Village Gamer

Vancouver – 80 Elements has released an update to their very cool Cypress Mountain Snow App, which is available free in the iTunes App Store. This application offers snow reports, a list of events on the mountain, trail maps for the alpine and nordic area, and the ability to send us pictures of your riding experience on the mountain. More updates are planned for the App, including full landscape support and multiple themes.

Vancouver – Sierra Wireless today announced a new major release of M2M Studio, a fully integrated environment for the development of embedded machine-to-machine (M2M) software, enabling developers to create, develop, compile, download, debug and test their applications.

M2M Studio 1.1.1 offers a series of enhancements and additions, including a new software redistribution feature which enables developers to create their own embedded software plug-ins and make them accessible to other M2M Studio users. The M2M Studio source code is also made available for developers to customize and recompile, further encouraging the sharing of software between members of the M2M Studio community.

M2M Studio 1.1.1 is compliant with Linux, allowing users to work on PC Linux platforms as well as Windows® to build projects (project edition, compilation and link).

The release includes new software to ease the installation of all Open AT® Software Suite components, including M2M Studio itself. Other enhanced features include automatic notifications of software component updates, direct access to documentation via the help menu, warning pop-ups in case of incompatibility between software components, and an improved “Launch configurations” feature facilitating Segger JTAG usage.

“Since its initial release in January 2009, M2M Studio has proved its appeal to developers of a wide range of innovative M2M applications, including home security systems, asset tracking devices, in-vehicle fleet management, smart utility meters, and fixed wireless telephones,” says Didier Dutronc, Senior Vice President, Marketing at Sierra Wireless. “This new release of M2M Studio enables even more creativity and freedom to users when developing and customizing embedded software applications.”

M2M Studio is built on Eclipse(TM) and is compatible with most GSM, GPRS, EDGE, and HSPA embedded modules from Sierra Wireless. The IDE can be downloaded for free from the product page.

This post was updated to include further IGN Award Winners.

Toronto – Harlequin Enterprises Limited, the global leader in series romance and one of the world’s leading publishers of women’s fiction, and Big Fish Games, the multi-platform developer, publisher and distributor of casual games, today announced the launch of Harlequin Presents: Hidden Object of Desire. The hidden object game with a romantic storyline is the first game release following the announcement of the companies’ partnership.

Inspired by The Royal House of Karedes, a Harlequin Presents® Mini Series, Harlequin Presents: Hidden Object of Desire features Allie, a reporter on assignment covering the 30th birthday of the Prince of Aristo. Following her arrival in the Kingdom of Adamas with her photographer, a series of events occur and players assist Allie in her quest to solve the mystery by finding hidden objects and solving puzzles.

“We are thrilled to be working with Big Fish Games to introduce our readers to this new interactive experience,” said Donna Hayes, publisher and CEO of Harlequin Enterprises Limited. “Our partnership reinforces our commitment to brand innovation and we anticipate great success with Harlequin Presents: Hidden Object of Desire.”

“Big Fish Games and Harlequin are wonderfully aligned as our audiences are global and largely female,” said Jeremy Lewis, president and CEO of Big Fish Games. “The games we develop together – starting with Harlequin Presents: Object of Desire – will appeal to romance readers and casual gamers alike. We anticipate the partnership will lead to audience expansion for both companies.”

Harlequin Presents: Hidden Objects of Desire will be sold online for $6.99 USD exclusively at Big Fish Games. Players who download the game within the first year of its release will also receive a free digital edition of the first book of the miniseries.

Edmonton – Dragon Age Origins has won four more awards, this time from online game magazine IGN. Congratulations to the studio for their Best Xbox 360 RPG, Best PC RGP, Best Story and PC Game of the Year awards. Dragon Age Origins has also been nominated in several categories for our own Readers’ Choice Awards. Nominations for our awards close on December 31st – be sure to let us know which Canadian titles and studios you think should be in the running.

Congratulations are also extended to Capybara Games, whose new Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes won IGN’s Best DS Stragety Game Award and for Critter Crunch, which won for Best PS3 Puzzle Game.

EA Canada’s FIFA 10 has taken top spot for IGN’s Best PS3 Sports game and Best Xbox 260 Sports Game, while Ubisoft Montreal’s Assassin’s Creed 2 won Best Xbox 360 Action Game and Xbox 360 Game of the Year.

Ontario – Ontario is helping to drive innovation and stimulate economic growth in the creative sector by supporting early-stage development for television, film, mobisodes, webisodes, video games, internet properties and more. The Intellectual Property Development Fund is a one-year pilot programme administered by the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC). An extensive list of guidelines have been posted on the OMDC’s website.

The province is investing $10 million to support screen-based companies in moving ideas from the development stage into production and marketing. By providing funding for development expenses, the McGuinty government is promoting the continued growth of Ontario’s creative sector and helping businesses thrive as they develop new and innovative products.

If only there was this much support for the interactive industry in every province – we have the unique position of having a massive talent pool in this country, and yet there are many companies struggling to stay afloat. The Province of BC government would do well to take a serious look at what’s going on east of the Rockies in regards to the interactive and creative sectors.

Ontario’s creative sector is now the third largest source of employment in North America, following California and New York, and according to OMDC, total direct employment in Ontario’s cultural industries (businesses whose main purpose is to create and distribute arts and entertainment) was about 202,000 people. This sector was also responsible for generating almost $12.2 billion of Ontario’s Gross Domestic Product through film and television production, interactive digital media, music recording, commercial theatre, magazine publishing and book publishing.

Gormley – Digital Leisure is excited to announce that arcade classic “Dragon’s Lair” will soon be available on Nintendo’s DSiWare™ service.

No quarters needed! You’ll soon have your chance to take on all the “Lair” has to throw at you, right in the palm of your hand. For the first time on any handheld Nintendo® system, you’ll be able to play Dirk in his original animated form – no pixel graphics here!

On December 21st in North America and January 1st in Europe, you’ll take on the role of Dirk the Daring, a knight on a quest to rescue the fair Princess Daphne from the clutches on an evil dragon – Now using your Nintendo DSi! Dragon’s Lair is rated E10 by the ESRB forAnimated Blood, Fantasy Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes.

Toronto – The Cloud Slam Conference, which brings together leading companies and visionaries in business, technology, and cloud computing to showcase the hottest opportunities for driving profitability through sustainability, today announced their call for proposals. Taking place March 23-25, 2010 as virtual event , the conference is also proud to announce it has gathered hundreds of attendees passionate about cloud computing. These announcements reflect a growing trend involving companies that have committed to developing best practice cloud strategies for the emerging global economy that requires innovative, viable and profitable models for business success.

You are cordially invited to participate in Cloud Slam 2010 through paper submission, a workshop or a special session organization, a tutorial, an invited speech, a demo, a poster, an exhibit, a panel discussion, whichever sounds more appropriate and convenient to you. There will also be tutorial sessions, workshops, special sessions, demos, posters, panel discussions.

The conference will include invited presentations by experts from academia, industry, and government as well as contributed paper presentations describing original work on the current state of research cloud computing, their use in business, their design, performance and use, and their applications.

To encourage media coverage of the Cloud Slam 2010, the conference provides up to 2 free press credentials to verified media representatives from each organization. Media partnerships are also welcome, please send cross promotion proposals to media(at)cloudslam(dot)org.

Conference sponsorships are welcomed. To sponsor Cloud Slam or get additional information about event, contact Khazret Sapenov at 510-984-2312 or at sponsors(at)cloudslam(dot)org.

Vancouver – Aftercad Software is pleased to announce that Novedge LLC, a leading online CAD/CAM store, has become a distribution partner for Aftercad’s new 3D collaboration service Renderjam.com.

Renderjam.com is a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering that allows businesses to view, mark-up, manage and publish 3D assets onto the web, without the need for proprietary viewers, providing easy and instant access to project information by all stakeholders.

“Renderjam offers a new lightweight and very easy to use visualization product that enables anyone in the organization to access digital 3D assets. Being distributed as a service it has a very low impact on IT overhead and it is easy to deploy. Renderjam is the ideal tool for architects and industrial designers that need to share their project data.” said Dr. Cristiano Sacchi, CEO of Novedge.

Novedge will offer the Renderjam.com service through its successful Novedge.com portal. “Our partnership with Novedge gives us invaluable exposure and access to market” stated Chris Boothroyd, CEO of Aftercad “and we look forward to marketing this product with Dr. Sacchi and his team.”

Vancouver – The British Columbia Technology Industry Association (BCTIA) is pleased to announce the launch of PODIUM, their 2010 business outreach programme. The PODIUM program is designed to connect guests and media of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Games with technology sector business partners and media stories while visiting BC.

The centre-piece of the programme is the PODIUM digital guide, an e-book illustrating the talent and ingenuity that makes British Columbia a great place to live, work, study and invest. The PODIUM guide profiles over one hundred world-class companies and includes a number of companies whose technology is being used to power aspects of the Games. The digital guide will be distributed to thousands of contacts, including International Business Development offices, Olympic Sponsors and hosting organizations, Federal and Provincial governments, and media. The PODIUM guide will continue to evolve right-up to the opening ceremonies. The more great companies we have participating, the more buzz we’ll create.

To help guests and media connect with innovative BC companies, the BCTIA will be providing meeting concierge services – coordination services to facilitate introductions before, during and after the games. With non-stop activity during the 2010 Games, we are working to ensure that international business people and media call upon us to connect them with business introductions and unique media stories. Interested parties need only send an email to podium[at]bctia[dot]org.

Montreal – ELearning Alliance invites you to reserve April 14, 2010 to attend the event eLearning Montreal. This day is specifically aimed at training officers, human resources and people who have to acquire content and e-learning tools. Meet the leading Quebec companies active in this area and to attend lectures offered by industry experts. The location and details of that day will be announced in January.

Multiplied Media’s Poynt Local Search application wins in the 2009 Mobile Star Awards

Calgary – Multiplied Media Corporation, a provider of mobile local search services, is pleased to announce that its Poynt Local Search application has been named as a winner in the eighth annual Mobile Star Awards™ program, hosted by mobile technology news portal MobileVillage.com. Multiplied Media was recognized in the Navigation or Location Based Services Award in the category for Consumer Applications.

As in past years, the Mobile Star Awards program showcases “best of” entries in dozens of categories covering mobile apps, enterprise mobile software, wireless network products, enterprise success stories, mobile industry visionaries and more. Winners were chosen by subscribers of MobileVillage’s “Go Mobile™” – a free e-newsletter that delivers headlines and links from top mobile technology stories on popular websites such as Cnet, Engadget, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Computerworld and AppScout. “Go Mobile” was launched nearly ten years ago and is now published every three weeks for thousands of readers.

“Poynt was selected by our ‘Go Mobile’ readers as the go-to application on the BlackBerry for location based and navigation services,” said Jon Covington, MobileVillage founder and president. “Real users selected the Poynt app based on real results, not hype. I look forward to watching Poynt evolve onto other platforms in the future, giving more users the opportunity to utilize the great application.”

“We could not be more pleased to have been named a ‘Superstar’ in our category,” said Andrew Osis, CEO, Multiplied Media. “To be recognized as a top consumer application by the MobileVillage is a great honour. The Mobile Star awards brought some stiff competition to the table this year. We would like to thank our development team, Poynt’s loyal users and of course MobileVillage for hosting the awards.”

In addition to MobileVillage, the Sponsors for the 2009 Mobile Star Awards were Clickatell, Funambol, MobileFrame, Nadel Phelan, OnPoint Digital and Syclo.

Ottawa – Epiphan Systems has announced that the new Lecture Recorder presentation recording, archiving, and broadcasting product is now shipping. Featuring integrated audio-in, video-in, as well as DVI/VGA inputs and outputs, Lecture Recorder lets users simultaneously record the audio and video streams of a lecture, presentation, or seminar. And, as it is designed primarily for corporate and educational clients, it’s easy to use and requires no prior knowledge.

Retailing at $2000, the Lecture Recorder also features 32GB of solid state memory and has 5 USB ports for connecting external devices, such as CD/DVD writers, external hard drives, and AMX/Crestron interface units. Being a bit larger than a paperback book, Epiphan Systems’ Lecture Recorder fits easily inside presenters’ podiums or other confined spaces.

Similar to Epiphan Systems’ VGA Recorder Lite, Lecture Recorder has the ability to not only store hours of lectures on board the actual device; it is also able to automatically send the recordings to a central repository server or FTP, or act as a stand-alone server relaying the recordings directly to an online audience.

Unlike similar solutions from other providers, the Lecture Recorder does not require the payment of any maintenance or licensing fees, integrates within an existing LAN network, and works with virtually any external server, making it the ideal recording device to use in lecture or conference environments.

Toronto – Compact computer technology is the latest and most effective way to transport all of your important files. USB Direct gives you great options in the latest styles of USB memory.

USB Direct is a Canadian supplier of memory storage who offers the best pricing ever on a large selection of Promotional USB memory solutions. Celebrate their grand opening and take advantage of their huge savings. Their prices can’t be beat. You won’t find a better deal anywhere!

USB Direct can also customize your memory sticks with your company’s name or logo. Imagine the pride your employees will display as they strut down the halls with their daily work in tiny little canisters or fashionable bracelets. Use them to give out at your local charity event as a way to remember the cause. You can even make them a fabulous way to hand out computerized invitations. The possibilities of use are endless. Everyone is getting into the techno universe.

With a variety of memory that starts at 128MB and goes as high as 16GB and a wide selection of bright colours, you’ll never lose your memory stick again. If you’re scared of breaking them, USB Direct even makes them in a sturdy PVC rubber casing to protect your precious files.  USB Direct also offers some very unique styles like wood, car shapes, look alike pens, bracelets and neck or wrist straps. It’s so easy to match your USB with your personal style.

Vancouver – A whole new audience of gamers will be able to unwrap Braid soon! Hothead Games proudly announced today that Jonathan Blow’s beloved indie title will arrive in the European PlayStation®Network on Dec. 17 for only €9.99, offering current and soon-to-be PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system owners a little extra holiday cheer this season.

Players will explore the human condition and manipulate time with our hero Tim in the lush, painterly world of Braid. An Independent Games Festival winner, this puzzle-platformer takes you from a house in the city on a journey through a series of worlds to solve puzzles and rescue the princess. In each world, you have a different power to affect the way time behaves, including the ability to rewind, create parallel realities and utilize time dilation to overcome the many obstacles in your path. There is no filler in this game; every puzzle shows you something new and interesting about the game world.

Key Features:

• Non-traditional platforming: You can never die and never lose, but challenge is always present and focused on solving puzzles, rather than forcing you to play and replay tricky jumps.
• Puzzle-rich environment. Travel through a series of worlds, searching for puzzle pieces and solving puzzles by manipulating time: rewinding, creating parallel universes and setting up pockets of dilated time. The game play is always fresh and new and the puzzles inspire new ways of thinking.
• Aesthetic design: A painterly art style and lush, organic soundtrack complement the unique game play.
• Nonlinear story: A nonlinear fiction links the various worlds and provides real-world metaphors for your time manipulations; act out these themes at your own pace, exploring playful “what if” universes.
• Forgiving game play: The game doesn’t force you to solve puzzles in order to proceed. If you can’t figure something out, just play onward and return to that puzzle later.

Winnipeg – Complex Games Inc. is proud to announce their first self-published game for the iPhone and iTouch.  Skipping Stones is currently in production and will be soon be available for sale on the iTunes store. Slated for a mid-December 2009 release date, Skipping Stones is a casual recreational game that you can play on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

“Skipping Stones is going to make a splash on the iPhone”, said Noah Decter-Jackson Co-founder and Project Director at Complex Games, “the game combines relaxing gameplay mechanics that simulate actually skipping stones across the water in several beautiful settings. Skipping Stones will instantly appeal because of its lush environments and enjoyable music. Players can just relax or challenge themselves and their friends to make the longest skip!”

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53VLZBXMuVM]

Walk down to the beach and toss your cares away with the simple motion controls, or compete against other players online to make the most skips. Skipping Stones offers the gamer several beautiful landscapes, three different challenge modes and the ability to compete online against other players via Open Feint.

Guelph – Independent game developer Stir Fry Games is proud to announce the Windows version of SFG Soccer is now available online. SFG Soccer is the arcade-style indoor soccer game whose short game times, easy-to-learn controls, and fast-paced gameplay have made it a smash hit on the Xbox Live Indie Games platform. In it’s first month on Xbox Live, the game has already been featured in the Top Rated, Top Downloads, and the Top IGN.com Picks lists. SFG Soccer is currently one of the top-rated games on the service, with a 4-star rating in the United States, and an astounding 4 1/2 star rating in the United Kingdom.

The game has an extensive multi-season 64-team career mode, complete with a custom team & player editors, playoffs and an RPG-style skill improvement system. The Windows version also includes new features requested by fans including individual player stats, higher difficulty settings, league leaders, and the ability to edit and share your league easily using external programs such as Microsoft Excel.

Vancouver – A team of Art Institute Vancouver students have published their latest game on the web. Light Switch Studios is proud to announce their single player PC 2D side-scrolling platform title Fotagogos, which will officially release on December 15th. Gamers will play through the game as Phil, a young miner who is sent out by his family to gather the light crystals they need to survive. As Phil gathers the light crystals using his special light-switching helmet, he used one of three colours to help him defeat the enemies and find his way through the dark caverns. Phil can use the powers of Red, Green or Blue light to speed through dangerous territory while Green light will help Phil leap to high ledges. Making use of the Blue light will help Phil defy gravity and float to a safe landing. Fotagogos is a tool-based game which the team built from the ground up, and they have included level editing tools for players to mod and expand their game experience.

Vancouver – Swim Recruiting has posted the following career position for a Technical Lead in PHP Games at a Vancouver development studio:

• High level technical direction and low level coding participation
• Entrepreneurial, growing, and action-packed environment
• Lead a talented and experienced development team

Do you have strong leadership skills combined with expert knowledge of the LAMP stack and software development best practices at both the architectural and code level?

A Vancouver ‘home grown’ organization based in funky Gastown is on the lookout for an experienced and knowledgeable Technical Lead to direct and lead a professional, fun, and dynamic software team. This team will develop and enhance new and existing games for social network platforms such as Facebook and iPhone applications.

Working closely with the Studio Producer and Creative Director, you will be charged with establishing high level technical direction and supervision as well as ‘rolling up the sleeves’ and developing code. You will lead and motivate the team to release up to 8 multiple titles on various platforms per year. As well as excellent communication and documentation skills, you must have expert LAMP stack skills and knowledge combined with the ability to direct, lead and motivate a small group of open-source developers. You will also be highly competent at setting up and establishing development policies, frameworks, and best practices to ensure a fast paced, action packed, rapid prototyping, iterative model in a social and collaborative team orientated environment.

In order to be considered for this role you must be able to demonstrate the following:

• Expert proficiency (7+ years) in all areas of LAMP development at the architecture and code level
• Flash/flex development skills and solid Unix based tools and system administration skills
• Experience setting up and establishing software development frameworks, policies, and best practices
• Be a natural leader and manager with the skills and track record to motivate and grow the development team
• Passion for a wide variety of Gaming technologies and methodologies
• Graduation from a four year college or university, a degree from a recognized design school, or two to four years of related experience and training.

This is a fantastic opportunity to lead a modern, fast paced, innovative, fun and dynamic development team working on some of the latest games and applications with bleeding-edge open source technologies – apply by sending your resume to Brian Thompson at Swim Recruiting.

Vancouver – Blue Castle Games has the following career positions open for local candidates:

Rendering Software Engineer
Senior Technical Artist
Senior or Franchise Project Manager
Producer
Environment Artist (Contract & Full Time) – DEAD RISING 2 (new listing)
Contract Compliance/Online/Gameplay QA Tester (6 months) – DEAD RISING 2
Lead Level Designer
Online Software Engineer

Please visit their Careers page for more details.

Victoria – Most people are careful to shred their financial documents and keep a careful hold on their personal paperwork, but what about online and on their PCs? With the ever-present threat of spyware and identity theft, ensuring that personal details remain safe should be a top priority for all computer users. The latest version of ParetoLogic’s Privacy Controls software aims to make this task easier, and a lot more thorough.

Every action taken on a PC is recorded. Downloaded programs, visited websites, opened files, entered passwords and even instant messages are locked deep in a computer’s memory. A clever hacker who infiltrates a computer may copy online banking information for illegal transactions, steal personal data for identity theft, hijack email accounts for spamming, or snoop on the user’s private life.

Norman Eldridge, Technical Product Manager at ParetoLogic, said that “even with security software protecting against malware, people need to consider other methods that their personal data may be compromised: selling their used PC, having their computer stolen, or even being spied on by people who share their system.”

The latest web browsers have responded to this threat with new privacy options and ‘stealth’ modes. Internet Explorer 8’s InPrivate mode, for example, stores only the cookies and temporarily internet files required to browse normally, and then deletes these files automatically. However, Mr. Eldridge explained that this is not enough. “To fully erase your private details and history, you need to overwrite the data. Otherwise it is recoverable.” Privacy Control’s shred functionality does just that, overwriting browsing history, application history, and user-selected files. This permanently destroys the data, which cannot be restored, even with highly developed data recovery tools.

The most recent version of Privacy Controls upgrades these shred features, enhancing the scanning process to clean personal information from the latest programs. The expansion also adds support for the new 32-bit Windows 7 operating system. “A new operating system does not necessarily provide new security for personal information. If anything, the latest OS has more ways for your data to be recorded,” said Mr. Eldridge. Along with support for Windows 7 32-bit, Privacy Controls also supports Windows Vista and XP.

Montreal – In the spirit of the season, LogoBee proudly announces its fourth annual Logo Design Makeover. Any charity or non-profit organization may enter the contest, and submissions must be received by January 1, 2010.

LogoBee holds the Logo Design Makeover annually as a way of giving back to the community. By reducing overhead costs such as logo design and branding, these organizations can focus funds on the important services they offer. Having a previous logo or brand development is not necessary to enter. Depending on each winning group’s preferences, the LogoBee designers can refine an existing logo, or they can start from scratch. Each winning participant receives custom logo design from logobee.com, as well as professional stationery design complete with letterhead, envelope, and business cards. Contest submission is free.

LogoBee held its first Logo Design Makeover contest in 2005, welcoming any charities and non-profit organizations to enter. LogoBee adds two grand prizes to the contest, among other changes this year. The grand prize winners will receive a BundleBee package from Logobee.com for the deeply discounted price of $500. The package, normally priced at $1199, includes professional logo design, stationery design, and website design. In addition, LogoBee will randomly select 10 entries to receive a Golden package, which includes custom logo design with tailor-made stationery design included. Each Golden package will be offered for the nominal rate of $100, originally priced at $425.

Donating professional design services to charities and non-profit organizations is one important way that LogoBee feels it is important to give back to the community. LogoBee will announce the winners January 8, 2010, and notify the winners via email.

News from Skillz Systems, AMD, Intel and D-Box

Halifax – It’s that time of year, where thousands of enthusiasts head to the cold rinks to enjoy the sport of Hockey! Helping hockey players of all ages train their stick-handling skills, Halifax based Skillz Systems launched an interactive video game, called QuickStickz.

Hockey players can use any hockey stick, a computer and Internet access to play QuickStickz virtually anywhere and at anytime. The system includes cameras to track a custom ball and then feeds that information to the training software on the player’s computer.

“What we’ve done is taken kids’ love of hockey and their love of video gaming and combined the two,” says Dean Dachyshyn, Skillz Systems Chief Operating Officer.

QuickStickz which launched just over a week ago, has been in beta testing over the past 2 years. Young eager hockey players across Nova Scotia were able to test and play the video game providing feedback, which was incorporated into the official product.

Endorsed by Buffalo Sabres assistant coach James Patrick and Phoenix Coyotes head coach Dave Tippett, QuickStickz is poised to be the next generation training device. “We are looking forward to setting the hockey world on its ear with this revolutionary new training,” Dachyshyn says. Skillz Systems is a past participant and winner in the InnovaCorp I-3 Technology Start-Up Competition.

Edmonton – BioWare re-invented the fantasy role-playing genre with its recent release of Dragon Age: Origins. With game patches issued days after the title’s debut, BioWare delivers full support for the visually striking AMD innovation, ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology. ATI Radeon graphics now give Dragon Age: Origins players the ultimate visual experience as they see more of this vivid in-game world, and at higher resolution. 1

* BioWare issued patches on Nov. 6 and Nov. 17, 2009 to fully enable Dragon Age: Origins on ATI Eyefinity technology, ensuring that gamers have access to ultra-widescreen resolutions for the ultimate visual experience.
* Experience even more of the fantasy world of Ferelden in Dragon Age: Origins by viewing it with an ultra-wide, three display configuration using ATI Eyefinity technology, allowing for a maximum resolution of 7680 x 1600.
* ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology allows seamless enablement of the biggest game environments available today. Gamers can arrange one to three displays using the ATI Radeon™ HD 5970, ATI Radeon™ HD 5870, ATI Radeon™ HD 5850, ATI Radeon™ HD 5770 or ATI Radeon™ HD 5750 graphics cards.2

“BioWare has made ATI Eyefinity compatibility a priority, and it speaks strongly to their belief in what ATI Eyefinity technology brings to the gaming experience,” said Neal Robison, director, ISV Relationship Management at AMD. “BioWare is known for creating rich, immersive gaming experiences, and it is clear that they appreciate how ATI Eyefinity technology found on the latest ATI Radeon cards, can help further enrich the experience for gamers.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Yarmouth NS – Xona Games announced this morning that the studio has advanced to Round Three in the InNOVAcorp 2009 I-3 Technology Start-Up Competition for Nova Scotian companies. Xona Games, owned by brothers Matthew and Jason Doucette, is a top 3 finalist competing for $100,000 and $40,000 first and second place award packages for the Yarmouth, Lunenburg, Queens and Shelburne counties. In each of the five geographic zones, three finalists will compete for first and second place award packages, worth $100,000 and $40,000 respectively, made up of cash and in-kind business building services. The companies will pitch their start-up business plans to the I-3 judging panels in mid January. Xona Games is the only game development studio in the competition, and in addition to winning the above prizes, the brothers are also hoping to be the over-all provincial winner which will be selected from the first place zone winners. The provincial award is a $100,000 HPi Microfund investment. Good luck to both of you on presentation day!

Victoria – ParetoLogic has set out to finally put to rest a problem that has plagued PC owners for years: files with unknown or unsupported extensions. Their latest program, FileCure, provides a straightforward way to identify unknown files and open them, as well as repair errors with file associations. Adrian Pereira, ParetoLogic’s Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder, explained that “This software really came from our customers. They kept asking us – ‘do you have a program that does this?’ Now we do.”

From Word documents to Adobe PDFs, every file has an associated extension. However, often users will come across a file with an unknown extension, a file that has been associated with an incompatible program, or a file lacking the necessary software. Regardless of the cause, the effect is the same – the file does not open. “Most people don’t have the in-depth Windows knowledge necessary to fix all their file extension and association errors,” Pereira said. The ease of trading files in the 21st century, be it through email, USB keys, file-sharing software, or online downloads, has only exacerbated this problem.

FileCure combines sophisticated software with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface. Users can perform a full scan with FileCure or simply drag and drop a frustrating file onto the desktop icon. FileCure also scans automatically when a user attempts to open an unsupported file. FileCure then provides users with the two main items necessary to open a file: the type of the file and the program necessary to open it. The required program is delivered through online downloads, linked for easy access through the FileCure application itself. Pereira said of the software: “It’s a simple but important process. You need to know what the file is, and you need a program to open it. FileCure does it all for you.”

Toronto – I recently came across a programme called MeshMixer, which has been developed by Ryan Schmidt, a computer graphics researcher at the University of Toronto. The goal of MeshMixer is “to make it dead easy to compose new 3D models from existing meshes.” The programme is available free of charge, and Ryan is looking for feedback about it. I don’t have any experience with 3D programmes, so I can’t provide him with any type of useful feedback, but if any of you artists out there care to give MeshMixer a go, I’m sure Ryan would like to hear about your experiences with his programme.

Calgary – Digital Alberta and Banff New Media Institute have announced their first workshop of 2010 – Digital Tableau – The Art and Craft of Digital Media. This workshop will start with an evening reception at The Banff Centre Thursday, February 4 and will complete three days later on Sunday February 7 2010.

During the two and a half days of this workshop, studio time will be combined in the areas of illustration, sound, 3D animation techniques with classroom presentations on best practices, character and script development, etc. The first guest speaker that we are very pleased to confirm is Rich Mckain from Pixar Animation Studios who worked on Disney’s ‘Up’. Rich is a Calgary Native and is really looking forward to getting into peeling the layers of the 3D animation process. More speakers will be announced as they are confirmed. Early registration is recommended, as seats are limited.

Digital Alberta is also subsidizing a delegation of Alberta gaming companies to attend GDC 2010 in San Francisco, California. If your company is interested in participating and receiving funding to do so, please contact Rene Smid to request an application form. While GDC 2010 does not take place until March 9 – 13, 2010, Digital Alberta is working closely with DFAIT now on matching our delegates with international buyers. Applications must be received no later than December 31, 2009.

Montreal – Ubisoft has announced their first patch for Assassin’s Creed 2. This patch will fix a few bugs and crash issues that players have experienced. The patch will be released today on Playstation 3 and on December 11th for the Xbox 360.

Fixed: Situation specific bugs

Glyph – After the player has resolved a glyph (when the unlock code message appears), if the player presses A and B (for 360, X and O on PS3) repeatedly and quickly, the video will appear in full screen, and he will get stuck in “the truth menu”.
Fast Travel – Some feedback states that Ezio loses the ability to interact with the fast travel stations.
Free roaming/Parkour – In extremely rare occasions a bug allows Ezio to walk on air.
Auditore Cape – When first equipping or re-equipping the Auditore cape, users in the Villa become notorious even if the cape description says otherwise.
Altaïr’s armour – While wearing Altair’s armour the game crashes when performing multiple consecutive double assassinations.
Toscana – The game occasionally crashes if the player dies in Toscana, the player is stuck in the animus loading screen.
Water – Ezio and NPCs may get stuck beneath map if pushed in water.
Animus Loading Screen – There were reports of the game crashing while the player is in the Animus loading screen

Fixed: Mission specific issues

Sequence 05 Mission 01 – The game froze after completing the mission and following certain steps.
Sequence 06 Mission 02 – An extremely rare issue could make the game freeze while Ezio is fighting the guards.
Sequence 07 Mission 02 – Sometimes the civilians knocked down by Rosa could “float”.
Sequence 07 Mission 07 – When the user is in an open conflict, under specific situations the game crashed.
Sequence 08 “Venezia” – If a player desynchronises during the flying machine sequence, the player sometimes spawned near Leo’s workshop and not on the tower.
Secret Location: “Vizitatione” – The user remains stuck after locking onto the agile guard with the gun.
Sequence 11 Mission 05 – The user cannot continue gameplay after quitting and loading the game. They are stuck in the hideout.
Sequence 14 Mission 02 – The user falls through the texture if he is hit with rocks by the guards while climbing

Sound enhancement: 5.1 LPCM support

Montreal – QA International presents a new downloadable version of the celebrated Visual Dictionary: The Visual Multimedia 4th Edition. An online store was launched this fall to allow for the secure purchase and download of the two versions of the Visual Multimedia 4th Edition, making it possible to obtain the Visual without leaving the comfort of one’s home, and without shipping and handling fees.

“The sheer success of our site, the Visual Dictionary Online, since its launch in the fall of 2007 and the enthusiasm of its users around the world have clearly shown us that the Web is a powerful medium for distributing the Visual. We intend to continue focusing on new technologies to help increase distribution of this superb reference tool entirely designed and produced in Quebec,” says QA International vice-president and publisher Caroline Fortin.

Illustrated thematic content as diversified as the world around us

Whether you’re looking for the name of the small missing part in your dishwasher or the English term for clé à tuyau, or if you want to associate an image with an unknown word, the Visual Multimedia 4th Edition gives you the answer with a simple click, thanks to its unique navigation mode.

Two methods of exploration make the Visual Multimedia 4th Edition a user-friendly reference tool. The exploration can be started by entering a term in the search engine, or through the thematic structure, which goes from the general idea to the precise notion. Users of all ages will easily find the illustrations relating to their search topic, with the illustrations in turn providing access to connected terms and their definitions.

The Visual Multimedia 4th Edition includes some 6,000 hyper-realist illustrations and 20,000 defined terms covering almost 800 topics. These are grouped into 17 themes that present every aspect of everyday life, from sports, astronomy, the human body and the arts to cooking, gardening and the animal kingdom. This diversity makes it ideal for acquiring vocabulary according to one’s fields of interest, and in several languages. The software allows one to listen to the pronunciation of each term in every language of the edition and to personalize the main language displayed. It also offers five different games that measure the knowledge of the user in each subject.

New features

· Downloadable from the all-new Visual Dictionary online store
· Available in a trilingual version (including terminology in English, French and Spanish) and in a multilingual version (including terminology in English, French, Spanish, Italian and German).

Linguistic tools

· Multilingual interface (can display up to five languages at a time)
· Definitions in English and French
· Trilingual version: terms written and pronounced in English, French and Spanish
· Multilingual version: terms written and pronounced in English, French, Spanish, Italian and German

Toronto – Congratulations to all of the Canada New Media Award winners who were announced last night at the nextMEDIA gala at Toronto’s Design Exhange:

• Best Company of the Year –  Cyberplex Inc. (Toronto)
• Best Brand of the Year – Doritos
• Promising New Company of the Year – Syncapse (Toronto)
• Hottest New Digital Kid on the Block –  ChickAdvisor.com (Toronto)
• Best in Mobile Marketing –  Brisk ARTwist by Addictive Mobility (Markham)
• Best Mobile Application – Air Canada iPhone App by IBM Canada
• Best Location Based Service – Poynt by Multiplied Media (Calgary)
• Best Use of Social Media – Invoke Media, creator of HootSuite (Vancouver)
• Best in Interactive Marketing – Doritos White Bag by BBDO Worldwide – Proximity Canada (Toronto)
• Best Branded Entertainment – Worldwide Short Film Festival: Short Attention Span by doug agency (Toronto)
• Best Cross-Platform Project – Waterlife Interactive by the National Film Board of Canada
• Best Online Video Portal – National Film Board of Canada: Online Screening Room
• Best Innovative Web-based Game – Junk: Battles by Antic Entertainment (London ON)
• Best Kids Interactive – Titanium Chef by mod7 (Vancouver)
• Best in Canadian Culture, Interactive – In Touch: Connecting Cloth, Culture & Art by ecentricarts (Toronto)
• Best Online Comedy Performance – Têtes à claques (Montreal)
• Best Online Artist of the Year – K-os
• Leader in Social Change – Mark & Tonya Surman
• Lifetime Achievement Award – Red Burns, who is, according to the nextMEDIA website, known as the “Grandmother” of new media and Founder of the ITP Program at the Tisch School for the Arts at NYU.

London ON – Big Blue Bubble Inc. announced today that the first Fighting Fantasy game book, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, will be available on iPhone this Christmas.

Following the successful Nintendo DS launch of the game of the same name, Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain for iPhone and iPod Touch takes a different approach bringing Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson’s legendary game book to your favorite handheld device.

Fighting Fantasy fans will love the classic story and original illustrations with a technological twist. No more dice, pencils, or bookmarks. All the special features are built in!

Features…

• Tap the on screen buttons to flip pages (No papercuts!)
• Shake to roll the dice using the accelerometer
• Inventory items selectable via touch-screen
• Game-save feature allows you to retrace your steps
• Beautifully painted illustrations

Vancouver – Karta Mobile Inc. today announced the public availability of Viira 2.0, the updated and enhanced version of its popular BlackBerry® application that brings the principles of David Allen’s Getting Things Done® (GTD®) productivity system into the hands of busy professionals, executives and entrepreneurs worldwide.

The new version of the already full-featured Viira adds several industry firsts, including the ability to create tasks based on incoming email messages, effortlessly prioritize tasks, and designate next actions. Viira is also the only BlackBerry GTD app to fully incorporate appointments and events in its underlying organizational system.

“Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity” is a popular work-life productivity book by David Allen that shows readers how to effectively organize tasks, information and communications in an intuitive way. Since its debut in 2001, the GTD methodology has been enthusiastically embraced by millions of knowledge workers around the world.

While a multitude of web-based tools for implementing GTD have been made available over the last years, the engineering challenge of building effective and intuitive BlackBerry applications has left the principles of Getting Things Done under-represented on BlackBerry smartphones.

Viira has stepped in to fill the void. With Viira 2.0, BlackBerry owners can now conquer their inboxes by creating to-dos from the incoming email messages and immediately filing them in their appropriate place. Handling large volumes of incoming email has been a known pain point for people implementing Getting Things Done with BlackBerry devices – until now.

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Montreal – Audiokinetic Inc., the leading audio solution provider for the video game industry, released today the latest version of Wwise, its award-winning audio pipeline solution. Wwise 2009.3 introduces new features and enhancements, including access to two McDSP plug-ins. Audiokinetic also unveiled a new pricing structure that will allow customers to save up to 20% on purchase of the company’s product families.

Wwise 2009.3 includes the following new features and enhancements:
• McDSP effects: ML1 and FutzBox
• Peak meters on limiter effects
• Vorbis: major memory optimizations
• New & improved file packager
• Profiler data statistics

Audiokinetic and McDSP had announced a technological partnership a few months ago, and the ML1 and FutzBox plug-ins are the first results of this collaboration.

Audiokinetic also gave a sneak-peek of its roadmap for Wwise for 2010, and revealed that new features will include a convolution reverb. “We’re pursuing our goal to see Wwise become a comprehensive platform for sound design, while answering our customers’ needs,” said Simon Ashby, VP Product Strategy, Audiokinetic. “Our users asked for more high-quality effects and a convolution reverb, so we’re delivering these, and more.”

In parallel, Audiokinetic revealed a new pricing structure based on a “buy more – pay less” approach. The pricing structure allows game developers to qualify for discounts if they purchase several products developed by Audiokinetic.

• Purchase of 2 products grants a 5% discount;
• Purchase of the Power Pack – the combination of Wwise, Wwise Motion, SoundSeed Impact, SoundSeed Air, the 2 McDSP effects and the upcoming convolution reverb – grants a 20% discount.

“Our products are powerful yet affordable, and this new pricing structure offers a great value for money,” said Geneviève Laberge, VP Sales, Audiokinetic. “For example, purchasing the Power Pack for 1 title on 2 platforms now costs $33K – that’s an economy of $8,250 compared to the individual price of these 6 valuable products.”

Toronto – Wired Woman Toronto is in need of businesswomen who are interested in joining their mentorship programme as mentors. Wired Woman’s Mentorship programs run in both Toronto and Vancouver, and are for women entering or re-entering the work-force and targets women requiring career guidance. This career mentorship experience is enhanced with networking events and education workshops. Applications for prospective mentors and mentees are accepted all year long.

Montreal – At some time overnight, an (apparently Russian) hacker took over the official site for Splinter Cell, replacing at least the home page (I didn’t venture through bookmarks to test the other pages) with a black and grey static page and message in Russian, which roughly translates to:

Occasionally the security system will be switched off for planned work and data protection. During such work may be a breach in security from external threats. Thus, all off would be a random character in accordance with a random pattern of Delta-3-6-Oscar

The crest, which first appears on the hacked site and then in a text image makes use of the Romanov double-headed eagle, and the GPS co-ordinates in the lower right corner relate to Saint Petersburg in western Russia. The hacker left a message in the replaced source code, including his hacker handle in order to claim his conquest.

Hopefully the web teams at Ubisoft will be able to reclaim the Splinter Cell site soon and plug the holes which allowed outside access soon.

Still over at Ubisoft, the latest Dev Diary blog has been posted for Avatar the Game; today’s topic is Conquest, which is a real-time strategical mini game in which players must capture and hold territory for their chosen Faction, ultimately gaining control of Pandora.

Montreal – The National Film Board of Canada is proud to release the DVD box set Jacques Drouin: Complete Pinscreen Works as of December 2, 2009. Drouin’s name is inextricably linked to the legendary Alexeïeff-Parker pinscreen, with which he produced a unique and poetic body of work.

The box set will be launched at a tribute to Jacques Drouin at the Sommets du cinéma d’animation, at the Cinémathèque québécoise, on Saturday, December 5 at 5 p.m. The event will include a screening of the documentary portrait Jacques Drouin en relief, by Guillaume Fortin.

“Jacques Drouin is a major figure in NFB history,” said Julie Roy, producer of the box set. “For three decades, he was the only filmmaker in the world who was working with the pinscreen, the incredible “dream machine” invented around 1930 by the Russian-born French filmmaker Alexander Alexeïeff. With his high-quality oeuvre, constant experimentation and eminently personal vision, Drouin proved that the pinscreen could express the imagination of people other than its inventor.”

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Vancouver – Today, ActiveState, the dynamic languages company, launched Firefly, a hosted project management and collaboration solution for managing commercial software development projects. As a turn-key solution, Firefly comes pre-configured with integrated source code revision control and code hosting, project management, issue and time tracking, and collaboration tools like wikis, blogs and forums. Firefly eases administrative pain that goes hand-in-hand with software development and makes it easy to share information between team members and customers.

With Firefly, software and web development teams in large enterprises and small-to-medium sized businesses can become more productive, more efficient and deliver higher quality software projects on time. Firefly simplifies project management with built-in systems to track and manage features, bugs and team tasks. Managers can set clear priorities, understand dependencies and gain visibility into project status and progress.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq-VJHje1Y]

“Putting a project management system in place can be challenging for small development teams,” said Shane Caraveo, Firefly Product Manager. “Nearly 20% of small development teams report they do not use a solution for source code hosting, project management or collaboration according to a recent survey. Free solutions can take significant time, knowledge and effort to install and configure while commercial solutions may lock you in. As a commercial solution built on the open source Trac system, Firefly gives you the best of both worlds providing you with a reliable, easy to use solution without any contract.”

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Vancouver – Mingleverse Laboratories Inc., just six weeks after a very successful consumer launch of it’s Mingle Room service, today announced it has already hosted over 10,000 live mingles with participants from Canada, USA, Europe, and Asia and has just received a seed investment from Telefilm Canada for its upcoming uVenu project for entertainment based Mingles. Mingle Rooms are a youthful new audio/visual communications platform and an alternative to telephones that can easily connect 2 to 50 people instantly from around the world for live meet–ups using innovative 3D high quality voice within a web-based 3D visual environment.

“Telefilm is our first outside investment and is very strategic within our plan of providing the newest form of live online and mobile immersive communications to new markets like the entertainment industry where traditional services are not an option”, said Ron Stevens, Co-founder of Mingleverse. “Our uVenu program will allow a wider range of experts, radio and TV personalities, and guests to safely showcase their talent and interact live using natural voice with an internationally connected audience that is spending more of their time online. We will also go behind the scenes with a movie set service to allow movie fans to interact live with cast and crew.”

The Mingleverse uVenu project will initially provide simple web based venues that look like theatres, sports venues, and talk show studios like the “Daily Show” for up to 50 people to connect and interact live online with each other in a whole new fun and youthful way. “The focus will be on a smaller more intimate group setting that maintains the integrity of the live 3D voice communications“ said Daniel Ruscigno, Youth Marketing Coordinator for Mingleverse. “We have already generated a lot of interest from religious groups, media and sports personalities and we will have some exciting uVenues to announce in the New Year for live singing, comedy and quiz shows. “

“We are very impressed with Mingleverse’s platform and could easily see the potential of uVenu for the entertainment industry which is so important for Canada as well as for many other vertical markets” said Earl Hong Tai, Regional Director, Business Development, Western Region, Telefilm Canada. “Merging entertainment, 3D live voice and social communications technology has never been done before and this is an excellent opportunity to help the growth of the industry and to showcase this country’s talent to a worldwide audience.”