It wasn’t too long ago that it was known as True Crime: Hong Kong, but today the action game in development at Vancouver’s United Front Games (UFG) was announced as Sleeping Dogs. And it’s slated for release sometime between July and December 2012.

The game was originally developed for Activision as a reboot of the True Crime franchise but UFG was left reeling when the publisher cancelled the game shortly before it was to be released.

Within a few months, though, the enterprising talents at UFG had convinced Square Enix to step in to publish the game.

At the same time, the studio released a version of its ModNation Racers for Sony’s PSP handheld, and was in development of ModNation Racers: Road Trip, designed for the PS Vita and being released this month.

While the title of the UFG’s third-person action game changed from True Crime to Sleeping Dogs, it is still set in the world of Hong Kong organized crime.

And its core mechanics – described by Lee Singleton in a news release as having “one of the best melee combat systems out there; it’s super brutal with devastating take-down moves” – likely haven’t changed much either.

Singleton, the general manager of Square Enix London Studios, has been helping with the final stages of development. He added that “when added to UFG’s proven heritage in driving games, a first class story, and the vibrant backdrop of the Hong Kong underworld we get a fiery recipe with fun written all over it.”

For gamers who’ve been waiting since December 2009 to see what the developers at UFG would do with an action game, it’s been a long time coming.

Cross-posted at the Georgia Straight

Electronic Arts is forging ahead with its transition to the online and digital space.

The result, says communications director Colin Macrae, is a continuing shift in the kinds of gaming experiences that are being created at EA Canada in Burnaby.

“As a location, we’re still the home of big franchises like FIFA,” Macrae told me on phone, “but we’re also at the forefront of the digital transformation.”

That transition has resulted in a “small” number of layoffs, but at the same time, Macrae said that many employees are moving to other projects that are part of the digital realm. And the studio has more than 70 job openings at the moment.

“The skill set required of employees is very different than it used to be,” said Macrae.

Macrae said the studio was too “console-centric” a few years ago. Now it is more focused on moving some of the EA’s valuable franchises to new platforms and business models, such as the free-to-play versions of FIFA and Need for Speed and the FIFA Facebook game, FIFA Superstars.

Cross-posted at the Georgia Straight

The February issue of glossy Vancouver Magazine includes my feature on Vancouver developer Silicon Sisters.

Your daughter’s in dance and music, she does yoga three nights, and on weekends she plays soccer. But if you really want her to get ahead, get her playing video games. “You do your children a disservice, particularly your girls, if you don’t,” insists Kirsten Forbes, 50, a game designer who spent more than a decade at local software firm Radical Entertainment working on franchises like CSI and Crash Bandicoot. “In this day and age, every possible career option requires some degree of expertise with computers.” You can’t even be an artist without computational skills, Forbes notes, and if girls aren’t playing games when they’re young, “there’s no way they’re using software and programs to do anything more sophisticated than that” by the time they enter the job market.

In the January 18 edition of the Georgia Straight I wrote about one of the behind-the-scenes features that has made The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim such a stellar game.

Lead designer Bruce Nesmith told me about Radiant Story, a technology element that enables Skyrim to be, effectively, endless. And to let non-player characters react dynamically to what players do in the game.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was arguably the best video game of 2011, with numerous award nominations and wins, and mentions in year-end roundups. It’s also a commercial juggernaut. Released on November 11, Skyrim sold 3.5 million copies in its first two days. A month later, publisher Bethesda Softworks announced that 10 million copies of the fantasy role-playing game had been shipped. Skyrim also became the fastest-selling title on the Steam distribution platform for PCs.

In the Straight this week I talk to VFS Game Design program head Dave Warfield about the sixth Game Design Expo.

In its sixth year, the Vancouver Film School’s Game Design Expo has changed to reflect the shifts in the video-game industry. Dave Warfield, who heads the game-design program at the school, told the Straight this year’s event will feature a mix of games, from big-budget console titles to those produced by smaller, independent studios.