Taking Posession

Well as of 8am this morning my wife and I have officially taken posession of our brand new house. I will try to post some pictures of the house once we have everything moved in.

Open Letter to the Alberta Government About Alberta's Digital Media Industry

The Ontario government has recently given a significant tax break to digital media business from 20% to 30% in its latest budget, a tax break that I see as another slap in the face to hard working technology developers here in Alberta.

This latest move by the Ontario government once again highlights how Alberta lacks behind other provinces such as BC, Quebec, Ontario and PEI by supporting and encouraging the growth of an important industry. An industry that continues to grow every year and play an important role in the future development of the economies of the provinces that have encouraged these tax breaks. Allowing them to be leaders in this global industry and take significant steps ahead provinces such as Alberta that have failed to support this industry.

Every day developers such as myself struggle to compete in a global marketplace that gets tougher and tougher due to tax breaks and benefits being given out in other locations. Jobs and contracts are being lost here in Alberta to provinces and states that are aggressively competing and encouraging digital media development simply because we cannot compete on the same levels with the tax advantages that are being given. As a result, every year hundreds of highly trained and skilled developers leave this province because Alberta is not a favorable location to do business in. Even the few success stories that we have which have managed through their own hard work and determination to survive and become a large player in this business are moving future development out of this province because there is no such thing as the “Alberta Advantage” in digital media.

This cannot be allowed to continue and something must be done now before Alberta falls so far behind other provinces and states that our digital media industry dries up or becomes the joke of North America. As such I implore you to wake up and do something to help show that Alberta can compete in tomorrow’s marketplace in industries other than natural resources that we have really just stumbled upon. Its time to step up and show the world what Alberta can give to the digital media market when the playing field is level.

Logan Foster
Digital Media producer.

Ultravoilet = Ultra Disappoint

My wife and I went to check out the movie Ultraviolet last night figuring that it was the best of a rather lackluster list of movies that are currently at the theatres. For those of you who do not know the premise of the story here are the basics:

Somewhere in the future, the US Government tinkers with some long forgotten virus and ends up creating a highly contagous bio-agent that is spread from person to person just from body fluid coming in contact with the skin. Essentially from there, the world panics and anyone who contracts this disease is segregated from the population and eventually culled. Now the last few people with this disease (who are know as 'Hemophages') fight a war of survival against the humans.

Overall the movie stinks, I was tempted numerous times to just stand up and leave but I knew I couldn't get my money back so I stayed. Sadly you cannot even call Ultraviolet a "popcorn" movie like you could with Underworld 2 (ie. the movie you sit back, eat your popcorn, turn your brain off and just enjoy even though its got a ton of flaws, holes and problems), it really was that bad.

Here are my big complaints about the film:
1) It felt more like a really long music video or someone's very lame and poorly done computer game. There was so much choreography going on, especially in the many numerous, long, drawn out fighting sequences you got sick and tired of it (especially with the less than average techno music that went along with this stuff). While the whole plot for the game literally played out like a video game: Violet fights minions and steals a package, the package turns out to be a super weapon that can kill all humans, she gets a change of heart and has to protect the kid (in some warped sense of morality), fights more minions and mid level boss guys, uncovers the plot, loses the kid, has to fight her way into the big bosses hide-out and fight through all his minions (700 of them) and then kill the big boss. Wow how exciting and original.
2) Vampires!? Yes you read that right, somewhere along the way the movie turns into the fact that the Hemophages are vampires (complete withthe enlarged canines). Think a really lame Underworld (yes its possible) but in a sci-fi setting.
3) Where's the story? I swear there is like 100 lines of dialogue in the film and most of those are lame one liners like "I'm gonna kill you". Plus on top of that there are a lot of unanswered questions like how did the Hemophages get all these special powers or abilities they have or how did the ArchDiasis (the leader of the humans), who is also a Hemophage in hiding, manage to never get caught considering how many security policies the humans have.
4) Bad VFX. After watching the film I get the feeling that all the money for this flick went into the choreography and a few props and whatever was left over was given to a few firms to fill out the movie and it unfortunately shows.

Save you cash if you can or at the very least wait until this movie is on DVDs (im sure in a few weeks) if you want a good laugh at a very bad movie. Its a bad movie that would have maybe been an average game but somewhere along the way the lack of talent or attention associated with this film killed it.

The $15 Million Movie? How About the $15 Game?

I am sure that some of you probably missed this article about George Lucas talking about how he forsees that the Hollywood Blockbuster will become a thing of the past, stepping aside in favor of $15-million dollar "indie" movies. The article wasn't widely posted or picked up by most of the major news sites (probably because Lucas has lost some clout with the media after the Star Wars prequel's failed to find the same magic their predicessors had), but I found it rather interesting from two different angles: the movie-goer and the independent game developer.

As a movie-goer this statement is a bit shocking at first to hear, as we have been treated to some real visual masterpieces the past few years with so much VFX & budget that it feels as though this sort of treatment has become the norm instead of the rare once or twice a year occurence like it once was. Consumers in essense it seem have come to expect the formula of "production value = great experiance" and sadly these same expectations have brute force rolled themselves into the games market too and have brought in the same problems. We now have two mediums that are producing cookie-cutter products that are increasingly becoming short on originality, uniqueness and most importantly entertainment. We as consumers have seen this so much that the magic of going to the movie or playing a game has become lost and almost muted.

I would love to blame some executive in a suit that has become out of touch with what the market wants for these problems (and I guess to a degree they are to blame) but ultimately the finger has to be pointed at we the consumers. We demand more of the same because it was so great the first time we think that lighting will hit the same spot twice, and then three times and so on and so forth. All the while decreeing that we want new, unique and/or innovative entertainment to partake in either as a viewer or directly influencing the actions of, thus creating a viscous cycle of repetition and ever exceeding expectation. Sure we are hypocrites but thankfully we are also creatures that get bored very easily too and thus sooner or later the current cookie-cutter results that we see in games and films will fail and people will turn ever increasingly to alternatives (aka. independents).

This is why when I see a comment like this coming from George Lucas that says that there's the potential for the system to get bucked I get a smile on my face. Not because I want someone else to fail and think that the system as it is, is fundementally flawed from top to bottom, but because I think that there is a lot of fantastic work from independents that gets overlooked that people will enjoy just as much. This opportunity might not be here today and it might not be here tomorrow but it is on the horizon and as such it is not just hope but a reminder that even though the work you are doing now might not pay off it will some day become something that people will really want to have.

At least someone likes the snow

We finally got our first major snowfall of the year here in Edmonton with about 20cm (8 inches for those of you still on the ass backwards Imperial system) falling in the past 24 hours. Previous to this the most we had was about 2cm and it all pretty much melted away within a day.

Although this isn't the first time Ceili has seen or played with snow (we have plenty of it out at the lake, just not here in or near the city) it is the first time that I had a camera on me to capture most of it.



As usual, snow is fun, its fluffy and all the wonderful scents of the yard are gone, so its time to explore even though the snow is up to her shoulders.



More exploration of the yard. Though I think at this point she was just so excited that she ran around in circles around the yard as she explored.



Ceili's nose gets a track of something she thinks she might like. Even through this much snow that little nose is pretty potent. At this time she sounded like she was snorting she was trying to pick up a scent so strongly.



Eventually after half an hour Ceili realizes that she has found all that she can in the yard once again and her little pink belly doesn't like the snow pressing up against it all the time. So I took this quick picture before putting her leash back on her so I could take her back into the house.

After this Ceili happily played with her toys on the floor and let me get back to work on some stuff for Realm Wars and 21-6. Needless to say she slept good last night.