Village Gamer

Edmonton’s XGen Studios, the independent developer behind hit WiiWare™ title Defend Your Castle™ is pleased to announce the upcoming release of the all-new Super Motherload™ on Nintendo’s WiiWare. Featuring the classic arcade-style digging gameplay already enjoyed by millions, Super Motherload is a new 4-player digging adventure for Nintendo Wii™ players.

“We’re pleased to announce that the next title in the Motherload series, which has already garnered in excess of 50 Million plays online, will be multiplayer co-op digging adventure Super Motherload. Fans already familiar with classic Motherload should be pleasantly surprised with the addition of many new features alongside gameplay which holds true to the series’ originator” said Skye Boyes, Founder & CEO of XGen.

Super Motherload challenges players to dig deep into the substrata of Mars as they collect increasingly rare and valuable minerals. Players can purchase powerful upgrades and supplies for their mining pods as they progress through the storyline and prosper, encountering hidden dangers, quakes, and more than a few other surprises.

* 4-player jump-in gameplay (Mine Martian minerals with up to 3 pals!)
* Un-lockable pods, each with their own unique abilities
* New, never-before seen minerals, treasures, and dangers
* More areas to explore, including subterranean facilities
* Classic digging action with an expanded storyline and extended gameplay
* Upgrade your digging machine with lightning-fast drills, powerful engines, mega-tough hulls, and special abilities
* Use explosives, quantum teleporters, and nano-bots in your search for the fabled Motherload

Motherload received the Best Action Game award in Miniclip’s 2005 Online Game Awards, where it also received a nomination in the “Best Online Game” category. Official ratings for Super Motherload are pending.

Xgen is also pleased to announce that it is partnering with Czech studio Amanita Design to bring Amanita’s award-winning puzzle-adventure game Machinarium™ to Nintendo’s WiiWare.

“As the subject of enormous critical acclaim, this is an honor long overdue for Machinarium.” said Jordan Dubuc, Director of Operations for XGen. “We’re very fortunate to be working with the talented team at Amanita to share this interactive work of art with a whole new audience of gamers.”

Machinarium is a point-and-click adventure game filled with fun and devious puzzles, released in 2009 for PC & Mac. Set in a richly detailed world and filled with charming characters, the game features a little robot hero who’s been thrown out to the scrap yard behind the city and must return to confront the Black Cap Brotherhood and rescue his robot girlfriend. Featuring dozens of beautiful hand-drawn environments and a meticulously crafted musical score, Machinarium is a visual marvel and a pleasure for the senses.

Machinarium received the Excellence in Visual Art award at the 12th annual Independent Games Festival, as well as the Best Soundtrack award from PC Gamer in 2009. It was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences and a Milthon award in the Best Indie Games category at the Paris Game Festival. Various publications have named it Adventure Game of The Year and Best Indie Game, as well as runner-up for PC Game of the Year 2009.

Unity Technologies, provider of the Unity development platform for highly interactive 3D content on the web, iPhone, iPad, PC, Mac, Android, Wii™, Xbox 360 and PlayStation®3, today announced that Unity is powering the virtual visualization experience for Scion’s brand new Canadian website.

“We chose Unity after seeing it used to create realistic 3D environments in the gaming world and thought why not try to bring that experience to building your car. So many of us grew up customizing our cars for different racing games and expect the ability to personalize our cars in real life too,” said Jeremy Schaab, Brand Manager, Scion Canada. “Scionnation.ca makes it easy for people to customize, build and price the Scion of their dreams at home or in our dealerships using the latest touch screen technology.”

Scion brings Toyota brand quality to the table but with a distinct twist – delivering designs and vehicles custom-built for personal expression that target a different market with an entirely distinct mission. Scion set out to build vehicles tailored to the needs and tastes of a new generation of trendsetting drivers. The outcome is a complete range of iconic urban vehicles that combine attitude, affordability, quality and fuel economy. Each Scion offers a broad array of dealer-installed Scion accessories and TRD Performance Parts that give every Scion driver the means to boldly express their personality and individuality.

“Scion made the right choice in selecting the Unity development platform. It allowed us to easily conceptualize what Scion wanted and gave us ample time to perfect it,” said Jaja Ishibashi, Director, Business Development, Works Zebra USA, Inc. “There is no way we could have done the site launch with three vehicles with any other development platform. Unity’s studio environment gave us a realtime WYSIWYG visualization, helping us to see what we could expect at runtime.”

Unity makes it possible for users to experience this compelling new vehicle lineup and personalize them with accessories virtually like never before – taking interactivity to a whole new level. Consumers can “build” their vehicle with every possible combination of colors, wheels and TRD performance parts and then view their car from any angle and rotate with the same type of motion used on smartphones today. Each accessory has animations that “fly” in and show exactly where they are installed and what they look and sound like. Consumers can send their personalized Scion to a dealership and arrange a test drive. Fully customized vehicles can then be built to order and delivered in a couple of days.

“Rich and interactive 3D can be used to increase customer engagement and brand loyalty like nothing else,” said David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies. “Today’s web savvy generation expects a high level of interaction and aesthetics, and online customization and visualization will become increasingly important for every online business. Even though Unity was made for games, it turns out that the exact same technology is right at home for so many other uses.”

Mayor David Miller and the City of Toronto have proclaimed that September 13-18, 2010 will be MOBILEINNOVATIONWEEK, recognizing the 2nd annual event for the global mobile industry in Toronto. Kicking off the week-long conference is MIW 2010 Hack-A-Thon where local Toronto mobile developers will leverage the City of Toronto’s OpenTO.org Open Data Framework to conceive and create mobile web and apps for social benefit and community services.

“Toronto’s talented mobile developer community is passionate about improving this city,” said Michele Perras, director of the Mobile Experience Innovation Centre (MEIC), co-producer of MOBILEINNOVATIONWEEK, and host for the MIW 2010 Hack-A-Thon.

MIW 2010 Hack-A-Thon will feature two days of presentations, workshops and networking opportunities in addition to “dreaming and building” working sessions. Mobile and web app concepts will be judged by the community and revealed later during the Mobile ThinkTank Series event.

“I’m proud of the City of Toronto’s commitment to the long-term growth of strategic industry sectors like the mobile industry,” said Michael Williams, general manager, Economic Development and Culture, City of Toronto. “Events like Hack-A-Thon and MOBILEINNOVATIONWEEK not only nurture our mobile talent but also help position Toronto as leader, globally. The City is excited about this opportunity to leverage our open data resources as developed through the efforts of our CIO Dave Wallace.”

“Hack-A-Thon will not only showcase our creativity and technical expertise but will result in real solutions that benefit the more than 5-million people that call the GTA home,” adds Jason Silva, founder JBBMobile and curator of the MIW 2010 Hack-A-Thon.

The MIW 2010 Hack-A-Thon will take place from 9:00a.m. – 6:00p.m. on September 11th and 12th at the Ontario College of Art & Design’s auditorium and will be hosted by the Mobile Experience Innovation Centre with Toronto mobile, software developers, designers, marketers, and social media experts as well as with creative and passionate residents dreaming and building mobile and web application to benefit the City of Toronto, its residents, businesses and its services.

“From September 13-18 Toronto will be the centre of the mobile universe,” said Michael J. O’Farrell of The Mobile Institute, founder and co-producer of MOBILEINNOVATIONWEEK. “MIW 2010 Hack-A-Thon is the kick-off event to show what we can do for the greater good once we set our minds – and our world class mobile developer communities to it.”

Rounding out the opening weekend of Mobile Innovation Week will be the IN 2010 kick-off reception, which will take place starting at 6:00pm on Sunday, September 12th, and be hosted in a space featuring an exclusive preview of the START exhibition – an interactive exhibition featuring the work of independent game designers from OCAD University.

Curated by Emma Westecott, Assistant Professor of Games Design for OCAD University, this exhibition will allow guests to experience the best in up-and-coming game design, as well as meet and chat with the designers themselves. Wall-sized projections and personal gameplay stations will make the space come alive, while leaving plenty of room and opportunities for networking with fellow IN 2010 delegates and speakers.

The Canada Media Fund (CMF) is beginning a new round of consultation with the industry this fall as it develops its program guidelines for 2011-2012. Join Valerie Creighton, President and CEO, and Stéphane Cardin, VP of Industry and Public Affairs, for an opportunity to provide your input. With the support of the CMF, this session (and the IN closing keynote) is open to IN 2010 delegates and the industry at large.

If you are not a IN 2010 registered delegate but would like to attend this session please register with the CMF or register for IN 2010 now. The CMF consultations will take place at the Carlu on September 14th from 3:15p.m. until 5:20p.m.