Village Gamer

Nine Nova Scotia gaming and interactive media companies have been preparing for months and are set to share their latest game releases and virtual reality creations at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco on March 2-6, 2015. Known in the industry as the world’s largest and longest-running professionals-only game industry event, it is the primary forum where professionals gather to exchange ideas that drive and shape the future of the industry.

“The Game Developers Conference is an important networking event for Nova Scotia’s digital and gaming companies and has been for years. Our goal is to help businesses build on their past success, continue to create new business relationships and create new export opportunities,” said Laurel Broten, President and CEO Nova Scotia Business Inc.

Some of this year’s participants include:

• Current Studios – who is at the forefront of emerging technologies, using mobile devices to experience their newest concepts in the form of virtual reality. “Relevant not only to the gaming industry, our innovative virtual reality creations bring new life to storytelling and how we experience life in the digital world,” said Jonathan Burns VP, Business Development Current Studios.
• Hard Chill Games – announced this week the beta launch of the studio’s first game in a multi-title, sci-fi series. “The first is a casual game mechanic with a bit of arcade action mixed in, all wrapped in stirring sci-fi visuals. With the launch this week, we are ready to explore partnering options with indie publishers and marketers,” said Shaun Mahoney, Founder Hard Chill Games.
• REDSpace, Inc. – is looking to leverage project successes achieved from producing over 100 mobile, desktop, and web games including a release earlier this month for Paw Patrol-Snow Slide (an HTML 5 game for preschoolers produced for Nick Jr.) which reached the #1 spot for game plays on NickJr.com. “Although promoting our range of services including game development, art production, game design, app development and video player platforms, we thrive on taking a complete game and/or app design project from start to finish,” said Tim Perry, Games Manager REDSpace, Inc.
• Vesuvius Media – will use the event to pursue new partnerships and publishers for its browser-based free-to-play strategy games Nocturion and Universe-Online. “We have created two elaborate, unique, worlds that have been molded and shaped by our players,” said Konstantinos Manos, CEO and Lead Game Designer Vesuvius Media. “As a community-driven indie company, this has been key to our success and now we’re looking to open up new markets and find new partners at GDC.”
• Alpha Dog Games – is drawing on previous years attending GDC and has export opportunities at top of mind. “This year we’ll be promoting our upcoming strategy game  Forgeworld and lining up international distribution partners to help bring our games to audiences in China and other markets. Each time we attend GDC our studio gains more momentum.” said Jeff Cameron, Co-Founder Alpha Dog Games.
• Fourth Monkey Media – with decades of combined experience in film, television and gaming, they pride themselves on collaboration. “It’s the only time to have this select group of influencers in the same city. Meetings have been set with partners looking to outsource different components, whether it be art work and programming, game design (2D and 3D) or direct coding,” said Kirsten Tomilson, CEO Fourth Monkey Media.
• Twisted Oak Technologies – is looking to leverage their recent successes with Chris Milk’s VRSE (a Sundance official selection Virtual Reality film) and the Android port of Two Dots (with 5 million+ installs) into even more exciting blends of hardware and software.

The GDC trade mission is a joint initiative of NSBI under the Canada-Atlantic Provinces Agreement on International Business Development (IBDA).

Nova Scotia Gaming and Interactive Media Sector Quick Facts:

• The Nova Scotia Digital Media Tax credit is the most competitive tax credit in Canada at 41.25%
• Nova Scotia is Canada’s University Capital and is home to 10 universities and 13 community college campuses.
• Acadia University and Dalhousie University offer specialty programs in video game development within computer science.
• Nova Scotia is home to over 20 game development studios and growing!

Also participating at GDC are:

• Huminah Huminah Animation
• Orpheus Interactive

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=KIZwkI_qp3k]

For more information on the Gaming and Interactive Media Sector in Nova Scotia, please visit Your Studio Here.