Village Gamer

Today at RioContent Market the Canada Media Fund (CMF) and RioFilme announced an agreement for the two organizations to join efforts to support the codevelopment of television projects and related digital media content. The incentive’s budget is set at CAD $300,000, with each funding partner investing half of the total amount. The incentive will take the form of a non-repayable contribution of up to 75% of a project’s eligible costs, up to a per-project maximum of CAD $50,000 per funding partner. Read the rest of this entry »

Burnaby’s Animatrik Film Design has announced the expansion of its Virtual Production services offerings through the addition of the first Solid Track system in North America. Animatrik is further enhancing its SolidTrack system with Ultimatte Real-time Chroma keying; Encodacam lens encoders from General Lift; and two high performance Autodesk MotionBuilder systems. The result will deliver a solution capable of visualizing CG characters, sets and props in real-time, with support for camera zooms and minimal latency while shooting live action. Read the rest of this entry »

Snowed In Studios is pleased to announce that its 2D Action RPG title WindForge officially launched today on Steam, Desura, GOG, the Humble Store, and on the game’s official site. The developers are celebrating the game’s release with a launch week sale of 10% off the $14.99 regular price will take effect on all channels. Explore hostile skies in an ever-changing Steampunk world, where everything you see can be created or destroyed, making it a game without barriers that rewards creative problem solving and improvisation. Read the rest of this entry »

The Entertainment Software Association of Canada has announced the appointment of Tanya Woods as its new Vice-President, Policy and Legal Affairs. Tanya joins ESAC from Bell Canada (BCE) where she acted as Legal Counsel on regulatory and copyright matters in Ottawa.  At Bell, Tanya’s primary role was to serve as BCE’s in-house copyright expert advising senior executives on a range of policy matters such as multi-platform licensing, anti-piracy, legislative reform, international trade agreements and corporate policy. Tanya has experience dealing with government and regulatory issues, having participated in a number of multi-sectoral coalitions and working groups and has appeared as a witness at parliamentary committees reviewing legislation such as copyright reform.  Read the rest of this entry »

Pixelmatic has announced the worldwide simultaneous launch of Gem Wizard for iOS and Android devices. Gem Wizard is a new match-3 title that uniquely combines blitz gem popping gameplay with RPG item collection and crafting mechanics. In Gem Wizard, players can send free gifts and compete with their friends in a Weekly Battle tournament. Players are rewarded with gems and materials after each game, which can be combined through a simple match-3 crafting system to create mighty weapons and high level mystical gems. By socketing gems into magic wands and other fantasy themed weapons, players can completely customize their abilities to suit their style of play. Read the rest of this entry »

The Canada Media Fund (CMF) congratulates the winners and nominees of the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards, which have been recognized for their excellence by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, and industry professionals at a series of events which culminated with last night’s gala. A total of 33 CMF-funded productions won 55 Canadian Screen Awards, including top winners such as Degrassi, Borealis, Call Me Fitz, Less Than Kind, Rick Mercer Report, and The Defector which received the Diversity Award. Read the rest of this entry »

I freely admit that I have never played a Professor Layton title, outside of preview events held at Nintendo Canada. How ironic that the first title that I played from this popular franchise is apparently its last, and the third part of a prequel trilogy. While this may cause me to lose some of the benefits of knowing how the puzzle system has kept players engaged over the years, or how the story got to the point where it is now, it did not stop me from enjoying the game, its story or the 100+ puzzles awaiting solution. The back story is easily picked up, but I do caution that Azran Legacy is reading-intensive, so I would not recommend this title for younger children, unless they have a very good command of the written word and a penchant for solving puzzles. Read the rest of this entry »

Article Written by Penka Kouneva – When I first arrived in Hollywood in 1999, I had a PhD in Music composition, a keyboard and one connection. While that might not seem like much, it was more than I had when I moved to the United States from my home in Bulgaria nine years earlier. I was extremely passionate about scoring films and games – this is what I wanted to do for life. In retrospect, while my naiveté and idealism were laughable, they were also vital in getting me as far as I am today, because if you had told me upon my arrival 15 years ago that the first time a woman (Shirley Walker) was a Lead Orchestrator on a studio feature film was 1992, I’d have been shocked. If you told me that, in the history of Hollywood, only 8 female composers would score a studio feature, I might have turned around and gone right back into academia. Read the rest of this entry »

Coming off the highly successful 3rd album release (Video Games Live: Level 3), Video Games Live continues its spearheading 13 year history of spreading the art and culture of video games and their music around the world, announcing over fifty more tour dates, kicking off this weekend in Phoenix, Arizona. Some of the highlights of the ongoing groundbreaking 12 year tour include: Read the rest of this entry »

The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has announced the factors weights for the 2014-2015 Performance Envelope (PE) calculations. This announcement reflects decisions made by the CMF’s Board of Directors following a series of consultation sessions and working groups with members of the industry, and aligns with the CMF’s strategic objectives of rewarding success, ensuring a diversity of voices and fostering industry innovation. In order to provide more meaningful access to smaller broadcasters in the PE program, projects financed through some selective programs will be included in the calculation of all PE factors specifically, the Aboriginal Program, the English POV Program, and the Francophone Minority Program. Projects funded through these programs have been eligible for the Audience Success factor credit (if aired in English or French) and will now be eligible for the other PE factors. Read the rest of this entry »