Vancouver’s Iugo Mobile Entertainment Gets Funding from Japan

IUGO Mobile Entertainment, the Vancouver studio behind Daisy Mae’s Alien Buffet and Lil’ Pirates, has just announced a partnership with Gree, a mobile game conglomerate based in Tokyo. According to the Press release, Gree is particularly interested in IUGO’s proprietary technologies, the IUGO Games Library, IRender 3D Engine, and IUGO Mesh Social Game Engine. Gree is a massive company, with subsidiaries in London, San Francisco, Sao Paolo, and Beijing. Whether Gree will buy IUGO outright remains to be seen.

Source: IT Business.ca.

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters at the Vancouver Art Gallery

More images from the new Percy Jackson movie have surfaced courtesy of Hollywood North on Location. The crew is shooting in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery with some temporary grass sod in place. I’m not sure which seen from the book they’re filming, but Brandon T Jackson is on hand, confirming he’s returning as Grover the Satyr. You can see the rest of the images here.

Source: Hollywood North On Location

Valve Employee Manual Revealed Online

The Valve employee handbook has been “leaked” to the internet, either through some unsecured share drive or a brilliant viral marketing campaign. The document details the company’s flat organizational structure and their dedication to promoting creativity and flexibility among their employees.

Most of the internet is ooh-ing and aah-ing over what it would be like to work in the company that makes their favourite games, but why is Valve such an exception? In this economy, with every company scrambling to get as much value as they can out of their employees, why is their so much focus on heirarchy instead of making money? Even Japan, the most heirarchic society in the world had quality control meetings where employees could contribute ideas in workplaces from warehouses to strip clubs. I’m not saying we should go so far as having desks on wheels like Valve does, but the fact that they are the exception and not the rule should drive us all to drink.

Source: Boing Boing.