The following press release is courtesy of Danielle Engels from Interactive Ontario:
Interactive Ontario today announced that author, screenwriter and video game designer, Jordan Mechner, who is best known as the creator of the Prince of Persia franchise, will be a keynote speaker at the IN 2010 conference, taking place from September 12-14 at the Carlu in Toronto.
Mechner became the first game creator to successfully adapt his own work as a feature film screenwriter with Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, directed by Mike Newell and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Sir Ben Kingsley, and Alfred Molina, Prince of Persia was the #1 movie in the world for its first two weeks of release in May 2010, and is the world’s highest-grossing video game adaptation ever. Mechner has screen, story and executive producer credit on the film.
Here are some of the other speakers you'll meet at IN 2010.
·Eric Johanson, Project Scientist & Entropy Generator, Intellectual Ventures Lab
·Ariel Garten, CEO, Interaxion
·Jade Raymond, Managing Director, Ubisoft Toronto
·Kunal Gupta, CEO, Polar Mobile
·Juliette Powell, Author, Pundit, Integrated Media Specialist
·Ewan McIntosh, Director, NoTosh Limited
·Yona Shtern, CEO, Beyond the Rack
·Denis Dyack, Founder and President, Silicon Knights
·Paul Bennun, Owner, Somethin' Else
·Derek K. Douglas, Agent, Digital Development Management
IN 2010 will be divided into the following streams: Mobile, Social Media, Games, Cross Platform and Visionary. Early Bird rates are available until August 20, 2010. Visit www.inexchange10.com for tickets and more information.
About IN 2010
IN 2010 explores the visionary ideas, creative excellence and technological innovations that generate truly engaging interactive experiences. From games to film, from social media to mobile, IN 2010 will bring together International industry leaders for 2.5 days of networking, ideation and business in downtown Toronto.
About Interactive Ontario
IO is a not-for-profit industry trade organization committed to the growth of the Ontario interactive digital content industry with over 250 member companies.
Robin White-Holmes, a former co-worker of mine recently passed away. She was a talented and professional artist, and had a unique sense of humour which I thoroughly enjoyed. The video games industry has lost a great asset, and she will be sorely missed indeed. Farewell Robin, Godspeed.
To many, the Canadian school system does not do a great job in teaching students about Canadian history. The history of Canada is rich in its list of characters and events, and they deserve to be recognized and celebrated. So a few years ago, the Centre for the Study of Democracy, in partnership with Toronto game developer Bitcasters, set out to create the History Game Canada video game. Their aim is to reach out and teach Canadian history in a fun and interactive way.
Based on Civilization III, History Game Canada is a turn-based strategy game. It allows players to select a peoples (including the French, English, Mohawk, Ojibwe, and several others) and rewrite history in the New France Period (1525 - 1763). Players have choices like exploration, trade, diplomacy, and conquest as they lead their civilization.
Here's a much delayed update. Now that I've gotten some things out of the way (including the FIFA World Cup), I hope to make more regular updates to the site.
From Winnipeg comes CubeForce Media. They are an independent game production studio specializing in MMORPG development. Their list of projects includes Aerrevan and The Legend of Dekkane.
mindyourmind.ca is non-profit mental health engagement program that utilizes interactive games. Its roots are in London, Ontario's mental health services. Examples of the online games and tools used in the program can be found on their web site.
Located in Ottawa, Snowed In Studios is a custom software solutions provider specializing in games and interactive media. The studio is run by industry veterans from Ubisoft Montreal and EA Vancouver.
Zensoft Studios is a collective of interactive media and game companies. Zensoft is involved in a wide variety of areas including providing production services, and games development. The studios are located in Calgary.
Thanks to the following for the information about their companies: Neil (CubeForce), Brian (mindyourmind), Matt (Snowed In), and Bruno (Zensoft).
My latest distraction (on top of everything else) is the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. I'm one of those people that needs to watch every game. Thankfully online streaming and on-demand services have evolved, making watching the games much easier these days. Hurray for technology! So here's another much delayed update:
This entry comes courtesy of Matthew Davey, founder of dotBunny. dotBunny is an independent game studio that also does work in the areas of application development and visualization. They are located in Peterborough, Ontario which is approximately 140km northeast of Toronto.
