Village Gamer

Stadium Comics in Brampton is one of thousands of comic book shops around the world celebrating the comic book art form on Saturday, May 7th. On Free Comic Book Day, over two million comic books will be given away by participating stores, introducing as many people as possible to the wonders of comic books!

“This year’s Free Comic Book Day is going to be a blast. We’ll have contests, raffles, giveaways, and of course free comics!” said Kevin Hickey, Manager of Stadium Comics. “But what makes our event extra special is the local artistic talent we are bringing into the store to sign books and sketch for the fans.”

Among the several guests scheduled to appear at Stadium Comics for the event are comic creators such as New Mutants and X-Men artist Leonard Kirk, Transformers artist Alex Milne, Red Robin artist Marcus To, X-Factor and G.I. Joe artist Valentine DeLandro, Disney’s The Incredibles artist Marcio Takara, and Toronto Radio and TV Personality “Fearless Fred” Kennedy, who is a comic book creator as well. Read the rest of this entry »

On March 15th, 2011 members of the Windsor Detachment Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Federal Enforcement Section executed a search warrants at a residence in Wallaceburg, Ontario in relation to an investigation into counterfeit DVD movies.

As a result of the search warrant investigators seized approximately 3000 counterfeit DVD movies, 300 counterfeit video games, as well as computer equipment utilized to copy movies and tools used to modify gaming consoles. Titles that were identified and seized vary from children’s movies to new and not yet released movies such as True Grit, The Fighter and The King’s Speech.

Steven Scotney (age 29) of Wallaceburg, Ontario has been charges with four counts of selling an infringing copy of work under the Copyright Act.  If convicted, Scotney could face fines up to a one million dollars and up to 5 years incarceration.

The economic impact in sales revenue lost to local legitimate business operators is in the thousands of dollars. The local business operator, having an inventory of 3,000 DVD, selling at an average price of $20.00/DVD, would generate sales of $60,000. With 300 counterfeit video games, selling for an average price of $50.00/unit, would generate $15,000 in sales. These illegal products removed some $75,000 of legitimate sales activity from licenced business operators in the Wallaceburg area. Read the rest of this entry »

The Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada has announced that Mobile Advertising Revenues in Canada exceeded budgeted expectations of $18 million, and grew by 169% over 2008 numbers, to just over $31.9 million for 2009. For 2010, Canadian Mobile Advertising Revenues are forecast to grow by 60%, to $51 million.

The Top 10 Earners in IAB Canada’s Mobile Advertising Revenue Survey accounted for 90% of Total Net Revenues in 2009. Revenue concentration among the Top 10 earners has increased substantially over levels recorded during previous years, which ranged from 79% in 2006 to 81% in 2008.

In order to get an update on Ad Spend as per other Media, but also keep track of the rapidly growing Application (App) development industry; for the first time, Mobile Advertising Revenues were separated into mutually-exclusive Ad Placement/Spend and Production-Only categories within IAB Canada’s Survey.

Ad Placement/Spend was the main engine behind the 169% increase in overall Canadian Mobile Ad revenues in 2009, growing at a rate of 325% year over year, driven primarily by Mobile Messaging, with $15.65 million in Net revenue. Mobile Search also grew dramatically in 2009 — to $6.7 million — exceeding Mobile Display/Sponsorship Ad Revenues, which grew to $5.1 million.

Production-Only Ad Revenue was led by monies received for the development of Mobile Applications, which experienced a massive 1377% growth rate compared to 2008, due to the proliferation of smartphones of all makes and models, following the iphone launch in Canada in April 2008. Read the rest of this entry »

Kobo has announced its plans to launch local content stores in Germany and Spain starting in May 2011, with local stores for France, Italy and the Netherlands following shortly after. Kobo’s European stores will offer customers a rich assortment of local content, merchandised to the tastes and preferences of readers across Europe. Kobo has partnered with European publishers to offer a wide range of titles on a selection of localized applications for today’s popular eReading devices. This launch marks the beginning of Kobo’s European expansion with other countries to follow.

Kobo will be in the Digital Zone & Theater Booth #Y655. Attendees who stop by and check in via Foursquare will receive Kobo merchandise. In addition, Michael Tamblyn, Executive Vice President of Content, Sales and Merchandising for Kobo is scheduled to speak at the London Book Fair Supply Chain Seminar on Wednesday, April 13 at 11:10 a.m. in Cromwell Room 1.

“European readers have been looking for an eBook service that encompasses the full range of mobile devices, tablets, and eReaders – we are happy to step up and fulfill that need. This announcement marks Kobo’s entry into the European market and an industry first. In providing local content and reading experiences for European readers, Kobo continues to build on the vision of giving people around the world the freedom to read on any device, and share their love of reading with friends,” said Michael Serbinis, CEO, Kobo.

Today, Kobo has over 3 million users, and customers in over 100 countries worldwide – in a year of dramatic growth, Kobo added just over one million of those users in less than 90 days. In addition to its global store, Kobo already offers locally merchandised English language stores in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. The Kobo store offers a selection of over 2.3 million eBooks, newspapers and magazines with titles ranging from the NYT bestseller list, the hottest new releases, thrillers, romance and over a million free books. Since its launch in 2009, Kobo has been dedicated to an open cloud-based platform, enabling users to read on any device, and with open standards that give users freedom to build their lifetime libraries as they choose. Read the rest of this entry »

It is with great joy and honour that Montréal-Python organizers and Tourisme Montréal received the nomination of Montréal as the host city of PyCon (2014 and 2015), the most significant international conference centred on the Python programming language. This annual event connects the Python programming community, providing members with the ideal opportunity to meet, exchange ideas, and build relationships. The agenda includes many presentations and workshops, as well as a number of activities designed to promote networking among the participants. Above and beyond ideas, PyCon puts words into action, with “pythonistas” getting together for intense development sessions with the objective of advancing numerous software projects.

“In 2011, some 1,500 delegates participated in a seven-day event that continues to grow, year after year. By choosing Montréal, the organizers decided, for the very first time, to hold the event outside of the United States,” says Davin Baragiotta, Montréal-Python spokesperson. “It wasn’t an accident that PyCon organizers chose Montréal. To begin with, the local Python community here is regarded as very dynamic, but it is also due to a carefully-prepared bid proposal put together by local organizers and supported by Tourisme Montréal, that the decision was made,” concludes Mathieu Leduc-Hamel, also from Montréal-Python.

“I’m extremely excited that PyCon 2014 and 2015 will be held in Montréal. The local Python user group is fast-growing and dynamic—in short, a fantastic example of what we look for when evaluating where we should hold the conference. The Montréal-Python group and Tourisme Montréal should be congratulated for putting together such a compelling bid. They submitted an amazing proposal for a beautiful city; we are eager to expand PyCon US into PyCon North America, and we look forward to visiting Montréal,” expresses Jesse Noller, incoming PyCon Chairman for the next two years and Python Software Foundation Director.

“The news of Montréal receiving the honour of hosting PyCon reinforces the city’s position as a rapidly expanding techno-destination and a magnet when it comes to technological innovation and creativity,” affirms the Honourable Charles Lapointe, President and CEO of Tourisme Montréal. “Not only will participants discover a community of talented technophiles here in Montréal, but they will also have the wonderful opportunity to experience the pace of this city whose charm, energy, culinary variety, festivities, and ingenuity are beyond compare,” adds Charles Lapointe.

Marc Tremblay, President and CEO of the Palais des congrès de Montréal (Convention Centre), says: “In 2013, the Palais des congrès de Montréal will have completed the development of a world class technological environment, and will position itself as a leader in its industry on an international level, particularly in terms of participant productivity and global client experience. It will be a unique opportunity for PyCon participants to enjoy our efficient facilities located in the heart of the most dynamic techno-metropolis in North America.”

On a side note, the Montreal Python group will be holding an introductory Python class for women on May 3rd. Any ladies with an interest in learning the language are welcome to attend this free event.

GlassBOX Television Inc. and Blue Ant Media Inc., controlled by media executive Michael MacMillan, announced today they have entered into an agreement for the acquisition by Blue Ant of a controlling interest in the Company. The announcement was made by GlassBOX Television co-CEOs Jeffrey Elliott and Raja Khanna.

Blue Ant Media will initially purchase 29.9% of GlassBOX Television Inc. from both existing security holders and Company treasury. In addition, an offer has been accepted for Blue Ant to purchase additional shares in GlassBOX from existing shareholders, which will result in a minimum ownership position of 75% which, in keeping with standard regulatory policies on ownership thresholds, requires CRTC approval. This acquisition will result in Blue Ant becoming a controlling shareholder of GlassBOX Television.

With this transaction, GlassBOX Television’s executive management will be restructured. Michael MacMillan will assume the new position of Executive Chairman and will actively participate in GlassBOX Television’s strategic growth for its digital and broadcast properties, which include Bite TV, AUX TV and the newly acquired Travel & Escape Channel. Raja Khanna will become CEO and Jeffrey Elliott will take on the new position of President, and Chief Strategy Officer.

“Michael MacMillan is internationally respected in our industry and we are delighted to have him take an active role in what we are building at GlassBOX. We are well positioned as an innovative independent media company and Michael’s involvement will allow us to accelerate our growth strategy,” said Jeffrey Elliott and Raja Khanna. Read the rest of this entry »

Last month XMG Studios and The National Post, along with sponsors Microsoft, KPMG, Telus, triOS College, Doritos and Flip Video presented the first Great Canadian Appathon. A national event, this development marathon was open to Canadian students who wanted to develop a new app for Windows Phone 7. There were six hubs open across the country at UBC, trIOS College, Carleton University, Nova Scotia Community College, University of Waterloo, Concordia University and Telus House Toronto for those who wanted to develop together in person. Each hub location had development mentors from XMG Studios to give guidance and assistance when needed, and we ventured out to UBC to meet up with Adam Telfer, VP of Game Development for XMG Studio.

The competitors were given resources for building their apps, which could not be started until 5pm on the Appathon weekend. These resources included engines, physics and compiling. Email support was available for those who were not able to participate at one of the hubs while hands-on guidance was given to those at each of the hubs. The app being developed had to be a game, and XMG Studios would gain a non-exclusive license for publishing. At the end of the Appathon coding period on Sunday, all apps were to be submitted online to begin the review process. Each team was limited to creating one game, and by the end of the competition period, 50 games were completed by approximately 300 students on 100 teams.

In talking with Adam Telfer, we learned that the Appathon was the brainchild of XMG Studio President and Founder Ray Sharma, and was borne of the internal jam hackathons held at the studio. The hackathons are an opportunity for the studio’s personnel to show off their skills without fear of office politics or bureaucracy getting in the way. There were no boundaries put in place and creativity was encouraged. One of XMG’s latest releases came out of a hackathon, and as I’ve played the game, I can safely say that Adam’s 99 cent Cows vs Aliens is fun, challenging and addictive. Adam told us that the game took two days to prototype and two weeks to develop, which goes to show what can be accomplished in the right studio atmosphere. By the way, at the time of our interview with Adam, the studio was actively hiring, I encourage you to check out their career page to see if there’s an opportunity for you at XMG.

While XMG has not yet released a title in the WP7 Market, it is very active in the iOS and Facebook sectors, with a view to publishing in the Android Marketplace as well. As the studio pushes towards the expanding markets for casual games, Adam remarked that the WP7 platform has good dev support and follow through, although there does need to be improvement particularly for independent developers in regards to player achievements and discoverability. He felt that offering more features may not be the best answer in moving the casual and mobile game market forward, noting instead that a better alternative could be to make all features available to all developers, which would in turn give more options to the end user, resulting in more downloads and purchases, thereby benefiting all sectors of the marketplace.

While at UBC we also had a chance to talk for a few minutes with Team Sheldon (yes, the team was named for the venerable Big Bang Theory’s own Dr. Sheldon Cooper), a group of UBC computer science students who were working through the challenges of working with an emulator, and whose game ultimately went on to take second place at the finals.

Team Masheen Photo Credit: XMG

First prize for the Appathon was a cash prize of $25 000.00 plus the chance to interview for a 3 month (non-guaranteed) intern position at XMG, the National Post or Telus, along with an LG Optimus 7 smartphone (excluding phone plan). The second place team would receive a $10 000.00 cash prize along with the smartphone. In addition to the top two prizes were 25 category prizes, with each winner being presented with $1000.00 cash.

Based on a scoring system of 20 points, the games were judged on many quality points, including innovation, art, design, polish, fun and entertainment factors as well as stability to name but a few. Any ties in the score would be broken by ranking in the innovation standings. As the games passed through the stages of judging, scoring would start anew, again with any ties broken by the innovation standings.

Three teams would ultimately be chosen as finalists and flown to Toronto for the big prize announcement, which was held this past Thursday at Yonge and Dundas Square where the games were previewed to both the public and local media on giant screens. Each of the three finalists played their game live for the judging panel prior to the final placings being decided.

While the top game will gain a publishing guarantee in the WP7 Market, all 25 of the entries stand a good chance of being published if they prove to be of quality – however, all of the entries are co-owned with the Great Canadian Appathon, and cannot be individually published right away.

Prior to the awards announcements, I had the opportunity to ask each of the three finalist teams a series of questions, read on to learn more about the three top teams and their humourously quirky yet awesome answers : Read the rest of this entry »

Reminder: You have two days left to apply to be one of 20 media professionals at Anita Ondine’s groundbreaking Transmedia Lab on April 28-29, presented by Merging Media Productions and CMPA-BC.
Deadline: MiGS 2011 Speaker Deadline is Monday. Get your proposals in now.
Register: Toronto Startup Weekend is June 3 – 5th.
Launch: Firefox 4 and Mozilla’s Vancouver Office Launch Party is on April 15th

Funcom and EA have released a new Secret World video – and apparently all of those conspiracy theories are … true …

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OymMalX8VYM]

Also new today from EA Sports is the SSX franchise re-launch video for the upcoming Deadly Descents.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72X8csHXflM]

Ludia and Disney-ABC Domestic Television today announced the availability of the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire game on Facebook platform, giving a true-to-TV experience with thousands of questions and hundreds of categories from the “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” TV show, complete with authentic theme music. Based on the exciting and unpredictable “shuffle” format of randomized questions seen on the hit TV game show, players can now enjoy a multiplayer experience with friends and other Millionaire fans across North America on Facebook.

Contestants simultaneously compete to correctly answer ten multiple choice trivia questions from various categories, with the ability to use the “Jump The Question” lifeline for a stumper question as well as use their Facebook friends as lifelines to earn bonus points and increase their chances of winning. The champion of the multiplayer “Round 1” goes on to play a “Classic Millionaire” round of four questions, each with a progressively higher dollar value that leads to the simulated $1,000,000 grand prize.

Congratulations to Ubisoft, who came out as big winners at last night’s MI6 Game Marketing Awards, hosted by California-based PromaxBDA, an international association for entertainment marketing professionals. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood picked up the following medals:

Gold Medal Best GamePlay Footage Trailer for “Enter Rome” Single-Player Gameplay Trailer
Gold Medal Best Product Packaging
Gold Medal Best Limited Edition or Collector’s Edition
Gold Medal Best Swag for the “Doctor Jack-in-the-Box” Collectible
Silver Medal Outstanding Promotional Trailer for its E3 trailer
Bronze Medal Best Co-Branding & Video Asset by Gamestop TV, Harlequin Doodle Dandy and Ubisoft

Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell franchise also won two Bronze Medals, the first for Best Use Of Online Media or Use Of Online Social Media Marketing for Splinter Cell: The Search for Sam Fisher (by Liquid Marketing), and the second for Splinter Cell Conviction “Set in Stone” Buzz Tactic in the Most Effective Buzz Creation category.

Not to be left out, Ubisoft’s Your Shape Fitness Evolved: Boot Camp Pre-Launch Campaign picked up a Bronze Medal for Most Effective Viral Marketing/Promotion and a Gold Medal for YourShape Fitness Evolved: Outtakes (Pereira & O’Dell) in the Best Work Never Seen category.

EA Sports NBA Jam picked up a Bronze Medal for NBA Jam in the Standout Print Advertisement category while Bioware’s Mass Effect 2 won a Silver Medal in the Best Online Take-over/Road Block/Rich Media Unit for Mass Effect 2 – Diorama produced by draftfcb San Francisco & Wieden+Kennedy

Speaking of awards shows, the voice over community is banding together in an effort for their industry to be recognized at the Oscars, which currently recognizes just four acting awards for live action. Animated films are eligible for the Best Picture and Animated Feature Film categories but there is no category to honour the voice actors in these films.

Canadian company Voices.com initiated the idea for a change to the Oscars program on their Facebook Group. When the company asked if talent were willing to not only talk the talk but also walk the walk and sign a petition lobbying for a voice over performance category, the fan-base gave them a resounding thumbs-up.

“Our initial research shows that many people are in support of the Academy Awards introducing a category for voice over performance,” says Stephanie Ciccarelli, Voices.com Chief Marketing Officer. “We were amazed by the outpouring of support in our endeavor to get the ball rolling in this regard. Recognition in the form of an Oscar for voice actors not only acknowledges their work at this level but also esteems voice acting and its significant contribution to film.”

The purpose of the petition is to achieve recognition for actors who perform behind the scenes. Outstanding voice over performances breathe life into animated films thereby creating iconic characters that are memorable, lovable and real. Recognizing the art of voice acting by designating a voice over performance category for voice actors in the Oscars could result in the fulfillment of many collective dreams.

Ubisoft and Gatorade have announced a new partnership to deliver a workout series designed specifically for fitness athletes for Ubisoft’s popular video game Your Shape: Fitness Evolved. Gatorade enlisted the talents of celebrity-trainer Gunnar Peterson to develop a workout series created around the G Series™ FIT, their new line of innovative products for fitness athletes. The Gatorade-inspired workouts are available to download now for free on the Xbox LIVE marketplace.

The ‘G Series FIT Workout with Gunnar Peterson’ offers personalized training sessions with one of the country’s top celebrity and athlete trainers and the workout plan is designed to inspire and fuel the inner athlete in everyone. The downloadable workout plan includes a 30-minute full-body toning program, and introduces new exercises including jumping jacks, squat raises, lunges, and other new moves that integrate free weights and dumbbells.

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved is available exclusively on Kinect™ for Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system. G Series FIT was developed specifically for fitness athletes to provide fuel, fluid and nutrients before, during and after a workout. The products, each inspired by fitness athletes and designed by Gatorade, are currently available nationwide.

Let the heavens rejoice after 5 years in development  Hothead Games has released Swarm. Swarm is a amazing downloadable action platformer game for  XBLA and PSN.

It’s about a gigantic blue worm that lands on a nasty planet and it’s up to you to control a team of 50 little “Swarmites” at once through 11 levels, collecting points and DNA to help grow “Momma”, get her a new hat and leave the planet. There is one catch though; this path is full of things that burn, trap, electrify and decapitate your swarm at every point and you get glorious points added to your score for it. All you have to do is make it through the level with at least one Swarmite in order  to return to Momma. Momma has lots of  Swarmites spawn points throughout the levels so if they die, Momma spawns more. This can be helpful because there are points in the game that require you to have a certain number in order for the higher point value orbs to appear.

You are rewarded in this game for the collection of things that look like nucleus and DNA. The more you collect in a row helps fill a multiplier which can greatly add to your score, but in a cruel twist, deaths of your Swarmites also add to it. So if your multiplier looks like it’s running out you can just kill off some of your swarm to keep it up. This is the game’s primary mechanic, as you find that most obstacles you encounter or crates to open just happen to kill off some of your happy blue buddies. At the end of the level your amount of Swarmite deaths are calculated up and put towards progressive death medals and the worldwide death total. Deaths in the level also have death medals but are only rewarded when the last 10 of your Swarm encounter the same deadly fate.

The game gets progressively harder and (easier if you replay earlier levels) as you get better at controlling your swarm and there are even two boss battles that are unlocked by collecting enough DNA.

Some of the awesome things you can get your swarm to do include moves such as jump, dash, huddle together and stack on each other as well as pick up and throw explosives. Sometimes your Swarmites will pick each other up when picking up explosives, leading to some hilarious deaths.

The game’s length is 6-8 hours but with the leaderboards, achievements and the constant questioning of Momma asking “Why can’t you be more like (Insert friend’s gamer tag here)”  the replay value is high. Here’s hoping there is more Swarm content coming.

Hothead Games has taken an old convention that games punish you if you die, turning it around so that death is rewarding. Congratulations to Hothead for taking an original idea and making it shine. If you’re looking for a fun, original type of game don’t let this one pass you by cause you wouldn’t want to disappoint Momma – plus it would make a great gift for any video game loving mom (Mother’s Day is coming up) and you know that would score some serious points.

Swarm is on  XBLA (Xbox Live Arcade) for 1200 MS Points and PSN (Playstation Network store) for $14.99 Released on March 22nd 2011 by Hothead Games, Swarm is rated T for Teen by the ESRB.

Review by: Twisted Majic

Toon Boom Animation has a new look with their redesigned web site. While you’re over there taking a look around, check out the entries in their Animated Winter Wonderland Contest. It was open to elementary students in Quebec, in partnership with LearnQuebec and voting to pick a winner is now in progress.

The first video dev diary for Space Marine has been posted to YouTube – check out the action and hear from the devs as they talk about Relic Entertainment’s next title. Set in the rich Warhammer 40,000 universe created by Games Workshop®, Space Marine is scheduled to be released worldwide for the Xbox 360®, PlayStation®3 and Windows PC in August 2011.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGToH9mQTjY]

You are a Space Marine, one of humanity’s elite warriors, the last line of defence between mankind and its enemies. Through extensive genetic modification, psycho-chemical conditioning and years of rigorous training that would kill a normal man a Space Marine becomes superhuman. When one of the industrial ‘Forge World’ planets where humanity creates its greatest weapons, comes under attack and the thousands of imperial soldiers stationed there are overwhelmed the only thing standing between this planet and its total destruction is your Space Marine.

Paradox Interactive has released the first trailer of Supreme Ruler: Cold War. Developed by BattleGoat Studios, which also created the successful Supreme Ruler 2010 and 2020, their most recent title invites you to relive the tension and uncertainty of the Cold War.  Supreme Ruler: Cold War is the next installment in the Supreme Ruler series and gives players control over a 1950’s United States or Soviet Union as they try to lead their country to glory.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKberi0I2HU]

As leader of the United States or the Soviet Union, you must make the correct Economic, Diplomatic, Domestic and Military decisions to successfully navigate your country through this dangerous historical era and increase your nation’s Sphere of Influence on the world stage.