Village Gamer

Montreal – Kovasys Inc., an IT recruitment agency in Montreal, has recently been witnessing a spike in the number of American companies crossing the border into Canada – especially Montreal- to do their software development and high tech projects. Due to the unstable economy in the US, and massive layoffs, more and more companies are deciding to save money and hire developers by nearshoring their IT operations to a cheaper yet proximate location with a stable economy. Montreal meets this criteria as it is only few hours away from Chicago, New York, and Boston, yet operating costs are up to 55-70% lower due to exchange rate and subsidies for IT companies.

Morgan Stanley, a global financial services provider from New York City, has recently settled their offices in the old district of Montreal and is in the process of hiring 700 developers. Other major companies such as SAP, Ericsson, and PC Mall, have also made Montreal their second home.
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The call for submissions to present lectures, roundtables and panel sessions for the 2009 Game Developers Conference Canada (GDC Canada) is now open through midnight, Friday, November 28, 2008. Presented by Reboot Communications and Think Services, organizers of the industry-leading Game Developers Conference, GDC Canada will take place at the Vancouver Convention and Exposition Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada May 12-13, 2009. GDC Canada will provide insight into the thriving Canadian game development community and will serve as an opportunity for developers to share best practices for fostering excellence and quality games within their region and distributed globally.

The Game Developers Conference Canada emphasizes studying the challenges and opportunities of creating games with long production cycles, large development teams, and multi-platform releases. The tracks for GDC Canada are structured according to production stages of game development and submissions should address the most pressing game development challenges that fall under the following development stages:

• Concept/Preproduction
• Production
• Finalling
• Post-Launch

Some of the Submission Guidelines Are:

The GDC Canada Advisory Board is looking for high-level, specific content that will fit into one of the tracks listed above. An extended abstract will be necessary for the advisory board to determine whether your talk will be a good fit. Concise, precise language and a discernable thesis will also help your chances in the review process.

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Organizers of the International Digital Cinema Festival, Symposium and RED ONE boot camp have announced a date change due to an unexpected level of interest and industry participation. The Festival, which was originally scheduled for July 19 – 20 2008 has been moved to October, 2008. Further details will be announced on the International Digital Cinema Festival site as they become available.

About The Festival

The International Digital Cinema Festival, Symposium and RED ONE Boot Camp is the best opportunity this year for filmmakers and others in the motion media industry, to acquire in-depth knowledge of the RED ONE 35mm Digital Cinema camera that is taking the industry by storm. This groundbreaking 2 day event taking place at the Canadian Film Center features a symposium where leading digital cinema experts will provide deep insights into the emergent opportunities created by new digital motion media technologies.

Following the Symposium, participants will commence a 2 day Boot Camp, experiencing the RED ONE camera in a production environment on the first day. The second day focuses on working with the RED footage in a variety of post production pipelines.

On the Saturday evening there is the IDCF party and on Sunday evening, in a preview of the Digital Cinema Festival’s RED FEST, the short film Directed by Ian Sun during the Boot Camp will open the RED SHORTS program. The RED ONE Digital Cinema Boot Camp and Symposium is a great opportunity to experience the Future of Cinema and network with the people who are creating it.

Electronic Arts (Canada) Inc., located in Burnaby BC is looking for gamers who are interested in becoming Play Testers. They run approximately five focus groups per week, and are always looking for new play testers of all ages and skill levels. This position is unpaid, but testers do receive food while they at the EA Campus, as well as free EA games. You will be able to test games such as Need for Speed, FaceBreaker, Dead Space, Skate, NHL, FIFA, NBA and more. You can fill in their online application here or if you are under 18 years of age, download the PDF file, get it signed by a parent or guardian, and then mail it in to EA Game Ops.

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