National Post Tech Desk

Game makers are breed apart.

Can you imagine groups of accountants or lawyers or dentists getting together to ply their trade for three sleepless days just for the fun of it?

That’s essentially what game designers do at game jams.

A game jam isn’t a convention or trade show. People don’t attend to hawk products or deliver presentations or show off their latest innovations. They’re there to engage in the hard and serious work of creating a finished, playable, and sometimes even marketable game.

And Toronto’s TOJam – now in its 10th year – is one of the biggest and longest running game jams around.

Hundreds of gamer makers – including hobbyists, professionals, and students from within and without Toronto’s bustling game design community – get together each year with the aim of developing a completely playable game from scratch in just three days.

This year’s jam, running May 1st through the 3rd, is once again being held at George Brown College. Post Arcade managed to steal a few minutes from the event’s busy founders, Jim and Emilie McGinley, a married couple who – when not hosting one of the longest running game jams around – run an indie game shop in downtown Toronto called Bigpants.

The pair waxed both proud and humble about the event’s longevity and popularity while providing some tips for first-time jammers. Tops among them? Don’t be a jerk.

Daniel Kaszor for National PostDevine Lu Linvega, centre left, shows off his team's game, Diluvium at TOjam 7 in 2012.

What’s the low-down on this year’s jam?

Jim McGinley This year’s jam is our tenth. No one is more surprised than us that we’ve lasted this long. Expectations are high, but our team’s are higher.

There’ll be 461 people will be attending supported by 30 volunteers and 8 organizers. Everyone does this for love, allowing us to put all sponsorship money toward the event. We are funded primarily by Toronto game developers and companies interested in supporting game developers. George Brown College provides the top two floors of the building that contains their game design program. They also allow us the use of their computers, which is wonderful.

This year’s TOJam will be similar to last year’s TOJam, only more organized. We’re keeping the same format and objective, because why change now? While TOJam is the same, the gaming climate is radically different. The technology to create games is free, game releases are exponentially increasing, game variety is staggering, and… GamerGate.

Emilie (Em) McGinley: We don’t ever change the objective of the jam. Our motivation has always been to provide an encouraging and supportive environment for people to share their passion for creating something, so the main goal set out for each jammer is to show up and get something done.

And while the gaming industry climate continually changes, our number one house rule remains: Don’t Be a Jerk.

Is it still possible to enter? If so, who should consider entering and what level of expertise should entrants have?

Jim: No. Unfortunately everyone has already been confirmed, and our waiting list is large. We had to turn away over 100 people this year.

Do major studios ever send folk out to participate or watch? Maybe use it as a scouting opportunity?

Jim: Yes! We’ve had employees from both large and small studios attend TOJam to participate. They tend to make the best games, likely because they’re used to deadline pressure.

Those participants use TOJam less as a scouting opportunity and more as a chance to try game designs that they couldn’t otherwise. Aside from Sunday celebrations (where many extra folk show up to check out the games), we don’t allow people to hang out or watch. We don’t want anyone distracting our attendees.

Em: While we don’t allow “hanging out” for non-participants, there have been many instances where jammers have met at the event and either started up new partnerships outside of the jam or have hired other jammers to join their existing company outside of the jam. It’s the perfect environment to showcase your skills and ability to focus under pressure to likeminded peers.

Related

• Ninth time’s a charm: Toronto’s Independent Game Jam closes in on a decade this weekend
• TOjam 8: Developers dream of making it big at TOJam
• TOjam 7: TOjam at the heart of Toronto’s indie-game scene

How have advancements in game design technologies over the last decade affected the event?

Jim: New technologies allow games to be built much faster, and no longer require a technical background. It’s like they were designed with game jams in mind.

A team can now create a decent, somewhat polished game in 3 days. The difference between games created in 2006 and 2014 is incredible. Before it was next to impossible to create a 3D game at TOJam, now it’s no big deal.

Em: The first couple of jams hosted mostly programmers, with the occasional graphic artist who was brave enough to team up with those programmers to churn out hundreds of assets on the fly. Now we have people with all sorts of skills not even tangentially related to programming attending the jams and using the new tools that are available.

The one common attribute each jammer shares is their love of video games. That’s enough to get you started.

How has T.O.Jam itself evolved over the years?

Jim: TOJam has evolved mostly in size, while the rules and spirit have remained unaltered. TOJam 1 was 35 people. TOJam 9 was 450-plus.

Every year, the attendees get even more serious. Veteran TOJammers know how hard it is to complete a game by the deadline, so they don’t mess around. They pass that message and vibe to new jammers, resulting in a very productive atmosphere.

The quality of games improves noticeably every single year. Beyond new technology, a big reason the games improve is people get better at jamming – it’s a skill unto itself. A veteran jammer will likely produce a better game than a professional game developer attending TOJam for the first time.

What excites each of you most about TOJam?

Jim: While it’s exciting to see everyone and everything at the jam, it’s most exciting to see what happens afterwards.

Games like Capybara’s Super Time Force, Daniel Steger’s Mount Your Friends, Ryan and Cassie Creighton’s Ponycorns all started life at TOJam.

Many TOJam vets have also gone on to create some heartfelt and highly regarded games, including Everyday Shooter, Starseed Pilgrim, Mega Jump and Mega Run, DYAD, Gesundheit, Jumpalot Junkbot, Home, They Bleed Pixels, Swords & Sworcery, Disco Zoo, ToTo Temple, Tap Titans, The Yawg, and Electronic SuperJo.

Other TOJam vets are currently creating upcoming games like Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, Knight & Damsel, SSMP, Neon Jack, Spellerium, Below, Runbow, Severed, and Alone With You.

Em: The Toronto Gaming community is very large, and very strong. There are various groups and events throughout the year, so many that now – especially now that we have a child – it’s nearly impossible for us to meet up with everyone like we used to. For me, each TOJam is like a family reunion. I start counting the days when I get to see “my jammers” again, especially the veterans who have been with us since the beginning.

How does TOJam stack up against other game jams around the world? Do you ever get requests to help people organize jams in other cities?

Jim: We’re one of the larger jams, and we’ve eliminated anything that distracts people from building games. Unlike other jams, we have no presentations, little socialization, but lots of free food so you don’t need to think about eating.

We have people travelling from around the world to attend, and many times get people asking if they can attend remotely from distant locations.

Em: We occasionally get asked for advice on how other jams might get run. But as Jim mentioned, our format is pretty serious by comparison to other Jams, because our Jammers want it that way. Other event organizers are not necessarily aiming for that same “extended crunch mode” environment.

If you had one piece of advice to give new participants, what would it be?

Jim: Keep your game idea small. Once you have it, remove 75 per cent.

Em: Remember, it’s not a competition. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks; you’re doing this for yourself. Focus on jamming, and have fun with it.

The preceding interview has been lightly edited for length and flow.

NEW YORK — Apple, IBM and Japanese insurance and bank holding company Japan Post have formed a partnership for a program that seeks to improve care of elderly people in the aging nation.

The companies say they hope other countries will follow suit as the world’s population ages.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty and Japan Post CEO Taizo Nishimuro announced the deal in New York on Thursday.

Japan Post has a service in which its employees visit elderly people to check up on them on behalf of family members. The tie-up would allow it to use Apple’s devices to collect information on the senior citizens that would then be analyzed by IBM’s Watson artificial intelligence technology.

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The program will provide iPads with apps designed to help seniors manage day-to-day lives and keep in touch with family members. IBM will provide cloud services and help create apps to improve seniors’ quality of life.

Apple and IBM set aside a rivalry last July that’s about as old as the personal computer era to develop applications for businesses. The two companies formed a partnership last year to create mobile apps for a broad range of industries.

For IBM, the aim is to boost sales for new-aged mobile software and services, while demand for older offerings is tumbling. Apple, meanwhile, is trying to stanch falling shipments for the iPad.

This has led to the creation of 22 apps so far.

The Associated Press, Bloomberg.com

 

PayPal is extending the protections it offers people who pay for purchases through its online platform to now also cover so-called “intangible” goods such as services and digital products.

Beginning July 1, worldwide users of the San Jose, Calif.-headquartered company could be eligible for a full refund if, for example, the digital file of a song purchased electronically was never transferred to the buyer, or if it arrived but is significantly different than how it was advertised by the selling party at the time of purchase, the eBay Inc. unit announced in a news release Thursday.

The website has insured web orders for physical, or “tangible,” goods this way for years. But as part of a multi-year effort to boost confidence and fend off other competing methods of payment, PayPal has been adding safeguards to ease the security concerns of wary shoppers. As sales attributed to digital downloads for things such as music, books and travel tickets continue to soar, this update attempts to narrow what was quickly becoming a widening hole in the company’s purchase protection policy, which is now expected to provide coverage for up to 98 per cent of all PayPal transactions.

After conducting a pilot test in the U.K. last year with success, PayPal will deploy its new program, and the internal processes required to support it, in the markets where it operates around the world.

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“We see a meaningful improvement in customer satisfaction in the level of trust attributed to PayPal,” said Tomer Barel, the company’s chief risk officer, reassuring that attaining, maintaining and enhancing trust of current and potential users is a “top priority” to him and his team. “We also see that sellers are benefiting from the fact that buyers feel more comfortable purchasing from them.”

Six million of PayPal’s 165 million active users are from Canada. More than 200,000 Canadian retailers and small business use the service for their business including Hudson’s Bay, Indigo, Roots, Cineplex and Canada’s Wonderland near Toronto. According to company data, PayPal processes more than 11.5 million transactions per day globally, accounting for roughly US$624 million that changes hands daily.

PayPal declined to comment on the current mix of tangible and intangible goods, but said the latter is “becoming a much more established category” for the technology company that was once dedicated to fulfilling orders of items bought and sold on eBay.

PayPal, which is preparing to spin off from eBay, recently expanded the period that a claim can be filed to 180 days from 45 days. Under this revised protection policy and longer window to file disputes, PayPal will surely be exposed to greater liability, a risk Tomer says can be mitigated with well-built I.T. systems.

“The benefit is clear, meaningful and material,” he said, “and the cost for us is worth the investment.”

Investors really don’t like Yelp Inc.’s first-quarter results.

The stock plunged after the online business review platform’s revenue came in below analysts’ estimates and at the low end of guidance for the first time in its history.

Yelp pointed to a temporary salesforce issue to explain the weak results in its local advertising segment, but its second-quarter guidance suggests this issue may persist. Competitive challenges could be the culprit, or perhaps factors relating to its total addressable market, or maybe both.

The stock had been rallying in the past couple of months, so the magnitude of Thursday’s pullback isn’t unexpected.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney, who admits he got it wrong by upgrading Yelp almost a year ago when it fell to US$58 a share on a major pullback, moved in the other direction on Thursday. He downgraded the stock to sector perform from outperform, and cut his price target to US$50 from US$82, as the most recent quarter is seen as a negative inflection point.

“We still view Yelp as a top-of-funnel, strong-brand unique asset with downstream transaction capability. But that transaction capability could take a long time to play out,” Mahaney said in a note to clients.

Another concern is that two sources of potential growth have failed to surface. Yelp’s younger markets are generating much lower revenues than its older markets, and there is now significant deceleration in revenue growth for all of the company’s cohorts.

Meanwhile, the company’s international markets have not yet broken out of the three-per-cent contribution range, and unique visitor numbers have flatlined.

Manahey believes the root cause is probably not competitive factors, although Google is an issue overseas. The more likely culprit, he said, is the difficulty associated with sustaining high-growth momentum given the company’s high-churn base of small and medium-sized businesses, particularly when execution isn’t flawless.

“We still see strategic value to Yelp, but that by itself isn’t enough to keep us from moving to the sidelines,” the analyst said.

Apple Inc. is said to have found a defect in a key component of its watch during production, forcing the company to limit supply of the new device, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation.

The issue is in the taptic engine of the watch, which mimics the sensation of being tapped on the wrist, the newspaper said Wednesday. Apple declined to comment on the report.

The Cupertino, California-based tech company is rushing to boost inventory of the watch, Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said April 27 in an interview. “We are working very, very hard to catch up from a supply standpoint — keep in mind this is not only a new product but it’s an entirely new category,” he said.

Tests of the watch found a reliability issue with the part made by AAC Technologies Holdings Inc., one of the two suppliers of Apple’s taptic engine, the newspaper said. Parts from the second supplier, Nidec Corp., weren’t having the same issues.

Related

• How Canadian app developers are gearing up for Apple Watch’s release
• Montreal developer reveals one of the first Canadian-developed Apple Watch apps, Transit App

AAC Technologies expects its non-acoustic component division, which includes sensors used by Apple, will account for more than 30 per cent of total sales this year, investor relations manager Ricky Man said by phone Thursday. He declined to comment on the report that defects were found in Apple’s taptic engine supplied by the company.

AAC fell 5.4 per cent to HK$41.15 at the close in Hong Kong. Nidec slumped 1.4 per cent to 8,960 yen at the close in Tokyo trading.

The introduction of the watch, which has a touch-screen display and works in tandem with a user’s iPhone, contrasts with typical rollouts of Apple products, when buyers have lined up to get new devices on the first day.

Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s retail chief, had told employees that tight inventory and high demand meant the watch initially wouldn’t be available for sale in company stores and urged workers to send shoppers online to make a purchase.

Customers have been able to schedule demonstrations in Apple’s stores since April 10, when online pre-orders began. Shipment times quickly pushed past the official release date of April 24, with some customers promised delivery as late as June, depending on the version of the watch they purchased. Apple has sent messages to some buyers that their orders would be shipped earlier than expected.

A snafu with the watch’s components would follow a supplier issue with Apple’s larger-screened iPhone 6 and 6 Plus introduced last year. The phones were expected to have display screens made of sapphire, but Apple’s supplier GT Advanced couldn’t meet the requirements. The supplier filed for bankruptcy in October.

The new iPhones without the extra tough screens went on to fuel record sales globally, helping boost revenue in China by more than 70 per cent last quarter.

Bloomberg.com

BCE Inc., Canada’s biggest telecommunications company, posted first-quarter earnings that topped analysts’ estimates as it added contract customers.

Profit excluding certain items was 84 cents a share, Montreal-based BCE said Thursday in a statement. Analysts projected 78 cents, the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

The company is snapping up market share as its largest competitor, Rogers Communications Inc., focuses on its higher-paying customers and spends less on promotions to add users. Wireless carriers are competing for more customers than usual because of a shift in regulation. In 2013, Canada’s government barred cancellation fees for contracts of longer than two years, meaning a plethora of contracts are expiring this year.

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BCE added 35,373 new wireless contract customers, while analysts had estimated 27,200 on average, according to a survey from Bloomberg First Word. Rogers reported last week it had lost 26,000 customers in the first quarter. Telus Corp., the country’s third-biggest carrier, reports next week.

Wireless revenue increased 9.7 per cent to $1.64 billion from $1.49 billion a year earlier. Average monthly revenue per customer was $60.83, compared with estimates for $60.74. Revenue at BCE’s media unit, which runs TV stations, was $726 million compared with $722 million last year.

BCE closed down 0.4 per cent to $54.17 Wednesday in Toronto trading. The shares have gained 1.7 per cent this year.
Bloomberg.com

Facebook Inc. is expanding its Legacy Contact initiative to Canada Thursday, allowing people to designate a friend or family member who can become the manager of their Facebook profile in the event of their death.

“We’ve heard a number of requests from people saying that they were glad their loved one’s account was on Facebook and there was more that they needed to be able to do,” said Vanessa Callison-Burch, product manager at Facebook. “They wanted a choice for what would happen to their account in the future.

“It’s completely optional, but if people want to plan ahead to what happens to their account after they pass away [they can].”

Legacy Contact has been available in the U.S. since February. While Canada is the first country outside of the U.S. to get this feature, Facebook said announcements will be made about an international rollout at a later date.

To access the legacy feature, a Facebook user can go into their settings and designate a friend as their legacy contact. Then the user can choose if they want their pictures to be shareable or not. The account then becomes a memorialized page, with the word “remembering” hovering above the deceased creator’s name.

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The user also has the ability to call for the page’s deletion should they die. Private messages are never revealed.

If a user does not sign up for the legacy feature, then only through the intervention of a direct family member will the page be deleted. Otherwise, it will be become a memorialized page when Facebook learns of the page owner’s death.

A survey conducted by Harris Poll for Rocket Lawyer law firm in the U.S. showed that of the 2,009 people surveyed between ages 18 to 30, 70 per cent said they hadn’t used Facebook’s Legacy feature. Thirty-nine per cent assumed their family would inherit the account after their death regardless.

It’s an issue that may increase in prominence. The survey also showed that 86 per cent of respondents have digital assets and wills, but only 13 per cent have a digital executor.

“Once you’ve had that experience and are looking for [memorialization and legacy contact information],” they’ll be able to find it in the help centre or online, Callison-Burch said. “It’s not something that people typically think a lot about until they’ve experienced a loss of their own.”

Almost two full years before Apple Pay made its U.S. debut last October, Canada’s CIBC introduced an app in late 2012 that let customers pay for things on their credit card with a simple wave of their BlackBerry. Hopeful that Canadian consumers would translate the interest for mobile payments they had seemed to convey in survey after survey into actual usage, others banks soon followed.

The wireless carriers were salivating at the chance to snag a piece of the lucrative payments pie, as the banks who issue credit cards would pay them a rental fee to access phones. Both parties saw their technology initiatives as another way to make their clients a bit less likely to jump ship to a competitor.

“They thought it was going to be a big thing,” says Tim Ryan, a former employee at Bell Mobility Inc. who recalls the excitement among his then-colleagues a half a dozen years or so ago about how a promising new technology — called near-field communication, or NFC for short — could transmit data between devices at close distances. “And then it was crickets.”

While some of the biggest issuers, operators and merchants have been ready and eager for what’s being called the inevitable swap of physical wallets for virtual ones, the response from most Canadians has been underwhelming. Despite Canadians’ attachment to smartphones and the rapid proliferation of all-things digital, the pick-up of mobile payments in Canada to date shows, once again, that sometimes old consumer habits die hard and timing for new products is everything.

The number of times Canadians have paid at the point-of-sale with their cell phone, as opposed to with a physical plastic card, has been “hardly noticeable,” so much so that the stats “wouldn’t register,” said Rob Cameron, chief product and marketing officer at credit and debit card processor Moneris Solutions Corp., the Toronto-based joint venture between RBC Financial Group and BMO Financial Group.

He has quite a large sample size, too: more than one-third of all merchants in Canada are clients of Moneris and 85 per cent of terminals it has currently deployed are equipped to accept a so-called “contactless” payment, Cameron said. In 2014, 10 per cent of transactions paid by credit card in Canada were done by people waving their plastic right over a terminal, a 200 per cent jump from the prior year.

“How big of a leap will it be for Canadians to go from tapping their card to tapping their phone?” asks Cameron, noting that the infrastructure to do both is here. “It’s one thing to have the technology, but it’s another thing to have something that delights consumers and causes them to actually use it.”

Numbers from Canadian makers of mobile payments apps, when they do make these figures public, suggest adoption and usage has been slow.

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Toronto-Dominion Bank declined to provide any usage statistics of its mobile payment offering, citing privacy concerns. CIBC’s Todd Roberts, senior vice-president of non-travel cards and payments innovations, said in an interview that “the numbers are small, as we would expect,” adding that we’re in “the relatively early stages” of using a cell phone for things other than messaging, calling and browsing.

Royal Bank of Canada said it is seeing 20 per cent growth per month in adoption on its Secure Cloud, the bank’s mobile payments app, noting that more clients are adding their debit card to their phones as opposed to their credit card. Rogers Communications Inc. says “tens of thousands” of users have registered for its Suretap app and “tens of thousands” of transactions have been conducted through the virtual wallet.

People may not be using these phone apps to pay in stores, but they’re using them more for banking. As of Oct. 31, roughly 2.5 million Canadian clients use TD’s mobile banking application, spokeswoman Laura Mergelas noted in an email. Further, during the past five months, CIBC has seen its mobile banking logins surpass its online banking logins accessed through a desktop computer and boasted that 3.8 million cheques have been deposited electronically through its eDeposit product.

CIBC’s Roberts said the reason clients have taken to digital deposits but not mobile payments is because the former is “removing a source of friction,” which is having to go to a branch or an ATM. Other than RBC accepting debit on its app or Rogers’ Suretap accepting prepaid credit and gift cards, mobile payments have all but replicated what a plastic credit card can do.

No one’s done the really easy, low-friction loading of cards that are acceptable everywhere that Apple Pay will bring

But Roberts predicts that will change once CIBC starts pushing offers and integrating loyalty in mobile payments. Being less “humble,” as many Canadians are, would help, too, he said.

“I would agree that there’s more that could be done to educate consumers on the depth, breadth and quality of payments services that they have available to them,” he added. “Our natural bias, certainly as banks, isn’t to go out and compare how good Canada is relative to other markets until we’re asked.”

Moneris’ Cameron has another tipping point in mind: the uncertain but much-discussed arrival of Apple Pay to Canada, which he thinks will finally inspire consumers to whip out their phones. It has inspired Cameron himself to provisioned his U.S. credit card onto the Apple Pay app on his iPhone 6 and use it to pay for goods and services at Canadian merchants who accept tap payments.

“No one’s done the really easy, low-friction loading of cards that are acceptable everywhere that Apple Pay will bring,” said Cameron, adding that Apple hasn’t confirmed where it’ll make its platform available next. According to a recent comScore report, close to 40 per cent of smartphone users in Canada have an iPhone, which currently cannot facilitate a mobile payment in places outside the U.S. “That’s the magic when Apple brings something to market,” said Cameron. “It is a really good consumer experience.”

Deepak Chopra, chief executive of Woodbridge, Ont.-based mobile app developer Clearbridge Mobile, agrees, adding that his staff has spent hours testing the installation of card credentials on some of the current Canadian-made offerings – and even after all the inconvenience, there were times when it still didn’t work. “The problem,” he says, “is the on-boarding. You have to make it easy to turn it on.”

Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesA worker demonstrates Apple Pay inside a mobile kiosk in San Francisco.

It doesn’t help that it’s almost like you need luck on your side to get it to work. You need a certain type of credit card issued by a certain bank, a certain phone with a certain type of SIM card that’s connected to a certain wireless network, a retailer with a certain terminal to make a payment of, normally, up to $100. To access RBC’s Secure Cloud, for example, you’d need to be a cardholder with a newer Android or BlackBerry device that’s connected to either the Bell Mobility or Bell’s Virgin Mobile wireless network.

Quebec-based Desjardins Group said only a “small percentage” of its credit card holders are “able to use” this type of payment method since “most SIM cards are not yet enabled for NFC.” The fact Quebecor Inc.’s Vidéotron doesn’t support NFC technology has only made adoption more sluggish.

“There are a lot of solutions that work, but if they’re an equal or more painful way to pay than pulling a credit or debit card out of your pocket, then they’re not going to take hold,” says David Woynerowski, a partner at U.S.-based payments advisory firm First Annapolis Consulting. “It has to be frictionless.”

There’s a higher threshold to achieve that here than in the U.S. since our payments system is savvier.

The U.S., for example, still relies heavily on the swipe-and-sign approval method for transactions rather than the chip-and-pin option that dominates much of the Canadian market. “The leap isn’t necessarily as big because Canadians are used to being able to tap for their purchases,” said Jason Davies, the head of emerging payments at MasterCard Canada. “Being able to tap is still fairly new to the U.S. consumer.”

The leap isn’t necessarily as big because Canadians are used to being able to tap for their purchases

A recent survey conducted by Moneris found almost 25 per cent of the 1,000 respondents said they are interested in using mobile payments, with the most keenness, unsurprisingly, sourced to millennials. But a Canadian Bankers Association survey last summer suggests the appeal isn’t there yet. Close to 70 per cent of the 1,216 respondents said they were either “not too likely” or “certain not to” pay for something by waving their phone over a payment terminal over the next two or three years versus the 13 per cent who were “certain” or “very likely” to do so.

Ryan, the former Bell employee, likens the current offerings to a vitamin, a feature that’s nice to have but far from a necessity. He described it as a missed opportunity for the first movers considering how many Canadians use smartphones, how much they use them – not to mention the encroaching tech giants.

He has observed this trend closely now as the country manager in charge of Canada for Tilt, a platform that lets users pool funds digitally to pay for things such as their share of rent, registration fees for summer volleyball, or a contribution to a house party without exchanging any cash.

Since launching an app for Apple’s iOS in September, Tilt has seen its mobile usage soar, with 40 per cent of its users exclusively accessing the platform through the mobile application. (Ryan declined to disclose the number of active Tilt accounts.) The dollar value of contributions made on the app has skyrocketed, rising an average of 80 per cent month-over-month.

Toronto ranks among the top three North American cities for Tilt’s mobile usage, with Montreal in the top five. After plenty of consumer requests, the San Francisco-based company finally introduced an app for Android several weeks ago, proving that “when you give people the tools to make something easier and faster,” Ryan said, “they just use it more, and more, and more.”

As for mobile payments, Ryan said it’s unclear when and how the banks, telcos and other developers will persuade Canadian consumers that these mobile apps are actually worth trying and using. “They have the resources to kick these things around,” he adds, “but it’s so far off from actually taking off.”

cpellegrini@nationalpost.com

Despite early criticism of the Apple Watch, some analysts expect that the new smartwatch will end up becoming Apple’s best-selling product ever and that it could boost the company to a $1.1 trillion market cap.

With the significant buzz surrounding the company’s first wearable device, a number of interesting and highly useful features have gotten lost in the shuffle.

Whether it’s locating a lost iPhone, force tapping to clear all applications, changing canned messages, or even using the Apple Watch and Apple Maps to receive directions to a local restaurant on your wrist, the practical purposes of Apple’s latest device are becoming clearer now that it has finally been released.

6. “Pinging” your iPhone when you lose it

One of the best lesser-known Apple Watch features is the ability to use the device to send a loud tone to your iPhone, allowing you to easily find it. If you’re the type of person who frequently misplaces their iPhone under a couch cushion, wrapped in a blanket, or at the bottom of your bag, this feature is tremendously useful.

It’s also easy to access and only requires the Apple Watch wearer to swipe up, opening the device’s options menu Glance feature, and then press the bottom button featuring an iPhone icon.

Related

• Montreal developer reveals one of the first Canadian-developed Apple Watch apps, Transit App
• How Canadian app developers are gearing up for Apple Watch’s release

5. “Glances” is a useful feature, but not many apps support it yet

Unlike previous Apple products, the Apple Watch is all about Glances rather than apps – the company’s new term for always open, easy-to-access Android widget-like applications. Glances give the wearer instant access to the device’s standard features such as the heartbeat monitor, the gameified fitness tracker, weather information, and maps, but also more importantly, Glances from third-party developers’ apps.

While there aren’t many useful third-party apps that support Glances beyond Transit App — an application giving users instant access to local public transit times — Evernote — a note taking app — and Shazam — an app that detects what song is playing — Glances are what will set Apple’s first wearable apart from rival devices. It’s the company’s answer to Google Now, Google’s personal assistant application that gives users information before they know they need it.

Transit AppTransit App is one of the Apple Watch's more useful applications.

 

And in many ways, Apple’s Glance system is actually a highly customizable version of Google Now. Glances can be added or removed from the Apple Watch through the iPhone’s Apple Watch app and can also be rearranged in this option menu as well.

4. Canned message responses can be changed

The Apple Watch gives users the ability to respond to text messages with simple pre-programmed responses, but unfortunately many of Apple Watch’s canned messages are overly generic. Thankfully these responses can be changed to suit your personality.

So if you’re fond of responding to text messages with “yo,” “what’s up,” and “No, I’m too tired,” changing the pre-programmed responses sent out via Apple Watch is as simple as opening the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, scrolling down to messages, selecting custom, and then choosing default replies.

AP Photo/Eric RisbergThese automatic responses can be changed through the Apple Watch iPhone app.

This allows you to quickly and easily alter the Apple Watch’s pre-programmed responses with only a few buttons.

3. Take the ultimate selfie by using the Apple Watch as an iPhone camera remote

Apple Watch can be used as a remote control for your iPhone’s camera, allowing you to take the ultimate selfie without the need for an awkward selfie stick.

A more practical use would likely be using the camera’s remote functionality after setting your iPhone down somewhere. You’d then be able to press a button on the Apple Watch in order to take a photo with the iPhone, removing the need for someone to physically take the photo with the iPhone, allowing people to take a variety of photos with the iPhone on their own that weren’t possible before.

Handout/AppleApps will be important to the Apple Watch's success.

To launch the wearable’s camera app, all you need to do is click the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown and tap on the camera icon. This instantly launches the iPhone’s camera app and starts an automatic shutter timer.

2. Using Apple Maps with Handoff is intuitive and simple

Handoff has been around since Apple launched iOS 8, allowing users to start working on something such as an email and then hand the project off to their desktop Mac, MacBook or iPad. With Apple Watch, Apple has applied this technology to its Maps application in a way that makes perfect sense.

If you’re searching for a specific location and then pulling in directions on your iPhone, these directions can then be transferred to the Apple Watch, giving the wearer easy-access to turn-by-turn directions right on their wrist. The app stays open at all times and whenever a turn is coming up the Apple Watch’s gives the user a Haptic feedback nudge as a reminder.

Patrick O'Rourke/National PostThe fancy Apple Store Apple Watch drawer that shows off the various versions and strap combinations of the wearable.

1. If Haptic Feedback is too soft, turn it up

One of the significant complaints many early Apple Watch reviews had about the device is its relatively weak vibration notification system, dubbed Haptic Feedback by Apple. Sometimes the Apple Watch’s vibrations are so subtle they’re easy to miss, but this issue can be solved by opening the Apple Watch app and increasing the “Haptic Strength” bar under the “Sounds and Haptics” option.

If notifications still aren’t forceful enough, the Apple Watch also allows users to add a feature called “Prominent Haptic,” pre-announcing common alerts with an additional nudge.

Salesforce.com Inc. is working with financial advisers to help it field takeover offers after being approached by a potential acquirer, people with knowledge of the matter said.

There is no certainty any deal will transpire, the people said, asking not to be named because the information is private. The people didn’t identify potential acquirers. Bankers may help rebuff any suitor or work out an eventual sale, one of the people said.

A takeover of Salesforce, with a market value of nearly US$44 billion, would be the largest ever of a software company, data compiled by Bloomberg show. For an acquirer, the bid would mark an aggressive push into cloud computing — the delivery of business software and services via the Internet.

Salesforce would buttress the portfolios of its largest rivals: Oracle Corp., Microsoft Corp. and SAP SE. All these companies have their own customer relationship management technologies but trail Salesforce’s products in market share, according to an annual ranking by researcher Gartner Inc., published last May.

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Chi Hea Cho, a spokeswoman for Salesforce, declined to comment.

An acquisition of San Francisco-based Salesforce would top the US$27.5 billion leveraged buyout of First Data Corp. in 2007, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

–With assistance from Jack Clark in San Francisco.

Bloomberg.com

Microsoft Corp. expects a billion people to be using its Windows 10 operating system in the software’s first two to three years, signaling optimism in its push to revive Windows and make it more useful on smaller devices.

Windows chief Terry Myerson made the forecast Wednesday at the company’s Build developer conference in San Francisco. He also unveiled tools to make it easier to convert applications originally programmed for Google Inc.’s Android and Apple Inc.’s iOS platforms to Windows phones without rewriting the code.

Microsoft is trying to use Windows 10, which goes on sale this summer, to jump-start the personal-computer market and to entice more tablet and smartphone buyers to choose Windows models. The company is also betting that easier development of mobile apps and the ability to repurpose work done for other operating systems will get more engineers to build Windows programs, which in turn could help woo users.

“One thing we haven’t had — a great Windows release could drive people to refresh their PC,” Myerson said in an interview. “I see people with these Windows 7 PCs and I look at a great new 2-in-1 device with touch and I think there’s so much more you could have. I’m a little more optimistic.”

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Web Tools

The company also said it will make it easier to turn websites into Windows applications, as well as older apps that use Microsoft’s .Net and Win32. For websites, users will be prompted for a short download, which will then let the website send notifications and e-commerce services. The site also can take advantage of Microsoft’s Cortana voice-activated digital assistant.

For developers of iOS, Android, Win32 and .Net apps, the changes mean they can reuse almost all of the programming code and convert them for Windows.

“We want to make sure we build bridges for you,” Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said.

King Digital Entertainment Plc has already used the iOS tools to bring its popular Candy Crush game to Windows, Myerson said. The company will make more games available for Windows 10, he said.

The company will also update developers on progress with software called Windows Holographic, along with a headset with glasses called HoloLens, which will let users see and interact with holograms while tracking their voices, movements and surroundings.

Universal Applications

With Windows 10, Microsoft is introducing what it calls Universal Apps, which work regardless of the size of the device — though developers will have to add code if they want to tweak the programs to only show certain things on, say, an Xbox, or to make use of 3D holograms using HoloLens.
Microsoft said companies such as Netflix Inc., Walt Disney Co., Evernote Corp. and Box Inc. are creating Windows 10 Universal apps. Myerson demonstrated Tencent’s WeChat app, as well as an app from USA Today that keeps track of what article someone is reading on a PC and opens the same one when that user shifts to a mobile app. The Xbox version of the app only loads stories that have video content.

For Windows 10, Microsoft will have one app store regardless of whether users are on PCs, tablets or phones and will add the ability to pay for apps through customers’ wireless carriers — an advantage in countries where fewer customers have credit cards, Myerson said.

New Features

Nadella also demonstrated additions for Office software, including functions from SAP SE and LinkedIn Corp. and a service for Uber Technologies Inc. that lets customers summon a ride based on appointments in their Outlook calendar. It grabs their location from Outlook as well.

Microsoft is aiming to revive the Windows franchise with Windows 10. The update is trying to win back consumers while mollifying corporate concerns about Windows 8’s design overhaul.

The program has a design that blends some aspects of Windows 8 with the older, more popular Windows 7’s appearance. It adds a new browser, which the company said Wednesday will be called Microsoft Edge, to succeed Internet Explorer. The update to Windows will also bring Cortana to PC desktops, and will have touch-enabled Office applications such as Word and Excel built in for smartphones and tablets.

Sales of Windows are suffering along with a declining PC market, after corporate customers upgraded new machines last year because Microsoft was ending support for the 13-year-old Windows XP. That buying cycle has petered out and global PC shipments dropped 5.2 per cent in the first quarter, according to researcher Gartner Inc.

Last week, Microsoft said sales of Windows to PC makers to install on their machines dropped 19 per cent for the Pro version and 26 per cent for other versions in the most recent quarter.

Bloomberg.com

Twitter Inc. may have hit a wall with advertisers, as they appear unwilling to spend as much money with the company as previously expected.

That’s one reason investors reacted so negatively to the social media company’s disappointing first quarter results, which included US$436 million in revenues that fell well short of analysts’ estimates – missing guidance for the first time and showing material deceleration. Meanwhile, ad revenue was five cents below the Street’s forecast.

The stock fell more than 18 per cent in pre-market trading on Wednesday.

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• Twitter Inc cuts sales outlook; shares plummet after Selerity leaks its results

Mark Mahaney at RBC Capital Markets says Twitter’s poor performance raises the question of how much visibility into consumer and advertiser demand for its offerings Twitter really has.

“Channel checks and our extensive survey work don’t provide convincing evidence that a substantial number of advertisers will commit substantial ad dollars to Twitter,” the analyst said in a research note. “The possible ‘ROI Wall’ increases our concern that Twitter’s lack of real-time commercial intent (a la Google) or detailed, authenticated profiles (a la Facebook) will at some point materially limit Twitters’s ad growth potential.”

Mahaney cut his price target on Twitter shares to US$47 from US$54, while trimming his 2015 revenue outlook by three per cent to US$2.25 billion and his EBITDA forecast by seven per cent to US$529 million.

There are also doubts related to management’s cautious commentary about second quarter monthly average user (MAU) growth. Mahaney said it’s not clear whether the company’s substantial product changes will successfully reaccelerate its user and usage metrics.

Twitter’s MAUs rose 18 per cent year-over-year to 302 million in the quarter. That was in-line with analysts’ expectations, but overall MAU growth continued its three-year pattern of deceleration, after rising 20 per cent year-over-year in Q4 2014 and 25 per cent in Q1 2014.

U.S. MAU growth also slowed to 14 per cent versus 17 per cent in Q4, and international MAU growth was 19 per cent versus 20 per cent in Q4.

“Until now, concerns around Twitter have focused mostly on user growth and the ultimate size of the platform, with monetization being somewhat disconnected,” said Doug Anmuth at J.P.Morgan. “But that will now change some as Twitter needs to show advertisers it can deliver strong ROI and greater scale, albeit on an overall user based with modest growth.”

As a result, he believes visibility into Twitter’s users and advertising is limited at the moment, and management’s credibility has taken another hit.

However, Anmuth doesn’t believe Twitter’s long-term story has changed, maintaining an overweight rating on the stock, while trimming his price target to US$55 from US$67.

He continues to believe the company’s platform is unique, and that the user experience can improve over time to generate substantially higher MAUs, while the ad monetization platform is only in its early stages.

SAN FRANCISCO — GoPro Inc. beat analysts’ estimates for first-quarter revenue and profit, spurred in part by overseas sales that rose to about half of the company’s revenue.

GoPro, the leading maker of action cameras used to shoot first-person video, posted profit of US24 cents per share, excluding certain costs, the company said Tuesday in a statement. Analysts on average were projecting US18 cents, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue was US$363.1 million, compared with the average estimate of US$341.1 million.

The improved international sales may show GoPro’s popularity isn’t confined to skiers and other extreme sports enthusiasts in the U.S., said Tavis McCourt, an analyst with Raymond James & Associates Inc.

“To the extent that they’re growing faster overseas, it shows that this is not just a U.S. phenomenon,” McCourt said.

Shares slipped 5.8 per cent in extended trading at 4:23 p.m. New York time after closing at US$47.02. Despite strong holiday sales, shares of the San Mateo, California-based company have dropped 26 per cent this year, in part because GoPro projected first-quarter growth far below the 75 per cent increase posted in the fourth quarter.

Sales increased 66 per cent in Europe and Asia in the quarter from a year earlier. The growth is evidence the company’s Hero-brand cameras are becoming a more mainstream product, GoPro president Tony Bates said in an interview. In a company-sponsored study, about 50 per cent of customers said they bought a GoPro to capture family videos, more than for any other use.

“No. 2 was to get videos of their pets,” Bates said. “It wasn’t all about wing-jumpers and kite-surfers.”

The 50-50 split of U.S. versus non-U.S. sales may vary in the quarters ahead, as new products catch on at different rates around the world. Over time, however, that split is where the business will settle, Bates said.

The company also announced the acquisition of Kolor, a startup that makes software for patching together photos to create 360-degree panoramas or videos.

Bloomberg.com

Google Inc. is teaming up with Twitter Inc. to help the social-media company sell more ads.

Under the agreement, marketers using Google’s DoubleClick advertising service can buy Twitter’s Promoted Tweets, the search giant said in a blog entry. Twitter charges clients to highlight such postings into users’ feeds across the service.

The deal announced Tuesday helps DoubleClick clients to more easily measure the effectiveness of their Twitter campaigns, Google said.

Google, based in Mountain View, California, is looking for new ways to work with other companies to enhance its advertising and content services. Google and San Francisco-based Twitter earlier this year reached a deal to show Tweets in search results as soon as they are posted.

“DoubleClick Digital Marketing has always been an open platform to give marketers a more complete picture of how their digital marketing works together,” Google said Tuesday. “This deal complements our ongoing push to bring new formats and inventory to DoubleClick.”

Bloomberg.com

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• Google Inc just launched Project Fi, a new low-cost wireless service in the U.S.

LG unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, the LG G4, the company’s new high-end handset designed to compete with Apple’s iPhone 6, Samsung’s Galaxy S6, Motorola and Google’s Nexus 6 and HTC’s M9 during a press conference in New York today.

At first glance the G4 looks nearly identical to its predecessor, the G3. Like the incremental changes seen in the HTC M9, you can hardly see the aesthetic differences between the G3 and the G4.

Patrick O'Rourke/National PostThe LG G4 has a somewhat strange square-texurized backing.

“What LG’s goal here has been is to address three things. One is comfortable elegance, second is great a great visual experience, and the third area is creating human-centric user experience,” said Albert Lee, brand communications manager, LG Canada.

The G4 features a similar plastic body, although this time with square-shaped indents running along its back panel and a slight curvature to its backing, which was added to the device to make it easier to hold, according to LG. The G4 is also slightly taller than its predecessor and more angular, giving the device a refined, more mature look than the G3. The smartphone’s different on/off switch, located on the rear side of the phone, directly under the camera, it also back.

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Under the hood the G4 has received a significant update in some of its components, however the G4 seems to be far from a complete overhaul of the G3

Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 Processor
Display: 5.5-inch Quad HD IPS Quantum Display (2560 x 1440, 538ppi)
Memory: 32GB eMMC ROM, 3GB LPDDR3 RAM / microSD slot
Camera: Rear 16MP with F1.8 Aperture / OIS 2.0 / Front 8MP with F2.0 Aperture
Battery: 3,000mAh (removable)
Operating System: Android 5.1 Lollipop
Size: 148.9 x 76.1 x 6.3 – 9.8 mm
Weight: 155g
Network: 4G / LTE / HSPA+ 42 Mbps (3G)
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a, b, g, n, ac / Bluetooth 4.1LE / NFC / USB 2.0
Colours: (Ceramic) Metallic Gray / (Genuine Leather) Black
Other: Manual Mode / Gesture Interval Shot / Quick Shot

The G4’s standout hardware features include a faster Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor, a significant upgrade over the Snapdragon 801 feature in the G3 (a camera that, according to LG, will feature better low-light performance thanks to one of the lowest aperture settings available on a smartphone), and a new IPS Quantum display, technology that will reportedly increase the G4’s display 50 per cent over the G3.

Patrick O'Rourke/National Post

In Canada the G4 will be sold at Bell, Rogers, Telus, Vidéotron and Wind Mobile. Canadians will unfortunately only be able to purchase the smartphone in “metallic grey” and “black genuine leather.” In the U.S. the G4 will be sold in what the company is calling “vegetable-aged leather,” in white, black, yellow, red and tan.

Canadian-specific pricing for the G4 has not been released.

Twitter Inc.’s revenue fell short of estimates in the first quarter, even after the company introduced new products and tweaked features to attract more people.

The number of monthly active members climbed 18 per cent to 302 million, compared with 20 per cent in the prior quarter, Twitter said in a statement Tuesday. Revenue rose 74 per cent to US$436 million, missing analysts’ average projection for US$456.2 million, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The results were first reported by Selerity Inc., a New York-based provider of financial news and information.

Chief Executive Officer Dick Costolo has been pushing product and engineering teams, which are being led by new managers, to step up the pace of innovation and dispel any doubts about Twitter’s potential as an advertising and social- media destination. The San Francisco-based company is facing greater pressure to show that such initiatives are delivering more users and revenue, according to Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group.

“When you’re communicating with investors there’s some expectation that you’ll actually deliver on what you’re aspiring towards,” said Wieser, who has a hold rating on Twitter’s stock. “The message needs to be matched by numbers, or Twitter’s credibility starts to become an issue.”
Twitter fell 5.8 per cent to US$48.67 before the shares were halted, pending the company’s earnings release. Selerity disclosed the earnings numbers less than an hour before the end of Tuesday’s trading.

Earnings excluding some items were 7 cents a share, compared with analysts’ average estimate for 4 cents. Twitter’s first-quarter net loss widened to US$162 million from a loss of US$132.4 million a year earlier.

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Slowing Growth

Twitter forecast revenue of US$470 million to US$485 million for the second quarter, compared with the average estimate of US$538.1 million.
Costolo, facing criticism last year because of slowing user growth, promised investors in November that the company would start revamping its products and services to make them easier to use. That has resulted in new features such as “While You Were Away,” which delivers the most popular tweets that occurred during a person’s absence, and Highlights, an Android feature that pushes a twice-daily digest of tweets direct to a person’s phone notifications.

The tweaks, which are helping to minimize the flood of information, are also helping to attract new users. Twitter’s home page, which used to just have an option to log in, now has categories, such as Nascar and cute animals, for people to explore even when they aren’t logged in to an account. Those who do choose to sign up for the first time get an instant timeline based on their phone contacts and interests, making it easier to get started on the product.

Bloomberg.com

 

Over the last few years southern Ontario has quickly become a hotbed for video game development thanks to generous provincial tax credits and other government subsidies, often provided by the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC), and a top tier educational pipeline, allowing studios to hire world class talent locally.

However, there has been wide industry speculation the tax credits and other programs the OMDC offers video game studios could suffer from significant cuts and restructuring in the near future – a rumour the OMDC adamantly denies.

A prototypical example of Ontario’s burgeoning video-game industry is Albert Lai’s London-based Big Viking Games, a studio that has grown significantly since being founded in 2011 as a developer that continues to capitalize on the rise in popularity of free-to-play mobile titles.

“We’ve been really focused on making sure that we’re not just creating a great place to work, but that we’re also creating a place to work where people grow their careers, and when you build a reputation around that, it’s kind of cool because you’re able to attract really amazing people from around the world,” said Lai, cofounder and CEO of Big Viking Games.

Since starting with a staff of just four in 2011, Big Viking Games has expanded into two offices, opening up a new Toronto studio, consisting of approximately 70 employees, adding to the 60 already working out of the company’s London, Ontario office. Lai explained both of Big Viking Game’s studios collaborate on projects, but the company is ultimately moving towards what he calls a “headless” organizational structure, allowing staff to work on any project from either of the studios’ two offices. Big Viking Games was also named one of the best companies to work for in Canada, placing seventh out of 50 companies in the 2014 list.

My choices were between San Franciso, where there are mass amounts of venture capital, or there’s Toronto or Canada, where I’d be coming back home.

A significant aspect of what has allowed development studios like Lai’s, as well as other notable Ontario-based game creators such as Capybara Games (Super Time Force), Metanet Software (N++), Drinkbox Studios (Guacamelee), and even larger developers like Ubisoft Toronto, establish themselves in the region, is the OMDC, an Ontario Government-run organization that provides tax credits and financial aid to video game developers and a variety of other creative companies.

“I think it’s important policy makers and the broader community recognize the value of these funds. What they’ve enabled in Ontario (there are also different versions of the tax credits across the country in other provinces, particularity Quebec and B.C.) is the growth of this industry,” said Lai.

Lai explained the Quebec government recently proposed cutting tax credits for the gaming industry, but quickly back-pedalled on the decision, realizing cuts would mean a loss of jobs, the creation of industry turmoil, and that the region would also lose the strong foothold it currently holds in the game industry, thanks to studios such as Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Quebec, Square Enix Montreal and a slew of other smaller, independent Montreal-based developers.

Big Viking GamesThe Big Viking Games' team.

“They quickly reinstated them [the tax credits]. We’re going into a review cycle [of the funds that were provided to us by the OMDC], and the important thing to recognize about the gaming industry is that it’s kind of like the film industry 20, 30, 40 or even 100 years ago. We’re at the tip of the iceberg of what we know as being a cultural contributor, meaning, if you think about how much time people spend in front of their screen and how many of those hours and dollars are spent in front of a game or mobile device, it’s amazing,” said Lai.

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The OMDC funding is staying just the same, says the OMDC itself, though there are a more companies and people accessing the fund.

“At this point and time we’re operating under a business as usual assumption. Our plans at the moment are we’re going out with the funds the same way we have in previous years. So for the next fiscal year we will be running the program in the same way we have in previous years,” said Kim Gibson program consultant at the OMDC. “What we’re finding year after year is the pool of companies is actually growing significantly, the number of companies that are accessing the fund is increasing and we’re seeing different companies come in every year. From one year to the next about 40 per cent of the applications we receive are from new companies.”

However, even if the rumoured cuts don’t end up happening, Lai says the system the OMDC filters tax credits through still have a number of issues. He feels the scope of which companies qualify for the tax credits needs to be narrowed significantly, emphasizing part of the problem is there are a lot of organizations not qualified for the benefits the OMDC provides that are “jamming the pipeline for the review process,” and that in many situations, qualified studios are forced to wait up to two years to receive any funding from the OMDC. According to Lai, this is a significant issue for smaller developers relying on OMDC tax credits to grow and function, as well as the thriving Ontario gaming industry in general.

Big Viking GamesAlbert Lai, Big Viking Games' co-founder and CEO.

The support of the OMDC provides qualifying Ontario-based gaming companies between 35 and 40 per cent of all money the studio invests in developers, artists and marketing costs. Additionally the OMDC also supports new games through the Interactive Digital Media (IDM) fund, a grant covering $150,000 up to 50 percent of a project’s budget. Last year alone the OMDC released information stating 23 gaming companies in Ontario received this $150,000 grant to create new titles.

Lai said he made the decision to establish his studio in southern Ontario, specifically London, because his co-founder lived in the area and also due to the city’s close proximity to Sheridan and the University of Waterloo, arguably two of the top schools in the world for computer science and animation, giving Lai a strong and largely untapped talent pipeline – OMDC tax credits were also a significant factor.

“My choices were between San Franciso, where there are mass amounts of venture capital or there’s Toronto or Canada, where I’d be coming back home. I’d have amazing talent and a great tax credit system. The third option was to go to the far east and whether it be in Shanghai, Bejing or Hong Kong (which is where I’m from). Singapore is also super aggressively investing in startups, but ultimately I settled on London, Ontario.”

Almost amusingly, Big Viking Games is also one of the only companies to actually acquire a title from Zynga Inc., a studio/publisher known for purchasing successful free-to-play games from other developers at the height of their popularity, and then subsequently running them into the ground. Lai’s studio recently purchased Yoville from Zynga, a game set to be shut down by the company because it no longer saw the title as profitable.

Big Viking GamesLai says his studio purchased YoWorld because he still sees potential in the title.

“It has a very, very passionate community, so much so that at one time it had over 60 million registered users and the ones that are left today were still extremely passionate about the community and the game. So when Zynga was about to shut it down, there was a real uproar. So we were able to reach out to Zynga and acquire it back from them (one of our co-founders was actually the creator of the original game),” said Lai.

Lai also explained Zynga acquired YovVille (now called YoWorld) before releasing Farmville in 2009, the title that arguably sparked the free-to-play mobile title concept, and that the game was used as a basis for what eventually became Farmville.

In the future, Lai says his team is concentrated on supporting and creating new content for the studios’ already-released titles, treating its games as platforms rather than just a single title. He also sees games based in Facebook as a growth opportunity for Big Viking Games because many other developers have abandoned the platform for traditional mobile games, as well as HTML5-based titles, an area Lai feels will grow increasingly more important for mobile gaming in the coming years.

“The majority of our existing talent is actually focused on our existing games. There are a few games that are in pre-production that we aren’t quite ready to talk about. Often times when you’re dealing with triple A games you’re working towards the next sequel, or the next Assassin’s Creed or Halo – it’s a complete overhaul of the engine and the story. Whereas with us, it’s about evolving the game gradually and basically over the last year within Dark Heroes there were four to six different revamps of major features,” said Lai.

Google Inc’s YouTube will directly invest in new shows to be launched in partnerships with its four top content creators, it said in a blog on Tuesday.

The world’s No. 1 online video website also said it entered into an agreement with DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc unit AwesomenessTV to release feature films over the next two years.

The partnerships would help YouTube, which completed 10 years last week, secure higher quality advertising as it transitions from a repository of grainy home videos to a site with more polished content.

YouTube has been trying to lure more premium video advertising to boost margins as overall prices for Google’s ads have been declining.

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The website, which attracts more than 1 billion unique visitors a month, far surpassing those of Netflix Inc and Amazon Inc, did not disclose how much it was investing or how the partnerships would be structured.

The investment marks a significant change for YouTube, which has been backing its content creators by providing production facilities and small amounts of funds for creators to test ideas.

Reuters reported in July last year that YouTube was in discussions with Hollywood and independent producers to fund premium content.

Under the deal with the content creators, YouTube will stream the new season of “Prank vs Prank”, a murder mystery reality show featuring online star Joey Graceffa, comedy show “Smosh” and another one by Fine Brothers.

YouTube and AwesomenessTV, a channel aimed at teens and younger adults known as millennials, expect to roll out their first film this fall.

© Thomson Reuters 2015

Documentaries about video games and the people who make them have become increasingly common, but few dare dive as deeply into the soul of a game maker as Thank You for Playing.

Directed by Malika Zouhali-Worrall (Call Me Kuchu) and David Osit (Building Babel), the film focuses on indie game maker Ryan Green, his wife Amy, and their son Joel, who at just one year old is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.

Looking for a way to express and make sense of his turbulent emotions, Ryan turns to what he knows best: Video games. With the consent and assistance of his wife, he begins developing a poetic game, That Dragon Cancer, about his life with his dying son that will act as an outlet for his thoughts, feelings, hopes, and fears.

Ryan’s experience creating the game as his son grows both older and sicker is caught with heartbreaking tenderness by the filmmakers. We watch as he and his wife discuss whether to include recordings of Joel’s crying and laughter in the game, whether to have their other two sons reenact a difficult conversation in which Ryan uses a fantasy metaphor to explain Joel’s sickness, and whether to include facial details on Joel’s character.

The inevitable question regarding the appropriateness of attempting to convey a story so profoundly personal through the medium of interactive entertainment is not ignored. It’s perhaps best answered during a trip to PAX – a game conference open to the public – where the filmmakers capture the deeply emotional, tear-filled responses of some of the first people to play the game. We’re left with little doubt that what Ryan is creating is art, that his game is a wholly valid means of communicating and reflecting upon the human experience.

Post Arcade connected via email with the people who captured Ryan’s odyssey on the eve of Thank You for Playing‘s international premiere at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto.

Below, documentarians Zouhali-Worrall and Osit talk about the parallels between their film and Ryan’s game, knowing and respecting each other’s limits in documenting a difficult subject, and the friendship they’ve developed with the Green family.

David Osit & Malika Zouhali-WorrallThank You for Playing directors Malika Zouhali-Worrall and David Osit.

How did you come to know about Ryan’s story and game project, and when did you decide to make it the subject of your own film?

Malika Zouhali-Worrall and David Osit: We first learned about what Ryan and Amy were doing with That Dragon, Cancer in early 2013, when David read a short one-line description of their game in an article on Kill Screen, a video game arts blog. Based on that one sentence alone it was pretty clear that there was a remarkable story here. So after Skyping with Ryan and his co-creator Josh, we flew out to meet the family in Loveland, Colorado for a few days in June 2013.

How long did you spend following him? I imagine it must have been an intimate and at times painful experience.

We filmed with Ryan, his family and the development team for about 36 days over the course of 14 months. During that time, we were lucky enough to get to know their young son, Joel, as well as their other children, and became very close with the whole family. So it was of course a very difficult process to continue filming with Ryan and Amy during the months when Joel’s health started to deteriorate. And most definitely some of the hardest moments either of us has ever gone through.

That said, we were both profoundly touched by Ryan and Amy’s openness to our filming throughout these difficult times. In many ways, they saw our filming with them as related to the mission they had with the video game: to share their experiences and talk openly about terminal illness, death and bereavement, topics that are so often treated as taboo in western society.

You’re accustomed to exploring human feelings through film. Were you surprised at the emotion Ryan was able to invest into and extract from his chosen art form? Are there parallels to be drawn between your work and his?

Before we went out to Loveland for our first shoot, Ryan sent us their current demo of the video game: a single scene that brought the player into a hospital room, standing in Ryan’s shoes, trying to comfort a distressed and dehydrated Joel. It was a very difficult scene to “play” and immediately convinced us that Ryan, Amy and their co-creator Josh, were working on a fascinating piece of creative non fiction that truly pushed the boundaries of what video games can portray of the human experience.

Over the course of the next 14 months, as Ryan, Amy and Josh developed more scenes for the video game, we saw it become increasingly poetic, surreal and profoundly touching. And we soon realized that That Dragon, Cancer, had become a remarkable work of art, in a medium that society so rarely associates with “Art”.

There are so many parallels between Ryan’s video game and our documentary – we were after all, all working to document aspects of a similar experience: parents living with a terminally-ill young child. And that’s probably partly why we were able to establish such a strong bond of trust and mutual respect with Ryan, Amy and Josh; because we could connect creatively about this very emotionally challenging process. For example, we learned that when it came to how far to go in creatively documenting this very important but difficult experience, we all drew the line at different places. Ryan never wanted to record Joel’s cry, and so had to use audio of other children crying for Joel in the game. Josh wasn’t initially comfortable using Joel’s MRI images in the video game, while that didn’t bother Ryan.

As for us, neither Ryan nor Amy ever told us to stop filming at any point. However, when Joel passed away, we realized that we did not want to film his funeral, but rather wanted to be there without standing behind a camera; so we could be present as the close friends we had become to the Green family.

Having watched Ryan work, what advantages might video games have over other forms of art in terms of connecting with and affecting their audience?

There’s something incredible about a work of creative non-fiction that allows you to walk in the shoes of another human being – and that’s what a video game can achieve.

In That Dragon, Cancer, you look down to see that you’re holding Joel in your arms; your actions comfort him; and, perhaps most importantly, you can play with him for as long as you like. The fact that you can choose how you interact with him, and for how long, is very special and often profoundly moving. In fact, there have been people who have sat down to play the game at video game conferences and chosen to spend five minutes simply pushing Joel on a swing and listening to him giggle. The video game allows strangers to establish a very special connection with Ryan, Amy and especially Joel.

What do you think people will take away from your film as they walk out of the theatre?

We hope that people will see in this film the hope and beauty that can be brought about through art, even when it has come out of a very difficult human experience.

This film is helping to benefit Toronto’s SickKids hospital, right? How did that come about? 

We were contacted by the Hospital for Sick Children’s Garron Family Cancer Center, home to the largest pediatric oncology department in Canada. They asked us to come host a private screening of the film and make a demo of the game available to play for their clinicians and medical staff while we’re in Toronto for Hot Docs, with the goal of providing staff with valuable insight into the experience of the families of cancer patients. So we’re looking forward to the conversation we’ll have with the medical staff there.

Good luck with your film. It’s very moving. I hope many people see it.

Fresh off a run at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, Thank You for Playing is making its international premiere at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto Tuesday, April 28th, with two additional screenings Wednesday the 29th and Saturday, May 2nd. It’s slated to debut on television via PBS’s POV documentary series in the summer of 2016. Ryan Green’s game, That Dragon, Cancer, is expected to be released this fall.

David Osit & Malika Zouhali-WorrallThank You for Playing official poster.

 

TORONTO — A new study by Deloitte has found that most Canadian companies aren’t prepared for how quickly they’ll be affected by major advances in technology such as robotics and artificial intelligence.

The Canadian arm of the international consulting firm says only 13 per cent of the 700 companies in its study scored well, while 87 per cent were partially or completely unprepared for the magnitude and speed of change ahead.

In fact more than one-third — 35 per cent — scored poorly on all four of the key criteria that Deloitte used to measure preparedness: awareness, innovation, agility and the ability to channel resources.

The study’s findings are consistent with other Deloitte research on Canadian productivity, said Terry Stuart, a co-author of the 42-page report released Tuesday.

“Canadian companies are generally risk-adverse,” Stuart said in an interview ahead of the study’s publication.

Disruption is not going to happen in some distant future. It is happening now

“They’re not investing as much as they need to in the technologies and capabilities and we’re seeing that applied directly in these technology areas that we studied.”

The study was especially interested in how Canadian companies were responding to five types of technology with the potential to cause widespread disruption to what has become the usual manner of doing business: robotics, artificial intelligence, communications networks, manufacturing tools such as 3D printers and platforms for collaboration.

Although many of these technologies have been around for decades, they had been advancing at a relatively slow pace — which Deloitte expects will surge exponentially in the very near term.

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“Disruption is not going to happen in some distant future. It is happening now,” the study concludes.
Stuart, who is Deloitte Canada’s chief innovation officer, said the majority of companies in the study weren’t spending enough time thinking about the new technologies, understanding them and preparing for the implications.

“There was no difference between industry segments or size of company. That was a little bit surprising to us,” Stuart said.

But the study did find 74 per cent of the most prepared companies had experienced revenue growth over a five-year period, much higher that among unprepared companies.

The most prepared companies were also spending more on research and development over sustained periods and were more internationally focused.

Stuart said the underlying causes for the Canadian caution are complex and there is a role to be played by the academic and government sectors, although the main audience for the study is business leaders.

“You have to look at a variety of factors. They way that our culture has grown up, how we’re educated and trained, et cetera.”