Village Gamer

Waterloo – Open Text™ Corporation has announced the release of Vignette Content Management 8, an enterprise-scale web content management solution that gives marketers broad new capabilities to use the Web as a strategic force to drive campaigns, customer conversion and loyalty, and ultimately profitability.

Built on more than 10 years of experience in managing the world’s most sophisticated websites, Vignette Content Management 8 introduces a new ergonomic design that makes it easy for business users to create websites, microsites and landing pages on-demand, while staying within branding and technical guidelines. The ergonomic design caters to specific personas in marketing or other departments, providing tools, designs and other resources based on their roles. This critical functionality brings speed and flexibility to marketing teams — a new level of agility that can make the difference in competitive efforts to reach customers via the Web.

“Successful enterprises embrace the Web as a critical component of revenue generation, and to provide an interactive and immersive experience that connects with customers,” said James Latham, Chief Marketing Officer of Open Text. “Vignette Content Management 8 brings together the enterprise-class capabilities customers need to gain the full value of the Web. The solution offers leading capabilities that deliver engaging, personalized content populated by video, rich media and social interaction. Its flexibility and ease of use helps marketers be more effective, allowing them to focus on the message – not the tools.”

With a focus on brand consistency and time-to-market, many marketing teams need a Web content management solution that empowers efficient communications with target audiences while managing message consistency across a complex series of websites, fueled by diverse audiences, languages and contributors. Vignette Content Management 8 offers a simple way to create and manage Web experiences by streamlining the management of Web layouts and structures. This includes page management, site and navigation management, content production, taxonomy and task management.

Adopt and Adapt

To help customers overcome the cumbersome and costly migration, training and adoption issues often found in enterprise software upgrades, Vignette Content Management 8 has been specifically designed to help users move easily to the new interface at their own pace. Users have the option of continuing to use their familiar interface or to adapt to the new interface as needed. Called Compatibility mode, the feature’s progressive upgrade options minimize training costs, risk and impact to ongoing operations. Read the rest of this entry »

Calgary – HappyUFO has released their debut title, DungeonSHIFT: Secret of the Blood Chrysanthemum. A casual game for those seeking to sink their teeth into a bit more of a challenge than the average, DungeonSHIFT combines an engaging story with a unique “Jigsaw Riddle” style of puzzling. Search through clues and create the key to opening doors that get in your way all the while following the story of Joachim, a hero who left his family behind in search of a cure that would save mankind from a mysterious plague. Unlock your way through 20 brain bending levels, featuring hand drawn environments from the artist who brought Illutia to life. DungeonSHIFT: Secret of the Blood Chrysanthemum is available for download directly from HappyUFO for $10.24 CDN.

Montreal – Ubisoft has released a bit of news and a few screenshots for the upcoming Assassin’s Creed 2 iPhone title. Assassin’s Creed II: Discovery for iPhone and iPod Touch lets players discover an exciting chapter of the Assassin’s Creed® II storyline. They follow Ezio as he travels to 15th-century Spain to rescue fellow assassins being held under the guise of the Inquisition, only to uncover a Templar plot to sail west and discover the New World. ”

Montreal – On the community building front, Vanilla Forums has closed a $500,000 (CAD) Round A funding for its innovative, open source community forum software. Vanilla also released its forum hosting platform and additional premium features for its rapidly growing customer base. Both this funding and the new forum hosting platform and business oriented premium features solidify Vanilla’s position as a leading open source community forum solution.

Vanilla Forums closed a Series A funding round led by Montreal Startup, with a significant investment also made by Denver, CO based eonBusiness. Silicon Valley based Klein Venture Partners and Denver, CO based Norseman Capital also contributed to the round. Vanilla, located in Montreal, will use the investment to expand its marketing, development, and sales efforts. “Montreal has a vibrant entrepreneur community and is a hot-bed for open-source software,” said Mark O’Sullivan, Vanilla’s CEO.

Vanilla Forums also announced the immediate availability of their forum hosting platform. The Vanilla Forum hosting platform enables customers to quickly and easily deploy a community forum solution without having to write a single line of code. Vanilla also released two new premium features, custom domains and ad-removal, that enable seamless integration with a customer’s existing web presence. Vanilla plans to release additional premium features including custom css, single sign-on, and forum analytics in the near future.

“With over 19 million forums on the internet, forum software is more relevant than ever,” said John Stokes, Managing Partner at Montreal Startup. “Vanilla were the first to recognize that forum solutions must evolve into proactive tools that help businesses to both grow and interact with their customer base and we are excited to help facilitate Vanilla’s growth in this market.”

“Vanilla proves that forums are much more than the origin of social media – they’re an important and compelling part of its future,” said Jeffrey Kalmikoff, Director of Design and User Experience at Digg.com.

“It’s been amazing to watch Vanilla grow since they participated in TechStars this past summer. They’ve got great technology and are a super team. We’re thrilled to see them put together this round with some great investors.” said Brad Feld, Managing Director at Foundry Group and one of the co-founders of TechStars. “Vanilla is already one of the most popular forum solutions on the Internet, and I’m excited to watch their continued growth.”

Assassin's Creed 2

Organizers have revealed the nominees for the tenth annual Game Developers Choice Awards, the leading peer-based video game industry awards. Nominations this year are led by Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2, with seven nominations. The acclaimed title is closely followed by five nominations for Thatgamecompany’s evocative downloadable game Flower, and four nominations for Ubisoft Montreal’s well-received Renaissance action game sequel Assassin’s Creed II.

In addition to the aforementioned Uncharted 2 and Assassin’s Creed II, this year’s Game Of The Year nominations are rounded out by BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins, From Software’s Demon’s Souls, and Rocksteady Studios’ Batman: Arkham Asylum. Other multiple nominees include notably diverse titles such as PopCap’s Plants Vs. Zombies and Infinity Ward’s Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The changes in today’s game industry are well represented in the Game Developers Choice Awards this year by the inclusion of multiple iPhone titles (including Flight Control and Spider: The Secret Of Bryce Manor) as nominations in existing categories, as well as console

downloadable titles such as Q Games’ PixelJunk Shooter and RedLynx’s Trials HD. Organizers have also further diversified the awards by adding a Best New Social/Online Games category this year, with both Facebook and free-to-play online games competing for the new prize.

Dragon Age: Origins

The Game Developers Choice Awards are open to any video game, with no restrictions or payment for game submission, and Main Competition finalists are chosen via a combination of open game industry nominations and the votes of the leading creators in the Choice Awards Advisory Committee. Starting this year, winners are now being selected by the Game Developers Choice Awards-specific International Choice Awards Network (ICAN), which is a new invitation-only group comprised of 500 leading game creators from all parts of the video game industry. Choice Awards organizers believe that, in tandem with their goal of having the most focused, impartial awards in the game industry, this additional voting transparency will further boost the awards’ reputation.

The complete list of nominees for the 10th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards are as follows:

Best Game Design
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady)
Assassin’s Creed 2 (Ubisoft Montreal)
Flower (Thatgamecompany)
Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)
Plants Vs. Zombies (PopCap)

Read the rest of this entry »