Village Gamer

Calgary – Cambrian House has restructured its leadership to ensure autonomy and focus for its strongest assets: the Chaordix™ crowdsourcing platform and Gwabs™ gaming venture. These businesses are now being managed independently with President Shelley Kuipers leading Cambrian House and the Chaordix venture, and Founder and Board director, Michael Sikorsky leading SundayLABS, the corporation established to commercialize Gwabs. Michael remains a vital evangelist for both ventures.

Cambrian House has also expanded its Board, welcoming Margot Micallef Q.C. who contributes corporate finance and merger and acquisition expertise, and broad business talent. Margot is a shareholder in Cambrian House and also serves on the boards of ENMAX Corporation, Canwest Global Communications Corp, and Vista Broadcast Group Inc. Nick Foster, formerly of OutSpark Games, has also joined as an advisor on commercialization strategy for Gwabs. Allan MacKenzie remains a Board Observer and it is anticipated that Shelley Kuipers will join the Cambrian House Board this summer along side Brian Craig (Chair), Michael Sikorsky (Founder & Director), and Michael Broadfoot (Director).

Toronto – There are some great Animation workshops and events coming up this March at the NFB Mediatheque in Toronto. With a wide variety of activities, there is something for just about everyone, and these events are family funding friendly and educational.

Animation Exploration Screening Programmes

Every day during March Break (March 14-22), join us for two fun-filled programs of animated shorts for the whole family! Admission is $2 per person, or FREE with registration to a March Break animation workshop.

Program A: March 14, 16, 18, 20, 22 AT 2 PM each day
Ruzz & Ben, Emission Admission, My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts, Oh Sure, I Want a Dog, and The Tender Tale of Cinderella Penguin (approximate running time: 1 hour)

Program B: March 15, 17, 19, 21 at 2 PM each day
Sleeping Betty, Hothouse 5: Square Roots, The Danish Poet, The Owl Who Married a Goose, Getting Started, and Blackfly (approximate running time: 51 min)

March Break Animation Exploration

Do you want to discover the world during March Break? Now you can… during ANIMATION EXPLORATION!

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Toronto – Magitech Corporation has released Takeda 3 is the latest in the Takeda series of games, based on the life and times of famous 16th century Samurai Lord, Takeda Shingen.  In Takeda 3, you take command of the powerful Daimyo (feudal lord) of one of 25 historical clans of feudal Japan; engaging in diplomacy, managing your castles and territory, and commanding your armies in combat.

Takeda 3 has two main modes.  The first is the turn-based world mode, where diplomatic and strategic operations happen.  From world mode, you can click on a castle to construct new facilities such as barracks, markets, and farms.  You can also create armies and send them out to do battle.  From the palace screen, you can propose and break alliances with the other clans of Sengoku Japan.  You can also send your ninjas out on secret missions to disrupt or assassinate your enemies.

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Toronto – Cookie Jar Entertainment is heading into MIPTV 2009 (booth 17.01) with a wide range of properties to offer global broadcasters. Cookie Jar is expanding its slate with more-live action, tween-targeted programming, including its first ever movie of the week, “Tales From Cryptville.” Building on the success of “The Doodlebops”, Cookie Jar is launching an animated version of the hit preschool show. New seasons of “Caillou”, “Johnny Test”, “Busytown Mysteries (Hurray For Huckle!)” and “Arthur” also are currently in production.

“Tales From Cryptville” is the latest adaptation of the classic EC horror comic book series Tales from the Crypt. Still narrated by the bitingly funny master of scare-emonies, the Cryptkeeper, this latest incarnation tells the tale of teenager James Frost who upon moving to the small, snowy, sleepy and fictitious town of Cripvale, discovers he has stumbled unto a decades old mystery. This 90-minute made for TV movie will premiere on TELETOON in Fall 2009.

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Vancouver – BCIC (BC Innovation Council)  is sponsoring the webcast of Angel Forums’ Exit Strategies for Investors and Entrepreneurs – An Investor Ready workshop. The film should be available on the web by March 23 – details to follow.

Why attend?
Companies need an exit strategy first; which in combination with their capital requirements, drives financing strategy.

Who should attend?
This unique workshop is targeted to entrepreneurs (the wrong exit strategy may scare off investors), angels (know how your investment will pay off) and advisors.

Content & Speakers:
This workshop is designed to be highly interactive for all attendees in a confidential protected environment (no solicitations). The format will be a blend of presentations, war stories by local experts, and lots of time for Q&A and networking.

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Vancouver – Panoramic Software Inc., a software development company, announces the launch of Panoramic Phone Genius. Comprised of three applications, Contacts Genius, Call Genius and Area Code Genius, together with a customizable Today Screen plug-in, Panoramic Phone Genius has been developed to give you all of the calling features a modern Smartphone should have while making the experience intuitive and easy.

Call Genius displays the location of the number calling you and allows you to set custom calling rules or to block unwanted callers. A Today Screen plug-in allows the user to quickly set their phone to different profiles.

Contacts Genius gives you the freedom to easily manage your Windows Mobile contacts with your finger tips.  Flip between two customizable favorite screens for quick access to your most frequently used contacts. An easy to use touch kinetic scroll menu allows you to find the person you are looking for in seconds. Check and sort your phone contacts call/SMS history with ease.
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Nitobi open sources Complete UI, its popular suite of Ajax-powered user interface components that significantly improve user experiences for any web application

Vancouver – Nitobi Inc. announces today that Complete UI–its popular suite of Ajax-powered user interface components–is now available for free. The open source version of Complete UI can be used without charge according to the General Public License (GPL), Version 3 license agreement. Complete UI, including client side JavaScript code as well as the server code for Classic ASP, PHP and Cold Fusion, is publicly available on Google Code and Git Hub. Complete UI is also available for download.

Complete UI is a suite of Ajax-powered components that significantly improve user experiences for any web application. Complete UI is designed to help developers build great user experiences on the web. Powered by Ajax, Complete UI off-the-shelf components save developers the time and effort of building their own UI interactions from scratch. Nitobi components have been popular with Ajax developers since Nitobi Grid and ComboBox first launched in 2005.

“Nitobi’s Complete UI is a powerful set of components,” said Michael Lekse, Vice President of Sales and Services at WebAssist.

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Toronto – Canadian viewers will have better access to Canadian programming on all media platforms following the creation of the Canada Media Fund (CMF), announced today by the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages.

The CMF will be created as the Canadian Television Fund and the Canada New Media Fund are combined, reformed and rebranded through a renewed partnership with the industry. Its mandate will be to ensure the production of quality content and to make it available on multiple platforms.

The announcement was made on the set of Flashpoint. A television series that is broadcast on conventional television and is also available online, Flashpoint is one of the many Canadian scripted series that will benefit from this initiative. (editor’s note – this is good news to me – Flashpoint is one of my favourite shows).

Joining the Minister were Ivan Fecan of CTV, Chris Frank of Bell Video Group, Phil Lind of Rogers Communications, Pierre Karl Péladeau of Québécor/Vidéotron, Ken Stein of Shaw Communications, Mark Bishop and Matt Hornburg of marblemedia, and Tim Casgrain of CBC/Radio-Canada.

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Fans Unanimously Vote to Have Boxing Legends Share Cover Worldwide

Burnaby – Electronic Arts Inc. announced today that “The Greatest of All Time”, Muhammad Ali, and “Iron” Mike Tyson will share the cover of one of the most anticipated games of 2009, Fight Night Round 4. Fan voting on www.AliorTyson.com started in late December 2008 and the final results favored having both legends together on the cover. Fight Night Round 4 is being developed under the EA SPORTS™ brand by EA Canada in Vancouver, B.C. and will ship to retailers worldwide this summer.

Muhammad Ali, the most celebrated boxer of all time, was famous for his quick tongue and his even quicker hands that wore down his opponents fight after fight. Ali was the first fighter in history to win the undisputed heavyweight championship three times, and is highly revered for his contribution to the sport of boxing. Mike Tyson, a knock out legend, will join Ali on the cover. The youngest boxer ever to win a heavyweight championship, Tyson enthralled the world with his precision, power, and ability to put away his opponents in the first round. These two boxing icons finally come face to face in Fight Night Round 4.

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SEATTLE – The organizers of the PAX gaming festival today announced that this year’s “The PAX 10” independent games showcase is officially open for submissions. From now until May 9, independent developers seeking to participate can submit their original game creations for consideration online.

A panel of 50 industry experts, including Penny Arcade’s own Gabe and Tycho, will select the ten best submissions in terms of gameplay and overall “fun factor” for inclusion in The PAX 10. Winners will be announced in July and invited to show off their hard work in the PAX 2009 Exhibition Hall Sept. 4-6 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center.

“We were absolutely amazed by the quality and diversity of games submitted in 2008,” said Robert Khoo of Penny Arcade. “I’m excited to see what the community of indie game devs have in store for us this year. Good luck to everyone!”