Village Gamer

The federal government’s use of handheld communications devices and its practices for disposing of unneeded paper documents and surplus computers could expose the personal information of Canadians to unauthorized disclosure, Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart has warned.

The findings, stemming from two separate privacy audits conducted by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC), were highlighted in the organization’s 2009-2010 annual report on the Privacy Act, tabled in Parliament today. The Act applies to federal departments, agencies and Crown corporations.

“Our audits turned up some disturbing gaps in the privacy policies and practices of government institutions,” Commissioner Stoddart said. “Whether they’re using a BlackBerry, shredding old papers or disposing of outdated computer equipment, public servants need to know that the security of people’s personal data is a top priority.”

The annual report examines how the government’s holdings of personal data are affected by technology and considers the impact of full-body airport scanners and other national security measures on the privacy rights of Canadians. The report also summarizes key investigations into privacy complaints and data breaches that the Office conducted under the Privacy Act in 2009-2010.

“Considering the vast amounts of personal information on Canadians that the government holds, problems are relatively rare,” the Commissioner acknowledged. But, she noted, the data that the government collects, for purposes such as taxation, income support, the correctional system and international travel, is highly sensitive. Any unauthorized collection, use or disclosure of such data could therefore have serious consequences.

“When it comes to safeguarding the personal information entrusted to it, the government of Canada must always be held to the very highest standards of account.”

Here are some highlights of today’s reports:

* Wireless audit: Of five federal entities examined, none had fully assessed the threats and risks inherent in wireless communications. Gaps in policies and/or practices resulted in weak password protection for smart phones and inadequate encryption for Wi-Fi networks and data stored on mobile devices. Shortcomings were also noted in the disposal of surplus handheld devices and the use of PIN-to-PIN messaging, a form of direct communication between two smart phones that is vulnerable to interception. Read the rest of this entry »

The Canada Media Fund (CMF) today announced the appointment of Catalina Briceño to the position of Director, Industry and Market Trends. In this newly created role, Ms. Briceño will ensure that the CMF’s policies for supporting the production of Canadian television and digital media content are aligned with emerging trends and developments in the industry in Canada and internationally. She will monitor key trends and developments in terms of emerging technologies; business models and production financing; and regulation in order to provide the CMF with market intelligence to develop effective policies.

With over 13 years of experience in the audiovisual and new media industry, Ms. Briceño comes to the CMF from Salambo Productions, where she helped build the strategy and business model behind the internationally acclaimed, multiplatform project Têtes à claques as Producer and Director of Operations. She began her career in 1997 when she founded Caliope Communications Inc., which developed, coordinated financing for, and produced audiovisual content using evolving new media technologies, from digital visual effects to 3D animation to convergent web applications. Over the years, she consulted for various private and public funds and instructed a number of workshops through INIS on new media financing for audiovisual students and professionals. She is regularly invited to speak at conferences about the challenges and opportunities linked to using web and interactive applications in the entertainment sector.

Until joining the CMF, Ms. Briceño served as Vice Chair of the Board of the Regroupement des producteurs multimédia (RPM). In 2008, she received the Prix Séville de la Relève from the Association of Women in Film, Television, and New Media.

Ms. Briceño will join the CMF on October 25, 2010.

The Canada Media Fund (CMF) celebrated the success of the Canadian television and digital media industries with an event in Ottawa that brought together the stars of Canadian television shows and the Members of Parliament and government officials who help bring these shows to life through their continued support of the Canada Media Fund.

The Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, spoke to the crowd which included representatives from the creative, broadcasting, and distribution industries, as well as senior government officials.

“Six months into the Canada Media Fund, we have come an incredibly long way and it’s gone incredibly well,” said Minister Moore. “We want to make sure there’s a broad diversity of Canadian content and Canadian culture available on the platforms that Canadians choose to consume it on.”

“Arts and culture, the creative economy represents $46 billion in Canada’s economy,” continued Minister Moore. “It is directly responsible for over 640,000 jobs across this country. And I can tell you that any government — municipal, provincial, territorial or federal — that says that it has a plan for strong economic growth but doesn’t have a plan for strong support of the arts is a government that doesn’t have a plan for economic recovery. I can promise you that as the Minister of Heritage, I will keep on fighting to make sure that we get this right, that we work together, and that the arts and cultural sector will be alive and well in the digital world ahead.”

Louis Roquet, Chair of the Board of the CMF added “The Canada Media Fund is pleased to be a part of the government’s digital economy strategy, and we will strive to be a leading example of public investment that supports innovation in the creative industries. As we complete the first year of the CMF and look towards the future, we will continue to foster innovation, support the development of jobs in the digital economy, and seek opportunities to increase export revenue through the sale of CMF-funded content to international markets.”

“The Canada Media Fund is the only fund of its kind in the world that supports the creation of convergent Canadian content and experimental content and software applications,” said Valerie Creighton, President and CEO of the CMF. “I would like to thank Minister Moore and the Government of Canada for their vision in establishing the fund, and Canada’s cable and satellite distributors for their continued support. I would also like to thank the wonderful, talented Canadian actors and actresses who took time out of their busy production schedules to come here today to show their support of the CMF.”

The entourage of Canadian television stars included FlashPoint (a show which we’re very partial to, by the way) cast members David Paetkau and Michael Cram, along with:

Ashley Leggat – Life with Derek
Debra McCabe – Degrassi, Life with Derek, Guns, The Border, Heartland, Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures, Lost Girl
Graham Abbey – The Border
Helene Joy –  Murdoch Mysteries, Durham County
Jacques Girard – Chabotte et fille
Jarrett Cale –  Pure Pwnage
Jocelyn Blanchard – Il était une fois dans le trouble
Joey Scarpellino – Les Parent
Lauren Collins – Degrassi
Marline Yan – How to Be Indie
Melinda Shankar – Degrassi, How to be Indie
Paula Brancati – Degrassi, Being Erica
Raphaël Grenier-Benoît – Les Parent
Rémi-Pierre Paquin – Les invincibles
Ron James – The Ron James Show
Roxanne Boulianne – Il était une fois dans le trouble
Siobhan Murphy – Men With Brooms
Stephen Arbuckle – Todd and the Book of Pure Evil
Zaib Shaikh – Little Mosque on the Prairie

The following are some of the politicians who were present at the event:

Carole Lavallée – Bloc québécois Heritage Critic, MP for Saint-Bruno – Saint-Hubert
Francis Fox – Honourable Senator
Pablo Rodriguez – Canadian Heritage Opposition Critic, MP for Honoré – Mercier
Peter Milliken – Speaker of the House of Commons, MP for Kingston and the Islands

Toronto-based start-up DrinkBox Studios today announced that their alien-invasion-themed co-op platformer Tales from Space: About a Blob will be released in early 2011 as part of Sony Computer Entertainment America’s “Pub Fund” program.

Developers looking to release a game through the Pub Fund initiative must be prepared to build it to completion and commit to a period of console platform exclusivity. In return, approved developers receive a development-budget-matching royalty guarantee from SCEA. A number of popular PlayStation®Network games, including Burn Zombie Burn by DoubleSix and Joe Danger by Hello Games, have already been released through the program.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M44usucUWpg]

DrinkBox CEO Ryan MacLean had this to say about the initiative: “Pub Fund has been a good fit for us. The royalty guarantee and other Pub Fund terms have allowed us to confidently focus on finishing our game while retaining ownership and artistic control over the project. Working with SCEA has been a great experience in general: The advice they have given us over the course of development has helped us build a better game. We’re excited to be working with them on this project!”

Moncton software developer DOVICO Software has announced DOVICO Planning & Timesheet, a new software product from the makers of the industry leading DOVICO Timesheet. Building upon DOVICO’s Time Tracking foundation and user experiences, this new product answers the need for customers who want quick answers to simple questions such as: ‘Who is available and who is not?’, ‘How long will this project REALLY take to complete?’, ‘How much will this project cost us?’.

“Our goal for DOVICO Planning & Timesheet was a simple and easy project planning tool that satisfies a manager’s need to have a good insight into employees’ current and future availability – while keeping our core time tracking features in place.” said Bob Gorham, Product Manager at DOVICO. “Equally important is the ability to uncover what is keeping everyone occupied and , more significantly, a method to try ‘what if scenarios’ when planning a project and seeing the impact of these before moving ahead.”

DOVICO Planning & Timesheet: It’s easy to try and the first 30 days are free.

Immediate Benefits

* Determine whether you should take on a project or not.
* Ensure that your proposed project plan is accurate and profitable.
* Know which of your employees are being under/over utilized.
* Easy transition from a spreadsheet template such as MS Excel, simply copy and paste!
* Affirm that your best talent is working on your mission critical projects.
* Save time and costs in the planning process with our innovative tool that unites project planning and resource utilization.
* Reduce project overruns with our project forecasting tools so you can fix any issues proactively.
* Shorten billing cycles and get paid sooner.
* Deliver projects on time and on budget.
* Easily shift project priorities with our resource reassignment tools.
* High employee adoption with our intuitive time tracking solution.

I just received information from DFAIT that due to its relationship with San Diego’s high tech industry organization CommNexus, Canadian companies are welcome to apply to participate at MarketLink, which takes place in San Diego this November 17th & 18th. The deadline for interested companies to apply is October 22nd 2010. In conjunction with this invitation to participate, Verizon Wireless is looking for companies who specialize in these areas:

Privacy/identity management
Collaboration tools
Personal health & wellness monitoring
Consumer Cloud-based services (content sharing, gaming, etc.)
Mobile security
Mobile Services and Applications marketing tools
Mobile Application Development enablers (API management, porting, voice APIs, context awareness, mash-ups, etc)
Customer Analytics
In-car mobile experience
Hardware innovation
Voice innovation

The Government of Canada has launched a program to help kickstart Canadian businesses by testing their innovative products and services within the Government of Canada before taking them to the marketplace. To make the announcement, the Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women, was joined by Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance and Minister Responsible for the Greater Toronto Area, and the Honourable Rob Moore, Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism.

“There is no question that in Canada we have enormous talent and potential when it comes to innovation,” said Minister Ambrose. “With this new program, our Government will be giving our talent a kickstart in getting their innovative products and services off the ground.”

This program is a new $40 million program announced under Budget 2010 to encourage federal departments and agencies to test innovative products and services in four areas: environment, health, safety and security, and enabling technologies.

“We listened to businesses across the country in developing Canada’s Economic Action Plan, and an important concern was how they could get their product to market in today’s economy,” said Minister Flaherty. “By testing their products and services within government, we are investing in job creation and in the future of Canadian companies that have innovative ideas.”

“Today’s new initiatives are among the important measures introduced by our Government to ensure Canadian small and medium-sized businesses can grow and prosper,” said Minister Moore. “We are proud to encourage Canada’s tremendous entrepreneurial spirit through this new program.”

“The government is recognizing that the gap between innovators’ ideas and the marketplace is simply someone willing to bet on them, willing to take a chance on their product and then willing to give them feedback so that they can grow their business,” said W. Brett Wilson of the Dragon’s Den. “This program is about giving entrepreneurs a chance, and I’m looking forward to watching as it performs over time.”

More information about the Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program and Buy-Sell can be viewed online at their respective web sites.

The Canadian Embassy and DFAIT have extended an invitation to developers to a
Canadian Partnering Program at ModSim World 2010. The conference will be held October 12th – 15th at the Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton, Virgina.

The program starts off on Tuesday, Oct 12, at 3:00 pm with an Information Session and Tutorial at Innovation Research Park at Old Dominion University, including a chance to practice your pitch with local companies, and will feature a site visit to see the school’s latest medical modeling and simulation technology.

The program will focus on finding partners for our Canadian participants. The Canadian Embassy will have a meeting room at the Convention Centre for one-on-one meetings, and will help set up meetings in advance for all participants, so get your company profiles in as soon as possible.

Wednesday will include a site visit to NASA’s Langley Research Centre, and all Canadian participants will receive a complimentary pass to the ModSim World VIP reception.

Thursday will feature the Canadian Happy Hour. This invite-only event will allow you to meet with invitees chosen to suit the Canadian attendees, as well as giving each participant the chance to invite conference attendees that they meet during ModSim.

Companies are encouraged to indicate their interest, and provide a company profile as soon as possible. Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity! There is no fee for Canadian participants (ModSim World registration not included). If you are interested in participating and would like more information, please contact Daniel Zaharychuk or send your company profile to Assistant Trade Commissioner Stephane Eyer.

Telefilm Canada is has mad public its 2009 International Markets Report (PDF). The report spotlights Telefilm’s key role in supporting Canada’s audiovisual industry at foreign markets. Despite the economic downturn during the year, the report highlights the remarkable increase in foreign sales achieved by Canadian producers and distributors at international markets and festivals where Telefilm organizes and runs the Canada Pavilion: the European Film Market at the Berlin Film Festival, MIPTV, the Cannes Film Market and MIPCOM.

Highlights

* Telefilm invested about $1.2M in support of Canadian companies’ participation at international markets. Every dollar invested by Telefilm within the framework of its foreign activities generated $16 in sales deals for Canadian film companies, compared with $11 in 2008 and $9 in 2007. If we include pre-sales and probable sales (that is, sales deals likely to be closed quickly after the market), this figure jumps to $100 for every dollar invested.
* In 2009, total sales and pre-sales of Canadian films and television programs stood at $17.6M, a 26% increase over the $14M earned in 2008. Negotiations conducted during the international markets generated $90.7M in probable sales. This brings the total of sales, pre-sales and probable sales to $108.3M, a 27% increase over the previous year’s total of $85M.
* In 2009, the Cannes Festival was the most profitable market in terms of the ratio of sales, pre-sales and co-production/co-venturing agreements per dollar invested: every dollar invested by Telefilm generated more than $333 in economic activity.

“There’s no doubt that Canada’s audiovisual industry benefits from the strategic support it obtains abroad from Telefilm,” said Carolle Brabant, Executive Director of Telefilm Canada. “We’re very pleased to see how dynamic our companies are when they negotiate co-production and co-venturing agreements with foreign partners. Telefilm’s activities at international markets provide a real showcase for Canadian talent abroad and prove that Canadian products can compete on the world stage.”

On the international stage, Telefilm, in partnership with members of the International Business Development Group, offers strategic and operational support to Canadian companies by organizing the Canada Pavilion at a number of international markets and festivals. At the Pavilion, Telefilm supports producers’ and distributors’ sales promotion efforts through initiatives that target investors and buyers from around the world. These activities also allow Canadian and foreign producers to pool their resources in order to co-produce films and television programs. Finally, Telefilm supports the international launch of Canadian productions through special marketing activities at festivals deemed to provide the best business opportunities for Canadian companies.

Overall, Canadian companies stated that they were very satisfied with the full range of services that Telefilm offered abroad in 2009.

Via DFAIT: Hong Kong has one of the most liberalized and sophisticated telecommunications markets in Asia. As of April 2010, Hong Kong’s mobile phone penetration rate reached 180% – one of the world’s highest. Currently there are five mobile operators serving 7-million highly tech-savvy Hong Kong residents. Four out of the five operators have deployed 3G services using HSPA, which support mobile data services such as downloads, multimedia services, video calls and mobile TV.

Hong Kong is a major test-bed market for new smartphones. Leading smartphone brands such as iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia, HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola, consistently choose Hong Kong as one of the first markets in Asia to launch their new phone. A recent survey (TNS) revealed that 50 % of mobile phone owners in Hong Kong carrry a smartphone. With a sophisticated telecommunications infrastructure and a highly tech-savvy population, the smartphone market is poised to grow at an even higher rate in the coming years.

To capitalize on the increasing popularity of smartphones, major smartphone manufacturers and mobile operating systems are encouraging development of mobile content and applications. Smartphone brands and operating systems currently active in Hong Kong include:

Blackberry – applications are being developed on Java, convertible to Blackberry platform and available for download from Blackberry App World. RIM has established an Asia Pacific alliance team in HK. One of the key functions of this team is to co-ordinate with mobile content/applications developers and promote Blackberry mobile content and applications in the Asia market.

iPhone – content and applications are being developed on iPhone platform and available for download on its dedicated App Store.

Nokia – content and applications were being developed on Symbian, but have now moved to open source Java; applications are available for download from its dedicated Ovi Store. Nokia is leading the market share in offering Chinese language applications with a flavour of local culture.

Android – a Google operating system; despite being a late comer to the market, its open source platform and free usage make Android OS increasingly popular for smartphone manufacturers such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung.

Windows Mobile – a Microsoft mobile operating system; similar to the desktop version of Windows and supported by business users.

The success of smartphones depends largely on the availability of content and applications that are user-friendly. While smartphone manufacturers and operating systems are increasing their downloadable content and applications through collaboration with local developers, some mobile phone value-added service providers in Hong Kong are acting as content providers and seeking to collaborate with Canadian developers of mobile content. Types of content that are of interest include: travel, games and entertainment, lifestyle, social networking and videos.

For more information on opportunities for mobile content in Hong Kong, please contact Eunice Wong, Trade Commissioner, Consulate General of Canada in Hong Kong.

For BC Developers: The British Columbia Ministry of Small Business, Technology and Economic Development is organizing a BC Pavilion at G-STAR 2010 in Busan, Korea this November 18-21, 2010.

G-STAR is Korea’s largest international game exposition and convention, and is endorsed by the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Last year’s event drew over 240,000 attendees and featured 198 exhibitors from 21 countries. The annual exhibition will feature a wide selection of local and international gaming presence, including PC and online gaming, console, and mobile. It is a largely consumer-facing event with its own mini-conference and B2B section for those looking to make deals.

Currently, Korea’s game industry is among the top in the world and is constantly expanding. In this year alone, Korea’s game exports created revenues of about 1.09 billion US dollars. G-STAR is Korea’s largest international game exposition and convention, and is endorsed by the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. It also features a concurrent International Content Creator’s Conference (ICON 2010). Read the rest of this entry »

Congratulations to Big Blue Bubble, whose iPhone/iPad application Thumpies won the award for Mobile Entertainment of the Year at the Mobile Content Awards 2010 in Seoul, Korea.

Facing some stiff competition that included more than 110 companies from 15 countries, Thumpies emerged victorious against semi-finalists Fallen EP-1 from 7th Sense Studios in the United Kingdom and UBC Mobile from UBC in Korea. Present to accept the award and the prize money, Big Blue Bubble CEO, Damir Slogar stated “After receiving nothing but absolutely glowing reviews from the media, Thumpies reached another milestone – formal recognition from industry professionals. This will just fuel our enthusiasm to bring the game to many new platforms.“

Thumpies is a unique rhythm-based music game for players of all ages. By correctly matching the beat of bouncing Thumpies the player progresses through a song. Unlike typical rhythm based games, Thumpies uses a mechanic of bouncing in time instead of just a series of notes. The quirky art design of Thumpies XL is accompanied by a unique musical score composed by award winning, industry veteran David Kerr. The music was crafted with game play in mind, giving the player a harmonizing experience.

Vancouver Film School’s Game Design Expo 2011 is now accepting speaker proposals from game industry professionals who have a passion to share their expertise. Past speakers at the consistently sold-out Industry Speaker Day at Game Design Expo have included the makers of games such as Dead Rising 2, Halo, Mass Effect, ModNation Racers, and Saints Row 2 (amongst many others). The deadline for submissions is October 4th 2010, so download the Speaker Proposal Package (PDF) today and send your completed proposal in as soon as possible.

Telefilm Canada announced today a streamlined approach to submitting corporate information as part of an application.

Previously, four documents were required in order to provide all required corporate information with an application; now only one is required. The new Canadian Status of Corporation and Corporate Information Affidavit (doc file) now online replaces the following forms:

* Corporate secretary’s certificate naming the shareholders and the number of shares held by each
* Corporate secretary’s certificate naming the officers and indicating their signing authority
* Declaration of Corporate Information
* Canadian Status of Corporation Affidavit

Telefilm Canada is committed to providing effective and efficient service to its clients and as such continuously works to provide new ways in which to work with the industry.

A reminder to all those planning to attend IN2010 – if you haven’t yet purchased your tickets, Early Bird pricing ends tonight at midnight. The event is also looking for a few good volunteers, so if you’re interested in helping out, click here.

Along with the opportunity to hear from 65 industry speakers, IN2010 offers:

3 keynote presentations
Facilitated one-on-one meeting opportunities
4 Networking breaks
2 Evening receptions
Fully catered lunch and breakfast on both days

Plus over 22 conference panels and lectures on a variety of topics, including:

Games Stream
• Concept to Screen: This will focus on the actual creative arc that individuals trace in order to create a piece of work that is exploitable along multiple entertainment verticals. Mark Long, Style Driver, Zombie Studios.

Mobile Stream
• Managing Mobile: Challenges & Opportunities Facing Mobile Projects. Creating projects for the new set of mobile platforms can present it’s own set of challenges. What types of issues can you expect to face and what opportunities can the mobile platform present? Featuring Rick Segal, Co-Founder, FixMO.

The BlackBerry Social Media Stream
• Bend It!: A discussion about pushing boundaries of social media and future trends between an assembly of innovators from several different sectors. Featuring Juliette Powell, Author, Pundit, Integrated Media Specialist.

The Rogers X-Platform Stream
• Branded Entertainment: A breakdown of brand-supported entertainment properties. Featuring creation, brand integration and ROI measurements. Featuring Paul Bennun , Owner, Somethin’ Else.

Visionary Stream
• Weird Science: From thought-controlled devices to biotechnology, this Visionary Presentation session will showcase leading work being done locally and aboard that has the potential to usher in a new era of interaction. Andrew Hessel, Co-Chair, Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, Singularity University.

If you are a Dragon Age fan but couldn’t go to Gamescom, do not despair. You, too can take part in a Dragon Age 2 live chat tomorrow (August 21st) via the magic of the internet. The live chat will begin at 12:00PM CEDT, which translates to 6:00AM EDT (or 3:00AM here in Vancouver).

XMG Studios has released its first Android title.  Little Metal Ball is a top-down full-tilt platform adventure which features 20 levels of twisted labyrinths and challenging puzzles controlled by precise tilt control and physics. You will race against the clock, trying to obtain bronze, silver and gold record times along with power-ups and more.

According to recently released data from comScore Media Metrix, Disney Online, the No. 1 ranked community-family and parenting destination on the Web, reached a record-breaking 36 million unique visitors in July, beating the previous all-time record of 34 million uniques set in June 2009 by two million unique visitors. This growth was in great part due to increased traffic to areas of the site such as Disney Games, Disney Channel and Disney Movies. Most notably, Disney Games climbed to the No. 3 spot in the Online Gaming category. Read the rest of this entry »

Klei Entertainment has started to reveal some of the Costume Unlocks that will be available in Shank, which is due for release on the PlayStation Network on August 24th and Xbox LIVE Arcade on August 25th. By completing challenges and amassing points, you will be able to unlock costumes such as the Yellow Jumpsuit Shank. Klei will be unveiling a new costume every day, so follow them on Twitter to get the daily costume news. According to the dev blog, the studio has made more progress on re-mastering the game’s soundtrack and as gamers requested, the soundtrack will be available in mp3 format.

THQ Inc. today announced that the Windows PC version of the hotly anticipated first-person-shooter Homefront™ from Kaos Studios, is being developed by a dedicated team at Digital Extremes and will be available early in 2011.

“Digital Extremes has a superb track record in PC development,” said David Votypka, General Manager at Kaos Studios, THQ. “While the team here at Kaos is completely focused on the core Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Homefront, our partnership with Digital Extremes means that PC gamers can look forward to a version of the game tailored to the demands of the discerning PC gamer.”

“We’re building on the great game that Kaos Studios is making and enhancing it with specific PC relevant features,” added Frank De Lise, Executive Producer, THQ. “PC players will be able to set up and host Homefront dedicated servers and enjoy additional community features including clan support. We believe the core PC first-person-shooter fan will really appreciate these features, which are becoming increasingly rare.”

THQ Inc. also announced that it will be launching a rewards program for Relic Entertainment’s upcoming 3rd Person Action/Shooter Warhammer® 40,000®: Space Marine® for the Xbox 360®, PlayStation®3 and Windows PC. The loyalty program, dubbed ‘Honor Guard’, will allow gamers to become part of an elite group of Space Marine fans who will be given the opportunity to become involved in the success of the game. Honor Guard members will get the latest news, exclusive access to first look assets and receive reward points for viral activity, which could result in rewards of exclusive Space Marine branded items.

Travis Plane, Vice President of Global Brand Management commented: “Rewarding community for their role as opinion formers is important to us so we are delighted to be able to unveil the Honor Guard program.”

To kick off the Honor Guard program THQ will be handing out an Ultramarine cloth patch at Gamescom with directions on how to register for a free “For the Emperor” ring tone. The patch will also be handed out at Games Workshop’s US Games Day event in Baltimore on August 21st, 2010, and the UK Games Day event at the Birmingham NEC on September 26th, 2010. This item is the first of five items that fans are encouraged to collect over the next few months at various shows around the globe. More details about these items will be released throughout the year.

Combining intense melee and ranged combat, Space Marine puts players into the boots of one of humanity’s elite soldiers, genetically engineered and equipped with state of the art weapons and armor. Players are dropped right into the action as they battle to defend an Imperial Forge World, from an invasion by the savage and brutal Orks, using the most devastating weaponry mankind has at its disposal.

Kelowna indie developer Cosmic Logic Inc. is proud to officially announce details on their upcoming XBLIG and PC title, Doc Logic, an arcade-style platformer with an emphasis on explosive action and survival. Doc blasts across the screen with upgradeable weapons and abilities through expanding levels of increased difficulty that will challenge and engage the true gamer in you. Unique level designs combined with increasing enemy difficulty makes “Doc Logic” an intense sci-fi adventure. Do what you can to keep the clock running as you collect points, destroy enemies, and collect time bonuses. Read the rest of this entry »