Village Gamer

Toronto – The world’s first teacher-designed, 100% online training course that brings the SMART Board fully to life in every K-12 classroom was introduced today by Blossom Learning, an online training company comprised of former educators and AV presentation professionals who are dedicated to transforming the way technology is integrated in the classroom.

The “Online Applied SMART Board Course” provides K-12 teachers and school administrators with a simple low cost way to fully maximize their investment in SMART Boards. That’s because, the 100% Internet based “Online Applied SMART Board Course” is being made available for the precedent-setting price of only US $69.95. What’s more, the eight-chapter step-by-step guide to fully integrate the SMART Board into any classroom environment is hosted by a 21st Century avatar named “Mrs. Blossom,” a composite K-12 teacher that every professional educator will immediately relate to.

“It’s time to change the way educators learn how to use the SMART Board,” declared David Weatherhead, Blossom Learning’s Sales & Marketing Manager. “There’s more than one way to do training and it doesn’t just have to be face-to-face based. Our course offers a supplement to traditional training, as well as an impressive stand alone offering for districts on tight budgets. Thanks to the robustness of today’s high-speed Internet, we can now develop and deliver comprehensive and compelling online training courses that inspire creativity in the classroom, help school districts leverage their investments in hardware technologies, and dramatically increase the productivity of every dollar invested in training.”

With the average cost of a typical face-to-face SMART Board training seminar now hovering around $1500 for a three day equivalent course (not including supply teacher and travel expenses), it’s clear how the US $69.95 priced Blossom Learning “Online Applied SMART Board Course” could radically transform the SMART Board training landscape, particularly for school districts located in remote areas where face-to-face training is rarely available.

The “Online Applied SMART Board Course” comes with built-in LMS administrative facilities that allow school districts to facilitate purchases, allocate courses to teachers, and track individual teacher progress toward completion. Designed by former teachers and AV presentation professionals, the “Online Applied SMART Board Course” integrates 21st century information and animation into an eight chapter course hosted by the teacher avatar Mrs. Blossom. The course allows teachers to complete training on their schedule, which shouldn’t take any more than two to three weeks. However, teachers will be able get up and running with the SMART Board within ten minutes of beginning our course! By the time they are finished, teachers will have progressed sequentially from the Fundamentals level through the Intermediate and Advanced levels, and receive a personalized Certificate of Completion.

Blainville – Machine 22, an independent game developer with not a lot of information on its web site, has announced the release of Blimp Wars. Blimp Wars is a browser based multiplayer game where players are fighting in the sky at the controls of steampunk blimps.

Features:

– Steampunk themed multiplayer action
– 3 multiplayer modes for up to 6 players in each game
– Solo challenges teaching the basics of the game
– Over 60 parts and boosters offering hundreds of possibilities to players while customizing their blimps
– Achievements system
– Family friendly and colorful 2D graphics

Free and requiring no download or plug-in, Blimp Wars offers quick and instant actions to players with little time on their hands but still looking for the excitement only multiplayer games can provide.

Vancouver – Mountain Equipment Co-op™ (MEC), Canada’s leading outdoor retailer, and the Canadian Avalanche Centre (CAC), Canada’s national public avalanche safety organization, have deepened their longstanding partnership by developing a new software application – or app – that enables iPhone users to obtain detailed and regionally specific avalanche information.

Available free of charge, the avalanche app provides users with a similar experience and the same depth and breadth of information as is available through the CAC’s website.

The application was conceived and financed by MEC, which contracted a local digital agency, Idea Rebel, to design and develop the app. The CAC provided technical assistance to the project.

“As an outdoor retailer, supporting the CAC and the app’s development go hand-in-hand with MEC selling technically advanced avalanche gear,” said George Weetman, MEC’s web marketing manager. “Promoting avalanche awareness and safety is an example of MEC’s ethic of corporate social responsibility.”

“MEC has long been one of our most loyal and generous sponsors,” said CAC Executive Director Ian Tomm. “This app is yet another example of MEC’s creative and innovative approach to helping us do our work in public avalanche safety. We are deeply grateful for their support.”

The app provides avalanche bulletins, weather forecasts, incident reports and realtime weather for seven avalanche-prone regions of British Columbia as well as links to similar information for national and provincial mountain parks in BC, Alberta and Quebec.

Vancouver – The BCTIA has opened nominations for the Technology Impact Awards, which celebrate the successes of our industry and the companies, people and innovation that continue to put British Columbia on the map and who serve as role models for others in our province.

The Awards Categories are:

Technology Awards
Most Promising Pre-Commercial Technology
Excellence in Product Innovation
Best Application of Technology

Company Awards
Most Promising Start-up
Emerging Company of the Year
Company of the Year

Personal Recognition Awards
Team of the Year
Community Leadership
Person of the Year

Vancouver – The CATA special interest group Women In Technology (BC Chapter) are holding a breakfast seminar on January 27th at the SFU Segal School of Business (500 Granville Street) titled Generational Differences in the Conception of Work Life Balance. The seminar, which features speaker Melissa McCrae, PhD Candidate (HRM) and Director of Graduate Studies, SFU, takes place from 7:30 – 9:30a.m. Tickets are $15.00 per person and include a continental breakfast. Those who are interested in attending can register online.

Vancouver – The 2nd Annual Global Game Jam takes place this coming January 29-31 2010 and Vancouver is one of the 100 locations for the jam being held simultaneously in multiple countries around the world. Global Game Jam is an IGDA initiative.

In a Game Jam, artists, programmers, students and designers come together to make video games. Each participant works in a small team on a complete game project over the course of a limited time period, usually over a weekend. Mentors support the game-teams by providing guidance and feedback to facilitate teams’ success. With such a small time frame, the games tend to be innovative and experimental. I attended as an observer last year, and I saw lots of fantastic ideas, creativity and innovations happening. If you have the chance, I highly recommend taking part in this event.

Register now to be a Participant or Mentor at this fun and educational event! The Global Game Jam will start at 5:00 PM Friday, January 29, 2010 through 5:00 PM Sunday, January 31, 2010 (all times local).

Other Canadian Global Game Jam Locations:

Calgary
Halifax
Hamilton
Miramichi
Ottawa
Sault Ste. Marie
Toronto
Waterloo

Today’s Super Special: Madballs in Babo Invasion by PlayBrains is currently available for 50% off on Steam. Grab this fast-paced action game for your PC from Steam (sale price $4.99 USD) or for your Xbox 360 from XBL MarketPlace for 800 MS Points and play as your XBLA Avatar as you campaign across distant worlds either solo or with four-player online co-op, taking no prisoners in your wake. Challenge your friends (and your enemies) to see who’s the baddest ball on the planet in no-holds-barred 16-player multiplayer arenas with freaky characters or with your 360 Avatar. Try out the Invasion Mode where combatants create the very worlds where they wage war. Dozens of unique character classes, weapons, special abilities, worlds, unlocks, secrets, maps, and game modes give you limitless gameplay. Madballs in Babo Invasion has been nominated in several categories for our 2009 Readers’ Choice Awards.

Vancouver – In the face of increased number of independent productions, increased production costs, diminished funding sources and limited funds available, forward-thinking members of the industry have been casting about for creative ways to fund films. An innately expensive undertaking, the making of a film is often decided by the deep pockets of the companies and individuals funding the project. These decisions can heavily influence the final product with ultimatums about creativity, casting, product placement, etc. Further, financial pressures are constraining the industry as piracy cuts into independent film revenues.

The Biracy Project™ is a social experiment in crowd-funded filmmaking which will build the audience in advance and give the audience the power to make decisions on how the film will be made.

“Let’s make a sustainable industry and allow the people who support it to benefit from the rewards” says Biracy CEO and Founder David Geertz; and added with a sarcastic chuckle “Ultimately, we’d love to end this piracy problem by making the pirate a buyer.”

Geertz has a solid history in the film industry ranging from production to media distribution. His frustration with the constraints placed on filmmakers by the financing bodies has led him and a solid team of experienced professionals to develop the Biracy Project™ concept.

The Biracy crowd-funding model starts with people choosing their membership level (minimum level is a $25 annual commitment). In exchange, members have access to regular updates via video and blog entries, they get to vote or provide other input on decisions that pertain to the development and production of the movie and they receive a copy of the completed film, To compensate members for their participation, the Biracy Project™ includes a members’ only game, the “Producer Challenge”. Game points are awarded for tasks completed by participating members. In addition to determining the winner of the Producer Challenge, game points will be used to allocate 75% of the movie proceeds among the membership. The winner of the Producer Challenge will receive the Grand Prize of an Associate Producer credit on the film together with appropriate financial compensation.

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Ontario – Howling Moon Games has released their newest iphone title Solar Advance in the iTunes App Store for 99 cents usd.

As the player, you are the intelligence controlling an advance technology that can store the suns energy for use back on a distant planet. As the intelligence you will need to motion special matter that absorbs certain forms of energy. The energy that needs to be caught bursts from suns. Along its path it changes shape and colors. The color of the flare needs to be met by the same color matter for it to be harnessed.

Game Features:

* Each new level leaves the player with more matter to control, more color differences from the solar flares.
* A timer calculates your overall game score, preventing your MAT’s from being destroyed decreases your overall time.
* Each sun has a different gravitational pull.
* New Collapsing Star mode just for the iphone
* An amazing leaderboard system to keep track of your highscores
* Try and collect all the rewards

Yarmouth County – Xona Games has announced that their newest game, Decimation X is coming to Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG) in January 2010 for 80 Microsoft Points. Xona Games has not yet released a lot of promo material for the game, but according to the Decimation X web site, game play will revolve around intense retro-styled shoot ’em action for 1 – 4 players and feature music from Imphenzia.

Gormley – Digital Leisure’s Dragon’s Lair is now available for download via Nintendo’s DSiWare store. Rated by the ESRB as E10, Dragon’s Lair is available for 800 DSi Points.

Title Details: You play the heroic Dirk the Daring, a valiant knight on a quest to rescue the fair princess from the clutches of an evil dragon. Control the actions of the daring adventurer and find your way through the castle of a dark wizard who has enchanted it with treacherous monsters and obstacles. In the mysterious caverns below the castle, your odyssey continues against the awesome forces that oppose your journey to the dragon’s lair. Dragon’s Lair is a fully animated classic arcade game from legendary animator Don Bluth.

Game Developer Research is pleased to announce the debut of its sixteenth report, the ‘Game Developer Census 2009‘. The in-depth 248-page report aims to create an accurate list of each significant developer and publisher within the video game industry in the United States and Canada, as well as an accurate list of staff averages for each company.

The Census report lists more than 700 companies alphabetically by U.S. state and Canadian province, along with general contact addresses, website information, estimates of employee numbers and details on their market specialties (from casual gaming, online gaming, mobile gaming and serious gaming to PC, handheld or console gaming).

Not included in the Game Developer Industry Census estimates are game tools company, game contracting/services company, PR, marketing, and external business service, or game distribution and retail professionals. The report is intended to be a valuable tool for game industry trendwatchers, contractors, service companies, and other entities wanting to acquire accurate information to reach out to the North American game market as a whole.

According to Techvibes, “The report reveals that the United States videogame industry employee count is essentially flat year-over-year, rising slightly from 44,400 to 44,806. The small rise in North American game industry employment was marked by an unusually high number of new studios – particularly in social and online gaming – springing up to counterbalance the many closures that occurred throughout the rest of the industry.

Canadian companies, however, saw growth that can almost be called explosive. The continued establishment of new studios and expansion of existing large studios led Canada’s the employee count in the Census to rise 30% year-over-year. The totals rose from 9,500 Canadian video game employees in 2008 to 12,480 in 2009.

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Ottawa – Fuel Industries has produced a very nice way to say Merry Christmas to all of their friends, and they’ve done such a great job I wanted to share their efforts with all of our readers. Designer Alyssa Munaretto, Producer Braden Brailey, Rob Plowman (Director, Fuel Sounds) and Nick Ianniti (Director of Communications) got together and recorded three Christmas songs for our listening pleasure. The tracks are downloadable, so you can add them to your Christmas playlist. Thank you and Happy Holidays to everyone over at Fuel!

Edmonton – Bioware has added some very cool Dragon Age: Origins clothing to the XBL Avatar Store – players can now dress their Avatars in DAO t-shirts and hats, available in three styles. Now if they would just release the Return to Ostagar DLC expansion on XBL…

Vancouver – The Innovation Camp organizers have announced the dates and location for their next workshop series – Innovation Camp 3. Taking place at Discovery Parks (887 Great Northern Way) in Vancouver, the first Innovation Camp of 2010 will occur on the following dates:

• Tuesday, January 26, 6:30pm to 9:30pm
• Thursday, January 28, 6:30pm to 9:30pm
• Saturday, January 30, 10:00am to 6:00pm

Participants will spend their Camp time practicing techniques to generate new ideas and expanding upon those ideas in order to accomplish a shared goal such as creating a product or completing a project/challenge. There are no lectures, just engaging activities that facilitate learning, interaction and growth. Registration is now open, and at only $150.00 (including sandwiches, fruit and tea, coffee & juice), Innovation Camp offers great value to its participants. I’ve heard plenty of good things about the Camp, so if you have the opportunity to participate, I’d say give yourself a great Christmas present by registering today.

Vancouver – IUGO Mobile Entertainment has put many of their great titles on sale – visit the iTunes App Store and pick up a few – or all – of them and get many hours of fun and challenge for very little money. Sounds like a good return on investment to me!

Guelph – Stir Fry Games has announced that an update for SFG Soccer is now available on XBL. The following changes will be automatically applied next time you sign in and start up the game:

• Hard Difficulty Setting
• Team & Player Stat tracking
• Ability to Edit Any Team
• Use your Custom Teams in Exhibition Matches
• Golden Boot Award
• League leaders section
• and some bug fixes

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Montreal – Meridian4 celebrates the season by making a donation to DonateGames and encourages other publishers to do the same, especially during this time of year.

“This Meridian4 donation represents what we know to be true, gamers are good. Video games new and used are being recycled to help others. Gamers are also great communicators and users of technology. This donation is important, gamers are telling each other about our work, and as the word spreads, the video game community and video game playing families with rare, neglected diseases are contacting DonateGames with stories of the joy and inspiration from knowing the gaming community, like Meridians4 are helping spread the word, generate relief funds and create global awareness for the rare and neglected disease community.” said Jim Carol of DonateGames.

“We discovered DonateGames at a game convention and after reading their literature, we thought it was a great idea and a one we wanted to get behind. The three directors at Meridian4 all have children and we know how devastating it would be if they were afflicted with a debilitating or fatal disease. This is a terrific idea and we hope that other gaming companies and gamers will get involved.” said Steve Milburn, Director at Meridian4.

Vancouver – Just in time for the holidays, Hothead Games today announced that Jonathan Blow’s Braid is now available for download via the PlayStation®Network in Europe. Already recognized by Metacritic as one of “The Best Games of 2009” for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, European gamers can fill their virtual stockings with this amazing indie title for only €9.99.

Players explore the human condition and manipulate time with our hero Tim in the lush, painterly world of Braid. The game 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.

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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

Etobicoke – CDW Canada, a leading provider of technology solutions for Canadian organizations in the public and private sectors, today launched its second annual Teaching with Technology™ Story Contest and Sweepstakes, offering Canadian** educators and administrators opportunities to win information technology (IT) for their classrooms and schools by entering a three-tiered contest. The contest begins today and will run until February 28, 2010.

The Teaching with Technology program is made up of three distinct contests:

• A ‘Story Contest’ allows educators and administrators to submit a description of how IT has improved the learning experience in their classroom or school.
• ‘Tweet ur Tech Tale’ is similar to the Story Contest, but stories must be submitted via Twitter, and therefore written within Twitter’s 140-character limit.
• A ‘Sweepstakes’ contest is open to entry by educators and administrators.

“Given the overwhelming response we received from last year’s Teaching with Technology campaign, CDW Canada is delighted to host the contests once again for K-12 teachers and educators across Canada,” said Mary Ann Yule, General Manager, CDW Canada. “Last year’s story submissions showed us many examples of the interesting and unique ways teachers are using technology to enhance the education process. CDW Canada is proud to reward these educators who play such an important role in preparing young Canadians to make their mark in the world.”

With up to $18,700 in total prizes, the second annual contest has received generous support from many of CDW Canada’s technology partners including premier sponsors Hewlett Packard (HP) and Microsoft, along with APC, Atdec, Cisco, D-link, Lenovo, McAfee, Oki, Polyvision, Sony, Trend Micro, TrippLite and Xerox.

Contest entry is easy and interactive

CDW Canada, a valued IT partner to the education sector, understands the importance of leading-edge technology in schools and classrooms. Educators must be equipped with the best IT tools to create an enriching learning environment for students, so the Teaching with Technology program offers Canadian K-12 educators and school administrators three ways to participate and win. The contests are easy to enter, and include interactive elements that provide insight into the many ways educators are leveraging today’s technologies to enhance the education process.

To enter the Story Contest – Entrants must submit a short story (200-500 words) that describes how technology (computers, networks, projectors, the Internet, e-mail, software, etcetera) improves the learning experience in their classroom or school. Read the rest of this entry »

Vancouver – The call for submissions to present content for lectures, roundtables and panel sessions for the 2010 Game Developers Conference® Canada (GDC Canada) is now open through midnight, Tuesday, January 5, 2010. GDC Canada serves as a nexus point for established and promising young studios to learn best practices for developing new global titles and understanding emerging digital distribution models. The second annual GDC Canada is presented by Reboot Communications and Think Services, the organizers of the industry-leading Game Developers Conference. GDC Canada 2010 will return to the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC from May 6-7, 2010.

Canada houses more than 260 videogame and digital entertainment studios and an ecosystem of more than 60 universities focused on gaming studies. With this accomplished community of national and international talent to draw from, Vancouver’s GDC Canada is the premier event for professionals to discover new insights into developing popular international titles, managing established franchises and taking advantage of thriving digital distribution models.

“GDC Canada provides the perfect opportunity for game development teams to share knowledge for developing established franchises and guidance on taking advantage of new game distribution models,” says Izora de Lillard, event director. “GDC Canada really benefits from the incredibly talented community here, and we can’t wait to see what useful and insightful content they bring with them when GDC returns to Canada in early May.”

The session formats for this year’s content include 25 and 60 minute lectures, panels, and roundtables. The GDC Canada advisory board will rate sessions based on the criteria of concept, depth, organization, credentials and takeaway. The topics for this year include:

— Business/Production
— Digital Distribution
— Game Design
— iPhone Games
— Programming
— Social and Casual Games
— Visual Arts

Victoria – VIATeC is pleased to announce the opening of the nomination period for the 2009 VIATeC 25. The VIATeC 25 is an annual listing of the largest technology companies headquartered or founded in Greater Victoria based on revenue. To be eligible for inclusion in the VIATeC 25 please check our guidelines.

Companies listed on the VIATeC 25 will be announced at the exclusive VIATeC Christmas Party on December 17 where members will gather to celebrate the end of another successful year. Results will also be published on the VIATeC website and in the media.

For more information or to submit a nomination please contact Michelle. Cut off for nomination submissions is December 14, 2009.

To RSVP for VIATeC’s Members Only Christmas party on Dec 17 at Sauce Restaurant & Lounge from 3:30 pm please email our office.

Vancouver – Pixar Canada, who launched their new web site this week, has now announced some of the job openings for their new Vancouver studio. They are currently looking to fill openings for Layout Artist, Production Manager, Manger of Finance and Manager of Information Systems. Upcoming openings include positions in their IT and Software Engineering departments. Future positions to be filled in 2010 include those who work in Modeling, Shading, Rigging, Animation, Lighting, FX, Simulation, Art, Production Staff…and an ex-Navy SEAL? At least they aren’t looking for a partridge and a pear tree…

Calgary – Digital Alberta has announced their New Year’s Evolution event with strategic innovation practitioner, international lecturer and author Alexander Manu. Held in partnership with the Canadian Marketing Association and Telefilm Canada, New Year’s Evolution will take place on January 19th at Calgary’s Theatre Junction Grand and Velvet Lounge. Tickets are $55 for DA or CMA Members and $95 for Non-Members.

Toronto – Ubisoft has made a contest out of announcing where their new Toronto studio will be located. Employee #1 has started posting clues on his FaceBook page with a link to this video on YouTube:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbrq6O5r4dE]

The first person to guess the address of Ubisoft Toronto’s new studio location wins a copy of Avatar The Game (from Employee #1 – you must enter via his Facebook page).

Terrace – Rusty Axe Games, a developer and publisher of downloadable game software, is proud to announce the release of Real Estate Empire 2 version 1.0!

Real Estate Empire 2 is the sequel to our popular game, Real E$tate Empire! For the real estate mogul in everybody, Real Estate Empire 2 contains over thirty different levels packed into four different scenarios.

Real Estate Empire 2 features a streamlined upgrade and renovation system that makes the game easier to pick up and play. Real Estate Empire 2 also features a new goals based system that has players leveling up through a variety of different scenarios and goals. The much requested feature of renting has been added – do you wait for good renters who won’t damage your newly renovated bungalow or do you get somebody in there to start paying the mortgage today?

Real E$tate Empire 2’s user friendly difficulty system allows players of all ages and capabilities to enjoy the game. Players will be entertained for hours while learning about real estate management at the same time!

Real Estate Empire 2 is the real estate game that teaches you how to win… at the real estate game!