Village Gamer

The next generation of game developers are here – and they’re already hard at work on the next big thing. Today, Mind Pirate and the Canadian Film Centre (CFC) announced the four participants selected to participate in the ideaBOOST/Mind Pirate Production Lab: a three-month boot camp that gives developers the resources to create games and apps for wearable technology devices.  The four winners selected to participate in the ideaBOOST/Mind Pirate Production Lab consist of high caliber developer talent from both the United States and Canada. The winners are: Read the rest of this entry »

As an indicator of the continued growth of messaging apps as a platform across music and brand interaction, IPG Media Lab and Sony/Columbia Records have announced a partnership for One Direction (1D) on Kik, a mobile messaging tool with over 95 million users. The first-of-its-kind campaign will introduce a 1D Kik Card – a shareable mobile experience built on Kik’s HTML5 platform. Today, fans from around the globe will be able to chat with each other on Kik and unlock exclusive One Direction content through a unique group “unlocking” program centered on the band’s new album Midnight Memories.  Read the rest of this entry »

Cowichan Valley author Teresa Schapansky has announced the release of the first five books in her fun-filled, engaging Along the Way series. Published by Eye Wonder Studios Inc., the series is aimed toward children between the ages of five and twelve years, and has been created with a multi-faceted goal: to entertain, broaden horizons, and encourage young readers. Along the Way books introduces readers to facts, history, geography and cultures which can be found throughout North America. Short stories included in each book feature children who, together with their families, face and learn to resolve real life issues. Read the rest of this entry »

MaRS Innovation (MI), a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, has announced a new collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Innovation and its affiliate Janssen, Inc., in Canada to advance early-stage technologies related to human health in therapeutics, medical devices, and diagnostics. Through the collaboration, MaRS Innovation and technical experts from the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center in Boston will jointly identify and fund high-potential opportunities emerging from well-validated scientific research discoveries within MaRS Innovation’s 16 member institutions, which include the University of Toronto and its affiliated teaching hospitals. Read the rest of this entry »

More than 50 leading Canadian art historians, curators, and museum professionals have come together to launch the Art Canada Institute (ACI), a non-profit organization that is redefining, compiling, digitizing, and distributing Canadian art and its history for free, in both English and French. The institute is a non-governmental initiative, made possible through private and corporate donations. The inaugural program of the Art Canada Institute is the “Canadian Online Art Book Project.” The project launches this Thursday, November 28th, with the release of Jack Chambers: Life & Work, the first title in a series of 50 free online art books. Read the rest of this entry »

Rogers Communications has released the results of a new poll that shows the broadcasting industry needs to evolve to meet changing customer demand – something we consumers already know and are waiting for.  Results reveal that a majority of Canadians value their TV subscriptions, including the channels and packages available to them, but want the opportunity to further customize those packages. I know that in our house, we are forced to have a plethora of channels we simply do not watch to get one or two channels that we do want, or simply don’t get them because we don’t want any of the other channels in the package. I still don’t understand why the “documentary” style channels – Bio, Book, Investigation Discovery, Investigation Science, National Geographic, etc. can’t be bundled together in a “Knowledge Bundle” instead of with channels like Much or Spike. Anyhow – back to the story…. Read the rest of this entry »

Following a worldwide celebration, Xbox One launched in 13 markets yesterday to great fanfare. The team is excited to confirm the launch of Xbox One was the biggest launch in Xbox history, with more than one million consoles sold through worldwide in less than 24 hours – surpassing day one Xbox 360 sales and setting a new record for Microsoft. Xbox One is now sold out at most retailers, but Microsoft is working towards replenishing stock as fast as possible to meet the unprecedented demand from its customers. Read the rest of this entry »

Toronto’s Creative D Inc., developer of the Decksi social-mobile digital collectibles platform, announced today that Fox Broadcasting Company is engaging viewers with a line of digital trading cards and an online game that features characters from the popular and extremely social TV show Glee (23.7 million Facebook fans and 2.6 million Twitter followers). Decksi’s trading cards are digital decks, accessible across multiple social networks and devices, including the iPhone and iPod Touch. Fans build their collections daily by receiving free packs of cards, to trade and share with friends. Read the rest of this entry »

Xbox One has landed store shelves and became available online today, delighting the millions of fans participating in global launch celebrations, watching a live broadcast on Spike TV and lining up at retail stores to be among the first to grab an Xbox One. The hotly anticipated, new-generation games and entertainment system from Microsoft Corp. brings the best games, live TV, Skype, sports, fitness, music and more to one single device at the center of the living room, all available at the command of your voice, powered by Kinect and Bing.^* Xbox One is available now in 13 markets worldwide, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Ireland and Austria. Read the rest of this entry »

The lights dim, speakers fade, but the MicroVolts audience demands an Encore performance! The war between action figures over battery resources surges on with new weapons, parts, accessories and game improvements that are now available with the ENCORE game update, which is free to download.   Read the rest of this entry »