Village Gamer

Toronto – Organizers of SecTor (Security education conference Toronto), Canada’s premier IT security education event, are proud to announce the creation of the Canadian IT Security Awards, to be awarded at the third annual SecTor Conference, taking place October 6-7 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

The three award categories include:

Non-commercial Security Product
Commercial Security Product
Overall Security Solution

“The awards dovetail nicely with the momentum that we’ve been building in the industry over the past two years” says Brian Bourne, Co-Founder, SecTor. “There’s no other IT Security event in Central Canada that brings together the industry’s top professionals and vendors from Canada and beyond. It makes perfect sense to call out and award the best products and practices at SecTor.”

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New York – The Games In Education Symposium, being held this August 5 and 6 at the Hudson Valley Community College campus in the Bulmer Telecommunications Center in Troy, NY offers free attendance for all bona fide educators. While we don’t often post industry news from outside of Canada, we feel that this symposium would be of great benefit to the many Canadian educators. Even if you aren’t able to attend this year, you can always mark the date and website and then plan to attend in 2010.

The third annual Games in Education Symposium, two days of workshops and presentations about the use of computer and video games in the classroom, will take place August 5th & 6th on the Hudson Valley Community College campus in the Bulmer Telecommunications Center.

The symposium is FREE to educators from early childhood to post secondary education interested in the use of games and technology to promote learning in the 21st century. This year’s symposium will explore the practical application of interactive technologies like video games, social networks, blogs and other media to inspire and promote learning in this generation of “digital natives.”

Leading educators and experts from across the nation will discuss how they have applied video games to all curricular areas, and offer teachers a glimpse into new and exciting ways to reach their students, many of whom thrive on this technology outside of the classroom.

“We are living in a technological age in which even the very youngest of our children are being exposed to technology at home and in school at an early age,” explains Professor Nancy T. Cupolo, whose Teacher Preparation Department at Hudson Valley Community College is hosting this year’s event.
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Halifax – WCG Canada is looking for the best Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne player to represent our country at the next WCG Pan-American Championship in Mexico. This major gaming event will be held on September 11-13, in Guadalajara.  All expenses will be paid for by WCG (air travel, accommodation and meals on site).  This tournament will determine who will win a trip to Mexico!!

A qualifying tournament will be held on Saturday, July 25th, at 7pm Eastern Time. Matches will be played 1v1 on Battle.net. Registration fees are $20 per player.  Please make sure you provide your name and complete contact information otherwise your registration will be rejected. Note, you must also have a valid Canadian passport with an expiry date later than March 2010.

Click here for registration info.

Also confirmed is the date and venue for the WCG 2009 Canada Western Qualifier, which will be the only live event for gamers who wish to be part of Team Canada at the next WCG Grand Final in China. The top team/player from each qualifier will be invited to be part of the National Finals in Toronto, presented by Samsung Electronics Canada, from August 28-30.
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Vancouver – The BC Innovation Council (BCIC) is pleased to announce that submissions are now being accepted for the annual BCIC Awards, to be presented at Connect ’09, BCIC’s premier event for technology start-ups and innovators. Connect ’09 takes place on Monday, October 19, 2009 at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre and will provide start-up companies and innovators invaluable access to top-tier BC business leaders.

Connect ’09 highlights:

– Featured Speaker: Leonard Brody – Be inspired by this internationally recognized Canadian technology entrepreneur, venture capitalist, best-selling author and business visionary.

– Unique Structured Networking – Learn directly from prominent BC technology leaders invited for the vital purpose of sharing their experience with technology start-ups and innovators.

– Expert Panels – Learn the techniques and strategies from industry experts and entrepreneurial case studies that directly impact a start-up’s success.

Panel Topics:

– Get Fundable – Access to capital in the current economic climate
– Friends in High Places – Leveraging partnerships to accelerate growth
– The Accelerator Factor – Case studies on the benefits and value of accelerators
– The Design Imperative – Optimizing commercialization through product design

– Technology Expo – Discover emerging innovations from academic institutions in BC.

– Awards – Awards will be presented for exceptional achievement in, or potential for, commercialization of technology.
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Montreal – Ubisoft will lead a detailed panel featuring Assassin’s Creed II today from 1:45–2:45 p.m. in Room 6A at Comic-Con in San Diego. The panel entitled “Assassin’s Creed II: Video Games and Hollywood Converge” will touch on the evolution of entertainment creation and distribution while highlighting the bridge between video games and film. Panel hosts will be Yannis Mallat, chief executive officer at Ubisoft Montreal and Pierre Raymond, founder and chief executive officer of Hybride Technologies, the visual effects studio behind 300 and Sin City, along with special guest Corey May, Assassin’s Creed II video game scriptwriter.

Recently, during the E3 Expo in Los Angeles, Ubisoft announced production at Hybride Technologies on a series of short films based on the upcoming Assassin’s Creed II video game. The Comic-Con panel will include a discussion of the production of these short films, a viewing of a teaser video showing new shots from the filming and development of the short film series, as well as the first public demonstration of the Assassin’s Creed II video game.

“Ubisoft has detailed our vision for convergence over the past two years. Now, at Comic-con, we are exclusively revealing one of the first building blocks to this strategy: Assassin’s Creed II: Lineage,” said Yannis Mallat. “We’ll be discussing the links between the game and the short film series with some of the key players of the project. We are thrilled to be able to share the results of our efforts with the Comic-com audience.”
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There is so much to catch up on after being away for two days. I hope you’ve enjoyed the book reviews I’ve been sharing with you – I still have a rather large stack of books to read, so there are more on the way.  I have a few press releases to catch up on as well, which I will be posting shortly. This was my first year at Casual Connect, which offered dozens of very informative and entertaining seminars and panels. I had a great time at the conference and definitely plan to attend next year – hopefully for the full conference. 

First, I want send a shoutout to a few of the people I met at Casual Connect and the Women In Games Leadership Development Forum. It was great to meet people from three eastern Canada studios – Alien Concepts, Big Blue Bubble and Cerebral Vortex – it’s always nice to finally meet people from the studios whose news gets posted on Village Gamer. Thank you also to Krissie Franco of Hydrogen Whiskey for all of the great introductions. There were so many Vancouver people at Casual Connect – including Ryan Arndt from Certain Sound, James Karg of Twisted Majic, consultant Adrian Crook, game producer Mart Lume,  and EA talent recruiters David Chandler and Brooke Coade. There were many Canadian companies present at the conference, but unfortunately I didn’t locate them all. I would’ve liked to have had a chance to meet all those others from studios which we write about – but that will be a goal for next year!

It was also nice to finally meet Sarah Thomson from IUGO Mobile Entertainment – funny that while we are both from the Vancouver area, we finally got to meet in person at a conference in Seattle. Sarah participated in the Leadership Development Forum as part of the Marketing Casual to the Hardcore roundtable discussion along with Dell Monson of Hidden City Games, Carolyn Carnes of Flash Fire Communications and Tracy Williams from Activision. Also attending the conference were Michael Cole and Mark Baxter of Fit Brains, another great Vancouver studio. Mark had some very interesting information and views on designing casual games for women, the panel which he took part in along with Dierdra Kiai of HotHead Games, Charmie Kim from Big Park, independent designer Tara Mustapha and A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. Games‘ Sandy Spangler. I would also like to thank my panel co-participants: Paige Meekison from No Robots Interactive, independent consultant Naomi Kawase of Vancouver, Lani Blazier of NCSoft and our moderator, Dell Monson of Seattle’s Hidden City Games.

The first exhibit table I saw at the conference belonged to the folks from Vancouver’s Yummy Interactive, who are celebrating the release of Game Shield 4.5, which now delivers DRM for Flash games (full details in my next post).  Many thanks again to Kerry Corlett of Annex Pro and Brenda Bailey of Deep Fried Entertainment for a fantastic dinner at Wild Ginger on Monday evening. Annex Pro was one of the sponsors who helped make the Leadership Development Forum a success, and Brenda Bailey participated as both a moderator and panel member for the Forum. We were also joined at dinner by Dennis Chenard from Masters of Digital Media, Rochelle Grayson, and Asra Rasheed.  I also had a chance to meet Tom Higgins of Unity 3D; he will be in Vancouver on Friday night for the official launch of the Vancouver Unity 3D Users’ Group (which we will be attending, and we hope to see you there, tickets are still available, get some). Last but not least, I want to thank Plimus for drawing my name in the iPod Shuffle prize draw – what a great way to end my visit to the conference!

I would be entirely remiss if I did not thank everyone from Women In Games Vancouver, Women In Games International, the IGDA Women In Games special interest group and the Casual Games Association for an incredible job of pulling the Leadership Development Forum together. General consensus about this inaugural session was that it was a great event, and everyone is looking forward to expanding the concept and repeating the Forum at next year’s Casual Connect.

A very special thank you to our sponsors, without whom this event would not have been possible: AnnexPro, Big Fish Games, Pandemic, Massive Black, Ubisoft, Slant Six Games, EA, Sheppard Mullin, 31337 Recruiters, Konami, Flash Fire Communications,  Hotel Max (comfortable rooms, very courteous and helpful staff) King.com and Mary-Margaret Networks. Congratulations to all of the groups, organizers, sponsors and participants for a very memorable day.

Seattle – I will be making several shorter update-like posts over the next two days, as time and battery power allows. As many of you know, I am in Seattle at the Women In Games Leadership Development Forum, followed by the Casual Connect Conference.

We are currently enjoying a luncheon at the Triple Door while Megan Gaiser, President and CEO of HeR Interactive presents a keynote address on the importance of leadership. A very entertaining and engaging presentation, Megan emphasized the importance of mentoring and developing talent, as well as encouraging girls to consider game development as a career choice. Megan gave a brief history of HeR Interactive, and then went on to talk about the Nancy Drew franchise and how it has helped to draw women into the industry. She also went over business culture and how studios can further develop the working. Several excellent questions followed Megan’s presentation which looked at different aspects of girls and women in gaming. I personally liked Megan’s statement at the end of her presentation  – “Creative Opportunities are Limitless!” …and so they are. It has been said before that we are only limited by our imagination.

I’m looking forward to a very educational and entertaining forum, and as I said above I will post updates when possible. For those unable to attend, the Forum is being streamed live at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/leadership-development-forum

San Francisco – The Global Game Jam™ (GGJ) today announced the 2010 Global Game Jam and is looking for additional venues to grow this year. With 1650 participants last year across 14 different time zones and 54 venues including SFU Harbour Centre in Vancouver, the GGJ produced 370 games in just 48 hours. For 2010, the goal is to triple the size of the event to 150 locations and more than 3,000 participants. The 2010 GGJ will take place January 29-31, 2010.

“We’re looking to make the 2010 Global Game Jam even more global, with more games, more people, more interaction, more fun, innovation and creativity,” said Susan Gold, founder of the Global Game Jam. “Now is when we’re starting the search for new venues, leaders and sponsors to grow the event and draw attention to the amazing diversity and talent in game development around the world.”

Game Jams foster innovation and experimentation. If you have ever wanted to make a game, be a part of a team, or go outside of your usual working method, then a game jam is for you. It’s all about making games and in the GGJ you’re part of a global experiment in creativity. A game jam is not for the faint of heart though. It’s two days of hard work, experimentation, little sleep, collaboration, cramped quarters, new friends, great idea, laughs, technical issues and the time of your life.
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There are many events coming up in Vancouver which will be beneficial to people in a variety of game development and business roles. Here is a quick run-down – if you have an event coming up which isn’t listed, please let us know. For our national readers, this applies to events happening anywhere in Canada – let us know about it, and we’ll add your industry-related event.

July 23: Social Media Marketing Boot Camp (sold out, see below)

July 23: VANArts Presents a Masterclass with Concept Artist Kevin Chen

July 24-25: Unity 3D Vancouver User’s Group Launch

July 27 – 31: GeoWeb 2009 Conference

August 1: Daisho Digital Art Workshop – Character Concept Art

August 12: Twitter For Business – Getting Results Seminar

August 19: UBC Technology Support Professional Course Info Session

September 3: VANarts Grad Show

September 15 -16: Certified ScrumMaster Training

September 16: Social Media Marketing Boot Camp

September 16 – 18: Internet Marketing Conference 2009

September 16 – 20: Spark Animation Festival

St. Catharine’s – Cerebral Vortex Games Inc., a multi-platform developer of casual games, will be showcasing a diverse line-up of games at Casual Connect Seattle next week. The line-up includes addictive titles for iPhone, PC downloadable and Web.

“Cerebral Vortex Games has a great line-up for fall 2009,” said Keith Makse, President of Cerebral Vortex Games, Inc. “Whether you want to solve crimes, give your brain a workout or battle ghosts, we’ve got you covered. We’re actively seeking partners to distribute our games and we encourage everyone who loves games to drop by booth B10 to see what we’ve got.”

The line-up includes live playable demos of:

Ghost Breaker (iPhone): Battle murderous phantoms using your iPhone camera, powered by a mystical artifact that drains spectres of their essence. The spookiest part is not the ghosts, but the fact that you battle them in your own home, literally!
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