, heart and sacrifice of our Canadian Olympic athletes is nothing short of amazing.

Vancouver – Registration for Democamp Vancouver 10: Geo Edition is now open. Attend this event on March 4th and hear from Matt Galligan, cofounder of Boulder, CO-based SimpleGeo. Learn about SimpleGeo’s challenges to develop an infrastructure to power the geo layer of your app so you don’t have to build it all from scratch. This event is free to attend, but pre-registration is required.

Also coming up in Vancouver is CloudCamp, a free unconference taking place at Discovery Park on March 13th. With the rapid change occurring in the industry, we need a place where we can meet to share our experiences, challenges and solutions. At CloudCamp, you are encouraged to share your thoughts in several open discussions, as we strive for the advancement of Cloud Computing. End users, IT professionals and vendors are all encouraged to participate

Victoria – VIATeC invites you to join them on March 2 for an interactive seminar focused on your getting your business ready for the market. Featuring speaker Dave Thomas (Rocket Builders, Canadian Financing Forum), the seminar will cover many topics, such as marketing research, technology adoption models, “whole” solution offerings, product positioning, and pricing. Review what it means to be a technology entrepreneur and help you develop a business opportunity statement that can be used to take your idea or business to the next level. Tickets for this seminar, which is part of the New Ventures BC Seminar Series, are $10.00.

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Vancouver – With a focus on Vancouver throughout February as the world’s best athletes compete in winter sports, Propaganda Games, Disney’s Canadian video games studio, is celebrating its fifth anniversary as a key part of the thriving Vancouver interactive entertainment community. The studio is also participating in the BC Canada Pavilion, an innovative exhibit open to the public, in downtown Vancouver.

Exclusive in-game development models and images from Disney Interactive Studios’ upcoming video game TRON: Evolution are part of an interactive touch screen exhibit in BC Canada Pavilion during the Winter Games, through February 28.

The province of British Columbia is hosting the BC Canada Pavilion on the fourth floor of the Vancouver Art Gallery. As part of the province’s celebration site at Robson Square, the Pavilion features state-of-the-art exhibits and interactive displays showcasing the best of British Columbia innovation and culture. The exhibit expects to host more than 250,000 visitors from Canada and throughout the world.

Propaganda Games, located in downtown Vancouver, employs more than 200 professionals between two teams. The studio is currently developing two major video games — TRON: Evolution and Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned. Both games are scheduled to be released for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC.

“Propaganda Games is poised to deliver two of the industry’s prominent video games,” said Dan Tudge, vice president and general manager, Propaganda Games. “As part of Vancouver’s flourishing video games development industry, Propaganda Games has tapped into the enormous talent pool and represents Disney’s commitment to the community.”

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Village Gamer is Proud to Be Canadian

GO CANADA GO!

Edmonton – A Smartphone as an x-ray machine? “There’s an app for that.” This phrase is starting to become as commonplace as saying “hello” when answering the phone. According to Gartner Research, Smartphone consumers are estimated to spend more than $6 billion and download over 4.5 billion mobile applications this year. With the mounting popularity of this phenomenon, AppBoy launched an easy-to-use, revolutionary social network that aims at connecting mobile app developers and users.

“AppBoy was developed to help developers get their apps discovered and to help users navigate through the thousands of available apps to find the ones they like,” says Thorren Koopmans, Director of Operations for AppBoy.

With more than 100,000 apps on the market, it’s difficult for app entrepreneurs to stand out. AppBoy gives app developers of multiple platforms (Android, iPhone, Palm and Blackberry) an opportunity to easily showcase their work and market their creations to mobile app lovers. Through personal developer profile pages created on the site, developers can share their ideas and even create their own app store. Apps sold through the social network also earn the developer a share of the profits.

AppBoy also has a lot to offer for those who aren’t building their own apps. Any user with ideas that are useful, smart or just plain entertaining can submit them to the website. Visitors to the social network have the ability to vote and comment on submissions. If the ideas generate enough votes, AppBoy rewards the user $250 and creates the app.

“We already have a great value proposition for both developers and end users, but we’re just getting started. There are big updates coming that are going to make AppBoy that much better.” Read the rest of this entry »

With the opening of today’s Winter Olympics it’s a busy day in the city, and with all of the great things we’ve been hearing about the Opening Ceremonies, I might even be persuaded to take a break from the Xbox to watch them on TV. Later this weekend we’ll be taking a look at Mass Effect 2, Dante’s Inferno, Army of Two: 40th Day and Assassin’s Creed 2: Discovery for the DS. In the meantime, here’s a bit of the game play that’s been going on in the cave. I didn’t know that Mordin could sing. Interesting. Must investigate.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8e_VPMNC5w]

The IGDA is conducting an ARG SIG demographic and salary survey; if you are involved in the field of Alternate Reality Games, the IGDA would like a few moments of your time.

For today’s article, I would like to draw attention to a study of leadership in the Canadian workplace which was done by Edmonton’s Psychometrics Canada. An assessment publisher and consultant for the development and selection of people in business, government and education. There is a quick form to fill in prior to viewing the complete study, but I feel that the information which this study contains is worth the time.

In many cases strong leadership has resulted in dramatic effects on work engagement, team performance and innovation. However, the report also shows that poor leadership has negative effects on employee morale, project success and working relationships. I feel that in today’s business climate, good leadership is important not only in the success of a company, but also in the development of employees and their quest for career and creative satisfaction.

The study, which involved a poll of 517 human resources (HR) professionals across Canada, confirms that leadership is seen as an important area of organizational functioning and development. The majority (63.2%) see leaders as having a lot of influence over their organizations’ success, with only 2.5% reporting that leaders have very little influence. The most common effects of good leadership are increased motivation (85.5%), improved working relationships (85.1%), higher team performance (80.7%), better solutions to problems (68.9%), and major innovations (41.6%).

Leadership does have its downside, however. When not properly used, leadership can have negative effects. HR professionals have witnessed good people quitting and a lack of morale (91.7%), employees’ skills not being utilized (87.2%), feuding staff members (68.3%), and failed projects (60%). Three-quarters (76%) have also witnessed a disconnection between the organization’s goals and its employees’ work. Read the rest of this entry »

Vancouver – Demonstrating marblemedia’s gold medal talent at the 2010 Cultural Olympiad, the award-winning production company announced today that it will be a contributing artist to the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad Digital Edition (CODE).

“All of us at marblemedia are excited and honoured to be a part of Canadian history,” said Mark Bishop, Co-Founder and Executive Producer of marblemedia. “We want to thank CODE for allowing marblemedia to go global at the Winter Games!”

Two of marblemedia’s kids properties, This is Daniel Cook-Figure Skating; and This is Emily Yeung-Learning Ballet (co-produced with Sinking Ship Productions) and two films from the marblemedia anthology series The Art of Seduction – Electric Chairs and On Fire (co-produced with the National Film Board and Bravo!FACT) have been selected to be featured on towering high-definition screens at the Vancouver and Whistler Celebration Sites during the 2010 Olympic Games.

Calgary – Digital Alberta invites you to come learn about Google at an event which will take place on the evening of February 23 at Mount Royal University. Come and meet some Canadian googlers at this exciting event where they will discuss some of the technical challenges faced at Google, with highlights from 3 areas of focus at Google Waterloo: Ads, ChromeOS and Mobile. Read the rest of this entry »

Congratulations to the teams of Assassin’s Creed 2 and FIFA 10 for making the shortlist in the BAFTA Game of the Year nominations. The public are invited to vote in this category, so I hope you’ll head over to the vote page and support our Canadian products. The Awards ceremony will take place on March 19th at the London Hilton.

Vancouver – IUGO‘s fantastical and ridiculously fun dual stick shooter, Daisy Mae’s Alien Buffet is now available in the App Store for the introductory price of $1.99 USD.  Daisy Mae’s peaceful, simple life in her little desert trailer park will never be the same. A full scale alien attack on earth has begun and Daisy becomes the unlikely heroine outta nowhere. Take hold of the steering wheel and help Daisy Mae shoot and blast her way to victory in this fun and quirky dual stick shooter. Aliens: you have been served!

Features:

* More aliens than you can shake a stick at!
* The baddest selection of weapons known to folks ’round these here parts
* Purty graphics and fancy sounds effects
* Sassy costumes to unlock for Daisy Mae’s alien hoedown
* Daisy Mae “taunt” moves to kill the aliens dead in their tracks
* Control options to suit every varmint’s needs
* VIP points to be earned towards an additional costume
* Global leaderboards
* Auto save

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOX8oRM6-FY]

Toronto – The Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) proudly announces that it has invested $2.9 M in funding support through its Entertainment and Creative Cluster Partnerships Fund (PDF) to leverage an additional $7.1 M from 94 partners to support 17 innovative projects.

The Partnerships Fund was designed to help Ontario’s entertainment and creative industries invest in smart ways to grow and increase their competitive advantage in the global marketplace. The industries eligible for funding include book and magazine publishing, music, film, television, interactive digital media and commercial theatre. Read the rest of this entry »

Toronto – TransGaming, Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of Blake Lewin as President of TransGaming’s new GameTree.tv digital home division. The company is also establishing a dedicated office in Atlanta, Georgia, that will serve as headquarters for all GameTree.tv development. Blake Lewin was most recently the Vice President of Media & Entertainment at Turner Broadcasting and is renowned as the creator of GameTap, the first-of-its-kind broadband entertainment network. As President of TransGaming’s digital home division Blake will lead the design, development, and commercialization of GameTree.tv, a comprehensive on-demand games platform which will provide consumers with constant access to a broad range of video games through their connected consumer electronic devices.

GameTree.tv is a powerful on-demand digital distribution games platform available to consumers through their Intel CE Media Processor powered set-top box or consumer electronics device. The platform will provide consumers with the ability to instantly play a broad range of games from the comfort of their living rooms, while providing CE device manufacturers and cable/satellite partners with new revenue opportunities. The first set of Intel based CE platforms are expected to be available to consumers in the coming months with GameTree.tv being commercially deployed before the fall. Read the rest of this entry »

Markham – AMD has announced that it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, under which the Ministry will award a five-year grant of $56.4 million CAD ($52.8M USD) to AMD Canada under Ontario’s Next Generation of Jobs Fund. The grant is expected to fund R&D activities by AMD’s Markham-based engineers in the development of its upcoming AMD Fusion™ family of processors, related software infrastructure and integrated computing platforms. Ontario expects to make its initial investment of $11.2 million CAD to AMD upon signing the formal agreement, with periodic payments occurring thereafter throughout the grant period.

In turn, AMD will commit to substantially invest in AMD Fusion processor-related R&D activities in Markham, and retain and create hundreds of high-value R&D jobs during the grant time frame. AMD also plans to increase collaborative activities with local universities.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raXMkkRXv5o]

“With this partnership, Ontario will be at the forefront of helping to bring this game-changing technology to market, and will deepen the province’s reputation as a seat of technology innovation,” said Dirk Meyer, AMD president and CEO. “AMD Fusion technology is set to enable significant breakthroughs in personal computing and our R&D facility in Markham, Ontario is playing an instrumental role in creating this technology. AMD Canada is a critical part of our global footprint, and a wellspring of our technical innovation.” Read the rest of this entry »

Edmonton – Bioware has added to the Normandy’s armory. According to the Mass Effect 2 web site, the new Cerberus Assault Armour and M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun DLC are now available for free through the Cerberus Network on both the PC and Xbox 360.

Cerberus Assault Armor
Cerberus assault armor is designed for shock troops, who are expected to turn the tide of battle against creatures or forces that would decimate normal soldiers. The troops demanded three things in its design: shields, armor thick enough to last against a superior foe, and a rechargeable pack to extend a heavy weapon power cell. The only drawback of the armor is its weight, which the troops carry as a point of pride. They have a saying: “Out of shape going in, in shape coming out.”
Increases heavy weapon ammo capacity by +10%
Increases shields by +10%
Increases health by +10%

M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun
The M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun is a longer-range shotgun with armor-piercing loads. This design also violates several intergalactic weapons treaties, so the M-22a is not distributed to militaries.

EA has released their Key Titles Schedule for Fiscal Year 2011, and while this is only working schedule, there were some title announcements that mean our Canadian EA studios are going to be busy, busy, busy.

As expected, there will be new additions to the EA Sports franchises – FIFA 11, NHL 11, EA Sports Active, NBA 11, NBA Jam and of course Need For Speed – but what gave me the happy gamer warm fuzzies is the announcement that there will be a new Dragon Age chapter in Q4 2011. There will also be additions to the Monopoly family plus a few genre-only announcements, such as a news sports title. Read the rest of this entry »