Village Gamer

Ubisoft has released a video dev diary for Assassin’s Creed: The Fall, a comic book written and illustrated by Award-winning artists Cameron Stewart and Karl Kerschl and colored by Nadine Thomas, produced by Ubi Workshop and published by DC Comics. The first of the three issues will release on November 10th, 2010.

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Assassin’s Creed: The Fall follows 19th century Russian assassin Nikolai Orelov as he strives to claim an artifact of immense power from the hands of the Templars, encountering historical figures such as the ruthless Tsar Alexander III. Meanwhile, in modern times, a troubled young drifter copes with unsettling visions of a possible past life – visions that have irreversible consequences for the present.

Eidos Montreal’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution is going to get a special preview tomorrow (today in AU) at The Mana Bar, a video game bar down in Brisbane, Australia. A team from Square Enix will be presenting a game demonstration, which will be followed by an exclusive video from the developers. Prizes and competitions giving away unique Deus Ex merchandise to the bar’s clientele during the day.

Vancouver’s Loud Crow Interactive Inc., a digital book publisher founded by a group of interactive entertainment veterans, announced today the redefining of e-books with its first release, PopOut!™ The Tale of Peter Rabbit, now available for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch in all non-European territories.

With decades of combined experience in interactive digital media, the team at Loud Crow has applied its creative talents and technical expertise to revolutionize the reading experience. “For us, it’s all about making the reading experience fresher and better than ever,” says Calvin Wang, Founder and CEO. “We blend traditional content with rich, interactive elements such as audio, animation, and even touch and tilt gestures. Using the original illustrations and text, we’re able to achieve an authentic, yet modern experience that our readers will find unique and inspiring.”

The publisher’s first title in the PopOut!™ series of interactive children’s books brings the age-old Beatrix Potter classic to life with signature PopOut!™ spin-wheels, pull-tabs, spring-mounted elements, and objects that literally pop out of the page. Complete with a beautiful classical piano soundtrack, fun and immersive sound effects, and a charming vocal performance, this is an experience you and your family won’t want to miss.

ItWowed.Me, a new smartphone technology platform developed by Majestic Media Ltd., allows businesses and brands to drive audiences to Facebook fan pages and convert them into fans.

“Like” something in real life? By placing a Quick Response (QR) code on real world objects, smartphone users can now scan these codes with their iPhone, Android, BlackBerry or any smartphone device and instantly “Like” the real world product or business on Facebook, thus sharing it with their friends on the social media site. Read the rest of this entry »

Frima Studio has put its popular puzzle title Big Brain Wolf on sale for $4.99 on Steam, a 50% reduction in price, until Friday, October 22 – what a howlingly good deal!

Big Brain Wolf is a downloadable 2D point-and-click adventure game for puzzle lovers. As an asthmatic, vegetarian wolf in training, you will face over sixty unique puzzles and six brain-training exercises, all while encountering a colorful twist on the characters from classic fairy tales of old, including a chubby Red Riding Hood, a long-nosed lawyer, three little pigs, seven dwarves and many more. This crime story takes place in a fairy tale kingdom and features a slew of hilarious characters. Big Brain Wolf is available now for PC and Mac, and can be downloaded at Bigbrainwolf.com or Steam for $9.99 and $4.99, respectively.

DHX Media has announced that WTTW, Chicago’s premier public television station, in partnership with DHX Media’s W!LDBRAIN Entertainment and The Michael Cohen Group, LLC, has won a competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Education to support a new five-year Ready to Learn initiative. Ready to Learn supports the development of educational programming and media for preschool and early elementary school children and their families. WTTW will team with DHX Media subsidiary W!LDBRAIN Entertainment, the award-winning production company and animation studio based in Los Angeles, to develop UMIGO (you make it go), a transmedia property created by Michael Polis, President of W!LDBRAIN Entertainment and Executive Producer of Yo Gabba Gabba!.

UMIGO will also be developed in collaboration with the Michael Cohen Group, LLC, a research and evaluation firm recognized for its work with children, media and education, and responsible for formative and summative testing of the UMIGO property. UMIGO will launch as a web-based property and is intended to later transition into a television series and line of consumer products.

“UMIGO is a fun and engaging virtual world where young minds can let their imaginations run wild,” said Polis. “When we were kids, we thought of all sorts of incredible things to invent. UMIGO will test the boundaries of even the most creative imaginations while providing a solid foundation in mathematics,” he continued. “Our multi-platform strategy will make UMIGO accessible to children and families of all socio-economic levels. We look forward to collaborating with WTTW and the Michael Cohen Group on a property that contributes to giving all kids an equal opportunity for success in school,” he added.

This is WTTW’s second Ready to Learn grant. Past Ready to Learn initiative grants from the U.S. Department of Education have funded some of the country’s most beloved children’s educational programming, such as WordWorld, Between the Lions, Sesame Street and SUPER WHY!. The most watched public television station in America, WTTW has 1.5 million weekly viewers and serves a four-state region.

Cloudcor today announced that Spirent Communications, a Gold partner at UP 2010 Cloud Computing Conference, will deliver a keynote address on cloud testing best practices and methodologies that help end-users in enterprises, as well as government agencies, streamline network operations and significantly mitigate their risk of migration to cloud environments.

“We are delighted to continue our world-class relationship with Spirent as our Gold partner for the UP 2010 conference,” said Khazret Sapenov, UP 2010 chairman. “Spirent has led the way and set the benchmark for excellence in testing and validating real-world scenarios in the cloud across both virtual, physical and hybrid environments.”

While cloud computing offers tremendous possibilities, it is critical to understand the limitations of this framework across key network attributes such as performance, availability, security and scalability (PASS). Real-world testing of a cloud computing environment is a key step toward putting any concerns in these areas to rest.

“Cloudcor has been spearheading the effort to uncover opportunities and issues in the cloud space while providing world-class guidance around key cloud concerns,” said Martin Vickery, marketing communications manager at Spirent. “We are committed to enabling IT professionals to leverage the benefits of cloud computing while overcoming challenges and ensuring a successful transition to this architecture.”

As a global hub for entrepreneurial success stories, Toronto will be host to the first MaRS Innovation Summit. Confirmed participants include entrepreneurs and thought leaders from Canada, Israel and the United States who are all actively engaged in financing, marketing and supporting innovation and start-ups in the knowledge economy.

This one-day event uniting industry leaders with innovative entrepreneurs will take place on Thursday, October 28, 2010 at the MaRS Collaboration Centre, 101 College Street.

The day of discussion and networking will be co-hosted by Dr. Raphael Hofstein, PhD, of MaRS Innovation and The Hon. Jerry Grafstein, QC, of The Toronto Institute of Public Policy.

Special keynote presentations by:

Gordon Nixon, President, Royal Bank of Canada
John Kunschner, Senior Partner and Managing Director, Landmark Ventures
Dr. Michael S. Perry, Venture Partner, Bay City Capital; President and Chief Medical Officer, Poniard Pharmaceuticals
The Hon. Glenn Murray, Ministry of Research and Innovation, Province of Ontario

Panel discussions and showcases include:

Successful Start-Ups: Successful Job Creators Tell Their Story
New Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Opportunities
Modern Approaches to Technology Transfer
Three Canadian Start-Up Case Studies

Panel discussions and showcases will feature presentations by:

Loudon Owen, Managing Partner, McLean Watson Capital
Jane Harvey, President, Jane Harvey Lawyers
Stuart MacDonald, President and CEO, Tripharbour; Founder, Expedia.ca
Peter van der Grinten, General Manager US/Canada, dbMotion
Ram Liebenthal, VP Marketing & Sales, Early Sense: Innovation Patient Technology
Paul Chipperton, CEO, Profound Medical Inc
Yigal Erlich, CEO, Yozma Ventures
Nissim Darvish, CEO, Orbimed
Yaakov Michlin, President and CEO, Yissum, Hebrew University
Jonathan Levy, Consul for Economic Affairs and Trade Commissioner, Government of Israel, Economic Mission to Canada
Dr. Ted Sargent, Xagenic
Michael Kraft, Chairman and CEO, Lingo Media
Amar Varma, President and Co-Founder, Xtreme Labs, Xtreme Venture Partners
S. Morry Blumenfeld, Chief Investment Officer, MediTech Partners
John Varghese, Managing Partner, VentureLink Group of Funds
Mark Usher, Partner, Wellington Financial LP

“The goal of our inaugural MaRS Innovation Summit is to bring together dynamic entrepreneurs with industry innovators and thought leaders of today, as we examine the aspects of economic growth in tangible terms,” says Dr. Hofstein, PhD.

Registration is open to the public and is expected to attract leaders and entrepreneurs on the front lines of economic growth, along with those behind the scenes as investors, innovators, deal-makers, deal-brokers and agents of change.

“We anticipate a prosperous day of networking and sharing ideas as we showcase start-ups in the bio-tech, pharma and hi-tech industry,” states The Hon. Jerry Grafstein, QC. “It will be a practical guide for venture capitalists and start-up entrepreneurs alike to navigate their way to capital and markets in order to create jobs in the knowledge economy that knows no borders.”

MaRS Innovation Summit is a collaborative partnership between MaRS Innovation, The Toronto Institute of Public Policy, MaRS Discovery District and Yissum Technology Transfer.

MaRS Innovation Summit 2010 appreciates the generous support of its many sponsors. A special thank you to Summit Sponsors Rogers Communications and Minden Gross LLP.

Leading Victoria event organizer Reboot Communications has just announced a new wholly-owned event, the Canadian Games Conference, debuting in Vancouver in May 2011 alongside the market-leading Canadian Videogame Awards.

This newly branded event will offer cutting-edge keynotes, lecture and roundtable content from local, national, and international game creators, focusing on core topics like game design and programming alongside emerging smartphone and social game areas. It will also include a bustling expo floor.

In addition, the 2011 Canadian Games Conference is also the first-ever event to feature a special ‘Best Of GDC’ content track, including some of the best speakers and topics from the worldwide Game Developers Conferences®.

This unique agreement for the ‘Best Of GDC’ content at the Canadian Games Conference evolves a partnership built around the former Game Developers Conference Canada™ event, which the Canadian Games Conference replaces and expands on. Reboot also ran the popular Vancouver International Game Summit from 2006 to 2008.

Reboot Communications CEO Greg Spievak commented of the announcement: “Our conference efforts in the game space have always been for the industry, by the industry. Our Canadian Games Conference advisory board is made of key representatives from across the country – and we expect the same vibrant growth and stimulating sessions that have defined our game events for the past four years.”

The UBM TechWeb Game Network’s global brand director Simon Carless added: “We’re delighted to continue working with Reboot and the Canadian game industry by contributing the ‘Best Of GDC’ track to the Canadian Games Conference – and look forward to supporting the conference and awards as one of the leading events in this vibrant space.”

The official dates for the Canadian Games Conference will be May 19-20th, 2011 at the Vancouver Conference Centre. Once again, the show will be preceded on May 18th by the 2nd Annual Canadian Videogame Awards, also produced by Reboot Communications in conjunction with Greedy Productions and DigiBC.

Keynotes and session topics for the Canadian Games Conference will be announced on the website soon.

Montreal game publisher Meridian4 and European publisher Headup Games are pleased to announce that the unique parody/strategy/RPG – Grotesque Tactics – Evil Heroes is now available digitally for $19.99 on most digital portals and is currently on sale on Steam with a 20% discount for the first week.

Grotesque Tactics combines the features and clichés of Western and Asian console RPGs like Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics and provides a highly addicting and entertaining change to the current, more serious role playing games. The game is focused on providing the fascination of the Strategy RPG genre, but also weaves a humorous storyline and plenty of amusing dialogue, poking fun at some of the most successful RPGs, such as Oblivion, Final Fantasy and Lord of the Rings. In chess, a Grotesque is a problem or endgame study which features a particularly unlikely initial position, especially one in which White fights with a very small force against a much larger black army. Grotesques are generally intended to be humorous.

To protect the kingdom from the merciless cult “The Dark Church” which has murdered all of the kingdom’s heroes and knights, you will have to hire dubious soldiers and rescue jealous maidens who will follow you into combat as your groupies. Up to 10 heroes are deployed in tactical battles to take on the Dark Church with their mysterious special abilities.

Features

· Turn based tactical battles with humorous animations not seen in any RPG
· Distinctive party members such as the arrogant Holy Avatar, the blood thirsty Vampire Solitaire, the sweet but hot-tempered Angel Angelina and many more
· Gorgeous village landscapes and dark, sinister dungeons
· Scantily dressed maidens to be freed from the grasp of merciless monsters
· Enormous, highly detailed and very angry end bosses
· Classical RPG elements: quests, treasures, trade, leveling up and out­fitting a party of unique heroes
· Enjoyable multiple choice dialogues and conversation puzzles in the style of classic adventures, such as Monkey Island or Maniac Mansion

As competitive FPS fans eagerly await the arrival of Clan Mode to Mission Against Terror next week, Wicked Interactive pulled out yet another surprise today when it announced a new 1v1 ladder for its popular free-to-play shooter M.A.T. that is chock-full of prizes and fun for gamers of every skill level, particularly those who enjoy their fragging with a healthy side order of competitive play. Read the rest of this entry »

The first-ever study on Canadians’ viewing habits of online video conducted by Ipsos Reid and M Consulting finds 80 per cent of all Canadians indicate watching some video content online. Among those that have watched video online 41 per cent watch more online video content than they did last year. A growing audience means a bigger business opportunity for brand marketers and the Canadian film community to produce original online video content.

“A loyalty of sorts is being developed for online video,” says Bill Mohri, president of M Consulting who commissioned the study, which will be unveiled in full at the MergeMedia: Online Branded Entertainment Conference on October 22 at the MaRS Discovery Centre in Toronto. “There is the potential that a critical mass of Canadians could be watching more online video than TV much sooner than experts predicted.”

While males between the ages of 18 to 24 comprise the biggest, most frequent audience, 41 per cent of all Canadians say they watch online video at least a few times per week. And the study found that people who view online video at least once per day are more receptive to branded entertainment, with 18 per cent indicating positive purchase intent for brands that have developed entertaining content online.

“It’s clear that brands have an impact with more frequent viewers of online video. It’s a more engaging, interactive medium,” says Bill Mohri. “Brand marketers and content producers need to pay attention to this growth area because it’s much less expensive than TV advertising and has real potential to reach consumers more effectively than TV.”

More research highlights include the following:

* Almost 100 per cent of Canadians between the ages of 18 to 24 watch some video content online, with 76 per cent watching at least a few times per week.
* Even though the incidence of viewership declines with age, fully 68 per cent of Canadians over the age of 55 indicate watching some video content online.
* 49 per cent of respondents cited poor production quality as a main downside to watching videos online compared to TV.
* Comedy is the most popular online video genre, with 65 per cent of respondents who already watch video on the internet say they watch this genre most often.

The MergeMedia Conference will showcase full results of this benchmark study and explore implications through an interactive presentation by Ray Kong, senior vice president at Ipsos Reid, which includes a group of actual respondents who participated in the study that will be on-hand to answer audience questions about individual online video viewing habits.

The full-day conference will also bring together leading marketers and content producers to provide insights on online branded entertainment. The roster is long and includes Canadian producer Fred Fuchs, actress Illeana Douglas who created and stars in IKEA’s hit series Easy to Assemble, Alison Leung, marketing director, hair care and deodorants at Unilever Canada and Joe LaMuraglia, social media manager at General Motors.

For most Canadians, coming up with an idea for a successful small business is the easy part. Finding the money to get started is what’s hard. Nearly 70 per cent of Canadians believe the idea is easy, but even more, 72 per cent, say they’re concerned about finding start up money.

These are among the findings of a second Canada-wide survey commissioned by Intuit Inc., maker of QuickBooks, to determine Canadians’ attitudes around entrepreneurship. The latest effort coincides with the start of Canada’s Small Business Week 2010.

Several key motivators were cited by poll respondents who were interested in starting a small business:

– A desire to no longer work for someone else (43 per cent)
– Control of their own destiny – (43 per cent)
– A means to a better quality of life – (35 per cent – up six points
from February)
– Starting something new – (33 per cent – up nine points from February)

But they’re concerned with the challenges of getting started. These include

– Finding the money for start-up costs – (72 per cent)
– Convincing lenders that they’re a good risk – (71 per cent)
– Navigating the tax and finance requirements – (61 per cent)

HST is also a big factor in Ontario and British Columbia. Half of those surveyed in those provinces believe it will do more to discourage people from starting a business, while only five per cent say it would have a positive impact. This may be why a slight majority of Canadians (51 per cent) believe it’s harder to start a business today compared to a decade ago.

Younger Canadians seem more optimistic about starting a business. Forty-two per cent of respondents between the ages of 18-34 say it’s more difficult to start a business today compared to 61 per cent of Canadians age 55 and over.

Despite this, more than one third of all respondents say they are interested in starting their own business, and 43 per cent of those say they plan to do that within the next two years.

“There’s no shortage of reasons for Canadians to stifle entrepreneurial pursuits but, we’ve found that simply isn’t happening,” said Barb Anderson, Intuit’s product marketing leader for financial management software. “The market uncertainty, grim headlines and general anxiety of the past six months haven’t affected the entrepreneurial drive.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Canadian New Media Awards have announced the full slate of finalists for the 2010 Canadian New Media Awards, which will be presented at a gala affair in Toronto on December 1st. Congratulations to all of these very talented developers, designers, teachers and leaders.

Company of the Year – Sponsored by Deloitte

* Frima Studio
* I Love Rewards
* Metroleap
* Syncapse Corp.
* Vision Critical

Promising New Company of the Year – Sponsored by RBC Royal Bank

* Bitstrips Inc.
* Entrinsic
* Polar Mobile
* Trend Hunter

Best Branded Entertainment

* Cliff Your Ride | The Vacuum Design Inc.
* Pedigree Adoption Drive | Proximity Canada
* The Weak Shop | DDB Canada
* Urbania.ca | TOXA

Best In Canadian Culture – Interactive

* Days of Remembrance | GlobalNews.ca
* Le Tapis Rose de Catherine | Les Productions Rose Nanan
* Redress Remix | Stitch Media
* Tourism Montreal | Sid Lee

Community Campaign of the Year

* It’s Time to Shout | Gravity Ltd.
* Love Letters to the Future | Xenophile Media
* Pocheville.ca – Motel Bigoudi | Inpix
* The NFB Test Tube with David Suzuki | National Film Board of Canada

Best Cross-Platform Project

* Inside Disaster | PTV Productions Inc.
* The Baxter Online Experience | Smokebomb Entertainment Inc.
* The NFB Test Tube with David Suzuki | The National Film Board of Canada
* The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games from Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium | CTV

Digital Media Technology of the Year

* dimeRocker | Overinteractive Media
* HootSuite | Hootsuite Media, Inc.
* Shiny Ads | Shiny Ads
* Voices.com | Voices.com Read the rest of this entry »

Violence in the media is pervasive. The destructive influence of violent music videos, video games, music lyrics, the Internet, and television programs is absorbed daily by our children and youth and is directly linked to safety in schools and in our communities. A coalition from trustee, parent, teacher federation, principal and student organizations from both public and Catholic systems, has been working together to build effective strategies to confront the problem.

“There is no question that parents and professionals who work with children and adolescents are gravely concerned about the potential harmful effects of media violence,” said Dr. Peter Jaffe, professor at the Faculty of Education, Centre for Research and Education on Violence against Women and Children, University of Western Ontario. “Media Violence is increasing and becomes more graphic every year.”

Solutions to the problem of media violence and its consequences rest in large part in prevention and education. To that end, the Ontario Teachers’ Federation is sponsoring a conference titled When Violence Becomes Entertaining: Recapturing Childhood and Adolescence from the Toxic Influence of Violent Media which will be held from October 15 to 16 at the Doubletree by Hilton Toronto Airport Hotel, 655 Dixon Road. Registration for the the conference is now closed, but teachers representing every part of the province will be in attendance. Read the rest of this entry »

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is launching the fourth edition of Get Animated!, a series of free animation screenings and activities from October 26 to November 7, 2010, in cities across Canada. An internationally renowned producer of auteur animation, the NFB created Get Animated! as its contribution to International Animation Day, October 28.

Get Animated! will feature new releases from the NFB’s Oscar-winning animation studios, a Fairy Tales for All program for all ages, master classes by renowned NFB animators as well as additional programming in selected cities. The NFB website will also offer a special Get Animated! playlist.

Get Animated! kicks off in Toronto at the NFB Mediatheque, where it runs from October 26 to 31, followed by Montreal at the NFB CinéRobothèque (October 28–31), Winnipeg (October 28–31), Edmonton (October 28), Halifax (October 28–29, November 6–7), Vancouver (October 28–November 1), Moncton (October 31) and Calgary (November 6–7). Please visit the Get Animated! site for the complete schedule.

New releases

Ten new animated releases will be featured in Get Animated! this year, including Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life, a puppet-animated work by Oscar nominees Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (Madame Tutli-Putli), based on the book by Maurice Sendak, featuring the voices of Meryl Streep and Forest Whitaker and produced in association with Warner Home Video. Read the rest of this entry »