Day two of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) takes place in Vancouver today with the co-founders of Edmonton's BioWare delivering today's keynote. The day one keynote was Don Mattrick of Electronic Arts fame - most recently in the news when his employer, Microsoft, bought a Vancouver gaming upstart he was invested in, BigPark.
The Vancouver Sun's Gillian Shaw is at GDC and filed a positive employment story in the paper today about Next Level Games.
While other studios have suffered layoffs and shutdowns, Next Level is at today's Game Developers Conference Canada being held in Vancouver hoping to find new talent to hire.
"We have more work than we can handle," said Douglas Tronsgard, who gave up a career in finance for a passion for video gaming and is chief executive officer of the company he co-founded in 2002. "I'd say thriving is an understatement.
"I'm embarrassed to say we had to turn down work."
It seems Next Level's busy schedule is thanks to their work on games for the Nintendo Wii - they developed Super Mario Strikers and Mario Strikers, soon to be joined by Punch Out!!, their third title with Nintendo.
Sounds like GDC Canada's open invitation to recently laid-off folks in the gaming industry is going to be a WIN-WIN for all involved.
BioWare Corp. is an electronic entertainment company that develops computer and console games. Our published projects include: Shattered Steel, the... [more]
Next Level Games is a full-service videogame developer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in October 2002, Next Level Games has... [more]
BigPark is an interactive entertainment company founded in 2007 by a group of passionate gaming veterans who have worked together for over 20... [more]
Rob Lewis
Rob is the President of Techvibes Media Inc. and Editor-in-Chief of Techvibes.com.
His diverse background includes stints in International Trade Finance, Web Development, and Enterprise Software and he is a graduate of the University of British Columbia, British Columbia Institute of Technology, and Simon Fraser University.
When not blogging on...[more]
