Telefilm announces winner of Great Canadian Video Game Competition
a) Matthew Mather (l) and Dr. Mark Baldwin (r) of MindHabits whose game
MindHabits Trainer won the Telefilm Great Canadian Video Game Competition.
b) Telefilm executive director Wayne Clarkson signs a cheque for $500000 being awarded to MindHabits’ Matthew Mather (l) and Dr. Mark Baldwin (r) for their game MindHabits Trainer which won the Great Canadian Video Game Competition.
The Great Canadian Video Game Competition winner was announced at the opening gala to VidFest the Vancouver International Digital Festival on September 22. Wayne Clarkson executive director of Telefilm the agency that initiated the game design contest presented Montreal’s MindHabits with a cheque for $500000. Citing PricewaterhouseCoopers Clarkson said that revenues from video games would reach $65 billion by 2009 and that “Canada is at the heart of it.” This year Telefilm celebrates its 40th anniversary and Clarkson said that the principles on which the publicly funded agency were founded are still relevant today: “Canadian talent creating Canadian content that engages Canadian audiences and the world.”
In speaking with Fast Forward after the presentation Clarkson said that Telefilm’s job was to support Canadian talent and that the mentorship component that was built into the competition ended up being the most valuable aspect of the initiative. “It’s not always about the money” he said.
Radical Entertainment’s Kelly Zmak was one of the four jury members who selected the winner. He was joined on the panel by Rory Armes and Ron Moravek both from Electronic Arts and Ubisoft’s Yannis Mallat. “The problem was that we had to pick one” said Zmak at the VidFest gala celebration. Regardless of their decision though he said that all four of the finalists are commercially viable. “They all have market potential.”
Representing MindHabits at the presentation were Matthew Mather CEO and Dr. Mark Baldwin president. Baldwin said that he was “proud and grateful to the judges and the industry mentors” and said that their industry mentor helped them to avoid pitfalls and reinforced some of the decisions they were making along the way.
MindHabits’ winning game MindHabits Trainer is being released on October 15 through the game’s website www.mindhabits.com. Winning the competition Mather said meant that the company could keep on building and investing in the game.
Baldwin described MindHabits Trainer as a game that “helps people to train to focus on finding warmth and support in their lives therefore boosting self-confidence and reducing stress.” The idea for the game stemmed from Baldwin’s own social psychological research into “what helps people feel comfortable and what helps them deal with stress.”
Picking up the Peoples’ Choice Award was SWARM! from Vancouver’s Hothead Games. “We always knew that the Swarm character had a lot of appeal” said Steve Bocska joint CEO. “We were happy that the game design was just as appealing. It tells us we’re on track.”
Even though Hothead’s game didn’t win the $500000 Bocska said that the company is continuing with development. “Our plan was always to build a prototype prove the gameplay and then move into full production. That plan has not changed.” Hothead will be publishing and distributing SWARM! as an episodic game with the first five-hour component to be released later in 2008.
Like MindHabits Trainer SWARM! owes its existence to academic research. Vlad Ceraldi president and joint CEO of Hothead said that the emergent gameplay of SWARM! could not have been created were it not for Dr. Michael Hayward a cognitive scientist who specializes in “artificial life.” Hayward’s innovation an idea which had been conceived some time ago “couldn’t have been done three or four years ago” said Ceraldi.
“You literally hand-train a herd of swarmites” Bocska explained “as you try to restore a desperately polluted planet and bring down the evil corporation behind it.” Bocska and Ceraldi described the artificial intelligence (AI) in SWARM! as being a “learning AI” that makes use of “mass mimicry.” “You teach one swarm to jump and they all jump” said Bocska. In trying out the gameplay “We were discovering that the swarms could do things we didn’t know they could do.” Normally explained Ceraldi such discoveries only happen in video games because of bugs in the programming but with SWARM! it was because of the way the AI was learning. “It’s cool that academic technologies are being used in the gaming space” said Ceraldi.
Despite the success of the Great Canadian Video Game Competition Clarkson isn’t sure that repeating the program is the best way for Telefilm to support video game development. What he is considering instead is a way to make mentorship a more permanent fixture in the Canadian industry. “Telefilm can only be a catalyst” said Clarkson. “The marketplace — in the true sense of the word — will drive it (the industry). We can stimulate advocate initiate. And always give priority to Canadian talent.”
The new world order is the digital world order.”
