A new one-year diploma program at Vancouver Film School will produce a fresh group of computer programmers each year. The first cohort of students in Programming for Games, Web & Mobile started in early March at the VFS game-design campus on East Pender Street in Chinatown.

In a phone interview, program head Dave Warfield told the Georgia Straight that the program was developed in response to demand from the creative digital industries for more coders.

Read more at the Georgia Straight

A group of young people in Pangnirtung, Nunavut, recently had a chance to learn programming from Michael Despault, a software engineer at EA Canada.

Despault’s childhood friend Ryan Oliver lives in the community and runs a nonprofit organization called Pinnguaq (Inuktitut for “play”). Oliver invited Despault to share his experience as a maker of video games during a weeklong camp for kids that took place in February.

Read more at the Georgia Straight

These two games are designed for younger children to start learning sophisticated math concepts such as fractions and decimals, factors and multiples.

Read more at the Georgia Straight

Japanese video game developer and publisher Bandai Namco is betting a new, four-person fighting game can be a winner in the free-to-play arena.

Bandai Namco’s In Joon Hwang is leading the company’s free-to-play effort. At a press event in Las Vegas earlier in April, he said that the goal is to bring “the highest quality content to the broadest audience, on the largest hardcore gaming platform”.

Read more at the Georgia Straight

Gamers always complain about video games that rehash the plot of the film they’re based on. But this one gets away with it, largely because both the film and the open-world game are so rich and enjoyable. Playing the game before seeing the film will spoil things for you, though, so take in a matinee before you settle in with the game for an evening or four.

Read more at the Georgia Straight