Village Gamer

Imagine you’ve just found out your six-year-old child needs surgery in a couple of weeks. Where do you begin? My First Surgery is now available on iTunes to help parents and patients better prepare for their first time in the operating room. Dr. Robert Baird, a practicing surgeon at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, saw a need for a communications tool that could help ease parents’ anxiety about the process. The interactive app breaks down each step by explaining what will happen before, during and after the surgery. Undergoing surgery is never easy for a child—or a parent– but this app will help make the entire process a little less scary. Read the rest of this entry »

A new Digital Adoption Campaign led by CATAAlliance, Canada’s largest high tech association, and the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC), a leading centre of expertise in digital economy research, labour market intelligence and policy development, will help create jobs, increase efficiency, reduce costs, generate revenue and lead to faster innovation. Read the rest of this entry »

Story-telling is an ancient art form. Great story-tellers have the ability to connect us to real experiences and have a profound effect on our hearts and minds.  This is especially important in today’s busy world, where consumers connect to stories, not product information. Join Canadian Women In Communication on Tuesday, November 19th for an engaging presentation from the masters of digital story telling featuring Gloo Studios‘ Cecilia Lu, VP Business Development.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Canadian International Television Festival (CITF) will expand to three days and now run from Friday, November 15th through Sunday, November 17th at Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox. It was also announced today that the national #EyeOnCanada (#VueSurleCanada) initiative from the Canada Media Fund (CMF), Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA), and Telefilm Canada will be the focus of the first day of the CITF. Read the rest of this entry »

Merging Media 2013 has announced the 12 finalists who will be pitching at MM2013 on November 7 to vie for the $10,000 Pitch 360 Award. This year there are five Canadian finalists alongside seven European projects with Canadian co-production potential. Read the rest of this entry »

The Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC) has just launched its 2013 Essential Facts Booklet (PDF), which contains 19 pages of research points and information about the Canadian video game industry. Also released today is an in-depth report (PDF) from Nordicity, with 60 pages of industry research of import to the Canadian creative industries sector. In these reports you’ll see that Canada’s video game industry continues to be at the vanguard of Canada’s digital economy, employing 16,500 men and women in 329 creative and innovative companies that collectively contribute $2.3 billion to Canada’s economy. Watch the video shown below for a quick view of some of the facts contained in this year’s report. Read the rest of this entry »

We are going to be at Merging Media 2103, which is being held at the Granville Island Art’s Club in Vancouver this November 6th and 7th, and we would like to see you there. The organizers over at Merging Media would like you to answer a somewhat easy, although possibly tricky, trivia question about the conference’s speakers correctly in order to be entered in a random draw to win one of three conference passes. The contest begins today and runs until noon PDT on October 30th 2013. The winner will be announced November 1st. Send your entry, along with your contact information, to contest-at-villagegamer-dot-net. Please use “MM13 Contest” in the subject line. One entry person, winners will be notified via email. To enter, answer this question:

There’s a great lineup of over 50 speakers featured at The Merging Media 2013 Conference – Global Edition. How many countries do they represent?

With a console in 61% of households, Canada’s gaming industry is the third largest in the world – and with $1.7 billion spent annually, consumers are shelling out to get in on the action, according to Secor Consulting Group’s Canada’s Entertainment Software Industry In 2011 report. A RateSupermarket.ca poll finds 37.6% of respondents allocate a portion of their budget to video games – with 16.4% admitting to buying an average of 15 new games each year. The study illustrates the affordability of upcoming Generation 8 consoles such as the Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One, along with their Generation 7 counterparts. Titled The Cost of Video Gaming In Canada, the infographic shown below depicts an average depreciation of console cost of $311.95 from launch date to present day, and indicates which new console offers the best bang for gaming bucks. Read the rest of this entry »

Join the Vancouver ACM SIGGRAPH chapter as Spark CG proudly presents an evening session on “Elysium” by the Image Engine team. The presentation, which takes place on Wednesday, October 23rd at the Vancouver International Film Centre, will be followed by a technical preview by Side Effects Software. Beginning at 7:00pm, the presentation will focus on a key droid sequence and highlight how multiple departments came together to create one of the film’s most dynamic scenes. Read the rest of this entry »

Healthy and vibrant entrepreneurial communities at a local level are the heart of supporting and driving the growth of startups.  Startup Canada Communities is a pan-Canadian network to provide entrepreneurs with a single doorway to enter their local entrepreneur community to access mentors, space, funding and support to start and grow their businesses and to connect with other startup founders online and on the ground. This initiative is a response to the call-to-action from more than 20,000 entrepreneurs in 40 communities who made their voices heard during the Startup Canada National Tour last year, calling for stronger, more connected and more active local startup communities to accelerate entrepreneur success. Read the rest of this entry »