Village Gamer

Vancouver – Vancouver Film School (VFS), Canada’s premier post-secondary entertainment arts institution, today announced Shannon Lee from Toronto, Canada, as the first-ever winner of the Women in Games Scholarship, valued at $30,000. The scholarship covers the full tuition to the acclaimed one-year Game Design program at VFS, which was recently named by the L.A. Times as one of the top 10 schools “favored by video game industry recruiters.”

The unique scholarship was launched in early February at Game Design Expo 2009 as a means to support and foster talented female game designers in an industry traditionally dominated by male gamers and designers. More and more women are forging successful careers in the game industry and now make up 20 percent of the workforce, up 17 percent from 2004, according to findings in The Game Industry: Now & in the Future, a 2009 report released by VFS. The school established the Women in Games scholarship to encourage this positive trend.

Shannon will have the opportunity to experience one intensive year learning every facet of game design, from game theory to level design to game interface design. The Game Design program’s industry-led curriculum reflects a professional game development and production environment, so that when Shannon graduates, she will be prepared to begin a career in the game industry.
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Burnaby – EA SPORTS™, a label of Electronic Arts Inc., announced today that EA SPORTS Active™ is now available in North American retail stores and will be available worldwide by May 22, 2009*. Developed exclusively for the Wii™ by EA Canada, EA SPORTS Active is an innovative, virtual fitness product that offers personalized, customizable workouts that can be done from the comfort of home. Developed in collaboration with fitness experts, including Bob Greene – renowned exercise physiologist, author and Oprah’s personal trainer – EA SPORTS Active is a fun and cost-effective way to achieve a healthy lifestyle. The product will be the first in a new line of EA SPORTS virtual fitness products to improve the well-being of people of all ages.

“The EA SPORTS brand is known for award-winning sports video games, but today marks our entrance into the entirely new genre of virtual fitness as EA SPORTS Active hits stores,” said Dave McCarthy, vice president, EA SPORTS. “Now more than ever consumers are seeking economical solutions to getting exercise and living a healthier lifestyle, and with EA SPORTS Active we’ve designed an experience that will appeal to a variety of audiences and deliver a truly fun yet challenging workout in the home.”
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Vancouver – Belcarra Technologies, a leading developer of USB software and device driver solutions, announced today the availability of their USB Communications Device Class (USB CDC ECM) driver, USBLAN deployments for Microsoft Windows CE and Windows Mobile platforms.

Belcarra’s USBLAN is a proven and industry standard USB networking solution for Windows 2000, XP and Vista platforms. In response to industry demand, Belcarra has now extended this functionality with CE-USBLAN, an implementation of the CDC ECM (Ethernet Control Model) protocol that supports Microsoft embedded and mobile platforms.

The Ethernet Control Model is a networking standard published by the USB Implementers Forum, providing a popular protocol for a USB host to access an Ethernet NIC-like device across a USB link. The standard defines a way for the USB host to transfer IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet) network frames, and for the USB host to control the device. The industry-standard ECM is an ideal method for a handheld Win CE or Windows Mobile device to access a network or network-like service across a USB link.
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Vancouver – Namaste Publishing’s new iPhone app for Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth is the first in a myriad projects that the Vancouver-based book publisher is embarking on to take their published material to a wider audience.

It’s no secret that the publishing world is struggling to find new readers. It’s harder to get people to crack a book these days with so many technology devices captivating their attention. The iPhone app allows Namaste to bring Tolle’s work to a wider audience.
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Victoria – Tecagora Solutions Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. James Addison as Chief Information Officer of the company. With the recent release of Tecagora’s new Snapact web services and nomination as a finalist for VIATeC’s 2009 Innovative Excellence Award, Addison’s appointment is anticipated to generate vast opportunities for the company and its user base as he undertakes the future design and development of Snapact’s photo sharing and social networking community.

“As a photo enthusiast, I am excited to lead the future design and development of what Tecagora has created with Snapact,” says Addison. “I have a lot of ideas on how to further develop the Snapact solution and I look forward to contributing my knowledge, experience, and guidance to help make their technology an even greater success. There is a lot of potential with Snapact and I am excited to be a part of its future.”
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Toronto – Entrepreneurs Connect (eConnect) enters the Blogosphere with a big bang! Unlike any other blog network on the web today, eConnect delivers effective and targeted traffic by displaying the RSS titles rather than little icons or badges.

Entrepreneurs Connect (Short for eConnect) is a quality network for Internet Entrepreneurs; it shares and displays members’ latest RSS entries across the network.

eConnect is a free service provided by Business Minder. Since the BlogRush shutdown, eConnect is the only popular network that displays latest titles from RSS feeds. This model delivers effective and targeted traffic to participating members.

Unlike BlogRush, eConnect makes everything less complicated. Members of the network are organized into 30 different categories. The widget on a member’s website will only display relevant entries from other members in the same category. Its simplicity maintains its performance at a high level and reduces the chances of bugs.
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Montreal – Audiokinetic® and Emergent™ have teamed up to provide the video game industry’s only cross-platform, multi-genre development system that fully addresses the audio needs of programmers, game designers, artists and sound designers by including Wwise right out of the box with every Gamebryo® LightSpeed™ license. The flexibility of LightSpeed’s core technology allows the art of game development to easily evolve across every function of development.

Audiokinetic’s Wwise offers audio programmers and sound designers a complete audio authoring tool with a powerful sound engine, greatly improving workflow while pushing the limits of sound design. Coupled with LightSpeed, Wwise allows developers to audit, profile, and modify sounds in real-time within the current build of the game. This new bundle further simplifies workflow by allowing designers and artists to generate and iterate on any type of asset during all phases of development without recompiling. Content creation is sped up and programmers are free to devote their efforts to game?specific tech for new kinds of gameplay instead of adding and tweaking game content.
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Format: Wii™
Launch Date: May 18, 2009
ESRB: E 10+ – Cartoon Violence, Comic Mischief
Game Type: Action
Developer: Next Level Games
Publisher: Nintendo
Official Site: PunchOut!!

Vancouver – One of the biggest names in boxing returns after a 15-year hiatus. Grab a Wii Remote™ controller in one hand and a Nunchuk™ controller in the other and step back into the ring with a modern update of the classic Punch-Out!! developed by Next Level Games.

• Little Mac is back! Everyone’s favorite underdog from the 1980s joins the best of the original Punch-Out!! cast in a modern re-imagination of the series. Players will find familiar names like Glass Joe, King Hippo and trainer Doc Louis. These boxers come to life again in cell-shaded 3-D, complete with hilarious fighting animations and back stories that capture all the fun and flair of the original Punch-Out!! games.
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Vancouver – In my opinion, I feel that the inaugural year for Vancouver Digital Week was a week filled with opportunities – not just for networking, but also for learning and promoting our Canadian industry. With such events as the International Partnering Forum, GDC Canada, FuturePlay, Game Career Seminar, nextMedia Vancouver, MITACS, Digital Kung Fu and Convergence there was something for everyone, no matter what level they are at in the digital media industry.

Expo Floor

While I was not able to attend all events, reports from those who attended the International Partnering Forum say that it was very successful, with over 35 countries represented through delegate parties. Many countries are interested in not only doing business with Canadian digital media companies, but also in locating business enterprises in Canada. I believe that such interest speaks highly of the quality of our talent and our global reputation in the technological industry fields.

Dave & Kelly

GDC Canada presented an abundance of relevant topics on its four seminar tracks in Concept/PreProduction, Production, Finalling and Post Launch/Analysis. As always, the keynote addresses were well presented and entertaining as well as informative. While many of us may have had the opportunity to hear Don Mattrick (Microsoft), Dr. Greg Zeschuk and Dr. Ray Muzyka (Bioware) present seminars before, they always have something new and fresh to present on a variety of topics and perspectives. While a few people may have felt that it would’ve been a better choice to bring in industry notables from other countries, giving an opportunity to many who might not otherwise have the chance to attend a live seminar from those other notables, I feel that two full-house keynotes showed that we can still learn from our own industry pioneers and that we still appreciate the paths they have walked and the achievements they have obtained throughout their careers.
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Vancouver – Dr. Gerri Sinclair, Executive Director of the Masters of Digital Media Program and CEO of the Centre for Digital Media, together with Dr. Yosef Wosk, Director of Interdisciplinary Programs in Continuing Studies at Simon Fraser University announced today the Dianne Sinclair Memorial Fellowship Fund, to be offered to the most outstanding female student entering the Masters of Digital Media (MDM) Program each year based on the student’s academic performance and portfolio assessment. The application deadline for the MDM Program is June 30, 2009.

Dr. Yosef Wosk+

The Dianne Sinclair Memorial Fellowship Fund was established by Dr. Yosef Wosk, a supporter of digital media and the Masters of Digital Media Program, a member of the Order of British Columbia and an Honorary Doctor of Letters (Litt.D.) from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. “I wanted to provide financial support for a truly outstanding female student entering the Masters of Digital Media Program in honour of my high regard for MDM’s Executive Director, Dr. Gerri Sinclair and her mother, Dianne,” said Dr. Wosk. “The fund is named in the memory of Dianne Sinclair who believed passionately in the importance of a graduate school education for women.”
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