Village Gamer

Surrey – KrabbitSoft is pleased to announce that KrabbitWorld Origins is now available on Direct2Drive for both Windows and Mac for $14.95. KrabbitSoft has burst out of the gate at full speed, garnering kudos from journalists, gamers and even lawyers. The Davis LLP blog says that “Indie developer Krabbitsoft has done what some thought was impossible, developing and releasing an exciting, graphics-laden Action/RPG based on their own IP.”

Furious hack n’ slash combines with customizable Krabbits and choice to play in Story Mode or Battle Modes including Arcade, Versus, Team and Survival. Six playable Krabbits can be leveled up to 99 in sandbox or linear gameplay style. No grind and loot aplenty, characters level quickly in Story Mode, gaining XP with every action. Building your Krabbit doesn’t stop at level 99. Continue building powers to 999. Character building includes gaining XP, building stats, and changing appearance any time. 3D drag n’ drop inventory and paper doll windows are featured along with account share bins, colour cloning bins, dye vendor, click map to travel and Ruby Slippers of ‘return to Adobe’.

KrabbitWorld Origins is a creative game focused on colour. Players are encouraged to experiment with dying their Krabbits to their heart’s content. Choose from 8 Realms of Origin colour palettes to design a Krabbit influenced by Darkness or Light, Death or Dreams, Solar or Contrivance, Beast or Archetypical KrabbitWorld. Transfer your Krabbits from an earlier version to a newer version or from laptop to desktop PC. Re-install a new version over an older one and still retain your already leveled Krabbits.

New Features This Week:
• Brutal Moves
• Built-in Patcher
• Elemental Bracers & Weapons Packs

There are still a few tickets left for Wednesday evening’s SIGGRAPH Vancouver presentation of Bringing Dragon Age to Life. BioWare’s Lead Animator Clove Roy and Lead Character Artist Shane Hawco discuss the challenges faced in creating digital actors for BioWare’s newest award-winning role-playing epic Dragon Age: Origins. This presentation will provide an in-depth look in how to tell a huge complex story through an interactive narrative complete with hundreds of emotionally engaging digital actors. I am so not missing this session – and tonight I am playing through the Final Onslaught and taking on the Archdemon for the first time. Soon all of you will be able to find out my thoughts on the entire game. If you missed my first 48-ish hours in Dragon Age, you can catch up here.

Montreal – As Day One of MIGS gets underway, all reports thus far say the seminars have been fantastic – along with the weather. Eidos Montreal kicked off their MIGS week with a very successful open house event which saw over 500 guests come through the studio – and get a few glimpses at Deus Ex 3 and Thief 4 goings-on. I’m feeling just a touch of envy here.

Also in Montreal, Bug-Tracker has announced that Wolfgang Klingel is its new General Sales Manager for Europe. This move closely follows Bug-Tracker’s expansion strategy into Asia and Europe and its ever increasing focus on those critical markets.

With over 15 years’ experience in the video game industry, Wolfgang Klingel will be responsible for extending the company’s foothold in the European video game market as well as strengthening its exposure to the publishers and developers in this area. Klingel’s duties will involve collaborating and developing synergies between the North American and Asian studios in order to improve communication throughout the whole group and thus enhancing overall customer satisfaction. Klingel’s past experience includes Director of Development at Vivendi Games’ Coktel Studio and Vice-President Europe of Enzyme Testing Labs, another major quality assurance and localization company, and helped contribute to its successful development.

“Wolfgang will greatly help reinforce and grow our presence in the market we started out in 10 years ago” declared Antoine Carre, founder and CEO. “He will bring together and integrate key components of Bug-Tracker’s worldwide studios, in order to shape, lead and create new market opportunities. Adding an accomplished European video game business veteran such as Wolfgang to our team demonstrates our commitment to continuously fortify our leadership role in the QA and localization industry.”

Calgary via Digital Alberta – Alberta’s minister of culture says the province’s film industry will finally be getting its own state-of-the-art film studio after reaching an “agreement in principle” with the owners of the Canada Olympic Park site to purchase land for a new facility.  The studio, which is estimated to cost $26 million not including the purchase of the land, will be built on four hectares to be purchased from WinSport Canada, which operates Canada Olympic Park. Blackett says he hopes to start building in the spring, but stressed that negotiations between WinSport, Calgary Economic Development and the Government of Alberta were still ongoing.

To further support Alberta’s evolving film, television and digital media industry, the Alberta government has modified the Alberta Film Development Program (AFDP). The changes will help encourage digital media productions, support professional and project development, facilitate export opportunities for industry members, and tell Alberta’s stories around the world.

“From IMAX to iPods, people are viewing video in ways unimaginable just a couple decades ago,” said Lindsay Blackett, Minister of Culture and Community Spirit. “These changes will position Alberta as a leader in the next generation of production in our digital world.”

The film development program’s mandate has been modified to recognize the increasing use of digital media in screen-based productions. The requirement to have a broadcast license in order to pursue funding has been removed. This will help encourage and support the development of forward-thinking and innovative productions and business models in Alberta.

The Bootup Entrepreneurial Society presents their next Mentor Mixer this Thursday evening at Steamworks in Vancouver’s Gastown. In celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week, investor, writer and entrepreneur Dr. Paul Kedrosky will be sharing his views on entrepreneurship and investing in early stage companies. The evening with be heavily Q&A oriented with plenty of time for networking, so please bring your questions and your business cards.

Also in Vancouver, CATA’s Women In Technology BC Chapter have announced the details for their Fall Signature Lunch Event, “Stepping IT Up – Professional Growth for Women in Technology” which will be held on December 3rd at Segal School of Business, 500 Granville Street. The session runs from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm and costs $35.00. Learn how to take charge of your career and your life.

Presentations by dynamic leaders in our community, including:

Leslie Castellani, Director, Executive Communications, Telus
Dr. Amiee Chan, President, CEO and Member of the Board of Directors, Norsat International
Lisa Coltart, Executive Director of Power Smart and Customer Care, BC Hydro
Shannon Byrne Susko, President and CEO, Subserveo

The presentations are followed by small group discussions with each of the presenters. And of course our famous lasagne buffet (turkey and vegetarian options), door prizes and more!