Village Gamer

The ACM SIGGRAPH Vancouver Chapter has announced the calendar of events for the upcoming SPARK Animation Festival taking place this September 10 – 14 at the Vancity and Empire Theatres. With featured speakers from Dreamworks and Pixar, along with animation pioneer Ed Hooks, movie screenings and more, SPARK promises to be an exciting event to attend. Please see the Vancouver SIGGRAPH event page for further information and to purchase tickets.

Schedule of Events:

Day 1 – September 10 at the Empire Theatre
A Night With Dreamworks

Day 2 – September 11 at the Vancity Theatre
A Night With Blue Sky Studios

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Leading worldwide videogame publisher Lighthouse Interactive, part of SilverBirch Inc.’s (SVB : TSXV) video game division, announced today that it has signed a Publisher License Agreement with Nintendo of Europe GmbH. This allows Lighthouse Interactive to publish and develop products on Wii™ and Nintendo DS™ platforms.

Steve Wall, Cofounder and Vice President of Lighthouse Interactive said, “This is a significant milestone in the continued growth of the company. It gives us the opportunity to further expand our product catalogue and take Lighthouse Interactive to the next level. We look forward to working with Nintendo.”

Government of Canada Advances Business Opportunities in Partnership With Emily Carr University of Art and Design

Vancouver, B.C. — The Government of Canada is supporting the Emily Carr University of Art and Design (ECUAD) in its efforts to promote business growth and technology commercialization through an expanded Industry Liaison Office.

Mark Warawa, Member of Parliament for Langley, announced a $100,000 investment today on behalf of the Honourable Rona Ambrose, President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Minister of Western Economic Diversification.

“Long-term economic prosperity requires vision and leadership,” said MP Warawa. “Our government is proud to support the Emily Carr University in its efforts to increase technology commercialization, forge industrial partnerships and drive economic development.”

Funding will help ECUAD strengthen its Industry Liaison Office. The newly expanded office will develop and advance opportunities for technology commercialization across a wide range of industries. The initiative will help develop Intellectual Property (IP) policies and procedures, while an increased emphasis on mentoring will provide opportunities for faculty, staff and students to engage in entrepreneurial activities.

It is expected that the Industry Liaison Office will expand and create new partnerships and collaborative projects through an ECU/Industry partnership program and the “Entrepreneur-in-Residence” program launch. Additional outreach activities will include a feasibility study for a corporate affiliate program and a graduate internship placement magazine.

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Organizers of the International Digital Cinema Festival, Symposium and RED ONE boot camp have announced a date change due to an unexpected level of interest and industry participation. The Festival, which was originally scheduled for July 19 – 20 2008 has been moved to October, 2008. Further details will be announced on the International Digital Cinema Festival site as they become available.

About The Festival

The International Digital Cinema Festival, Symposium and RED ONE Boot Camp is the best opportunity this year for filmmakers and others in the motion media industry, to acquire in-depth knowledge of the RED ONE 35mm Digital Cinema camera that is taking the industry by storm. This groundbreaking 2 day event taking place at the Canadian Film Center features a symposium where leading digital cinema experts will provide deep insights into the emergent opportunities created by new digital motion media technologies.

Following the Symposium, participants will commence a 2 day Boot Camp, experiencing the RED ONE camera in a production environment on the first day. The second day focuses on working with the RED footage in a variety of post production pipelines.

On the Saturday evening there is the IDCF party and on Sunday evening, in a preview of the Digital Cinema Festival’s RED FEST, the short film Directed by Ian Sun during the Boot Camp will open the RED SHORTS program. The RED ONE Digital Cinema Boot Camp and Symposium is a great opportunity to experience the Future of Cinema and network with the people who are creating it.

The Society for New Communications Research, a nonprofit think tank focused on the latest developments in new media and communications, today announced a call for entries for the 2008 Excellence in New Communications Awards.

This prestigious awards program honors the work of corporations, governmental and nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, media outlets and individuals who are innovating the use of social media, ICT, mobile media, online communities and virtual worlds and collaborative technologies in the areas of business, media, and professional communications, including advertising, marketing, public relations and corporate communications, as well as entertainment, education, politics, and social initiatives.

Awards are granted in six divisions: Corporate, Government, Media, Nonprofit/NGO, Academic, and Technology Innovation (for New Communications and Social Media Technology Vendors), and in seven categories: Online Reputation Management; Behind the Firewall; Blogger Relations; External Communications & Communities; New Media Creation; Collaboration & Co-creation; and Mobile Media. In addition, the Society’s Fellows will select and honor the Visionary of the Year, the Innovator of the Year, and the Brand of the Year.

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VICTORIA – The Premier’s Technology Council has released its eleventh report, which focuses on three topics: Clean technology, regional innovation and industrial design.

Key recommendations in this report include:

Clean Technology:
Government has been proactive in addressing climate change and promoting the development
of clean technologies. Government’s regulatory reform office has also been successful in creating
effective and efficient regulatory regimes. By applying the expertise of the regulatory reform office to
some specific, green-related challenges, government can ensure B.C. remains at the forefront of clean
technology development.

• Government’s regulatory reform office should focus its efforts on the application of clean
technologies and work with the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions to anticipate future
regulatory needs.
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Electronic Arts (Canada) Inc., located in Burnaby BC is looking for gamers who are interested in becoming Play Testers. They run approximately five focus groups per week, and are always looking for new play testers of all ages and skill levels. This position is unpaid, but testers do receive food while they at the EA Campus, as well as free EA games. You will be able to test games such as Need for Speed, FaceBreaker, Dead Space, Skate, NHL, FIFA, NBA and more. You can fill in their online application here or if you are under 18 years of age, download the PDF file, get it signed by a parent or guardian, and then mail it in to EA Game Ops.

The International Game Developers’ Association (of which this writer is a member) will be launching a project to remember those game pioneers who came before, as well as those who have become an important part of today’s industry. Begun by the IGDA’s Game Preservation SIG , the Memorial Project will ” contain biographies of professionals from around the world, and is welcome to anyone who worked on a game or with the Industry in the past.”

There will also be memorial areas for those who designed paper-based games, as well as “notable individuals from the toy industry, critical game studies, and computer science, whose work has greatly affected the ways in which we understand, play, and design our games.”

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Toronto – Video games are increasingly becoming a part of family activities, according to a new study by Ipsos Reid, and commissioned by the Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC.) Part of the reason, the survey suggests, is because parents perceive a greater availability of games for their children.

According to the study, 69 per cent of adults agree there is currently a good selection of options available that are well-suited to playing video games as a family.

“Stories about the video game market are often saturated in some of the big, hot-button sales titles like Grand Theft Auto or Halo – great games, but definitely not for families. The truth of the matter is family games represent the bulk of the market, and it’s clear from this survey that parents are seeing that, too,” said Nicole Helsberg, Director of Communications for ESAC.

Data from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), the independent body that rates video games, seems to support this. According to the ESRB, 59 per cent of the games rated for sale in North America in 2007 were rated for everyone (E) and another 15 per cent were rated for everyone ten years and older (E10+.)

“And this is the story that needs to be told: video games can be a positive option for family time. Parents are playing with their kids, and embracing gaming as a way to spend time together as a family,” said Helsberg.

Additional findings from the Ipsos Reid survey of Canadian households include:

• Forty per cent of parents say that video games are increasingly becoming a part a family activity in their households.

• Forty-one per cent of parents agree say that they’d prefer their child to play video games than watch television.

• Fifty-seven per cent of parents play video games with their children.

• Among adults aged 18+ who have played video games in the past 4 weeks, the average (mean) age of a Canadian gamer is 40.3 years.

Way back in March of this year, Vancouver Film School announced that they were partnering with YouTube to create a scholarship challenge. YouTubers were given the chance to win one of three full scholarships for whichever VFS programme they wanted to pursue, all they had to do was produce a three minute short film around the subject “What Matters To You”.

The response to the competition was widespread, with hundreds entries coming in from all over the globe. The Vancouver Film School team whittled through the entries, and placed the top ten on the VFS YouTube channel and allowed the public to vote on their favourites.

The top three videos have been announced, and they are:

Jorge R. Canedo Estrada, 17, of Mexico (Digital Design)

Christopher Harrell, 25, of the United States (Digital Design)

Stefan Ramirez Pérez, 19, of Germany (Foundation Visual Art & Design)

You can view the three winning entries right here on VFS’ YouTube channel.