Village Gamer

Montreal – Interactive entertainment company Ludia Inc., and CBS Consumer Products announced today that Ludia will create video games based on the seven-time Emmy® award-winning “The Amazing Race” television series. The North America-wide deal will see the reality TV sensation launch games across multiple platforms in tandem with the show’s 14th season.

“The heart-pounding adventure, around-the-world competition and postcard worthy settings of ‘The Amazing Race’ are perfectly suited for video game adaptation,” said Alex Thabet, Founder and CEO of Ludia. “We are thrilled to add such a high-energy, suspenseful franchise to our slate, and we will infuse those key elements into a highly social, team-based multiplayer game that unites duos in cooperative game play to compete against rivals.”
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Vancouver – If you’re walking around Vancouver and notice some real-life packaged action figures, blame Hot Tomali Communications, an integrated marketing agency located in Vancouver, B.C. The action-packed professionals are part of a new campaign titled “Job Candidate 2.0”, which promotes the launch of Resume Hut who has expanded to Vancouver after operating for 23 years in Victoria. The expansion is part of a larger strategy in which Resume Hut aims to expand across North America over the next five years.

The unique idea for the campaign came as a result of a combination of factors. “When we were approached with the idea of executing a campaign for Resume Hut, we needed to come up with something that was engaging, memorable, and cost-effective,” says Clayton Mitchell, Hot Tomali’s Strategic Planner. “Working with Resume Hut, we started with a complete rebranding including a new logo and the positioning line ‘Position Yourself’. The key insight we extracted during our creative process was that Resume Hut helps you position yourself more effectively for the jobs you want—in a sense, repackaging you.”

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Toronto/San Francisco – As media assets for Web, gaming, marketing, computer-aided design (CAD), film and television continue to grow, the need for an easy-to-use, yet cost-effective workflow asset tracking system has never been more immediate. Southpaw Technology provides the answer with today’s launch of TACTIC™ 2.5, delivering the first enterprise Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution to tackle large asset management problems from a workflow perspective. TACTIC 2.5 increases productivity by properly indexing and tracking each component of every project to create a streamlined workflow with an automated central repository of valuable assets.

Created by users from the 3D and animation industry, TACTIC 2.5 combines a robust server with an intuitive drag-and-drop Web Client to create a superior DAM system which is highly scalable, secure and very fast. Developed and used in the most demanding media pipeline environments, TACTIC 2.5 simplifies and solves the most challenging DAM issues faced by today’s film and game producers, designers, architects, educators and many more.

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Developer – Big Fish Games
Publisher – Big Fish Games
Released – November 26 2008
Rating: E – T
Game Score: 10/10
Official Website

In this sequel to Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst, players again take on the role of a Master Detective trying to unravel the evil mysteries which inhabit the old Ravenhearst Manor. Picking up where Ravenhearst left off, the story revolves around the fate of yet more ghosts who are still trapped in the eerie mansion.

The tone for Return to Ravenhearst is set right from the opening frames of the game. A moody and haunting soundtrack, complete with timely sound effects lets the gamer know that this chapter in the franchise is not going to be a pleasant jaunt through the park. The game’s environmental artists have developed an atmosphere that exudes creepiness – everything from the artfully created lighting to triggered animations immerses the player into the mood of the story.

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Story2.OH and giraffesoft announce the launch of Hailey Hacks, a web series for kids 8-13. The funny magazine-style show is hosted by Hailey, played by Marlee Maslove, and demonstrates cool things kids can do with their computers

Toronto – Story2.OH and giraffesoft introduce Hailey Hacks, a series of web videos starring Toronto grade 6 student, Marlee Maslove. Hailey (Maslove) is the Hermione Grainger of web wizardry showing 8-13 year olds all kinds of cool things they can do with their computers.

“Kids have these very powerful machines at their fingertips,” says series creator Jill Golick, “but no one’s teaching them the incredible scope of what they can do with them.” The mandate of the series is to broaden tweens’ use of the computer beyond games, Google and YouTube to include the wider world of blogs, widgets, RSS feeds, social bookmarks and the amazing tools that exist on the web for creating, collaborating and communicating.

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Toronto – Ronald D. Moore, Writer and Executive Producer of “Battlestar Galactica” is joining the Master Class speaker lineup at the Banff World Television Festival (BANFF). BANFF celebrates its 30th edition at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Canada, June 7–10, 2009.

Ronald Moore

“Banff’s Master Class series host some of the world’s most talented and successful TV creators,” commented Peter Vamos, BANFF Executive Director. “This is the place to hear firsthand the incredible knowledge and experience directly from the industry’s leading producers.”

“Battlestar Galactica” has been honored with a prestigious Peabody Award and twice as an official selection of the AFI’s (American Film Institute) top television programs. In 2006 Moore was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Writing in a Dramatic Series, and in 2008 he won an Emmy for the “Battlestar Galactica” webisodes.

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New effect plug-ins to be available for Wwise

Montreal/San Francisco – Audiokinetic Inc. and McDSP announced today that they have entered a technical partnership. As part of this agreement, McDSP will develop plug-ins for Wwise, Audiokinetic’s audio pipeline solution.

Audiokinetic is the leading audio solution provider for the video game industry. Its flagship product, Wwise, revolutionizes the traditional game audio development process and allows users to audit, profile, and modify sounds in real-time within the game itself.

McDSP, a California-based software company, has been providing high-quality effect plug-ins for the last 10 years. Products like ML4000 (Multi-band Dynamics and Mastering Limiter) and Revolver (Flexible Convolution Reverb) reflect the company’s reputation of excellence, and have won several industry awards. Until now, McDSP plug-ins were available for Pro Tools only, and targeted the film and music industry.

As part of the partnership with Audiokinetic, McDSP will provide Wwise users with a selection of effect plug-ins, which will be accessible directly in Wwise’s user interface. Details about the plug-ins that will be available, as well as licensing particulars will be made public shortly; the plug-ins will be available in Wwise later in 2009.
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Ottawa – The Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) is pleased to announce that Norm Bolen is joining the organization as President and CEO, effective April 15th.

Norm Bolen

Mr. Bolen is the former Executive Vice President, Content, for Alliance Atlantis Communications where he had overall programming responsibility for thirteen Canadian specialty networks, and where he led Alliance Atlantis’ web based and emerging new media content and all broadcast operations. Prior to joining Alliance Atlantis, Norm spent 21 years at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a journalist and executive. In his last position at the CBC he was the head of Network Television Current Affairs.

Mr. Bolen is currently Chair of the Banff World Television Festival, co-Chair of the Hot Docs International Documentary Festival and a Director of the National Screen Institute. Most recently, he has been a media consultant and a director of mDialog, a web-based high-resolution video distribution platform.

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Toronto – Voice actors around the world are taking note of news hot off the press, released on Voices.com’s blog, through an article indicating who the winners are of the industry’s coveted Voicey Awards. Voice overs are spoken word recordings performed by voice actors, perhaps better known to the world as unseen narrators, breathing life into every digital medium imaginable. The Voicey Awards pay tribute to works and contributions made over the year by individual and collaborating voice talent.

Winners of the 3rd Annual Voicey Awards include:

Best Male Voice: Dave DeAndrea
Best Female Voice: Amy Taylor
Best New Voice: Michelle Ann Dunphy
Best Foreign Voice: Wuzhi Lu
Best Child Voice: Grace Taylor
Best Teen Voice: Sophie Neveu
Best Voice Team: Robert Jadah and Diane Havens
Best Personal Branding: Julie Williams
Lifetime Achievement: Don Morrow

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Ottawa/San Francisco – Unlimi-Tech Software, the pioneer in accelerated file transfers is pleased to announce the selection of FileCatalyst Workflow by SEGA® Corporation. The deployment of FileCatalyst Workflow allows SEGA to successfully manage and transfer game development files, including game-supporting multimedia files, raw and binary game code.

The FileCatalyst Workflow software application is a unique file-based workflow solution that offers comprehensive tracking and management of files as they are processed through a digital workflow. The uniqueness of the application is exemplified by its ability to accelerate file transfers as they move from one project node to the other. Advanced acceleration algorithms allow for improved bandwidth utilization and data reduction – leading to file transfer rates of 100x faster than traditional FTP.

SEGA employs a global network that spans around the world with headquarters in the US, Japan, and Europe. File transfers between these locations were slow until now, due to high network latency, and tracking/workflow was non-existent.
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