Village Gamer

Last evening at the Save BC Film townhall meeting held at North Shore Studios, the Motion Picture Production Industry Association of BC (MPPIA) officially announced We Create BC – an initiative to showcase and celebrate BC’s creative industries, kicking off with BC’s film and television production industry. Last fall Vancouver’s videogame sector held a townhall meeting hosted by DigiBC to discuss the challenges it is facing. I want to delve a bit deeper into several points that have been raised over the past few days, but as the research and communication is going to take some time, in the meantime, here’s your introduction to We Create BC. Read the rest of this entry »

More than 380 game professionals and aspiring game designers turned out for the seventh annual Game Design Expo and Open House. The two-day event kicked off with a sold-out Industry Speaker Day on Saturday featuring the leading minds behind Halo 4 and the Assassin’s Creed franchise. On Sunday, Vancouver Film School (VFS) opened its doors with sample classes to over 200 aspiring game designers. As always, the speaker sessions were informative with more than a few touches of humour thrown in for good measure. Patrick Plourde (Creative Director, Ubisoft) is one of my favourite speakers, and his session on New Horizons For Game Design was one of my top picks for the day, along with Tuomas Pirinen (Game Director, Slant Six Games) and his presentation on The Bowling Dead. Read the rest of this entry »

Adrian Crook & Associates Inc. is hiring a full-time biz dev person to help the company drive a 2-3x gross revenue increase over the next 18 months. This is an awesome opportunity for someone good at what they do to step into a senior position with a five year old consulting agency that consistently turns over very solid revenues and has as clients many of the biggest firms in the industry. AC+A is a harmoniously gelled team of creative and technical pros who’ve worked together for ages, talk constantly and aren’t insufferably pretentious.  Read the rest of this entry »

Can a triple-A franchise adapt in an evolving industry? What does the future really hold for game design? Is there room in social games for the ‘core’ gamer? These are just a few of the tough questions industry leaders will tackle at Game Design Expo 2013 this January. Ticketholders at Industry Speaker Day (Saturday, January 19) will join in on an exclusive day of presentations and panels. Read the rest of this entry »

Wavefront, Canada’s Centre of Excellence for Wireless Commercialization and Research, has signed an agreement with the British Columbia Innovation Council (BCIC) to deliver the Venture Acceleration Program, a BCIC Acceleration Network program supported by the BC Innovation Council. The BCIC Acceleration Network is a province-wide alliance of regional partners collaborating in the delivery of a structured program – the Venture Acceleration Program – to accelerate the growth of early stage technology companies in BC. Read the rest of this entry »

CATAAlliance has announced that it will add an interactive On Air Broadcasting capability from Google Hangout to its digital tool kit as part of strengthening community advocacy and sharing of best practices as well as conducting thought-leadership interviews On Air, including hosting panel discussions with up to 9 different experts. Viewers will be able to tune into the CATA Speciality Channel from anywhere in the world for live interviews of these thought leaders who will share insights on topics affecting enterprise growth and innovation success. A video record will also be archived to the CATAnet TV (You Tube) Channel as part of expanding the library of educational videos available to the community. Read the rest of this entry »

The Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) today launched a dynamic new online Business Resource Centre to support young entrepreneurs and the mentors who help them along the way. Available at no cost, the new Business Resource Centre features specialized multimedia tools such as webinars, ‘how-to’ educational videos and articles that provide much-needed education and support, and the ability to connect with experts and receive valuable business advice. Read the rest of this entry »

In response to the growth of Canada’s video game industry, CDI College is launching the Game Development and Design program at its campus in Toronto. The program is currently is accepting applications for the 72 week program. Upon graduation, students will have assembled an impressive portfolio that showcases their artistic talents and technical abilities. Grads will be able to apply for jobs with game development studios, video game design companies and computer animation studios. Outside of the video game industry, they may also find employment with industrial design firms, software companies, and special effects and post-production studios. Read the rest of this entry »

Google Canada and Communitech have announced a partnership to help mentor and grow a new generation of successful Canadian-led technology companies. As part of today’s announcement, Google Canada and Communitech will be opening a new digital collaboration space, as a place for mentoring and hosting start-ups in the early stages of their involvement with Communitech’s Hyperdrive initiative. Located adjacent to both the Hyperdrive and Google Kitchener-Waterloo offices, this new space will be used in part to connect startups to Google’s Global Entrepreneurial Network and Google Developer Network, as well as to startup initiatives around the world. Read the rest of this entry »

Communitech’s HYPERDRIVE program is hosting startup recruiting events in Vancouver and Toronto this month to encourage applications from some of Canada’s most promising entrepreneurs. The Vancouver event November 14 fittingly coincides with Global Entrepreneur Week which runs until November 18, the world’s largest celebration of the innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life and drive economic growth. Read the rest of this entry »