Village Gamer

Montreal – Earlier today Ubisoft released the final episode of their Assassin’s Creed 2 video dev diary series. Covering the importance of the Animus interface in the player’s game experience. Building on the foundation set in Assassin’s Creed, the development team took some risks in taking the Animus’ capabilities even further. Presentation Art Director Laura De Young says in the video that the team broke a few design rules to immerse the gamer more fully into Ezio’s story, offering such features as historical and local facts.

We also get a look at even more of the new features coming in Assassin’s Creed 2, which will be available in Canadian stores this November 23rd.  The video introduces Ezio’s family villa, which at the beginning of the game will be in very sad disrepair. Through game advancement, the player can rebuild the villa, making it a vibrant and productive community. The villa will serve as Ezio’s Assassin Stronghold, and will also provide storage for all of the equipment and treasures acquired – something which makes the treasure hunter in me very happy. I hate it when I have to dispense with a treasure due to space constraints.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0wtpU1QF10]

Vancouver -Village Gamer, always willing to assist Canadian studios, will be posting further Game Industry job postings from Swim Recruiting. Here is the first:

PHP Developer – Social Games

– Entrepreneurial, growing, and action-packed environment
– Quick-to-market new generation of games – agile environment
– Creation encouraged and input valued

What’s your favorite game? Do you find yourself constantly playing a wide variety of software games and board games in your spare time?

A Vancouver ‘home grown’ organization based in funky Gastown is on the lookout for a passionate game-orientated LAMP developer to join a professional, fun, and dynamic software team to develop and enhance new and existing games for social network platforms such as Facebook and iPhone applications. You will be working in an environment where your creative input is encouraged and valued, and the short iteration methodology will keep your interest levels high as you release up to 8 multiple titles on various platforms per year. As well as excellent communication and documentation skills, you must have expert open source development skills and a natural and keen interest in Gaming and Social Networks. You will also need to be comfortable working in a fast paced, action packed, rapid prototyping, iterative model amongst peers in a social and collaborative environment.

In order to be considered for this role you must be able to demonstrate the following:

– Expert proficiency in all areas of LAMP development
– Passion of a wide variety of Gaming technologies and methodologies
– Experience taking games from inception to completion is favorable
– A creative knack for finding and fixing bugs
– Experience developing Facebook’s API a huge asset.
– Flash development and/or training
– Iphone development an asset
– Graduated from a four year college or university, a degree from a recognized design school, or two to four years of related experience and training.

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a modern, fast paced, innovative, fun and dynamic work environment working on some of the latest games and applications with bleeding-edge open source technologies – apply by visiting the Swim Recruiting website or by emailing your qualifications to Brian Thompson.

Swim Recruiting is a search consultancy firm offering advanced recruitment solutions tailored to the precise needs of its individual clients and job seekers. Focusing on technology and finance professionals, Swim is able to draw upon an in-depth knowledge of this market combined with an extensive network of contacts. Please contact Brian Thompson if you would like further information or would like to list a career opportunity with Swim Recruiting.

Ottawa – Today at the Toronto Stock Exchange representatives from the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance Women in Technology Forum (CATA WIT) were on hand to open the markets. The event marks the launch of a CATA WIT initiative promoting employer best practices and a web site designed to attract women to science and technology careers.

The program takes a three-pronged approach to address inequalities in women’s participation in science and advanced technology by focusing on ways to support recruitment, retention and entrepreneurialism. The program was undertaken with the support Status of Women Canada, Ontario Women’s Directorate and a number of corporate partners.

Working with CATA WIT, Dr. Wendy Cukier, founder of Ryerson’s Diversity Institute and Technology Strategy Consultant organized workshops with women across the country to explore their experiences and to take a fresh look at women in Canada’s high tech sector. Over 50 women from all stages of their careers met for roundtables in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto and Calgary, and 250 women were surveyed online. Discussions were also held with Human Resources professionals and executives in a number of technology companies to explore leading practices on diversity and develop tools to promote the importance of diversity.

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Vancouver – The Masters of Digital Media (MDM) Program together with Zynga, the industry leader in social gaming, has announced the winners of the inaugural Zynga scholarships for the MDM Program at the Centre for Digital Media in Vancouver, B.C. Four students – Su Yon Sohn, Jason Chang, Ryan Nadel and Matthew Schroeter – have earned scholarships totaling $21,000.

“Congratulations to Su Yon, Jason, Ryan and Matt on winning Zynga’s first scholarships to the MDM Program,” said Dr. Gerri Sinclair, Executive Director of the MDM Program and CEO of the Centre for Digital Media at Great Northern Way Campus. “I’d also like to thank Zynga for their support through our Industry Affiliate Program and now through funding these scholarships. To have our students recognized by Zynga, the world’s leader in social gaming, is a testament to the remarkable next-gen talent pool we are developing here at the MDM Program.”

“At Zynga, we’re pleased to offer our support to Su Yon, Jason, Ryan and Matt who will be graduating in 2010,” said Colleen McCreary, Senior VP and Chief People Officer at Zynga. “Zynga commends these students on their academic excellence and for their experience in and passion for social gaming and we look forward to their contribution to Zynga’s mission of connecting the world through games.

The scholarship winners are:

• Su Yon Sohn and Jason Chang, who received $7,000 and;
• Ryan Nadel and Matthew Schroeter, who received $3,500.

The scholarship was based on talent and experience in the area of Game Design, Art or Programming.