How Creative BC is supporting British Columbia's local games industry

[Music] hello everyone it's really great to see you out uh this early I know this crowd stays up very late working so thank you for taking your coffee with you and and joining us this morning we're thrilled to host PG connects Vancouver it's always uh exciting to launch something new in this beautiful city and uh as uh as both of uh the others have said um it doesn't matter what's happening out there creativity uh can't be stopped so um we feel very sure that uh this is the beginning of great things for uh for this program and also for the world of uh of pocket G gaming so I will pick this up and uh talk a little bit about maid in BC so uh basically we are creative BC

and uh in that we just wanted to introduce ourselves and and our Origins and really what we are as an independent agency uh we were created and we are supported by the province of BC to build and promote BC's creative Industries So within our area of responsibility are film and television uh interactive and digital media which of course you are all a part of music and sound recording and as well book publishing and magazine publishing and what we know about these industries uh is uh is first of all that they're really Dynamic and we feel very excited to uh to represent them but they're also very uh interdisciplinary and so uh there's a lot of collaboration that goes on between these areas so it's one of our Focus points to encourage that um there's a lot of crossover between the sectors and uh to note that in fact Angry Birds you may know has uh just shown up up in theaters as a feature

film and that was shot in Vancouver so originating as a game and and coming into the film sector so it's really interesting how that how that's all happening so creative BC was established in 2013 and as I said by the provincial government uh we provide programs and services and expertise to support uh BC's thriving creative Industries uh you've heard about Vancouver because because uh the city has really taken off and we have a long history actually um behind us in in all of these industries and the work we do at creative BC is meant to stimulate investment and uh employment in the province so specifically we are focused on promoting BC's creative content and uh production capabilities at home and globally ultimately we are an industry Catalyst and uh we were forign to help the creative sector realize the economic and creative potential that we know is

here and to welcome others to share it with us so our strategic objectives that guide us are are really probably very similar to what uh many of your organizations uh have as pillars as well we're really thinking about positioning about growth about communication and especially about Talent um you know all of these things are are required in order to take your organization and in order to take a province forward uh in in these industries and a growth culture is is super important one that welcomes and and stimulates business um you know we want to show and tell the stories uh that are associated with these industries and make sure that the world sees uh what BC is is doing and also what uh what organizations are coming to BC to participate with us so ultimately uh in that we can attract build and retain uh the talent Talent

all of you uh to continue to work in these exciting Industries so specific to the interactive and digital media Industries we have five areas that we that we focus on um and these are the activities that we undertake to support uh support support the interactive and digital media Industries um first of all we have an interactive fund I will tell you about we provide marketing support and Export promotion uh industry initiatives like this one uh we do attract uh business new Studios uh to to the province uh through various missions and we also um want to draw your attention to uh the province's interactive digital media tax credit so in terms of support for developers in BC uh we do have the interactive fund and this is a joint program between creative BC and the BC

Arts Council and uh basically it supports the creation of original interactive digital media and software applications so each project can receive up to $50,000 and uh last year we distributed $641,000 to 14 BC companies and we'll be talking about some of them today so it's important to to have a look at this fund if you if you are local and you are interested we'd love to we'd love to talk more to you about what you're working on in terms of the marketing support and Export promotion um we do support a lot of digital talent to travel domestically and internationally uh to develop business uh at focused Expos and forums and conventions like this one uh and so you will know Electronic Entertainment Expo in La the power to the pixel cross Media Forum in London and uh the game developers conference in San Francisco

these are all places that we support uh BC talent to travel to so um important to to know that that's accessible to you and also um to look out for us in in various other places in the world in terms of attracting business to BC uh obviously we have a team of of individuals at creative BC that travel all over the world to do this and we work closely with all levels of government uh various associations and Industry of course to promote the province's creative Industries and uh this includes supporting and contributing to inward missions so meaning incoming trade delegations uh recently we hosted a delegation from Belgium so if this is something that anyone in the room is is considering um we certainly would love to speak with you as well about bringing your your mission here um and as well external trade missions so obviously those in which we attend events around the world and uh most recently we work uh we work

very closely with the ministry of international trade and in that regard we sent some senior members of our organization on missions to India and China very recently on successful missions uh in I had mentioned the interactive digital media tax credit and now that is actually run by the province of BC uh but it's something we want to draw your attention to it's not administered by us but we certainly do promote it and uh of note it is available to eligible registered corporations that develop interactive digital media products in BC and that has to have happened between August 31st 2010 and before September 1st 2018 so the tax credit is sort of calculated around 17.5% of the eligible salary of wages incurred in that tax year it can make a big difference so please uh make note and and apply um and what it's really done is what it's uh designed to do is to educate informed

um uh people about about this program so right and what the what the product has to do is it has to educate inform and entertain the user so just to qualify for this program uh it has to do those three things uh and present the information in at least two of the following categories which would be text sound and images so a few a few um requirements for for qualification and those can all be found on the government of BC website or you can certainly email them with any of your of your questions so finally uh why we're here today is uh our supportive industry initiatives and uh this is another great big support for developers uh as I said creativity requires connection and uh this uh kind of event does a lot for a lot for the industry and to connect it globally so we are very proud to be sponsoring uh this event as a gold sponsor and uh we have a B2B meeting space we hope that you'll take advantage of it there's lots of space there for you to conduct meetings and um that's booth number one

it's called level up and you'll see it just near the front doors of the convention and uh of course everyone wants to be social in various different ways and so if uh if you are um open to uh entering a contest we hope you will do so we've put together a really exciting Prize Package and and one of the things that's sort of fun about this one is that the Whistler Film Festival um for which we have two one-day passes and an overnight stay is uh actually running something new this year and it's the Whistler Film Festival digital lab so another first just like PG connects um and of course we'll have a selection of BC books and uh magazines and music for you to listen to on the road trip up but we hope that you will uh follow creative BCS on on Instagram and wiler filmfest and then if you can take a photo of yourself at our creative BC booth in front of the banner and just post that uh with uh tagging us and

using the hashtag uh CRBC PG we'll have all the information there and you can enter to win uh we're very excited about this new event at the Whistler film festival and uh again another first and always always great to be out there um at the beginning of these kinds of things so please enter so what we wanted to do uh as we as we move through the presentation is talk a little bit about the backdrop snapshot on BC's digital and interactive media Industries uh as you know and as was mentioned already we have a long history as a worldclass hub for interactive entertainment and we are one of the oldest and most established video game clusters in the world uh we also have an international reputation as a leading Center for game development across all platforms so console mobile browser and we're also an emerging VR leader and I can uh definitely attest to that um having been in one of our educational

institutions that has a dedicated VR research group and it's uh some of the work they're doing is is literally mind-blowing um and I've been um able to actually um participate in some of these activities it's been very fun see where it's going and then U of course what all of these three things together mean is that we have a very deep talent pool they're they're being mentored they're being educated and they have access to uh to work immediately in very Dynamic environments um so we're very proud of uh of this industry in British columia again a few uh a few pieces of information you may want to take with you uh we are the second largest Center in Canada at present and we're always uh vying with another area of Canada for that number one spot um we have 168 companies and they are generating 5,500 full fulltime jobs right now um and that

means uh that we're generating 576 million in annual expenditures in the province of BC it's a very big number and uh our clusters are actually forming within the city and around it so Colona Nelson Victoria Vancouver Island as you know there are lots of opportunities to to work in other centers beside Vancouver and we are seeing that happen people taking advantage of of uh the lifestyle elsewhere and and bringing their business wherever they wherever they live in the province so the pocket gaming landscape of course in BC then uh is quite competitive and uh one of the the reasons we believe we have this Competitive Edge um is that we have strengthened developing games across all platforms um and so this healthy and dynamic mix of large International Studios as well as BC and canadian-owned companies uh makes it a very dynamic and competitive environment um some of the

large International companies that are here you may uh recognize Bandai Namco and Capcom from Japan as well as Electronic Arts which uh is one of the names on many of Vancouver rights lips um and uh we are very very proud of our local talent as well as uh excited to welcome these International um folks to to the province so indeed we have many small to mediumsized uh business owned Studios as well and that's where the emerging Talent is and so we hope to uh to meet many of them here today and uh and get to know them a little better because a lot of our programs are are very supportive also to that BC owned and emerging talent group and so the question is why why do they choose BC uh whether International or BC owned um you know why are people choosing BC and have they done so for so long and staying and uh so of course we have a

lot of facts that we could we could put up on a slide but what we thought we would do is just quote uh Hajime nakatani who is the CEO of Nam kandai Studios and uh when he first brought his organization here um this is what he said British Columbia has demonstrated a deep understanding of the digital media and game Industries especially in Vancouver which has a long history as a Pioneer in game development and this makes it a perfect choice for our first step forward in establishing our Global Network I am confident that we will be able to achieve new and amazing feats in Canada thanks to its great talent pool Leading Edge academic and research institutions and pro business Federal and provincial governments so pretty much sums up everything I've been saying already always great to have third party endorsement so we wanted to shine a spotlight on some of our on some of our uh companies Here Local um one of our

recent creative BC funding recipients is Stellar J Studios and we hope that you will get to meet them this weekend um they are BC owned they're based in Vancouver a full service games and animation studio and they were the interactive fund recipient for 20156 uh they received $50,000 and that was to develop their new mobile game kabo Kaboom and I think we actually are going to see a little bit of kabo KaBoom in a second here it is a bit mesmerizing actually anyways this is a fun new mobile game it's due to launch in the fall of 2016 and uh it's where crossy Road meets Pachinko I know it's quite sweet I hate to I hate to shut it down and move on to the next slide

okay I'll have to go uh as well we have hyper hippo Productions they're BC owned based in Colona and um hyper hippo they are indeed very hypo hyper they they uh they actually produce new games every month uh that they launch to to the public for consumption and so in um since 2014 they have released over 30 games to web mobile and stream platforms and some of their notable titles are Adventure capitalist and Mech mice and we're just going to show you a little screenshot of the adventure capitalist here uh I love this it's so easy squeeze a lemon and go anyway um some of the humor in these is is really fun we have Roadhouse interactive uh and most of you will recognize this name uh they're a leading vancouver-based developer and publisher of games for mobile and tablet and

that's been for more than 25 years uh they join joined forces with 50 cc games and Iron Maiden to create Iron Maiden Legacy of the Beast and uh apparently this is available for an experience at Universal Studios now as well so that is is going to be launching soon um but anyway it's h it's due out on mobile platforms as well this summer another one of their games is trophy Bingo this is an office favorite it's just so cute anyways you rescue all the super dogs they've got Red Bull air race as well some of you may know uh the fastest Motorsports Series in the world now on mobile they were responsible for Warhammer 40,000 Carnage uh this is where you battle the orc Menace and jump straight into Mayhem and Carnage like never before

and next we have Super Value Meal Studios Inc so these guys are just starting out I couldn't find a logo for them yet very Dynamic um anyway we're really excited uh about this new company they're based in Vancouver and Super Value Meal Studios is an indie entertainment developer that seeks to find Innovative simple and fun ways for people to connect digitally and they are launching their first mobile game and it's called brutal what is brutal it's where you can have a brawl with your Doodles and Paul is going to cue the [Music] video

anyway there's a little preview coming out soon we move on to uh iugo very well known I see their Booth near ours as well uh they're a larger BC owned studio based here in Vancouver uh mobile first and mobile only since 2003 uh strong experience in creating and operating that large scale free-to-play mobile game uh on IOS and Android and uh some of their notable titles of course are The Walking Dead and road to surviv or Walking Dead Road to survival and knights and dragons and then there is hemisphere games and we know that one of the developers is located in Nelson BC a beautiful town in the interior and they're responsible for Osmos and in fact you may know Osmos U you probably will know Osmos but in fact it was featured on The Simpsons uh where Milhouse is shown relaxing to Osmos on his iPad so we think that's that's pretty fun um and Matt Jarvis who is hemisphere

games sound magician says that this proves that all the cool nerds play Osmos and then finally we have Bandai Namco and you may recognize Bandai Namco they're one of the largest gaming companies in the world and uh they opened a Vancouver studio in 2013 creative BC helped to attract that company to Vancouver and they're now located in the center for digital media which is an amazing educational institution here in the city um notable titles of course Pac-Man 256 which was Apple best game of 2015 but that was first released in 1980 and in closing I will say that I had the Pac-Man watch and I was tremendously popular for having had that when I was going to school so anyways it's near and dear to my heart and it still works and I do have it in my drawer anyway that brings us to a close we hope that you will keep in touch with creative Beast we want to hear what you're working on we want to hear what

you want to bring to BC and in order to learn about all of the dates and deadlines and uh applications that uh that we hope you will all participate in you can sign up for our newsletter on our website and of course we hope you're going to participate in our Instagram contest just head over to our booth you will see Shaz Val and Erica they'll be here today to speak with you and uh and help you win that trip to Whistler and kick off the digital Lab at the Whistler Film Festival thanks very much and enjoy your [Applause] [Music] convention