Village Gamer

Reminder: one week left to register for Prime Time in Ottawa

Pursuant to yesterday’s announcement by Shaw Communications in regards to their delaying Usage Based Billing, a reply from the corporation has shown up in my email box in regards to their upcoming “User Meetings”

Thank you for the Email dated February 8th, 2011.

We’re glad to hear you are interested in Usage Based Billing and want to join the conversation with regards to managing bandwidth usage. We are still setting up venues and times for the discussion so at this point we cannot say when or where they will be but we will contact you with an invitation as soon as these details have been worked out. We do expect to be sending out invitations next week so look for that in your Email.

We hope this answers your question but if you do require further assistance please feel free to contact us again by Email, Chat or Phone.

Today is release day for the third and final episode of Assassin’s Creed: The Fall, a comic book based on the Assassin’s Creed franchise and created by Karl Kerschl and Cameron Stewart. All three comics in the series are available at comic book stores or can be ordered online at the Ubiworkshop store.

For those unfamiliar with the comic series storyline, readers follow 19th century Russian assassin Nikolai Orelov as he strives to claim an artifact of immense power from the hands of the Templars, leading to a climactic and violent showdown with the ruthless Tsar Alexander III aboard a speeding train. Nikolai’s modern-day counterpart is a troubled young drifter who tries to cope with unsettling visions of a possible past life – visions that have irreversible consequences for the present.

Interactive Ontario has announced that registration for INplay 2011 is now open, and early adopters can benefit from the Kick Off ticket price of $629.00 (plus HST), which is available until February 23rd, when prices increase to $719.00 (plus HST). INplay is a conference that “connects kids creative industries with insights and opportunities in the interactive space,, encompassing all facets of the industry from the video game business to the broadcast industry, from toys to toons.”

This year’s INplay event will be held in Toronto on May 17th and 18th, and will feature three main tracks:

* Inspiration – creativity and content stream
* Investment – business stream
* Insights – research stream

INplay 2010 was held at Toronto’s Liberty Grand, welcoming 334 participants to the experience and featured three keynote presentations and 27 educational sessions lead by 106 international speakers.

Brock University has put out a call for papers for its third biennial conference on the Interactive Arts and Sciences. This year’s theme is Interacting with Immersive Worlds, with a focus on exploring the growing cultural importance of interactive media. The conference subject matter offers sessions in four different tracks:

The Challenges at the Boundaries of Immersive Worlds: creative exploration and innovation in immersive media including ubiquitous computing, telepresence, interactive art and fiction, and alternative reality.
The Critical Approaches to Immersion: look at analyses of the cultural and/or psychological impact of immersive worlds, as well as theories of interactivity.
The Immersive Worlds in Education: examine educational applications of immersive technologies.
The Immersive Worlds in Entertainment: examine entertainment applications of immersive technologies, such as computer games. Read the rest of this entry »

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, Amazon.ca has released its second annual ranking of the Top 20 Most Romantic Cities in Canada. They are:

1. Victoria 2. Guelph 3. Calgary 4. Saskatoon 5. Oakville (new) 6. Regina 7. Kingston 8. Kelowna 9. Nepean (new)
10. Burlington (new) 11. Winnipeg 12. Richmond Hill (new) 13. Edmonton 14. London 15. Kitchener (new)
16. St. Catharines (new) 17. Burnaby (new) 18. Thunder Bay 19. Richmond 20. Ottawa

This list was compiled by comparing Amazon.ca sales data of romance novels, sex and relationship books, romantic comedy DVDs and Michael Bublé CDs since Jan. 1, 2011, on a per capita basis in cities with more than 100,000 residents.

A closer look at Amazon.ca’s “most romantic” data reveals that:

* Victoria proves brains are sexy too, not only earning the honour of all-around Most Romantic City 2011, but also as the biggest consumer of romantic books.
* British Columbia is home to the top spot but more than half of the most romantic cities (11 in all) are in Ontario.
* Canada’s metropolises (Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver) fail to make the cut this year, bested by smaller challengers like Nepean, Oakville and Richmond Hill.
* Last year’s winner, Saskatoon, falls to No. 4, though still remains a healthy lover of romance novels.
* Crazy Love: Though not quite placing in the Top 20, Brantford, Ontario, holds the distinction of being the single-biggest per capita purchaser of Michael Bublé CDs.
* Kingston is the place where residents are most likely to curl up in front of a romantic DVD, with Calgary and Nepean as the close runners-up.
* Always the bridesmaid: Calgary is the most consistent consumer of romantic products, landing in the top three of every category surveyed – though never No.1.

The above data is interesting, but just for the record, the original press release from Amazon’s HQ in Seattle listed Calgary as being in British Columbia, so if you’re waiting on an order shipment…

Toronto animation school Max The Mutt™ has redesigned its Classical & Computer Animation & Production Diploma program. The updated 4 year curriculum focuses on character animation based on Warner Bros and Disney guidelines. With the school continuing to grow, Max the Mutt™  is opening additional facilities at 1139 College Street.

This Career College currently at 952 Queen Street West was founded in 1996 in a small studio by professional artists and animators. Max the Mutt’s founder, Maxine Schacker is an accomplished artist whose work has been exhibited in Montreal, Toronto and New York. She studied with world-famous Instructor of Drawing and Anatomy, Robert Beverly Hale, at the Arts Students League of New York.

As the success of the animation program grew, the school added programs in Illustration for Sequential Arts, and Concept Art for Animation & Video Games.  Most of the instructors at Max the Mutt™ are current, working professionals who teach on a part-time basis. All want to teach at Max the Mutt™ because of the serious, professional students, small classes, and ability to input the curriculum.

The new facility will house most of the courses for years 2, 3 and 4 of the animation diploma program and some of the 3 and 4 year courses for Concept Art students. Max the Mutt™ Productions Inc. will also be housed at this location. An additional benefit of the new location is an exciting art gallery. Max the Mutt™ plans to have ongoing shows of work done by students, alumni and faculty. A spring exhibition will celebrate the opening of the new facility showcasing work by the Max the Mutt™ faculty.

The updated 4 year animation curriculum includes a stimulating experience of working in a studio environment. Students from Max the Mutt™ will enter the industry with hands-on production experience, a skill that is extremely attractive to the industry.  The goal at Max the Mutt™ is to create and maintain a vibrant, ethical community dedicated to passing on skills to upcoming generations.

The Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance (GTMA) has made the digital media sector a priority for growth and innovation to foster a homegrown industry, and this morning it showcased student-industry collaboration results at the GTMA International Digital Media Forum.

In 10 months, Ryerson University’s Digital Media Zone – a collaborative digital media workspace for young entrepreneurs – has fostered 115 jobs, supported 100 innovators and incubated 20 companies, several of which are garnering partnerships from around the world. Sheridan College opened the Screen Industries Research and Training Centre in March of 2010, and it has already provided full-time work for 25 students and exposed over 200 to its collaboration with Toronto’s Pinewood Studios, Canada’s largest sound stage complex. Meanwhile, Seneca College is a leading collaborator with the open source software industry with partners that include Mozilla, creator of the popular web browser, Firefox.

The Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance brought all of these collaborators – and more – together for a showcase of the Greater Toronto Area’s (GTA) world-class digital media education, entrepreneurship and collaboration projects. “Ubisoft’s decision to locate a major studio in Toronto that will create 800 jobs over the next decade is another leading indicator of global interest in our extraordinary focus on digital entertainment,” said Gerald Pisarzowski, Vice-President of Business Development with the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance.

The GTA’s digital media strengths are a dream come true for companies like Toronto-based Starz Animation that, with five feature films, has the largest profile of any independent studio in the world. “The digital media sector in Toronto is very competitive and growing worldwide,” said Jeff Young, Vice-President of Finance and Business Development for Starz Animation. “There is a constant demand for talent and having the breadth of top-quality graduates right here is an advantage that allows us to keep growing. Some of the top graduates from the Toronto-area used to dream of jobs at Pixar or Dreamworks, but now they want to stay in Canada.” In its 45,000 square foot facility, Starz employs 300 artists, and a large majority of them are graduates from Ontario’s digital media programs.

“The DMZ model is really a platform for regional digital media growth,” said Valerie Fox, Director of Ryerson University’s Digital Media Zone. “We’ve already graduated three companies out into the GTA and there are 17 more in the pipeline, creating jobs right now. By bringing young people together to create products, industry solutions, new companies, jobs and opportunities, the DMZ is helping to build Toronto’s future as a global hub of innovation and economic development.”

“It’s a blending of skill sets – that’s what we are trying to do here,” said John Helliker, Director of the Screen Industries Research and Training Centre (SIRT) at Sheridan College, “Our focus with industry partners is innovation. We don’t want button pushers. Our students can combine the technical and the artistic with a sound business sense. The key is college-university-industry partnerships.” SIRT reflects Sheridan’s conscious decision to build a presence in Toronto’s film and television studio district.

The partnership programs from Sheridan, Seneca and Ryerson have created skills and products that include a Mobile Transit Companion app for sight and hearing impaired transit users of the Paris Metro, an interactive fashion runway for L’Oreal, group-buying technology for eBay’s Kijiji, interactive graphical programming software “processing.js,” 3D stereoscopic animation prototype testing, and animation for the upcoming feature film “Gnomeo and Juliet,” the largest animated feature film ever produced in Canada that will be released on February 11th, 2011.

Today’s GTMA International Digital Media Forum was beamed live to Cisco TelePresence™ locations in Europe using technology developed by the event’s sponsor, Cisco. Cisco TelePresence is a ground-breaking category of products that combine advanced audio, true high-definition video and interactive elements to create unique, “in-person” experiences between people, places and events. The event was simultaneously broadcast to London, Paris, Rome and Hallbergmoos (Munich).

There were presentations by five colleges (Sheridan, Seneca, George Brown, Humber, Centennial) and five universities (Ryerson, York, Toronto, OCAD U, UOIT) from the Greater Toronto Area. Ontario government representatives and industry representatives also made presentations.  Dean Morrison (PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada) will presented on Greater Toronto’s internationally competitive digital media-focused tax incentives and Stephen Green (Green and Spiegel LLP) spoke about immigration policies.

From storyboard to screen, the Screen Industries Research and Training Centre (SIRT) brings it all together at a conference dedicated to previsualization and virtual production – two innovative processes that are changing the face of film and TV production. The conference will be hosted by SIRT, an initiative of Sheridan College, at its Pinewood Toronto Studios facility. It will look at how digital technology and live on-stage computer graphics are allowing film, television and gaming professionals to become more creative, collaborative and cost effective. Previsualization and Virtual Production: Bringing It All Together takes place February 24 – 25, 2011 and includes panels, presentations and technology demos delivered by industry experts.

Previsualization (also known as previs) is the application of cutting-edge digital technologies, including motion capture, to help plan and create films and other projects. The process allows directors and other key personnel to explore creative ideas, plan technical solutions to production problems, and communicate their vision to the broader production team. Day One of the conference is dedicated to previsualization with expert presentations from Ron Frankel, Founder of Proof Inc. (The Green Hornet, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse); Aaron Weintraub, Visual Effects Supervisor for Mr. X Inc. (Resident Evil: Afterlife, TRON: Legacy, and The Three Musketeers); Brian Pohl, Co-Founder of POV Previs (Star Trek, Star Wars: Episode I and II); and Darren Cranford, President and Director for Keyframe Digital (X-Men, Driven, and Zombieland).

The sexy sister of previsualization – virtual production – is the focus of Day Two with panels and practical demos covering the latest technologies. Virtual production is the process of shooting a movie with real-time computer graphics, either for all-CG movies such as Christmas Carol, or visual effects movies with live action such as Avatar.

Confirmed speakers include: Jason Walter, Virtual Production Team Consultant at Autodesk; Jim Laird, CFO, Bedlam Games; Lui Francisco, Artistic Director, Bedlam Games; Steve Hoban, Founder/Producer, Copperheart Entertainment; and David Footman, Scripted Event Director, Ubisoft Toronto.

Reminder: Vancouver SIGGRAPH Convergence event TRON – Cult Favourite To Franchise is on February 8th – get your tickets now.

Our condolences to everyone at Frozen North Games, the latest Canadian studio to shut its doors. I have been criticized in the recent past for having a bias and not covering the news of studio lay-offs and closings. Perhaps its my innate desire to try to focus on the positive events in our industry, or it’s the fact that bad news often travels much faster than good and in the midst of the negative, perhaps by accenting the good things going on we can all move past that “gutted” feeling and find more positive aspects on which to direct our focus and ambitions. It doesn’t mean that the recent closing of Propaganda and the lay-offs at other studios such as EA Canada, United Front Games and others don’t touch me, they do, because I have friends employed at those studios, it just means that I would rather find the news about who is hiring or announcing new projects, so that I can pass that information along to those who have been affected by downturns in the industry. If you know who’s hiring or of upcoming events that would be great for introductions and the passing along of career interests, please let me know and I’ll get the information out there. Our audience grows with each passing week, and we’re always getting fresh eyes on the site who just may be looking for that next opportunity.

Microsoft has updated the Windows Phone 7 Developer Training Kit. According to the Developer blog, this update includes a refresh to almost all the labs along with a bug cleanup and the ability for the labs to run on real phone devices as well as the emulator. Two new labs, Accessing Windows Phone 7 Devices and Multi-touch Game Development XNA Framework, have also been added to the Kit. The Using Push Notification lab has also been updated so that it uses the latest Windows Phone Push Notification Library.

Early Bird registration is now open for the second annual Toronto Screenwriting Conference, which will take place this coming April 9th and 10th at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management in Toronto. Professional writers, producers, directors, and executives will benefit from this gathering of the best creative talent, authors and speakers in writing for screen-based media.

The Toronto Screenwriting Conference offers attendees extraordinary key-note sessions with high-profile show-runners and screenwriters along with breakout sessions lead by international screenwriting academics, book authors and industry execs as well as the opportunity to participate in a level of education and skills development unparalleled by any other screenwriting event.

Confirmed speakers thus far include Christopher Vogler, Pen Densham, Sheldon Bull, Dara Marks, Christine Zander and one writer whom I would really like to meet and hear speak, Kevin Shortt, scriptwriter and story designer at Ubisoft Montreal. The Toronto Screenwriting Conference is sponsored by Meridian Artists and the National Screen Institute. Early Bird tickets are priced at $279.00 (+HST) and are available until 5pm EST, February 28th.

Canadian eLearning Enterprise Alliance executives Claude Martel Ph.D. (chairman) and Jay Bahlis Ph.D. (director) are co-chairing the Distributed Learning conference track at MODSIM World Canada 2011, being held this June 20th – 22nd in Ottawa.

In the Distributed Learning conference track, the CeLEA will be seeking to present a range of speakers who will describe the training and learning challenges they face, and discuss how they are applying new tools and technologies to meet the challenges in an increasingly digital world. A decade or so ago, computer and web-based learning technologies were limited in their scope and capabilities. Since then we have seen the emergence of social networks and collaboration tools, mobile learning, virtual worlds, Internet television, simulations and games, all enabled by increasingly available bandwidth, computers and mobile devices. Educators and trainers are adopting these solutions to create new, hybrid ways to distribute knowledge, both in the classroom and at a distance.

To that end, the CeLEA directors are seeking proposals for 8 session speakers for the CeLEA track. If you are interested please contact Claude Martel immediately and request the Speaker package. All proposal must be in by February 21st.

This stream will showcase innovative training solutions and blends that have lead to practical, adaptive and innovative learning environments and resolved specific challenges – including:

* E-Learning
* Collaborative learning
* Mobile learning
* Web television
* Serious gaming
* Virtual reality and
* Electronic performance support tools
* Hybrid programs

We urge you to participate, share your expertise and innovative solutions. MODSIM offers a unique opportunity to showcase Canadian innovation in learning technology and network with buyers and colleagues in the educational and training field in North America. MODSIM is also looking for speakers for other tracks, please see the conference web site for more information.

With CAD designs being one of the most highly in-demand services for engineering work on contract and CAD design companies these days, both clients and designers would find it useful to have a related library containing useful information, tools and resources that they can access anytime, anywhere.

This is exactly what CAD Crowd offers – a free CAD library, where they can learn everything that there is to know about 3D and CAD models and CAD templates. The CAD Library includes CAD symbols, CAD drawings and CAD blocks for engineers. Common CAD software in the block library includes Adobe, AutoCAD, Alibre-Design, CATIA, Google Sketchup, Pro/Engineer, Solid Edge, Solid Works and Revit.

The popularity of online forums has brought about this instant sharing of ideas, which is exactly how the Free CAD Library works. Through it, you can share content with other users, download other members’ content or even find components for your design which are provided by actual industry engineers and companies. CAD designers will find it easy to increase their visibility, client base, establish their reputation and get instant feedback for their work. They can also browse through the Free CAD Library and get ideas for CAD designs, and even reuse the work of other engineers. With the goal of becoming the a leading engineering design and CAD services procurement, CAD Crowd definitely does provide benefits for buyers and designers through the easily accessible – and free – CAD library that they have onsite.

Social Media Week Toronto will showcase a series of free sessions with leading social media experts designed specifically to help companies thrive in today’s ever-changing digital landscape. The events run from February 7-11 as part of a series of simultaneous global events in nine cities.

“As the social web has moved from the fringe into the mainstream, its ability to impact business has increased dramatically. To explore this side of social media, we’ve curated a series of events during Social Media Week Toronto focused squarely on business”, says Eli Singer, founder and president of Entrinsic, a social media communications agency, and co-curator for Social Media Week Toronto.

On February 8, Social Media Week Toronto event partner BMO Bank of Montreal will bring together social media industry experts Google, LinkedIn, The Globe and Mail, and Silver Lining for a session focused on small businesses. Entitled Business 3.0, the forum will offer social media strategies and tactics to help small companies grow their business and brand.

“We are very excited to be creating a forum where our customers can come together to learn about how to use the social web to build their businesses and simplify their financial matters,” says Bal Sahjpaul, Director eChannel, BMO Financial Group.

On February 9, Sysomos presents Using Analytics to Get the Most Out of Your Social Media Efforts, an event showcasing new tools to monitor, measure and analyze social media. Additional events targeted towards business growth, including Facebook’s The People Web on February 11, highlight the importance of creating consumer experiences and relationships, instead of simply trying to tell consumers what to think.

Award-winning global PR firm Weber Shandwick hosts Defending Your Brand and Corporate Reputation in Social Media on February 7. This session will introduce FireBell, a crisis simulation tool developed by Weber that allows businesses to experience threats in real-time across an array of social media platforms in order to prepare for future reputation attacks.

Over 45 free events are being delivered through Social Media Week Toronto. The sessions cover a wide range of industry sectors and conversations about the impacts of digital and social media on business, marketing, culture and society as a whole. Full registration for Social Media Week Toronto is now open. Follow them on Twitter at @SMWTO.

Social Media Week Toronto is produced by Entrinsic. Global support for Social Media Week comes from headline sponsor NOKIA and supporting sponsors PepsiCo, Meebo, JWT and global media partner Weber Shandwick, along with local media partner Marketwire, all of whom have come together to make this possible.

Intertainment Media Inc. has released the latest growth stats for its social media, real time, language translation platform Ortsbo. The service has doubled user engagement since December 2010 with over 54 million minutes of online usage. All other key performance metrics including Online Sessions, Page Views and Unique Users experienced double to triple digits growth in the past month. Ortsbo is breaking down the language barriers initiating new marketing programs in South America, South East Asia and India while continuing to expand programs in Asia, Europe and North America.

According to published reports, by the end of its first year in 2004, Facebook had 1 Million users. By comparison, after just 7 month of operations, January 2011, Ortsbo already had almost 4 Million active users on a monthly basis, increasing 83% month over month, and is currently tracking at over 1.2 Million per week, well on its way to Facebook’s 2005 second year results of 5.5 Million active users.

Since its launch on July 22, 2010 Ortsbo has achieved the following:

54.1 Million Minutes of User Engagement
33.7 Million Page Views
15.2 Million Online Sessions
10 Million Unique Visitors From Over 170 Countries / Territories
35,000 Facebook Fans
3,800 Twitter Followers

Ortsbo’s real time multi-session, multi-platform and multi-lingual application connects to PC and Mac computers, mobile devices as well as all major search engine chat platforms including Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! along with Facebook, iChat, AIM, ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Ovi, Lotus Sametime, LiveJournal and Tencent QQ and QQ International, China’s largest chat platforms and Twitter. Ortsbo instantly provides real time translation capabilities to well over 1 billion active chat accounts in over 170 Countries / Territories.

With beta trials expected to be completed shortly, Ortsbo is finalizing its commercial release schedule for its translation module for email applications. Ortsbo for Microsoft Outlook provides instant translation of both sent and received emails, with original language attachments, making it easy to communicate via email in multiple languages. The email plug-in module will retail for $29.95 US. Ortsbo also offers a secure, multi-user, multilingual chat module for the commercial market.

With the accelerated growth, popularity and global reach of Ortsbo, as well as the upcoming commercial launch of Ortsbo for Outlook, the Company has engaged the Corum Group (Seattle and Zurich), a global leader in software mergers and acquisitions to assist with its strategic opportunities. The Company has considered independent offers and feels that working with Corum provides potentially higher value for Ortsbo. The Company has stated that it will provide further updates as they become available. Intertainment Media also owns and operates a number of other key properties including Ad Taffy, itiBiti and Magnum.

Kobo Wireless eReader is now available at Best Buy Canada, both in-store and online. You can pick up the Onyx, Pearlized Lilac or Metallic Silver eReaders for $149.00 each from Best Buy, Chapters-Indigo or Walmart stores across Canada.

The 2011 Canada 3.0 conference has opened registration for this year’s event, which will take place in Stratford on May 2nd through 5th. The Early Bird rate of $495.00 + taxes and service charge will be available until midnight on March 3th, when ticket prices will go up to $695.00 + taxes and processing charge. There is a StartUp/Small Business/Non-Profit price available for $225.00 + taxes and service charge as well as ticketing options for students. If you register before February 18th you will automatically be entered for a draw to win a copy of MacroWikinomics, personally addressed and signed by author Anthony D. Williams. Please see the Canada 3.0 web site for this year’s confirmed speakers.

Monde Media and Bug Tracker have made two personnel announcements this morning – Jean-Robert Michel, Monde Media’s former General Manager has moved into the dual role of Production Director for both Bug-Tracker and Monde Media, while Monde Media’s former COO has become the new Client Relationship Director for both entities.

In other comings and goings, the BC Technology Industry Association announced today that its President, Pascal Spothelfer will leave the organization June 30^th to return to the corporate sector. Spothelfer was appointed President & CEO of the BC Technology Industry Association in November of 2007, and since that time has successfully raised the level of recognition of the organization and BC’s technology industry through his leadership, commitment to collaboration, and tireless advocacy efforts.

“My past three years at the BCTIA have allowed me to get to know our technology community on a very different level. It has been most rewarding both personally and professionally,” said Spothelfer. “I have met and worked with incredibly smart, engaged and inspiring people – experiences that will fuel my passion to assist in the further growth of BC’s technology industry not just until my departure from the BCTIA, but in whatever role I pursue in the future. “

Paul Gorton, Chair of the BCTIA commented, “We will greatly miss having Pascal’s passion and vision. On behalf of the Board, I thank Pascal for his commitment to the BCTIA, and we wish him the utmost success in the future.”

Pascal will continue to lead the BCTIA and work with the board on the leadership transition until his departure at the end of June. A formal search has been initiated by the BCTIA and will be facilitated by Odgers Berndtson. Please contact Caroline Jellinck at 604 602 2556 for more information.

Canadian developers seem to have a thing for hippos – here is some info from three Canadian enterprises which contain “hippo” in their names.

Rock Hippo Productions Ltd has launched the second closed beta for its cartoon-style third person action shooter, MicroVolts. This second phase of testing will continue for approximately two weeks in preparation for the official release day. In addition, the company has released all-new screen shots of the game and is holding a special “Free-for-All” tournament which will kick off Saturday, February 5th. Winning players will be awarded their choice of any weapon they want to use with the launch of the Open Beta. Players who visit the game’s website will be able to learn more about the game and the events as well as register for a beta key.

MicroVolts features fast paced, third person shooter action and pits players against each other in a secret battle that has been waged and going unnoticed right in our own backyard for years. No one knows for sure when or where the first toy declared war but rumor has it that the uprising began with four original limited edition figures, code named MicroVolts. Battle lines were drawn when Naomi, Knox, Pandora, and C.H.I.P.-the prototypes a-were soon joined by an endless number of modified versions. Now, toy figures around the world are engaged in an all-out war for valuable battery resources and supremacy of the Micro World. All we can do now is stay out of their way and wait for a champion to be declared!

With a ton of weapons, inventive character designs, and a huge list of customization features, MicroVolts is destined to invigorate and re-energize the Free2play space. Intuitive controls and a third person view make the game easy to play and fun for both newcomers and veterans of shooter games. Game modes include Free for All, Team Deathmatch, Item Match, Capture the Battery, and many more featuring various maps designed by toy concept.

Tiny Hippos, a start-up based in Waterloo, has a product which will be of interest to all of you mobile developers out there. According to its site, this product, which is named Ripple Emulator, is a multi-platform mobile environment emulator that runs in a web browser and is custom-tailored to HTML5 mobile application testing. Ripple aims to reduce the challenges being faced by mobile developers caused by today’s platform fragmentation in the marketplace.

Ripple is built as a Chrome extension, running as part of the Chrome browser and takes advantage of our back-end services to perform some of the more complex operations. It offers the ability to look under the hood of your mobile applications, gaining full visibility into what your it is doing. It also allows for the use of existing tools to perform JavaScript debugging, HTML DOM inspection, automated testing, as well as multiple device and screen resolution emulation in real-time without having to redeploy the mobile application or restart the emulator.

Meanwhile, just down the highway a bit from Tiny Hippos is Mercury Grove, an Ottawa-based developer who has an enterprise called Network Hippo, which according to Mercury Grove’s site connects to users’ email, address books, and social networks to consolidate all of their professional contacts, remind them to stay in touch with important people, and makes it easy to connect online or through email. Mercury Grove also offers a service called Web Collaboration, which is an online workspaces for internal teams, partners, and clients. Unlike other team sharing services, Web Collaboration can be setup in minutes and requires no download, installation or administration.

Another collaboration-style service I stumbled across is Vancouver-developed Jostle. I found this site because the person behind Jostle’s Twitter account retweeted one of my Game Design Expo live tweets. According to the Jostle web site, a People Engagement Platform™ that glues enterprises together. This platform enables innovative companies to clarify their organization, reveal hidden expertise and engage their employees. Jostle is enterprise software that is accessible from any web-enabled device and works like a website, without the need to install software.

Toronto’s Blue74 Labs has released a statement announcing that IIA, the studio’s critically acclaimed real-life massively multiplayer “outdoor” role-playing game sold tens of thousands of memberships in the first 48 hours of its release, making it the fastest-selling ARG game of all time. The IIA Spy Game is being compared to blockbuster hits “The Game”, “Spy Game”, and “Halting State”, a book by Charles Stross.

The IIA (International Intelligence Agency) is a real life multi-player game that gives players a real life, real feel, “off computer” role-playing game. Players don’t know about the actual game play until they are engaged in the game, which was made globally available on January 24th via a small posting on the popular “Ycombinator: Hacker News”, a web site for Internet start-ups. Expectations were less than 100 memberships to be sold the first day, Mike Curry noticed a very heavy load on his web server – realizing the game had gone viral. Registration for the game is $5.00, which interested players send via PayPal.

The company does have an official site for the game, however they are not releasing the information until its members exercise a critical classified mission. It’s believed that the mission entails a Remote Controlled UAV helicopter taking aerial photographs of the building that houses their website. It’s believed they are doing this to ensure the security of the building.

In an article released yesterday on Gamasutra, Nexon America VP of Business Development Won Il Sue spoke with reporter Chris Nutt about the million dollar Nexon iNitiative, during which the publisher asked for game dev submissions from studios around the world. Coming out at the top of heap with signed deals: One2Tribe from Poland, and Ontario studio Antic Entertainment. Nexon did not reveal exactly what type of game the London, ON Antic team is working on, other than to say one of the studios is working on a Facebook game and that both games, while somewhat of an unusual nature for Nexon, will be of the social media genre. In the meantime, check out Antic’s free to play Junk Battles, a browser-based free-to-play fast-paced vehicle combat game.

All’s fair in love and war in cartoon-land as TeleToon Retro couples pursue the love of fans and a spot in TeleToon Retro’s Hall of Fame as the Top 5 Sweethearts in honour of Valentine’s Day. Starting today and running until Sunday, February 6, viewers can vote online for their top 5 favourite cartoon love matches, for a place in TeleToon Retro history.

TeleToon Retro has narrowed the field to 18 classic animated admirers and is inviting fans to select which couples are the Top 5 Sweethearts of all-time. The list of nominees for the Top 5 Sweethearts is made up of the following cartoon couples:

Following the voting period, the Top 5 Sweethearts will be announced on Friday, February 11 and a special programming marathon featuring all five couples will air as part of the “Retro Rewind” programming block on Sunday, February 13 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET. These winners will be inducted into the TeleToon Retro Hall of Fame, joining the Top 5 favourite cartoon characters of all-time as chosen by the fans in December 2010.

There is a ton of news coming out of the Canadian Creatisphere today. Grab a coffee and let’s take a look at what’s going on so far. Congratulations to the team over at Capcom Studios Vancouver whose Dead Rising 2: Case Zero game was the top selling title last year on XBLA with 689 000 units downloaded to Xboxes around the world. Congratulations also to the Assassin’s Creed team over at Ubisoft Montreal for being named as the Guinness world record holder with Assassin’s Creed II being featured on 127 international publications between April 2009 and April 2010.

A free version of The Balls! Extreme Sports Ball Busting has been released by Savant Inc. The Balls game is compatible with the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad; the paid version is listed at 99 cents USD. The free version offers OpenFeint and the same great graphics, audio, and frantic gameplay as the paid version, with a teaser for another mode coming in the future.

Riese: The Battle for Eleysia by Genius Factor Games has had an update to its features, along with a bug fix. Add features include the addition of Head-to-Head Multiplayer (via local wifi), stability improvements and aforementioned bug fixes, along with updates to the battle screens, How To Play help and screen-flow for editing decks. Riese: The Battle for Eleysia sells in the iTunes App Store for $2.99 USD.

Drift Mania Championship is now available worldwide on the Mac AppStore for $2.99. This new high-resolution version includes all the in-app purchase items that are available as options in the iOS version. As with all previous platform versions, the Mac AppStore version is loaded with new features like real drifting, as well as the ability to compete with users who are on other iOS or Android devices. Experience longer burnouts, taking 11 different vehicles through 3 levels of difficulty on 8 tracks as you compete to take over the global leaderboards.

ACM SIGGRAPH Vancouver has just announced its latest event, which will be held on February 8th in the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema at the SFU Woodward’s campus on West Hastings. Tron – Cult Favourite to Franchise will feature two presentations that will take a look at this convergence of  Vancouver film and game development teams. The first presentation will cover the visual effects used in the making of TRON and TRON: Legacy. This session will be presented by TRON animator and programmer Frank Vitz and Darren Poe, Digital Supervisor at Digital Domain Vancouver.  In the second presentation, former Propaganda Games Technical Art Director Gary Snyder and Art Director David Patch will share their experiences working with the TRON: Legacy film team to recreate the TRON assets and storyline in the video game TRON: Evolution. Tickets for this event are $25.00 for non-SIGGRAPH members or $15.00 for members and include a pre-event social mixer.

Hothead Games has released part two of the Ask Dr. Mike video series with Dr. Mike Hayward. Watch this intense and dramatic documentary which studies the habits of Swarmites as they weave their way through diabolical and unrelenting gauntlets of death and destruction, attempting to be the last pudgy blue moron still standing. It is highly recommended that those who are planning to take over their own Swarm colonies study the video series closely, so that you will be prepared for any situation into which your Swarmites will undoubtedly  place themselves. If you have the opportunity to practice herding cats, I suggest you take advantage of the experience.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ySRKr8omkY]

As part of the PlayStation®Network “11 for 11” sale, players can grab Big Sandwich’s thrilling dragon-themed game HOARD™ for half-price until January 31st. With game play for 1 to 4 players, HOARD™ combines action and strategy elements to create an innovative gameplay mix unlike anything else on the store. The game features over 35 levels, 4 game modes, 100+ badges to earn, trophy support, leaderboards, and any combination of couch and online players. Best of all, HOARD™ puts the dragon in the hero’s role, where he must strive against cruel knights, fierce wizards, conniving burglars, and even rampaging giants.

Critics and consumers alike have appreciated HOARD’s unique design. IGN recently honored HOARD™ with the “Best Quick Fix” Best of 2010 award, and the game was also nominated in the “Best Competitive Multiplayer” category. Joystiq says “HOARD’s gameplay shines,” and 1UP reports “the game hides a surprising layer of complexity and strategy.”

“If you’ve been keeping an eye on HOARD™ but have been waiting for the right time to try it, now’s officially that time,” says Glenn Barnes, Big Sandwich’s Creative Director. “For less than 8 bucks you get a proven, acclaimed game with over 20 hours of gameplay. It’s a no-brainer.”

Don’t forget to get your nominations in for The Technology Impact Awards. The BCTIA will be accepting submissions for BC’s top technology innovations, companies and individuals from all sectors until March 11th. The TIAs will be held on the evening of June 9th at the Vancouver Convention Centre. The Award categories are as follows:

Technology Awards: Most Promising Pre-Commercial Technology, Excellence in Product Innovation and Best Application of Technology

Company Awards: Most Promising Start-up, Emerging Company of the Year and Company of the Year

Personal Recognition Awards: Team of the Year, Community Engagement and Person of the Year

The Canadian Marketing Association invites you to attend the 2nd Annual CMA Awards Case Study event, where attendees will join Master of Ceremonies Aldo Cundari in a close-up look at some of today’s top creative works and better understand how they came to be CMA Award winners. The Case Study event will be held in the Victoria Room at  Toronto’s Metropolitan Hotel on February 2nd from 3:30 – 5:30pm, with a networking social immediately following the session. All-inclusive tickets are $75.00 each for CMA members or $95.00 earch for non-members. Tickets for the cocktail party only are $25.00 each for CMA members or $30.00 each for non-members.

Merging+Media has announced that there will be a Spring session featuring Anita Ondine-Smith, who will present an exclusive Transmedia Seminar + Lab on April 28th and 29th at the VanCity Theatre in Vancouver. The focus of this session will be a 1/2 day Seminar with a 1 ½ day hands-on in-depth lab on the full cycle of Transmedia development, writing, production and distribution from Conception to Consumption. Event participants will obtain a framework for production as well as Creative Toolkit and Business Strategies for Transmedia production. This Transmedia theory, Case studies and architectural workshop is designed to provide tools to create successful transmedia productions. The seminar portion of the event will be open to 100-150 people, while 20-24 producers, writers, broadcasters, commissioning editors will be selected to take part in the workshop.

Merging+Media has also confirmed that the next full conference and master class will be returning in October. Like the first conference held last fall, this event will feature world class speakers and experts who will present “Best in Class” case studies and high calibre discussions on the business of cross-media production. The two day programme will include a Masterclass + Conference, International B2B Matchmaking, Networking receptions, M+M Socializer + Digital Gallery to showcase our latest local technology. The Merging+Media 2011 Masterclass will include the Merging+Media Pitch and Development Prize. Keep an eye on the Merging+Media site for confirmed dates and speakers.

The Canadian Telecom Summit has early bird pricing available until February 28th, which means you can save $200.00 off the regular registration price. The 10th annual Canadian Telecom Summit will be taking place in Toronto on May 31st through June 2nd and offers three days of discussion regarding the key issues and trends surrounding the Canadian Telecom industry.

Group buying site SwarmJam, which launched across all Postmedia Network properties in December has expanded to the Winnipeg area through a partnership with the Winnipeg Free Press. The promotion-based system uses a platform through which consumers are connected with local businesses. SwarmJam’s group buying service offers savings of 50% or better, which for some deals can actually grow progressively better as more people sign onl For “progressive deals”, when the offer closes, the number of cumulative purchases determines the actual discount. So, these deals become better as subscribers share the promotion with friends, family and people in their social network. Users of the service simply sign up for a free subscription to get the SwarmJam Winnipeg Daily Deal emailed directly to their inbox. They can then click on deals they like, pay online, print the certificate and visit the business to redeem it. There are currently thirteen major urban and suburban areas which offer SwarmJam deals.

Wicked Interactive, publisher of Mission Against Terror, has launched Occupation Mode with a twist. Alongside the hotly anticipated new game mode which brings hardcore, capture-the-flag-style gameplay comes the chance to win the most unique and priceless weapon so far seen in the popular, free-to-play shooter – the Golden AK-47.

“We have been saving this announcement for just the right moment,” said Sam Ho, Director, Wicked Interactive. “With the frenzy of excitement over Occupation Mode, it seemed like the perfect time to blow everyone’s minds with this news. The Golden AK-47 is the ultimate showpiece for the M.A.T. community.”

The Lottery System enables players to take a break from a raw competition of Occupation Mode. Just like any other lottery, players step up, lay down their ticket and spin an actual wheel that appears right in the middle of the screen. The Golden AK-47 is merely the ultimate prize; there are plenty more for those who are feeling lucky.

“There are a whole assortment of weapons that the Lottery System offers,” added Ho. “Many, like the Golden AK-47, are one-of-a-kind items that cannot be purchased. We hope the M.A.T. Community enjoys the new System. It’s our way of helping them forget the winter doldrums.

On February 25th, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) will present the findings from a national consultation on how the Internet is run at the Canadian Internet Forum (CIF). CIRA, along with its partners the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Media Awareness Network (MNet), will present findings from six face-to-face consultations that took place across Canada along with input received from an online discussion forum.

A panel of Canadian experts will discuss the findings, and leading Canadian technology visionary Leonard Brody will provide the keynote address. The event will also feature sessions for participants to provide their feedback and ideas about Internet governance in Canada and internationally. The CIF will be webcast to facilitate the interactive participation of all Canadians who are interested in Canada’s role in Internet governance.

Although the Internet has become an integral part of the Canadian economy and society, the CIF presents the first opportunity for Canadians to discuss how it is developed, deployed and governed. The results of the consultations, online discussion and the national event will be presented to the United Nations coordinated Internet Governance Forum, a venue for nations to discuss the future of the Internet.

As of today, the online discussion forum is open to all interested Canadians who wish to discuss issues related to how the Internet is developed, deployed and governed in Canada and around the world. All interested Canadians are invited to join in on the discussion. Registration for the Canadian Internet Forum is free, and the event will also be webcast in English and French. The Forum will take place at the Brookstreet Hotel in Ottawa from 9:00am until 5:00pm on February 25th.

OpenText will be bringing content analytics capabilities to market for improved business productivity through an Intellectual Property (IP) licensing agreement with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). The NRC innovations will be incorporated into OpenText’s flagship Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Suite, with the first version expected to be available by Spring 2011.

Businesses and governments are increasingly engaging with workers, partners and customers across a range of electronic and social media to collaborate, find new ideas, measure sentiment, identify important trends and predict future outcomes based on content analytics. With added content analytics capabilities incorporated into the OpenText ECM Suite, businesses will gain more value from their content through improved data mining and analysis.

Research and development for the new project is already under way in the Ottawa NRC facilities in collaboration with OpenText’s Montreal R&D center that develops its content analytics solutions, based on the acquisition of Nstein Technologies last year. The project is focused on developing software for analyzing large collections of structured and unstructured data that reside within organizations.

Content Analytics addresses the discovery of answers to those important business questions through the use of semantic technologies such as natural language processing and sentiment analysis. The collaboration between the National Research Council of Canada and OpenText will enable more efficient data mining capability to locate entities –names, product brands, geographic locations, currencies, ticker symbols for example – plus uncover facts such as financial statements, merger and acquisition announcements, etc. and then connect relationships between those entities and facts. The software can search for pieces of text or metadata that cannot be specified in common search engines, and the results from those queries can be presented much more flexibly than would be possible using traditional business intelligence solutions.

Boutique advisory and technology services company Project X Ltd. has completed the QuickStrike Mobile Application training program from MicroStrategy, a global leader in business intelligence technology. Project X is among the first MicroStrategy alliance partners to complete the training program and become lead facilitators for the MicroStrategy Mobile QuickStrike Program in Canada.

As MicroStrategy Mobile QuickStrike Lead Facilitators, Project X will work with clients to accelerate their mobile BI application strategies from concept to production with a proof of concept mobile application, storyboard and video overview in two weeks. With mobile business intelligence on the verge of widespread adoption, companies are looking to deploy their business data on devices that make it easy and convenient to access critical data.

PoolingPeople.ca, a new web-based business, provides employers with a unique platform for cost-effectively sharing employees directly with each other. The first online service of its kind, PoolingPeople.ca allows companies to reduce overhead costs during idle time by temporarily or permanently sharing employees with other member companies. Conversely, PoolingPeople.ca allows employers to find experienced people when they need additional part-time or full-time staff.

With more than 15 years experience in the recruitment industry, McKinnon knows first-hand the problems and costs businesses face trying to fill a vacancy with a qualified candidate.  Equally, she understands the difficulties involved when layoffs occur.

For a $250 US annual subscription fee, employers can use PoolingPeople.ca in various ways:

• If a company is suddenly overstaffed because of a project delay, they can use PoolingPeople.ca to connect with another company experiencing a temporary worker shortage due to vacation schedules, for example. The two companies solve their staffing issues by lending or borrowing well-qualified employees on a short-term basis.
• A business that must downsize can find other member companies looking to permanently hire talented staff.
• If a company needs to reduce a full-time employee to part-time, it can enter the individual’s qualifications on PoolingPeople.ca and connect with another company needing a part-time employee – resulting in the employee working for both firms.

Level Platforms Inc. has launched Managed Workplace® 2011, a comprehensive, integrated remote monitoring, management and automation software platform designed for IT service providers offering managed services. This historic major release features comprehensive Automation OnDemand, an optional Device Manager agent to supplement Level Platforms award-winning agentless architecture, and further advances in the platform’s seamless integration with the full IT ecosystem found in most organizations today, including local infrastructure, applications and Cloud services. Managed Workplace 2011 is available in Cloud and On Premise versions.

In conjunction with the release of Managed Workplace 2011, Level Platforms also announced the Managed Workplace 2011 Road Show to take place in 19 cities across North America this February 8th through 24th. In addition to an introduction to the highly anticipated Managed Workplace 2011, attendees will benefit from new industry research and information, open forums led by successful MSPs sharing their insights and experience, and significant exclusive industry announcements from leading vendors working with Level Platforms to help the managed services community enhance the growth and profitability of their businesses in 2011.

The Nature Conservancy, Protecting Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest has become the first Canadian incentive to ever receive funding from Disney Friends for Change. The Nature Conservancy: Protecting Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest took second place in the recent round of voting by kids on the Disney Friends for Change website. Disney Friends for Change is a multiplatform environmental initiative that helps kids help the planet. Protecting Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest is a project trains local students to monitor local wildlife in an effort to protect the rainforest, home to such animals as grizzly bears and wolves.

The voting is part of an overall call to action for kids to make a difference in their local communities. Registered participants make personal promises to reduce their impact on the environment by changing their everyday actions. They can also help allocate Disney’s $1 million commitment to fund environmental programs worldwide. This round of voting is the first to include kids from around the world since Disney Friends for Change expanded into Latin America and Europe.

Voting is continuous throughout the year, giving kids the opportunity to vote on five different projects per quarter. Each project is managed by leading environmental nonprofit organizations. The projects are centered on Disney Friends for Change’s four focus areas — climate, habitat, waste and water. With nearly 2.5 million votes, Disney Friends for Change kids have helped direct almost $2 million to 41 projects in 21 countries since the program was launched in May 2009.

The award amount is contingent upon how many votes each project receives. This is the third round of award voting, and the first to include international votes. BirdLife International, Saving Spoony’s Chinese Wetlands received the first prize allotment of $100 000.00 The project contributes to the conservation of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper, a unique and highly threatened migratory shorebird. The project raises awareness among local governments and communities about the importance of the species and of the inter-tidal wetlands that are vital for its survival.

Destiny Media Technologies Inc. has received conditional approval from the TSX Venture Exchange for its Employee Stock Purchase Plan. Under the Plan, employees of Destiny are able to contribute up to 5% of their annual salary into a pool which is matched equally by Destiny. Independent directors are able to contribute a maximum of $12,500 each for a combined maximum annual purchase of $25,000. The maximum annual combined contributions will be $400,000. Money in the pool will be used to purchase shares out of the market on a biweekly basis. All purchases will be made through the Exchange by a third party plan agent and no purchases will be made on the OTC or German exchanges. The third party plan agent will also be responsible for the administration of the Plan on behalf of Destiny and the participants. The Plan is subject to shareholder approval at Destiny’s next AGM.

This past weekend we attended the 2011 Game Design Expo hosted by our friends at the Vancouver Film School Game Design Programme. As with previous years the sessions were informative and entertaining, leaving us with many areas for further research and ideas on how to apply these new ideas to what we are trying to accomplish. For a more in-depth look at the sessions as they happened, search the #gdexpo hashtag on Twitter for my live-tweets as well as those from VFS staff.

My favourite session of the day was that of Holistic Design, presented by Mitchell Lagran. Sometimes all it takes is hearing a different way of approaching a project to spark new ideas and enthusiasm, and as the day progressed it became evident that the theories presented by Mitchell are those that have merit as other developers referred to his session in their own presentations.

Important take-aways from Mitch’s session, which took place right after lunch, was that developers need to focus their intent – doing what they set out to do well, without distracting the gamer with extraneous mechanics that will not serve the game. In other words, try not to require your gamer to do more than what is necessary to keep the game flowing. Do not jar your gamer out of the experience, because if you disconnect the audience from the action too many times, they will not be inclined to continue playing. Mitch sited Bioware’s Mass Effect franchise as an excellent example of holistic game design – know where you are going and what you want to do before you start the journey. Make sure that all components of your game’s design work well together and serve the purpose of an enjoyable, replayable escape from the mundane.

I think that what I enjoyed most about the Industry Day sessions was that the speakers went beyond the art work and programming, opening the door to practices and principles brought into play long before the first world object is placed and characters are animated – as well as ideas that can be put into place once the game is shipped to help it become noticed in the mass market.

Jaakko Iisalo, Senior Game Designer and Matthew Wilson, Marketing Manager for Rovio Mobile opened the day with How to Design a Hit Game for the iPhone. The designing duo talked about the concepts, designs and marketing behind the hit game Angry Birds. The secret to their success was in part keeping everything simple, with the marketing plan following the basic premise of engaging their audience and letting the product speak for itself.

The four members of the Angry Birds team have learned how to seek out opportunities for their product and take advantage of them. Through smart marketing and an appealing product, Rovio was able to watch Angry Birds move up the sales charts and become an industry phenomena. With a very small to non-existent marketing budget, the developers took advantage of today’s social networking sites and social media basics to engage those who had already bought the game and to draw in those who had yet to put out their dollar in the various App Stores. One of the top take-aways from this session were to never give up and to never treat your titles like a disposable object once it is released – find out ways to give your audience more, add to their experience to keep them playing your game.

The second session was presented by United Front Games‘ Lead Producer Jeff O’Connell and Lead Producer Mike Skupa, whose topic was Action Game Mechanics In An Open-World Game. The pair took us on a photographic tour of Hong Kong, sharing a few of the 20 000 photos the studio shot on location in Hong Kong as they prepared to work on the upcoming action title True Crime: Hong Kong. What I enjoyed most about this presentation was how the development team planned to incorporate real-world elements into the game’s play mechanics while also capturing the essence of Hong Kong’s culture.

Some important take-aways for those who want to develop an open-world game are mission mapping and fast travel options for the player. Be mindful of where your missions begin and end – is there a disconnect between locations, and how will you keep the game-flow smooth for the player. Make sure that your features and environment serve to move the story forward while keeping the player constantly engaged, while remaining true to the physical setting you’ve chosen.

In Novel Game Designs With PlayStation Move and Eye, Sony Computer Entertainment R & D Software Engineer Anton Mikhailov led the audience through a very entertaining and informative session about the importance of your game’s controller system conveying your player’s sense of immediacy and accuracy, which serve to immerse the player in your product. PlayStation’s goal with Move was to give the player six degrees of movement through hand gestures, whether that player was wielding a sword, fighting in hand to hand combat or painting. The most important message in this session was that expressiveness in your controls is paramount, as this is what will give your players a feel for the experience, drawing them into an immersive and emergent style of gaming.

Those who aspire to become Community Managers in the game development community would have been very appreciative of the efforts which drove the Halo Waypoint team to design and launch a fully immersive experience for the Halo game community over three screens – Xbox 360, PC and mobile phone – while ensuring that they delivered the right content and features to the appropriate screen. This initiative helped to drive user loyalty as well as add to the ways gamers interacted with the Halo gaming community as a whole. Paul Parsons, Senior Game Designer at 343 Industries led an excellent session discussing the premise behind and the four key steps taken to launching WayPoint – and he was also one of the very first graduates of the VFS Game Design Programme.

Alan Shen, Senior Design Programme Manager for Microsoft’s Entertainment Experiences Group demonstrated the scope and design of Kinect’s Natural User Interface, touching on the expectations placed in the market by Hollywood through such futuristic films as BladeRunner, Iron Man, Minority Report and Star Trek. Part of the challenge was how to develop a system that would connect the gamer to the experience while working towards meeting those Hollywood expectations. As there is no common, global gesture language that would translate easily into game mechanics, the development team had to look at what actions would be intuitive, as well as fun and meaningful ways to educate gamers in regards to their playspace environment and full body game play.

Relic Entertainment Game Director Raphael van Lierop took the audience through a very engaging and entertaining session titled Steering The Rocket: Harnessing the Power of Creative People. One of the most important take-aways from this session is that creative people need to feel some type of empowerment and ownership of their creative process. Collaboration and communication is key in establishing this basis, providing you build the process on a firm base of ground rules which serve to create a climate of respect and encourage a guided form of idea generation and motivation. Micro management of your team will kill their creativity; you need to allow for creative freedom while following a clear line of communication in regards to decision making and assistance with issues that may arise. Raphael noted that he would be publishing the screens from his talk online, you can follow him on Twitter to be kept up to date on this.

Jonathan Gallina, who served as the Lead Game Designer on Tron: Evolution built on the day’s theme of collaboration, discussing the importance of co-operation in building a movie-based game and overcoming the stigma long associated with the cross-over of theatrical and game experience. The Tron: Evolution team were in a unique position, as the film and special effects were all done in Vancouver, giving each team the opportunity to work together, sharing both assets and ideas. One of the most important factors that cannot be overlooked when developing a game to accompany a movie’s debut is the time required to produce a game that will not end up on the pile of movie-game failures. As with previous sessions, Jonathan stated the importance of establishing ground rules for the project scope, prototyping and iteration, as well as working to mesh the story’s canon within the game.

EA-Visceral Lead Designer Seth Marinello covered many design features that can be used to create fun through fear as experienced by the gamer in Dead Space and Dead Space 2. Some of the most important factors to build into a horror-survival game are the ways in which environment, lighting and music all inter-connect to create the emotion of fear, while also giving the gamer some breathing room to recover from each scary episode before building to the next one. As also stated by previous speakers, do not jar your players out of the experience  – draw on their fears while still giving them the cushion of knowing that the horror is not real without making it apparent that the situation is contrived. Put your players in a position of power at key points in the game, but then take it away to enhance the scariness of the scenario. A loss of the feeling of empowerment will build on the player’s fear in a given situation, while the ability to work through the scene and survive will drive the triumphant feeling a gamer needs to carry on through the entire story.

The speaker sessions were concluded by Cory Stockton, Lead Content Designer for Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft franchise. The most insightful parts of his presentation was how to use tools such as mind-mapping, Adobe Illustrator and Visio Flowcharts will provide designers with the ability to create a game which is true to scale and follows a logical flow. It is important for design teams to make use of the tools available to them, adapting them into a process which works for that particular project and its goals. Creative people are visual – build on their ability to see flaws and nurture ideas by giving them visual guidelines, whether it’s a wall poster of the game’s world or a chart showing every person on the team and his or her areas of responsibility. Flowcharts are also excellent for tracking missions, quests and production times while wikis are useful in keeping the entire team up to date with production changes, assets and storyline. The important take-away from this session is to find the right tools and make full use of them throughout the entire production process.

Once the sessions concluded and just prior to recognizing BigPark’s contribution to the game development programme at VFS with its annual Service Recognition plaque, VFS  Head of Game Design Dave Warfield introduced Relic Entertainment General Manager Jonathan Dowdeswell. Jonathan spoke of a tragic event last year which many of us were sadly familiar with – the untimely death of Company of Heroes’ lead game designer Brian Wood in a motor vehicle accident last September. Jonathan related how touched Brian’s wife and family were by the outpouring of support shown to them by both the gamer and game developer communities around the world, and that he was pleased to announce that to both honour and continue Brian’s contribution to the international game community, as well as in memory of his passions in life, Relic will be awarding a four-month internship to three graduating VFS Game Design students each year who exhibit a similar passion and excellence in game design.

“Relic Entertainment has worked with VFS for a number of years and in the past has had employees who taught classes as part of the Game Design curriculum,” says Dowdeswell. “Continuing this partnership in a meaningful and long lasting effort by introducing the Brian Wood Memorial Game Design Internship was a natural fit for all concerned.”

The inaugural internship will be awarded in February 2011, and the chosen VFS Game Design graduate will have the opportunity to work directly with a team at Relic, pioneering exciting projects that impact the development of titles at the Vancouver-based studio.

“We are honoured and humbled to be a part of carrying on Brian’s legacy with this memorial,” says Dave Warfield, Head of VFS Game Design. “Not only does it represent the values of game design and supporting new designers that were such a big part of his passion, but it allows us to share that with the community that was so affected by his tragic death.”

Sunday’s programme for the annual Game Design Expo consisted of the annual Open House, when the school invites future students and their parents to take part in some hands-on development classes, pass some time in the VFS Arcade and interact with programme instructors. Also taking part in the Open House was the Women In Games Vancouver group, who offer networking and advice to women who work or who are interested in working in interactive media. As with Saturday’s attendees, the locally developed zombie killing game Drumskulls was a popular point of participation for the 500 Open House registrants. Congratulations to the entire organizational team, students, volunteers, sponsors and speakers at this year’s Game Design Expo for a job very well done.