Village Gamer

Ludia Inc. and Mark Burnett’s One Three Television LLC have announced the availability of the Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader? game for Facebook platform. Based on the syndicated TV game show, players across North America can now enjoy a multiplayer Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader? experience with friends, family and the larger Facebook community.

“Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader? is an acclaimed TV game show franchise that translates into an extremely fun and social game on Facebook,” said Alex Thabet, Founder and CEO of Ludia Inc. “We’re thrilled to release yet another top game show property featuring multiplayer, simultaneous game play- a unique formula that has proven to be highly addictive for players and very successful for Ludia.”

Contestants simultaneously compete to correctly answer eight multiple choice questions pooled from different school subjects such as Art, World Geography, Earth Science, Math, Languages, and others, with the ability to use the “copy” cheat to help answer difficult questions. The top three players at the end of the first round have a chance at boosting “cash” earnings by correctly answering a 5^th Grader Bonus Question. At the end of the game, a successful contestant can share winnings with friends, and brag about the win by posting it on his/her Facebook Wall.

Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader? on Facebook features:

• Live, multiplayer game play with friends and other Are You Smarter 5^th Grader fans, and the ability to follow friends’ grades and progress in the game.
• Favorite elements from the You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader TV show, including thousands of questions drawn from 10 different academic subjects, authentic theme music and the familiar “classroom” setting.
• The ability to choose Facebook friends as “cheats” from whom players can “copy” an answer in order to earn bonus points and increase the chances of winning.

“This exciting game release brings a whole new dimension and audience to Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader?,” said Mark Burnett. “We’re delighted to see the franchise continue to thrive on Facebook so that fans of the TV show and players who enjoy social games will have an outstanding interactive experience with the brand.”

With just seven weeks left until the Ontario election, Damian Sommer, a student at George Brown College, has developed a video game where the player must dodge obstacles like tuition fees, debt and apathy to tackle a ballot box. The game is part of the Canadian Federation of Students – Ontario ‘Take It Over‘ campaign and can be played online.

“Drawing on the skills of our members, this game was designed to be a fun way to engage Ontarians about voting on October 6,” said Cindy Brownlee, Director of Education and Equity for the Student Association of George Brown College. “George Brown students, like students across Ontario, are struggling to pay high tuition fees and high levels of debt, so it’s important for us to encourage students to vote.”

“As students face another year of a five per cent tuition fee increase, we decided to offer them some relief from the stress that growing student debt causes through this game,” said Sandy Hudson. “The ‘Take It Over’ campaign has several components that are interactive and we hope that Ontarians will take the  chance to tackle the ballot box through our game, and then vote in the fall.”

The Nintendo-style game launched this morning as a browser game and will be available as a mobile app in the next few weeks. To date, students have released seven videos, held actions across Ontario and talked to hundreds of students about the importance of voting and the promises being made by the political parties to reduce the costs of college and university education.

The Canadian Federation of Students – Ontario unites more than 300,000 college and university undergraduate and graduate students studying at post-secondary institutions in all regions the province.

Based on the ABC hit show Wipeout and continuing the tradition of wickedly entertaining family fun, Activision Publishing, Inc. and ABC Entertainment Group announced today at Gamescom that Wipeout 2, the latest release in the hit video game franchise will be coming this holiday season for the Nintendo DS™, Nintendo 3DS™, Wii™ from Nintendo, Kinect™ for Xbox 360®, and PlayStation®Move for Playstation®3.

Currently in development at Behaviour Interactive, Wipeout 2 will offer updated, outrageous course designs across all platforms with obstacles and effects taken straight from the show’s summer and winter seasons. Players must navigate around snow, ice, foam, and fan-favorite obstacles like the Sucker Punch Wall and Big Balls; which are making their triumphant returns alongside more than 50 others. Extended gameplay on all systems encourages even more interaction and participation with family and friends. Once again, all the wild and crazy action is narrated by the show’s hosts John Anderson and John Henson.

“I’m excited that the video game series is evolving just like our show,” said Matt Kunitz, Wipeout’s Creator and Executive Producer. “Players will experience all the fun of the new winter and summer courses without being sore in the morning!”

Particular attention is being paid to making every platform experience unique with ramped up excitement that engages gamers like never before. Freshly revised controls makes for intuitive and easy to use motion-based gameplay for Wii owners. The PlayStation Move and Kinect for Xbox 360 titles will offer gamers the ability to taunt and toss paintballs and snowballs at family and friends while they run the course.

Handheld gaming will finally become a communal experience with pass and play ‘Hot Seat’ participation for up to 4 players with Nintendo 3DS players also seeing their graphics taken to a whole new dimension. No matter how players choose to enjoy, the crazy and hilarious fun is taken to wild new heights with Wipeout 2.

“Working with ABC on the Wipeout titles has been a tremendous success,” said Nicole Armstrong, Activision Publishing. “Their integration of the game series into the show has been outstanding and their contributions to the game make it truly appealing for fans. We look forward to bringing more great Wipeout experiences to families.”

The Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS versions have been rated E for Everyone by the ESRB. The Wii, PlayStation Move and Kinect for Xbox 360 versions have been rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and older by the ESRB.

A team of seven students in the Masters of Digital Media program at The Center for Digital Media have come together to create an all-new physics-based puzzle game for iPads and iPhones within an ambitious timeline of 4 months. These students have also created Digital Touch Games, a brand new Vancouver independent studio. Crash Craving is their debut title.

Crash Craving is designed with casual gamers and non-gamers in mind, making the game easy to play but difficult to master. The game features a lovable orange chameleon fittingly named Mango. Mango is in search for food and he comes across jars of flies in a… French Cafe? That’s a classy meal right there and Mango knows how to get it. If you enjoy wreaking havoc in a fancy cafe by swinging like Tarzan with a super long sticky tongue, you’ll love this game. There are 50 levels to play through which is sure to provide hours of fun for just a single dollar on the iTunes app store.

The Masters of Digital Media program is a professional degree designed to be a practical program in which students are set up to work for real industry projects with real clients as well as some high profile companies like Electronic Arts and Microsoft. On the last semester of the 20-month program, the students are given the chance to pitch their own project ideas to the directors of the school as well as industry judges in the style of Dragons’ Den to gauge the viability and profitability of what is being proposed. Making sure that they get a shot at creating a game from concept through development and production, these students endeavoured to have a marketable, polished game within a semester’s time.

It appears that there were loads of news announcements made while we were at SIGGRAPH with very sketchy wireless. The media room where we could have had a wired connection was two floors and a long walk away, but we wouldn’t have had long enough on the wired connection to catch up on everything. Here are just a few of the stories that broke during the past few days:

The Montreal International Game Summit announced its keynote speakers. The conference will open with Jason Rohrer, an independent Game Designer, and Richard Lemarchand, Lead Game Designer for Naughty Dog, on November 1st and 2nd respectively. Yves Guillemot, Co-Founder and CEO of Ubisoft, will have the honour of delivering the conference’s closing keynote.

Other featured speakers at MiGS 2011 include David Hego, Artistic Director for Rocksteady Studios, who will be presenting in the Arts & VFX Track. Alain Tascan, President & CEO at Sava Transmedia will be participating in the Business track while Lee Perry, Senior Gameplay Designer for Epic Games will be on the Design track. Over on the Technology track, attendees will find a presentation by Stefan Boberg, Technical Development Director at EA DICE, while the Production track will feature a presentation by David Anfossi, Producer – DX: HR at Eidos Montreal. A new track has been added for 2011, and Tom Salta, Music Composer known for producing scores featured in popular franchises such as R.U.S.E. and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands will be the featured presenter for the brand new Audio track. Please visit the MiGS site for an up-to-date speaker list.

Ubisoft announced that PlayStation^® gamers will be able to test their assassination skills beginning on September 3rd with a multiplayer beta of the highly anticipated Assassin’s Creed Revelations that will run until September 11th. PlayStation^®Plus members and Uplay members will enjoy exclusive access to the multiplayer beta on PlayStation^®3. The multiplayer beta offers access to nine characters – The Sentinel, The Vanguard, The Guardian, The Vizier, The Thespian, The Deacon, The Bombardier, The Trickster and The Champion, three maps – Knight’s Hospital, Antioch, Constantinople, and four playable modes – Wanted and Manhunt, as well as two new modes, Deathmatch and Artifact Assault. The rest of us will apparently have to wait until the game’s release on November 15th.

Bioware’s Dragon Age franchise has expanded to Google+ games. Dragon Age™ Legends, the popular dark fantasy Play4Free® RPG developed by BioWare San Francisco (formerly EA 2D) has launched, and is the only game of its kind on Google’s new real-life social project. Dragon Age Legends extends the award-winning Dragon Age franchise and reinvents it for social play on Google+. The game blends accessible and engaging tactical combat, progression and exploration in the Dragon Age universe, and is perfect for co-operative and competitive gameplay across players’ Google+ Circles and Hangouts.

Vancouver’s WordLogic Corporation, a provider of advanced predictive text software for smartphones, PCs and other devices, has announced the availability of WordLogic Intelligent Input™ technology for licensing to manufacturers and software developers. The technology is ideal for mobile app developers, search providers, and device OEMs looking for the best possible predictive text or search technology.

WordLogic Intelligent Input™ helps make text input on touchscreen smartphones, tablets, and other consumer electronics devices faster, more accurate and helpful. Devices like smartphones, tablets, automotive infotainment systems, Internet TV, and game consoles are proliferating by the billions. They enable the Internet and employ touchscreens, body motion, infrared controllers or other non-mechanical keyboards to enter text, search and control applications. WordLogic Intelligent Input™ brings next generation text input to these text-hungry devices.

Current predictive text methods, which rely upon adjacent key prediction or misspellings, are frequently so inaccurate use that people simply turn them off. Alternatives require too much of a learning curve for mass adoption. Voice input has improved, but even server-based voice recognition is frequently insufficient in environments subject to background noise, such as groups where conversation is taking place, in vehicles, and on the street.

Gorilla Nation Media Canada has announced that it will exclusively represent the online advertising sales for European news site Figaro Medias in the Canadian market.

“Group Figaro is enthusiastic to join the Gorilla Nation family. We share the same vision of the digital business, which is to guarantee premium, innovative and engaging contents (video, chat session, etc.), to join our audience on all devices and platforms and to respond with care to our advertisers the same way we care about our content. The adaptability and the service quality of Gorilla Nation bring a new dynamic to the Figaro Medias offer in Canada,” says Eileen Lemuet, International Commercial Director at Figaro Medias.

“With the addition of Figaro Medias to our roster of sites, it shows our commitment and seriousness in increasing our offer in the French Canadian market, while complementing some of the new business sites we have recently added,” says Jean-Sébastien Tremblay, Director of sales, East of Canada, at GN Media Canada.

My sincere apologies to Good World Games – with the massive amount of SIGGRAPH 2011 emails being fired back and forth along with tasks on our to-do list, I completely missed this press release.

Good World Games was founded in Toronto last year with the goal of creating socially conscious social games. Now based in Liberty Village, we are building a movement dedicated to helping important global causes through fun and educational games offered to a wide and engaged audience.

The studio’s first game, MyConservationPark is an innovative, planet-friendly social game allowing players to nurture their own virtual wildlife preserves based on real threatened species and habitats, while directly supporting non-profit organizations such as The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, Sea Shepherd and WildAid.

As the player, your mission is simple. You need to protect an endangered animal – your “hero” – from environmental and human threats while enriching the park with fauna and flora to create a sustainable habitat. Successfully conquer these challenges and balance the Eco-system and you will be rewarded with points and cash. Fail to do so and your hero and the Eco-system will suffer. When you purchase goods from the in-game store such as structures or animals, 15% of the revenue will be donated to our non-profit partners.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPNMzH31zHM]

Vancouver independent developer Daniel Truong has launched his Xbox puzzler Pixel Blocked! on XBLIG for 80 MS Points. We saw this game demonstrated at a Full Indie event earlier this year, and it looked like a game that would keep puzzle fans scratching their heads and solving puzzles for quite some time.

Pixel Blocked! comes with 180 unique and challenging puzzles, all designed to put any gamer’s spatial logic, speed, and critical thinking skills through the gauntlet. According to the game’s site, the object of this simple and addictive puzzle game is to fill in the missing blocks in an outlined image by shooting blocks against an initial foundation. Players will advance through hundreds of increasingly difficult levels by learning to plan ahead and working with special game pieces such as Magnetic and Crumble Blocks.

Pixel Blocked! Features:

• 8-bit inspired puzzle shapes
• 180 increasingly difficult puzzles plus 6 mind imploding bonus puzzles
• 3 difficulty levels – Apprentice, Artisan and Master
• Music by Podington Bear
• 80MSP retail price (approximately 1US dollar)

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHzTO5sSPtE]

Finally.

I’ve been waiting for months to have a go at TransGaming Studio’s upcoming title Kula Blox, in part because the studio staff have been taunting me mercilessly with each new iteration and character reveal. They haven’t been playing fair, to say the least – but I got my chance to try it on not just one, but two platforms at Casual Connect Seattle. Was it worth the wait? Most definitely. I really didn’t want to put it down, and I feel that this will be one of the top Canadian-made casual game titles of the year.

My first go-round with the game was on TransGaming’s GameTree TV platform, which puts games right on your smart TV. We don’t have a smart TV (we just got an LCD HDTV a few months ago – can’t rush these upgrades), so I was also getting a first look at this interesting new way to play. GameTree TV gives players the option of trying, renting, or purchasing casual game titles. Adding to the challenge was using the uWand controller, so this first play-through was a trifecta of new things to wrap my mind around.

I am impressed with the GameTree TV interface, which works via a set-top box to offer gamers a wide variety of titles. I watched many Casual Connect attendees pick up the controller and easily figure out how to pick and launch titles, as well as play them – no previous experience required. While I did get to spend a fair bit of time playing Kula Blox on GameTree, the title is still in development so the GameTree version was not yet fully optimized for the platform. Even still, the game has an over-all high appeal – the graphics are crisp and clear, the music is not annoying, and the sounds, while somewhat repetitive, were original and fit in well with the game’s environment.

When Kula Blox is released, it will be available for GameTree TV, Mac, PC, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Not that a release date has been confirmed as of yet; TransGaming Studios’ Creative Director Jason Azevedo would only commit to “late Summer but definitely by Fall” no matter how many times I tried to reword the question and get a confirmation from him. Unfortunately, if we go by this year’s west coast weather patterns, “late Summer” could be virtually never.  Although, it does appear to be summer today. Tomorrow could be a different story.

Kula Blox is an arcade-style game with a diverse cast of characters who have a habit of falling to Earth from some unknown skyward region. Perhaps they’ve been evicted from the Cloud. I’m not really sure. During this losing battle with gravity, players will use their animal character to eat up the other animals who are also falling through the air. There is a catch to this feeding frenzy, though. The player’s animal can only lunch on those animals which are smaller in stature while carefully avoiding those which are bigger. The bigger animals are rather persistent though, shadowing the player through the air, hoping for an easy meal.

Watching out for the big bullies isn’t the only obstacle, either. That would be too easy. There are branches and rock outcrops (depending on which map you’re playing through) to avoid – and while the developers were nice enough to put arrows on the screen to let you know that an obstacle is forthcoming, we gamers have been trained to believe that arrow paths are where we are supposed to go. Wrong. Don’t go there, you’ll get splatted and lose health.

There are also power-downs in addition to the traditional power-ups. Each animal has its own special power that you can use once it’s charged up, giving you a distinct advantage over the enemy. The universal power-ups give you things like a turtle shell helmet to keep the big bullies from turning you into a lunch entree while power-downs such as bear poop (yes, you read that correctly) do things like make your animal character smell. If you are unlucky enough to have fallen through the bear poop, the smaller animals will avoid you, making it harder for you to consume them so that you can grow big enough to take on the bullies. However, in my mind, this is somewhat illogical because poop is a fertilizer…

When you do finally reach ground you will land with a resounding crash, breaking several (or at least one) wooden crate. These crates contain different types of prizes such as gold coins to reward you for losing your battle with gravity. These coins can then in turn be used in the game’s store to purchase unlocks, which can also be accomplished through micro-transactions. None of the price points have been announced yet, which includes the purchase price as well as those for the in-game upgrades. I considered torture but I have a feeling TransGaming Studio’s Managing Director has ensured that the creative staff have a high tolerance to such measures, so I let that idea go.

Kula Blox gives gamers of all types and ages a challenge that is fun to pick up and play, whether it’s just for a few minutes or a few hours. The controls are very intuitive and allow the player to use either tilt mechanics or side-to-side pinball-styled touch controls. With GameTree TV, you could use either the controller’s side-to-side buttons or motion detection in place of touch control; they work in the same way. I found the pinball touch controls on the iPad easier to use, but that is just because I am rather inept with tilt and motion controls. Yes, I am one of those players; I prefer the Wii’s classic controller over the Wiimote.

I asked Jason where the concept for Kula Blox came from, and he told me that it actually started out as an entirely different game that was pitched during one of the studio’s “Pitch Your Game Day” events. These pitch days are often held at the end of a development cycle, and Kula Blox has retained some of the original ideas from that initial introduction. The quick, fun casualness of the concept stuck with the creative staff, and like their recent Garage, Inc. game release, Kula Blox feels fresh and new. It definitely has some of the characteristics of a casual game that I like – scores to beat, things to collect (or not collect, in the case of bear poop) and many levels to unlock and revisit.

I also tried to pin Jason down in trying to get him to choose between Garage, Inc. and Kula Blox, naming one of them as his favourite, but he wouldn’t commit to that either. He stated that the titles are like children, and he likes them both equally, but for different reasons. Not hard to tell he’s a parent – and he was a real trooper, too – he’d endured probably one of the worst flights from Toronto to Seattle ever, with a long flight delay and late luggage, but that didn’t put a dent in his humour or enthusiasm. In fact, everyone I met from TransGaming was very friendly, and as some of us had been conversing back and forth on Twitter for some time now, it was much like meeting up with a long-time friend. My only regret (aside from not getting away with the iPad & game) was that I couldn’t have stayed at Casual Connect for longer than one day, because I really wanted to play more Kula Blox and talk with everyone more about the studio and all of its aspects.

At launch, Kula Blox will have three distinct map areas – The Forest, The Jungle and The Savannah, each with its own characters, prizes and themes. I did pry a little bit of information out of Jason – there will be post-release updates with more items and levels. The only other pre-release information I could get out of him is that they are still working hard on some power balancing as well as polishing sounds and mechanics. Through my incessant pestering, TransGaming is also working on a video trailer for the game, which we will be showing in our booth (1018) next week at SIGGRAPH 2011 in Vancouver, along with trailers from several other Canadian studios.

To celebrate the long weekend, XMG Studios wants to give mobile gamers a reason to pick up some new titles. Two of the studio’s releases are available in the iTunes store for the sale price of 99 cents.

Drag Racer: Pro Tuner, a reinvention of the classic flash game Drag Racer, this game will appeal to those of you who enjoy burning up the race track and saving $2.00 at the same time. Drag Racer: Pro Tuner offers new features, more customization and new racing modes, as well as the ability to share your car designs with your friends on social media.

Each car can have its own unique look, with custom paint jobs and over 70 decals to choose from. If you want even more customization, you can create your own decals from photos or images on your device for a truly one of a kind car.

Once you’ve created your dream car it’s time to race. Drag Racer: Pro Tuner lets you race head to head in more than 20 challenges, including a new Street Race mode which puts you bumper to bumper with some of the toughest drag racers on the street. Fans of Drag Racer: Online will be happy to hear that Nitrous Oxide, gear tuning, and other performance options have been included in Drag Racer: Pro Tuner as well as the ability to race against your friends over BlueTooth or Wi-Fi.

If designing the next greatest fashion look is more your thing, Style Studio is also on sale for $2.00 off the regular price. Style Studio: Fashion Designer allows users to create a full line of men’s and women’s clothing from dresses to tops, outerwear, pants and skirts.

The easy-to-use interface is simple enough for the younger user, but provides options to keep even the most experienced designer entertained. Users can choose one of the basic product designs, and alter it to fit their style. Then they can choose from thousands of materials, prints, belts, buttons, zippers, bows, pockets and accessories to further customize their design. Clothing can be tried out on any of the models included within the application, or designers can upload a photo of themselves or friends to try on the new fashions.

Once clothes have been designed, they can be showcased on fashion magazine mockups or turned into an entire fashion show. Designs can be shared with friends through Facebook, Twitter and Email integration into the app. Additional styles, materials and accessories can be purchased through the in-app store with more content being added all the time.

Style Studio: Fashion Designer has the most extensive customization engine for clothing design ever seen on the iPhone. It takes XMG’s powerhouse customization engine and applies it to the world of fashion, making this App for more compelling then the many dress-up-doll types of applications found in the App Store.

Style Studio: Fashion Designer is available for the iPhone and iPod Touch in both a free version and the full version, as well as for the iPad. Style Studio has been featured by Apple in their Fashion Week roundups and in the App Store’s “What’s Hot” sections.

From the incredibly warped minds at Hothead Games comes Kickin Momma, a hilarious new game coming to iPhone ($1.99) and iPad ($3.99) this August 4th. In this latest title, players control Momma as she aims and drop-kicks her babies into a shiny field of jewels and gems. Once launched into the air, Momma’s helpful children will hit, bounce and ping off pegs like pinballs.

You may well ask why do these youngsters put up with this, and where are Child Protective Services? Well, in the classic cliche of overbearing mothers, Kickin Momma’s children will do anything to make her happy, including being kicked into fire, ice and explosive pegs and being booted around 36 fun-filled levels to find all the gems in the game’s 3 dynamic worlds, all because Momma wants a shiny new necklace.

Players can also earn Bronze, Silver, or Gold medals upon completion of each level, as well as unlock fashionable accessory items to dress up Momma. Momma can be pimped out with costume items such as kicking boots, a mustache, a crown, and even a monocle while questing for Momma’s most-wanted prize piece: a gem-encrusted necklace.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPVXBjF_a3A]

Game Center encourages masterful Mommas to compete with their friends for achievements or bragging rights to the highest place on the leader board. Prepare to kick the kids, collect the shiny gems and wear the necklace as everyone’s favourite Kickin Momma.