Village Gamer

The Writers Guild of Canada has announced the finalists for the 18^th annual WGC Screenwriting Awards. The WGC Screenwriting Awards will celebrate the excellence of Canada’s best screenwriters with a gala event on April 28, 2014, at Toronto’s Koerner Hall. This year, more than 190 scripts were nominated for awards in seven categories, with 30 chosen as finalists. In total, 50 screenwriters are up for awards. Several special awards, including the WGC Showrunner award and the Alex Barris Mentorship Award, will also be handed out at the gala event. Read the rest of this entry »

Ubisoft® has released a co-op trailer for Child of Light™, which launches on April 30, 2014.  The turn-based RPG set in the magical world of Lemuria will be available for download for $14.99 on Microsoft Xbox LIVE for the Xbox® 360 and Xbox® One, the Sony PlayStation Network for the PlayStation® 3 and PlayStation® 4, the Nintendo eShop for the Wii U, and Steam for PC and is rated Everyone 10+. Child of Light is created by a small team of seasoned developers based in Ubisoft Montreal.  Read the rest of this entry »

Startup Canada will recognize the movers and shakers of Canada’s entrepreneurship movement with a new awards program. The Startup Canada Awards will distinguish the individuals, communities, organizations and institutions in Canada that have demonstrated innovation, excellence, impact and outstanding achievement in advancing Canadian entrepreneurship. Read the rest of this entry »

Spearhead Games, the Montreal-based indie developer who brought co-op gamers the quirky puzzler Tiny Brains, has revealed the studio’s next project: a competitive physics-based video game for PC and consoles. Expanding the studio’s “always playtesting” philosophy, Spearhead Games will open the entire development process up to the community for feedback through the studio’s weekly Twitch shows airing Thursdays at 7 p.m. Eastern. To make the new project even more of a challenge, the slightly masochistic but mostly lovable co-founders, Malik Boukhira, Simon Darveau and Atul Mehra, have decided to build the game in three months. Read the rest of this entry »

Telefilm Canada is pleased to present six new original videos to join its Off the Wall series on social media. These two-minute videos capture thoughts about Canadian cinema as voiced by Canadian personalities: Joannie Rochette, figure skating Olympic bronze medallist and six-time Canadian champion; Joel Plaskett, musician, songwriter and producer; Anne-Marie Withenshaw, radio and television host; Elaine “Lainey” Lui, blogger, host and reporter; Yann Martel, novelist; Victor Lucas, video game show host. Read the rest of this entry »

Following the recent opening of the Barrick Gold Corporation Gallery at the Royal Ontario Museum, the ROMining Game App is now live.  The gallery, located in the ROM’s Teck Suite of Galleries: Earth’s Treasures (Level 2), is an interactive 600 square foot space, with multi-touch, animated displays, multi-media presentations and more.  At the heart of this new gallery is the Challenge of Mining game. Featuring a multi-touch table, the game can be played by up to eight players in the Museum and another four mobile players, by downloading the newly available ROMining Game App. An inter-generational experience, the game requires players to choose a specific character, representative of a mining stakeholder (miner, local community member among them) and, working together, players are challenged to “manage” a successful, ethical, and productive mining operation. Read the rest of this entry »

A delegation of animation company leaders from British Columbia completed a three-day trade mission to London and Manchester this week. The mission was widely covered in the United Kingdom and international media as representatives from 10 B.C. animation companies participated in targeted forums to promote co-production activity with U.K. producers and broadcasters. Read the rest of this entry »

Montreal publisher Meridian4 and Halifax developers Twisted Oak, in collaboration with SCS Software have announced that Bus Driver: Pocket Edition is pulling up to the station and now available worldwide on the App Store for $2.99 USD. Bus Driver: Pocket Edition takes all the fun gameplay of the fan-favorite PC sim and brings it to iOS devices. Read the rest of this entry »

The following is a notification from UL that the USB power supply Model A1265 identified below bears a counterfeit UL Mark for the United States and Canada. This USB power supply has not been evaluated by UL to any Standards for Safety and it is unknown if it complies with any safety requirements. Note that the Model A1265 with the counterfeit UL Mark is similar to a Model A1265 that is authorized to bear the UL Mark. The counterfeit USB power supply Model A1265 is marked “Designed by Happy in trauel” and “Happy China”, which are different than the authorized model which is marked “Designed by Apple in California” and “Apple Japan.” Read the rest of this entry »

California headquartered toy company Mattel, Inc. and Montreal-based MEGA Brands Inc. have announced a definitive agreement for Mattel’s acquisition, through a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mattel, Inc., of MEGA Brands for US$460 million. The acquisition advances Mattel’s global growth strategy of building upon its world-class portfolio of brands by expanding into two of the fastest-growing toy categories. MEGA Brands, a family of leading global brands, is the No. 2 player in the $4-billion construction building sets category[1] with its MEGA BLOKS brand as well as a competitor in the $2-billion arts & crafts category[2]. Read the rest of this entry »