Village Gamer

Today’s Super Special: Madballs in Babo Invasion by PlayBrains is currently available for 50% off on Steam. Grab this fast-paced action game for your PC from Steam (sale price $4.99 USD) or for your Xbox 360 from XBL MarketPlace for 800 MS Points and play as your XBLA Avatar as you campaign across distant worlds either solo or with four-player online co-op, taking no prisoners in your wake. Challenge your friends (and your enemies) to see who’s the baddest ball on the planet in no-holds-barred 16-player multiplayer arenas with freaky characters or with your 360 Avatar. Try out the Invasion Mode where combatants create the very worlds where they wage war. Dozens of unique character classes, weapons, special abilities, worlds, unlocks, secrets, maps, and game modes give you limitless gameplay. Madballs in Babo Invasion has been nominated in several categories for our 2009 Readers’ Choice Awards.

Vancouver – In the face of increased number of independent productions, increased production costs, diminished funding sources and limited funds available, forward-thinking members of the industry have been casting about for creative ways to fund films. An innately expensive undertaking, the making of a film is often decided by the deep pockets of the companies and individuals funding the project. These decisions can heavily influence the final product with ultimatums about creativity, casting, product placement, etc. Further, financial pressures are constraining the industry as piracy cuts into independent film revenues.

The Biracy Project™ is a social experiment in crowd-funded filmmaking which will build the audience in advance and give the audience the power to make decisions on how the film will be made.

“Let’s make a sustainable industry and allow the people who support it to benefit from the rewards” says Biracy CEO and Founder David Geertz; and added with a sarcastic chuckle “Ultimately, we’d love to end this piracy problem by making the pirate a buyer.”

Geertz has a solid history in the film industry ranging from production to media distribution. His frustration with the constraints placed on filmmakers by the financing bodies has led him and a solid team of experienced professionals to develop the Biracy Project™ concept.

The Biracy crowd-funding model starts with people choosing their membership level (minimum level is a $25 annual commitment). In exchange, members have access to regular updates via video and blog entries, they get to vote or provide other input on decisions that pertain to the development and production of the movie and they receive a copy of the completed film, To compensate members for their participation, the Biracy Project™ includes a members’ only game, the “Producer Challenge”. Game points are awarded for tasks completed by participating members. In addition to determining the winner of the Producer Challenge, game points will be used to allocate 75% of the movie proceeds among the membership. The winner of the Producer Challenge will receive the Grand Prize of an Associate Producer credit on the film together with appropriate financial compensation.

A further incentive for members is the referral reward structure built into the referral only membership building structure. Members who choose to refer others earn referral fees. The membership levels are designed to suit the various referral styles of the members. All members have equal access to participation, but the higher cost memberships offer greater potential for referral fees.

The Biracy Project™ is the pilot project built on Binoir Media Inc.’s new social utility platform SoKap™. Once out of Beta phase, Binoir will make SoKap™ available to qualified producers of digital media to allow them to crowdfund, crowdsource and define their audience while incurring no debt in the process. The Biracy Project™ is currently seeking 1 million members to participate in the making of a movie. If you’d like more information about The Biracy Project™, the SoKap™ utility or to schedule an interview with David Geertz, please call David at 778-988-4755.

Toronto – Following the recent launch of its GameTree.tv content developer programme and their SDK, TransGaming has announced that it will be taking its new technology to CES this January. The release of the SDK for the global GameTree.tv Platform empowers content creators to build and deliver innovative games for the digital home while realizing new revenue opportunities. GameTree.tv delivers a comprehensive on-demand gaming solution optimized for HD TV through the next generation of consumer electronics devices based on Intel® CE Media Processors. Content creators from around the world are invited to join the GameTree.tv Content Developer Program, where they can access developer tools, SDKs, documentation, and sample-demos.

The GameTree.tv Gaming Platform allows consumers to browse, download, and play a rich catalogue of video games right from their HD TV, all from a single consumer electronics platform such as a next generation cable set-top box. GameTree.tv’s gaming content will appeal to a broad consumer demographic and will be made available through cable operators and other distribution partners globally who are adopting the Intel CE Media Processor as the basis for their next generation of consumer electronics platforms.

“The response to our announcement regarding GameTree.tv has been extraordinary by consumers, cable operators, and content developers. Video game developers have been eagerly awaiting the release of our SDK so that they can begin bringing their games to this exciting new global platform,” commented Vikas Gupta, President & CEO of TransGaming, Inc. “We are thrilled about creating a vibrant third party content development community for GameTree.tv and have no doubt that we’ll see enormous innovation and creativity, similar to other well established platforms.”

The GameTree.tv Content Developer Program provides game developers with instant access to GameTree.tv’s broad global consumer market and the SDK will allow developers to become acquainted with the GameTree.tv development environment and offers them a great start on the creation or adaptation of their games for the Platform. “Our SDK includes game development and emulation tools, targeting the OpenGL ES and Direct3D® APIs on both the Windows and Desktop Linux systems, plus offers content creators with detailed documentation to optimize games for the GameTree.tv Gaming Platform on devices with Intel CE media processors,” commented Gavriel State, TransGaming’s Founder & CTO. “Additional developer features, support tools, and the GameTree.tv Publishing toolkit will be rolled out in the coming months in support of the Platform’s global commercialization in 2010.”

Distribution partners such as cable operators and Managed Service Operators (MSOs) globally are embracing Intel’s new CE media processors and are ushering in a new generation of broadband-based interactive offerings for their digital home consumers. TransGaming is working closely with these partners while leveraging its industry expertise to collaborate with leading game publishers and independent game developers to create the richest and most comprehensive games catalogue possible for the GameTree.tv Gaming Platform.

Join the Content Developer Program and download the free SDK today and get ready to fully experience the GameTree.tv Gaming Platform at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) January 7-10, 2010 in Las Vegas.

Sidney BC – How will businesses address the need for a mobile website? Virtual Mechanics will answer this and other mobile website design software questions at Lunch at Piero’s, taking place during CES on January 7th and 8th in Las Vegas.

The majority of business websites are not designed for mobile viewing, yet almost a billion people worldwide now access the Internet with their iPhone®, Blackberry®, SmartPhone®, PDA or cell phone. SiteSpinner Pro creates cost effective interactive websites for desktop, mobile devices or a combination of both. Combination websites will automatically default to the proper view when using this mobile website design software to build your site.

Exclusive Opera Embrowser integration allows users to preview their pages at both standard desktop browser, and mobile browser resolutions through-out the design process. Using industry standard CCS (Cascading Style Sheets), SiteSpinner Pro provides drag and drop capabilities for text, graphics and rich media anywhere on the webpage for simple yet professional custom designs. When completed, publish the custom SiteSpinner Pro website to HTML, DHTML, or SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) formats.

A free and fully functional 15 non-consecutive day download trial is available via download, with the full version for Windows available for purchase at the price of $99.95usd.

Waterloo – Open Text has announced their first virtual conference event this coming January 19th. Bring Content World 2009 to your desktop with Virtual Content World, which offers you the chance to access the Orlando experience from the comfort of your desk.

Join Open Text to:

· network with Open Text product experts, partners, industry peers, and fellow customers in live Q&A’s and group chats
· attend popular sessions from October’s Content World 2009
· participate in all-new breakouts
· visit Open Text partner booths and download product information
· have on-demand access to recorded presentations and downloads for 90 days following the live event

Registration is $199.00 (USD) – and if you attended the full Content World 2009 conference in Orlando, registration for Virtual Content World is free