Village Gamer

Chicago – SIGGRAPH 2009 announces the addition of a special Production Session as part of this year’s Computer Animation Festival that will detail the behind-the-scenes production of the much anticipated Fight Night Round 4 and Gears of War 2. Fight Night Round 4, as many of you already know, was developed in Burnaby at EA Canada.

The session, “Big, Fast, and Cool: Making the Art for Fight Night Round 4 & Gears of War 2” will explore the making of the art of these games, and how these processes have exploded the boundaries for what is possible with real-time rendering graphics. This Production Session will take place as part of the special focus on videogames and Real-Time Rendering during the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival program.

“So much of what makes today’s videogames so great are the responsive graphics and the stories that unfold during game play,” stated Evan Hirsch, SIGGRAPH 2009 Real-Time Rendering Chair. “This year’s sessions will offer a rare perspective into how animation and graphics can really enhance and impact game development and the user experience and investigate the future of gaming.”

SIGGRAPH 2009 expanded its programming focus this year to showcase more Games content than ever before. The Games programming will include a Keynote presentation by famed videogame designer, Will Wright, creator of Spore™ and The Sims series, innovative Game Papers, demos and galleries highlighting the best work in experimental game art direction during The Sandbox, and a dynamic new game development competition, GameJam!

Vancouver – 2K Sports today announced a free demo of The BIGS 2, developed by Vancouver studio Blue Castle Games,  is now available for download through PlayStation Network, and a demo on Xbox LIVE ® Marketplace was released last week. The demo will support two players, local only, and offer fans the exciting opportunity to experience the new Batter’s Wheelhouse, thrilling power ups, and incredible player models in a three inning game as either the American League All-Stars or National League All-Stars. Fans will also have the chance to smash home runs into building windows and neon signs in the return of the hugely popular mode, Home Run Pinball, in an all-new Las Vegas venue.

The BIGS 2, available on all major video game consoles, has been elevated to new heights this season with amazing visual effects and a variety of newly added modes including the fan requested Season and Become a Legend. With improved player animations and pick-up-and-play controls, The BIGS 2 is guaranteed to deliver an action-packed MLB videogame experience. Scheduled to be in retail stores on July 7, 2009, the big leagues just got BIGGER with The BIGS 2.

Toronto – This year marks the 10th anniversary of DesignThinkers, Canada’s largest annual design and communications conference. Presented by the Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario (RGD), DesignThinkers 09 will be held November 3 – 5 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where creative professionals will gather to celebrate strategic design thinking.

“More timely and relevant to a broader audience than ever before, design is now the great differentiator and key to engaging customers,” says Lionel Gadoury R.G.D., president of RGD. “Design thinking, brand experience and conversations on creative innovation are occurring at leading companies.”

The speaker lineup includes Ben Blumenfeld, communication design manager at Facebook; Conor Brady, senior vice-president and chief creative officer of digital marketing agency, Organic; John Bredenfoerder CMG, design director at Landor Associates; Robert Brunner, author of Do you Matter? How great design will make people love your company; Matthew Carter, principal of Carter & Cone Type Inc.; Marty Neumeier, best-selling author of The Brand Gap and Zag; V Sunil, creative director at Wieden + Kennedy Delhi and Gael Towey, chief creative officer and editor-in-chief at Martha Stewart Living.
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I see many valuable uses for this application and its updates – kudos to Techneos

Vancouver – A significant upgrade will soon be available for Techneos® Entryware™ mobile survey software, opening up new capabilities for mobile research. Featuring a new survey engine for Windows Mobile® devices, this July 8th release will also provide an enhanced user experience for conducting mobile surveys on Windows® 98/XP/Vista, Palm OS® and webOS™ devices.

The Entryware platform for mobile research handles long, complex questionnaires with ease, enabling sophisticated consumer feedback on mobile devices ranging from entry level PDAs to the latest Smartphones and Windows-based Netbooks. With support for over 200 languages, Entryware software is ideal for face-to-face interviews, mystery shopping and diary studies.

Building on the unique notification system and scripting language already used by some of the world’s leading research organizations, the new release of Entryware software provides new capabilities to support self-completed research such as consumer diaries. Photo support and “lockdown” mode, already available for Entryware customers on Palm OS devices, are now available on Windows Mobile as well, allowing researchers to turn a wide range of PDAs and Smartphones into personal survey appliances. Enhanced project automation is also provided to simplify the user experience for self-completed surveys.
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Ottawa – Zip.ca and California-based Sonic Solutions® today announced a partnership to provide Canadian consumers access to high-quality digital movie downloads. As part of the alliance, Zip.ca will introduce a digital movie service powered by Roxio CinemaNow®, offering movies and TV episodes that can be instantly downloaded and enjoyed on PCs. In addition, the service will be embedded in consumer electronics (CE), enabling consumers to stream premium video entertainment directly to a range of home and mobile devices.

The partnership and introduction of digital movie delivery enhances the Zip.ca subscription service, which currently offers Canadians access to over 72,000 DVD titles via mail. It will also mark an important expansion for Roxio CinemaNow, which will gain a strong foothold in the Canadian marketplace and the ability to offer CE device partners a more flexible, multi-region enabled solution.

“Our collaboration with Sonic will allow Zip.ca to provide subscribers a new, flexible way to digitally access high quality entertainment in addition to the full catalog we currently offer by mail,” said Curt Millar, CEO, Zip.ca. “We are already Canada’s leading DVD rental service; now we hope to fuel membership and growth by becoming consumers’ destination for seamless digital movie access – a one-stop Entertainment shop.”
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