Telefilm hopes game competition will spur multiple commercial successes

The Canadian video game sector further solidified its position as a mainstream entertainment industry with the launch of Telefilm Canada’s Great Canadian Video Game Competition at the Montreal International Game Summit (MIGS) on November 8. While the up to $800,000 of development and commercialization funding earmarked for the winner should help ensure its game is successful in the market, Telefilm is also optimistic that some of the semi-finalists and finalists will emerge with games that are popular with consumers and critics alike. The competition gives Canada’s independent video game developers the chance to compete for a total of $2 million in financing, including the $800,000 first-place prize. "We’re pretty confident that we’ll have one commercial success out of this, but our true goal is to have 10 commercial successes," said Danielle Michael, former VP of business development at Vancouver-based game developer Radical Entertainment Inc. who was contracted by Telefilm as a consultant on the competition. "Will this happen? Likely not….But this contest is about trying to eliminate the largest obstacles to developing a game." The contest gets underway on November 15, at which time independent Canadian game development companies will have one month to register and pitch their game idea on the Telefilm website. In January, an industry jury made up of Yannis Mallat, CEO of Ubisoft Entertainment’s Montreal studio, Ron Moravek, VP and COO of Electronic Arts Canada, and Kelly Zmak, president of Radical Entertainment, will select 10 companies to receive up to $50,000 each to explore their concept and develop a plan to raise private-sector funding. Round two begins at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco in March when the jury will award four of the 10 semi-finalists up to $250,000 each to create a playable prototype. In September 2007, Telefilm will announce the winner and match whatever industry financing it has raised thus far – up to a maximum of $500,000 – to support the commercialization of its game. As for the nine runners-up, they will all be given mentorship by industry veterans to help see their games through to commercialization. "It’s not just about the $2 million," Michael said, adding that "at the end of the day, it’s not going to be easy to get an original game to market." But that, of course, is the goal of the contest. When Telefilm’s executive director Wayne Clarkson took to the stage before the first keynote speech at MIGS to announce the competition, he asked: "What’s preventing us from using Canadian history, Canadian culture, and Canadian stories in video games and exporting the result all over the world?" Beyond simply grabbing a piece of a global market worth more than $27 billion, having video games achieve global appeal can result in national artistic recognition as well. Clarkson noted that earlier this year France’s culture minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres presented an arts award to Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Donkey Kong. And Clarkson read a quote from Donnedieu de Vabres on the significance of video games in today’s culture. "Call me the minister of video games if you want – I am proud of this," said Donnedieu de Vabres last month. "People have looked down on video games for far too long, overlooking their great creativity and cultural value. Video games are not a mere commercial product. They are a form of artistic expression involving creation from script writers, designers and directors." Telefilm thinks it’s time Canada took a more prominent role in this global industry – hence the competition, which is open to Canadian-owned, Canadian-controlled companies. All developers have to be part of a company for their concepts to be considered, and only one application per company will be allowed. At an information session the day after the competition was announced, Michael said the contest is "an intersection between Telefilm’s mandate to create Canadian content and the needs of the Canadian video game industry." That being said, Telefilm isn’t necessarily looking for games that have distinctly Canadian game play. "Canadian content is people who live in Canada, sleep in Canada, and go to the bars in Canada creating these games," she said. "We don’t need beavers and Mounties here." The jury will judge applications on the originality of the idea, commercial potential of the game, talent of the development team, the need for funding, and a passion to succeed. Michael emphasized the last characteristic, saying that an idea and talent will only take a team so far in this industry before the passion to overcome all hurdles becomes imperative. According to Michael, everything about the competition thus far has been industry-driven, supported and led. The competition’s advisory board includes Lynda Brown, president of New Media BC, Jason Della Rocca, the executive director of the International Game Developers Association, Rick Griffiths, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, and Victor Lucas, producer and co-host of Electric Playground, one of the earliest TV shows dedicated to video games. Industry mentors are represented by Sherpa Games Inc. and Union Entertainment in addition to Radical Entertainment, Ubisoft and Electronic Arts. Michael also assured all potential entrants that there is no regional quota for selecting finalists, a necessary step given the heavy concentration of game developers in Montreal and Vancouver. "It’s a national initiative, and it’s about selecting the best ideas," she said, adding she’s confident there won’t be a shortage of good ideas from all across Canada. "Everyone has video game ideas," she said. "When I go to parties, everyone tells me their game ideas, they even tell me their kids’ game ideas."

Telefilm hopes game competition will spur multiple commercial successes

Broadcast | November 15, 2006

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