Village Gamer

Vancouver – After a very successful Fusion Forum Boot Camp and Presentation Day, the Top Ten Finalists were announced by New Media BC last evening at the networking mixer. Congratulations to all of you, and good luck with today’s investor meetings. The Best in Show presentation winner was Ecobuddies Interactive.

GAMES

Clicktoy
Ecobuddies Interactive

MOBILE

Aegis Mobility
AppSocial
Mobify

WEB 2.0 / SOCIAL MEDIA

Muutu
My Wedding Match
Wantsa

APPLICATIONS & NEW PLATFORMS

Mingleverse Labs
Moving Media

Montreal – On the other side of the country, Bug-Tracker has distinguished itself as a Gold winner during the National Awards ceremony, which took place at the Cirque Éloize on November 6th.

“Each year through the SME Awards, the Financial Group honors the exceptional performance of the province’s enterprises and their leaders. The nominees are passionate, involved and visionary men and women who, through their dedicated work and excellent results, have carved themselves a place in a highly competitive environment” declared Réjean Lévesque, Executive Vice-President – Retail and Commercial Banking, and Honorary President of the Gala.

“To receive this honor is a true recognition for ourselves and our teams” explained Antoine Carre, Founding President of Bug-Tracker. “We are all very proud to distinguish ourselves again by our will to excel in the management of our resources and relationships with our partners. Our reputation will now be able to continue to shine at the national level as well as on the international scene”.

Finally, the Financial Group underscored its collaboration with its trusted partners – Samson Bélair/Deloitte & Touche, IBM Canada Ltd, Bell Canada, La Presse, Le Droit and TVA – in uniting to pay homage to the boldness, determination and excellence of the best of Canadian entrepreneurship.

Two reports on the Montreal office of Bug-Tracker will be broadcast, one during the program “Salut Bonjour!” on TVA, and the second on Canal Argent, from November 27th to December 23th 2009.

Toronto – Ontario is supporting a new commercialization centre that will help digital media entrepreneurs build new companies and create jobs. The province plans to invest more than $26 million in The Communitech Hub: Digital Media & Mobile Accelerator (“The Hub”), a new centre that will help emerging digital media companies grow and succeed in the global market. In particular, The Hub will look beyond the entertainment sector to focus on companies creating hardware and software for industries, including advanced manufacturing, healthcare and finance.

Based in Waterloo Region, The Hub expects thousands of jobs could be created over the first five years by serving entrepreneurs across the province. This investment supports Ontario’s Innovation Agenda, the province’s plan to make innovation a driving force of Ontario’s economy. The Hub will focus on commercialization, business development and access to financing. It will offer state-of-the-art tools and lab space, with equipment and support provided by industry leaders including Open Text Corporation, Christie Digital Systems Canada Inc., Intel, Agfa HealthCare and Research In Motion.

“Ontario is already recognized as a global leader in the digital media sector and today we are sending a clear signal to digital entrepreneurs everywhere – Ontario means business. The Hub will strengthen our ability to support innovators across the province, as they work to turn new ideas into new jobs and globally competitive businesses,” said John Milloy, Minister of Research and Innovation.

“Digital media and mobile computing are the future of Canada’s technology industry. The Hub is a place where entrepreneurs and business leaders can make connections, start companies, and create jobs for Ontario,” said Iain Klugman, President and CEO, Communitech.

Worldwide, the digital media sector is one of the fastest growing industries in the knowledge economy, and its double-digit growth rate will help drive the global media market up to US$2.2 trillion by 2012. Ontario has the third-largest entertainment and creative sector in North America, after California and New York. Ontario’s digital media industry generates more than $1 billion annually.

Vancouver -Village Gamer, always willing to assist Canadian studios, will be posting further Game Industry job postings from Swim Recruiting. Here is the first:

PHP Developer – Social Games

– Entrepreneurial, growing, and action-packed environment
– Quick-to-market new generation of games – agile environment
– Creation encouraged and input valued

What’s your favorite game? Do you find yourself constantly playing a wide variety of software games and board games in your spare time?

A Vancouver ‘home grown’ organization based in funky Gastown is on the lookout for a passionate game-orientated LAMP developer to join a professional, fun, and dynamic software team to develop and enhance new and existing games for social network platforms such as Facebook and iPhone applications. You will be working in an environment where your creative input is encouraged and valued, and the short iteration methodology will keep your interest levels high as you release up to 8 multiple titles on various platforms per year. As well as excellent communication and documentation skills, you must have expert open source development skills and a natural and keen interest in Gaming and Social Networks. You will also need to be comfortable working in a fast paced, action packed, rapid prototyping, iterative model amongst peers in a social and collaborative environment.

In order to be considered for this role you must be able to demonstrate the following:

– Expert proficiency in all areas of LAMP development
– Passion of a wide variety of Gaming technologies and methodologies
– Experience taking games from inception to completion is favorable
– A creative knack for finding and fixing bugs
– Experience developing Facebook’s API a huge asset.
– Flash development and/or training
– Iphone development an asset
– Graduated from a four year college or university, a degree from a recognized design school, or two to four years of related experience and training.

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a modern, fast paced, innovative, fun and dynamic work environment working on some of the latest games and applications with bleeding-edge open source technologies – apply by visiting the Swim Recruiting website or by emailing your qualifications to Brian Thompson.

Swim Recruiting is a search consultancy firm offering advanced recruitment solutions tailored to the precise needs of its individual clients and job seekers. Focusing on technology and finance professionals, Swim is able to draw upon an in-depth knowledge of this market combined with an extensive network of contacts. Please contact Brian Thompson if you would like further information or would like to list a career opportunity with Swim Recruiting.

Vancouver – New Media BC is pleased to announce the top 20 companies selected from 37 digital media companies that attended the Fusion ’09 Entrepreneur Boot Camp held at the BC 2010 Showcase Centre today.

The following will present at the Fusion Venture Forum before 22 investors, including Google and other visiting VCs from Silicon Valley on November 12 at the UBC Robson Square Theatre:

PRESENTING COMPANIES

GAMES

1. Black Cherry
2. ClickToy
3. Ecobuddies Interactive
4. Old Skool Studios
5. Overinteractive

MOBILE

1. Aegis Mobility
2. AppSocial
3. Cell Map Inc
4. Mobify
5. Sound of Motion

WEB2.0/SOCIAL MEDIA

1. Arcalife
2. Muutu
3. My Wedding Match
4. Vibrant Software (Everystockphoto)
5. Wantsa

NEW PLATFORMS AND APPLICATIONS

1. Konductor Software
2. LayerBoom Systems
3. Mingleverse Labs
4. Moving Media Group
5. Unbounce Marketing

Congratulations and good luck to all of you, see you at The Forum!

Vancouver – Smoking Gun Interactive, an independent premier video game studio, has launched its first installment of the graphic novel series titled “X”. Written by controversial, award-winning author and social critic Douglas Rushkoff, the series is illustrated by Smoking Gun’s lead concept artist Cheoljoo Lee and Younger Yang.

The preview will be delivered over the course of four weeks starting today, and can be experienced online at exoriare and provides a first glimpse into the universe and characters of Smoking Gun’s as-of-yet undisclosed debut franchise. With a focus on real-world mystery, ancient locations, and deep conspiracy, X promises to explore the secret history of mankind in a way that has never been done before.

As a small, scattered group of people stumble onto the truth, they find that they are too late: every great power on earth has already aligned itself against humanity. The war is all but over. Their struggle to discover the truth will lead them into a massive conspiracy that predates humanity itself – from the world’s most ancient sites to the global centers of power.

For those few brave enough to resist, reckless enough to see, and foolish enough to fight history itself, the war has never been over. For those few, the struggle will not be complete until the old prophecy has been fulfilled:

“FROM OUR BONES WILL ARISE AN AVENGER FROM OUR WAR WILL ARISE THE TRUTH”

The first novel is scheduled to be released next year and is the first in a series of stories that will continue to expand the X universe.

“One of our main goals as a studio is to constantly innovate in how we tell our stories”, said Smoking Gun CEO and Creative Director John Johnson. “Our perspective is, if you can interact with it, then it can be part of the experience we deliver. And if you cannot interact with it, then we will evolve it to the point where it can be part of our universe. There are no boundaries to where we can go or what we can accomplish.”

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Vancouver – This just in from New Media BC – Fusion Forum organizers New Media BC are pleased to announce that with the support of the National Research Council Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) and Bootup Entrepreneurial Society, all entrepreneurs can participate at the Fusion Forum for no additional cost above the regular attendee price of $100. All companies attending the Fusion Entrepreneur Boot Camp held on November 5 as well as the twenty selected to pitch to top tier investors during the Fusion Venture Forum on November 12, will pay this same affordable rate as conference attendees.

“Our community has a history of producing some of the most notable digital media companies in the world,” says Maura Rodgers, Executive Director of Bootup Entrepreneurial Society. “We challenge our best entrepreneurs to step forward and show the international investors what our community is made of.”

The package includes full access to the event, including networking lunch and reception. Presenting companies will also have free access to “Entrepreneur Bootcamp” training sessions, presentation coaching, and a chance to pitch at the Forum on November 12th and potentially have one-on-one meetings with visiting investors from Silicon Valley.

“New Media BC is thrilled to have the support of NRC-IRAP and Bootup Entrepreneurial Society to provide such great value to BC and Canadian entrepreneurs.” said Rochelle Grayson, Interim President at New Media BC. “We have lined up first-class investors and industry experts, and we are looking forward to showcasing the best digital media talent and opportunities BC and Canada has to offer.”

The deadline for registrations has been extended to Friday, October 30th to allow entrepreneurs to take advantage of this special rate. Reimbursements will be made for companies who have already signed up at the full rate.

New Media BC also announced that Fusion’s “Best in Show” judges will be Tom Duterme, Corporate Development Manager at Google Inc., Saeed Amidi, CEO/President and Founder of Plug and Play Tech Center and Steve Hnatiuk, Founder and Partner at Yaletown Venture Partners. The “Best in Show” presenter will receive paid airfare to San Francisco and three month placement at the prestigious Plug and Play Tech Centre accelerator in Sunnyvale, California.

Studio staff at Rockstar Vancouver will be taking part in the local Movember movement, as Rockstar Games is proud to be a major sponsor of Movember, the annual month-long celebration of the moustache, highlighting men’s health issues, specifically prostate cancer. Grow a rugged moustache and send us a photo by the end of November for a chance to be immortalized as a character in Rockstar’s next epic – Red Dead Redemption (in development at Rockstar San Diego).

Historically men have been very poor at looking after their health, especially when compared with the efforts of women. Men still access health services less frequently and when they do visit the doctor, they typically present late, thereby denying themselves the chance of early detection and treatment of common diseases.

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EA Montreal has released a new Army of Two: 40th Day trailer. This short video focuses on the multiplayer extraction mode. Army of Two: 40th Day is slated for release on January 12 2010.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4lPGdoe6o4]

Vancouver Film School is holding a Halloween makeup contest. Impress their judge, film industry veteran and Head of the Makeup Design for Film & Television program Stan Edmonds (The Butterfly Effect, I, Robot, Unforgiven), and you’ll have the chance to win some great prizes, including a selection of professional-quality makeup supplies! All you have to do is show your Halloween-themed makeup skills – and that can be anything you imagine as long as you’ve created the makeup yourself – on the photo-sharing site Flickr between October 26 and November 1. Once three finalists are chosen by our judge, the public will get to vote on the winner.

Ottawa – Corel has introduced Corel® Paint it!™ touch, a new digital art studio built explicitly for the Windows 7 platform. Corel Paint it! touch is optimized for use on touch-screen computers, Paint it! touch provides budding artists of any age with a unique artistic experience. Using the program, consumers can create original artwork with the touch of their fingertips. The program’s touch-enabled capabilities let consumers add artistic touches to photos or create art from scratch using a number of realistic brushes and effects.

“With Paint it! touch, it is now possible to bypass mouse clicks and interact directly with your digital canvas, all with the touch of your fingertips,” said David Toeg, Paint it! touch Product Manager for Corel. “Windows 7 and Windows Touch have enabled Corel to create new possibilities for our users by removing barriers and helping them to connect with their digital content in more personal ways. Whether they are creating painted masterpieces, photo projects, or home videos, it can now be an even more spontaneous and interactive experience.”

IUGO Mobile Entertainment has released information about their latest game which is headed for the Apple App Store – Implode, where players are tasked to carefully plant limited dynamite bundles in order to demo obsolete structures. Sounds easy enough, right? WRONG! Implode! is a classic “easy to learn, hard to master” casual game that will pull you in and won’t let go. IUGO currently has three games in the pipeline for the App Store – Implode, Zombie Attack Second Wave and Cliffed.

Features include:

• 60 dynamite levels
• Reactive UI, touch and drag control options
• Fun chalkboard theme and clean graphics
• Two different types of bombs (traditional bombs and blast bombs)
• Varying structure shapes for ongoing challenge
• Submit score online (online score is the sum of all levels’ high scores)
• Grading system for high scores adding replayability to each level
• 3 Difficulties; Casual, Veteran, and Expert
• In-level help system: Learn as you play!
• IUGO VIP: Sandbox cheat gives you more bombs and you never fail! (high scores disabled with this feature)
• Watch buildings tumble with real physics!

Victoria – Island Tech 09 is looking for speakers. Island Tech takes place on November 13th at the Crystal Garden and will feature an afternoon of thought-provoking discussions, much in the style of the TEDx conferences. They are looking for people that have an interesting topic they would like to present. Talks should be rooted in innovation, or at least connected to technology. The organizers would prefer talks with a broad and/or unconventional scope. Do you have anything you’d like to say that fits this bill? The format for the talks is a 20 minute presentation followed by 10 minutes of Q&A with the audience. People should come away from this part of the Island Tech event thinking “I’ve never thought about it that way”, or “man, that was interesting”, or maybe even “that was brilliant!”. We want these talks to stretch the boundaries a bit, and make people think. Please email Island Tech 09 with a synopsis of your talk.

The MindShare Learning Report—Canada’s, Leading, Learning & Technology eMagazine and title sponsor Microsoft Canada Co., are set to officially launch the Microsoft – MindShare Learning Report™ 21st Century Digital Classroom Challenge (Contest Info – PDF). In its second year running, this event aims to inspire teachers, along with their students from across Canada to share their successful classroom practices using technology. Teachers from publicly funded schools can qualify to win one of three technology prize packs valued at over $15,000 for their school.

The office launch takes place at W.H. Day Elementary School in Bradford, Ontario, the site of one of last year’s contest winners, grade 5 teacher, Mali Bickley. “It is an honour to have the Mindshare Learning Contest launch hosted in my classroom. Winning the Mindshare Learning contest and having the technology for the class helped us connect with so many other classes throughout the world. The technologies were the tools that connected my students in curriculum based projects that truly made a difference in their lives and other students globally,” says Mali Bickley.

Through a video submission, K-12 educators from publicly funded schools across Canada are challenged to share their success stories using technology to support student success. Qualified entrants will be eligible to win one of three classroom technology prize packages, each valued at more than $15,000, from leading classroom technology providers, including: Microsoft Canada, Advanced Education, Dell, EPSON, FrontRow, ISTE, NECTAR Foundation, netTrekker, Pearson, SMART Technologies and MindShare Learning.

“Canadian teachers are excellent stewards in marrying technology with education and are critical in developing instructional environments that use technology to ignite the imaginations of students,” says Shann McGrail, Director of Education, Microsoft Canada. “Microsoft Canada is committed to helping educators to prepare students for today’s and tomorrow’s workforce with education-specific tools and technologies, and this contest maps to our belief that technology is one way to deliver enriched instruction to engage students and improve learning outcomes.”

“The awesome prize packages were carefully selected and represent best-of-class technology to enable 21st century digital learning in the classroom. I’m humbled by the generosity of our sponsors,” says Robert Martellacci, president and publisher, The MindShare Learning Report.

Burnaby – EA Canada has announced that according to internal EA data, the Need for Speed™ franchise has surpassed 100 million units sold life to date. The newest release, Need for Speed SHIFT, pushes the franchise over the 100M mark, making it the best-selling racing brand in the gaming world. Need for Speed has become a driving force for innovation in the racing genre. Known for delivering unparalleled white-knuckle racing, creative customization and street style, the Need for Speed series has generated over $2.7B in life-to-date sales and has become a powerful pop culture phenomenon.

“Few videogame franchises ever reach the 100M units mark, so this is a huge honor. We have millions of fans to thank for driving us to this milestone,” said Frank Gibeau, president, EA Games Label. “With the launch of Need for Speed SHIFT and the upcoming release of Need for Speed NITRO, we hope to continue to deliver the most entertaining, action-packed racing experiences.”

Since the release of Need for Speed in 1994, the franchise has…

*Launched 15 blockbuster titles across more than 14 platforms
*Released in 22 languages in over 60 countries
*Players have raced over 279 billion miles of roads & race tracks
*Generated over 17 trillion user-generated vehicle customizations
*Featured actors, models & musicians including: Brooke Burke (Wild On), Christina Milian (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past), Emmanuelle Vaugier (Two and a Half Men), Josie Maran (Sports Illustrated swimsuit model and actress), Maggie Q (Mission: Impossible III), Kanye West, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Prodigy
*Debuted exclusive remix from Snoop Dogg of The Door’s classic song Riders on the Storm
*Sold more games than all new passenger cars sales in the U.S since 1994 (93.8 Million according to Bureau of Transportation Statistics)

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Ottawa – Miltons IP has joined together with Wiley, the publisher of the popular For Dummies reference book series, to create a resource for Canadians that outlines core intellectual property rights, how to make money from IP (whether your own or others), and a series of checklists.

The book contains a primer on the various types of intellectual property assets, from patents and trademarks, to copyrights and industrial designs. Each of the introductory chapters deals with one type of protection, provides definitions, pros and cons and instructs how to protect one’s IP rights. Later chapters discuss how to profit from IP and how to enforce one’s IP rights. A chapter on deriving income from someone else’s IP through licensing follows later in the book, with the final chapter dispelling some common misconceptions about IP. It is a quick read, suitable for individuals in a wide range of occupations and industries.

Just a reminder that New Media BC will be holding its Annual General Meeting at Rainmaker (#500 – 2025 West Broadway) in Vancouver tonight, beginning at 5pm. There are some important issues on the table, including the proposed merger with winBC and the formation of a new trade association. It’s imperative that all voting members participate in this process.

Tickets are now available for the ACM SIGGRAPH Vancouver and NFB speaker session with animator Chris Landreth. This is a free event being held in conjunction with the National Film Board’s Get Animated cross-Canada tour. An evening with Chris Landreth takes place at the VanCity Theatre in Vancouver on Wednesday October 28th. This event is sponsored in part by vanARTS, Annex|Pro and 3vis.

In other news, Best Buy Canada will be celebrating the grand opening of their new store at Sevenoaks Mall in Abbotsford, BC this weekend. They are planning a full schedule of special events, including:

Grand Opening Weekend Schedule of Events:

Friday, October 23, 2009

– Before 9:45 am: Line up for a chance to win a $500 Best Buy gift card
– 9:30 am: Ribbon-cutting ceremony and $5,000 cheque presentation to Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Abbotsford, Mission, Ridge Meadows
– 5 pm: Meet Alexandre Burrows for an autograph session

Saturday, October 24, 2009

– Before 9:45 am: Line up for a chance to win a $500 Best Buy gift card
– 6 pm: Meet Default for an autograph session
– 1 – 3 pm: Meet Dora the Explorer™

Sunday, October 25, 2009

– Before 10:45 am: Line up for a chance to win a $500 Best Buy gift card
– 2 – 4 pm: Meet Spider-Man™
– 11am – 6pm: Play in the PlayStation Big Rig

The grand opening specials and $500 daily Gift Card giveaways are also included at all Lower Mainland Best Buy locations!

The video game industry has been overcome by a wave of impulse purchases fueled primarily by creative packaging and online accessibility. According to The Canadian Video Game Purchase Process, a study conducted by The NPD Group, 40 per cent of video game buyers stated that they have purchased a game on impulse in the past six months despite the recent recession.

Much like gamers overall, impulse shoppers in the industry are split almost evenly between males and females and are dominated by the 13 – 17 age group (26 per cent) and the 35 – 44 age group (23 per cent).

“Clearly gamers are becoming much less reluctant to spend on games,” said Matthew Tattle, Group Manager, The NPD Group. “One would think it is a little unusual to see impulse purchases during a recession but it’s clear that hardcore gamers will find a way to satisfy their need for something new, different and enjoyable.”

The large percentage of shoppers buying a game on impulse coincides with a rise in low-cost used games, which flourished during the recessionary months to the tune of $65 million in sales.

Impulse game buyers overwhelmingly selected low price as the primary driver behind purchasing their game at a specific retailer. Impulse shoppers in particular are more cost conscious; the average price of impulse purchases was only $27.19 compared with $42.97 for planned purchases. The reduced price of used games is, therefore, increasingly attractive to gamers. In fact, one-third of gamers reported buying a used game in the past six months and only 10 per cent say they would never buy a used game.

The study also reveals that manufacturers looking to capitalize on impulse purchases should put a strong focus on packaging while retailers should focus on merchandizing.

A survey of in-store impulse shoppers shows images or descriptions on game packaging are very or extremely important to 40 per cent, while 25 per cent are swayed by in-store demonstrations of the game.

“Game packaging is the most influential form of advertising for game manufacturers and retailers,” said Tattle. “Particularly among impulse shoppers, game packaging is considered a much stronger motivator than TV commercials, online ads or trailers. The graphics and images on game packages should be chosen strategically to ensure buyers are attracted to the game.”

Referrals are also a key to success for retailers looking to attract impulse shoppers, one-third of whom said they were motivated to make their last game purchase by having played the game at a friend’s house or receiving a referral from a family member or friend. In addition, 19 per cent of impulse buyers said a store clerk’s recommendation is very or extremely important to them and 21 per cent are swayed by a recommendation from another shopper in the store.

Canada has an extremely diverse gaming industry split almost evenly between males and females and among all income brackets. Canadian gamers reside predominantly in Ontario and Quebec with strong secondary markets in B.C. and Alberta. Gamers are passionate about their hobby with one fifth dedicating between 10 and 15 hours each week to honing their gaming skills.

Additional findings:

* Only three per cent of reported purchases were pre-ordered
* Females are more likely to buy on impulse; 46 per cent of impulse buyers are females compared to only 37 per cent of planned buyers
* Sequels sell; almost 20 per cent of gamers said they were motivated to buy a game that was a sequel to one they had previously enjoyed
* 43 per cent of impulse buyers paid only $10 – $20 for their last game purchase
* Only 15 per cent of impulse purchases were made online

Methodology
The Canadian Video Game Purchase Process was conducted from Aug.10 – 21, 2009 among a population sample of 2,429 gamers (1,758 adults, 371 teens) across the country.