Village Gamer

DHX Television has revealed that it’s moving full steam ahead with its strategic content planning for Family Jr., announcing that Twirlywoos will appear on its soon-to-be rebranded preschool channel this fall. The new stop-motion series from Anne Wood at Ragdoll Productions, produced in association with DHX Media, takes young viewers and their families on a funny flight of discovery over the course of 50 11-minute episodes, exploring themes relevant to children aged 2-5 through comedic and imaginative interactions. This pickup follows the noteworthy news from earlier this month that Family Jr. will also be home to the eagerly-awaited return of Teletubbies in Canada. Read the rest of this entry »

Six producers from across Canada have been selected to participate in the Whistler Film Festival‘s annual Feature Project Lab, an intense two-phase business and creative content development experience for Canadian producers presented by the Whistler Film Festival in association with Telefilm Canada.
We look forward to welcoming these six producers and projects to Whistler for Phase I from June 22 to 25: Read the rest of this entry »

Telefilm Canada has announced the 15 finalists for 2015-2016, representing all regions of the country, in the Micro-Budget Production Program. At the same time, Telefilm announced that the Talent Fund will subsidize the Program, while Technicolor is offering free digital distribution encoding services to finalists who want it. The official announcements were made at a press conference at Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox, in the attendance of finalists and representatives of partner institutions. This is the third annual round of projects in the Micro-Budget Production Program, which supports emerging filmmakers seeking to produce their first feature-length films, with emphasis on the use of digital platforms and developing their potential for distribution and audience engagement. Budgets for these projects must not exceed $250,000. Read the rest of this entry »

This year Mario reaches an impressive milestone in video gaming: 30 years as a leading man in Nintendo’s timeless dedicated website series. At E3, Nintendo celebrates Mario’s longevity with a new installment in the franchise called Super Mario Maker, one of many games at the show that transforms familiar characters and their games with unique new looks, styles and game-play features. Players will see new installments of beloved franchises like Star Fox, Yoshi, Animal Crossing, Mario & Luigi, Xenoblade and Metroid, and enjoy the reimagining of Bowser and Donkey Kong as Skylanders figures that also have amiibo functionality with compatible Nintendo games. Read the rest of this entry »

A team from the Vancouver Film School (VFS) has taken first place in the Entertainment Software Association of Canada’s (ESAC) first annual Student Video Game Competition. The VFS team, comprised of Melvin Kwan, Justin Ostensen, Charles Park and Brian Yich, has emerged as the victor in a strong pool of competitors representing schools from across Canada and all genres of video games. Their game, Zeta Busters, a strategy RPG, will be shown at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles from June 16-18, 2015. Read the rest of this entry »

The three founding partners of Usability Matters Inc. have been the only User Experience Studio in Canada to be recognized by the 17th Annual W100 ranking of Canada’s Top Female Entrepreneurs. Sarah English, Terry Costantino, and Shannah Segal, the co-founders of user experience design firm Usability Matters, have been recognized in the 17^th Annual W100 ranking of Canada’s Top Female Entrepreneurs. Usability Matters is the only user experience design firm recognized on the list.   Read the rest of this entry »

DHX Television announced today the global phenomenon and multi-award winning kids’ TV show Teletubbies will be coming to its rebranded preschool channel Family Jr. in late 2015. Starring the timeless and unique costume characters Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po, the beloved series is reimagined for a new generation with a CGI-enhanced aesthetic. The series pickup consists of 60 brand new 12-minute episodes produced by DHX Media, each featuring an original adventure with a strong focus on exploratory fun. The return of this iconic property complements the make-believe and imaginative play focus of Family Jr.’s brand, which strives to captivate young hearts and minds through comedic and playful storytelling. Read the rest of this entry »

Nintendo’s Digital Event video presentation for E3 2015 might be only a couple weeks away, but Nintendo is jumping at the chance to get started early on some of its new announcements. A special Nintendo Direct Micro video is now live, and is not short on new reveals and further details about previously announced Wii U and Nintendo 3DS games. If you don’t want to spoil any of the fun surprises for yourself, stop reading now and watch the full 17-minute video presentation in its entirety. Read the rest of this entry »

Vancouver’s Switchblade Monkeys is back in the saddle: the independent studio that brought the stylized Wild West-inspired isometric shoot-em-up Secret Ponchos to PS4 in 2014 has embarked on an ambitious content update program for the title’s Steam Early Access build. Once a week for twelve weeks building up to their summer launch, Switchblade Monkeys will release major content updates, including new game modes, never-before-seen characters, tweaked and enhanced game mechanics, and more. You can get a preview of what’s to come in the 12 Weeks ‘Till Showdown trailer: Read the rest of this entry »

With summer, the most exciting time of year for kids, just around the corner Family Channel is readying its plans to make this the best summer ever! Family’s annual Big Ticket Summer Concert, presented by LEGO Friends, will be touching down in seven locations across Canada this August. The highly-awaited concert tour will visit more than double the number of cities of last year’s show, traveling coast-to-coast from August 15-25 making stops in Abbotsford, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Toronto and St. John’s. Showcasing the biggest and brightest young talent from across the globe, Brit pop-rock band The Vamps and rising superstar Becky G are among the performers taking the stage this year. For a complete list of tour dates, venues and ticketing information, please visit Big Ticket Summer Concert’s online destination, Family.ca. Read the rest of this entry »