You may recall that last December publisher THQ announced its intention to leverage the fantastic video game development pool in Montreal with a brand-new studio (and the help of the Canadian government). Today, THQ sent word that it’s finally opened the Montreal studio.

Moreover, the company proudly informed us that they’ve signed notable games designer Patrice Désilets, who’s known for serving as the creative director on top Ubisoft games like the Assassin’s Creed franchise and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. “THQ has the exclusive option to have Désilets work from THQ’s new Montreal studio beginning summer 2011. When he joins the studio, Désilets will be charged with the hiring of a new team that will develop new intellectual properties for THQ,” THQ stated.

The man behind Assassin’s, now spearheading original IP at THQ.

“We expect calendar 2011 to be a watershed year for THQ, and adding developers like Patrice helps ensure our focus on new IP and great games is charted by leading industry artists,” said Danny Bilson, THQ Executive Vice President, Core Games, adding, “Simply put, we can’t wait for Patrice to join THQ. Patrice brings a passion for games rich with action-packed sequences, gripping characters and cinematic flair, and we’re all looking forward to having him and his newly formed team develop an all new franchise with us.”

Read the full article on IndustryGamers…

Update: Le créateur d’Assassin’s Creed écrit à ses fans, sur RueFrontenac.com:

Je vais maintenant retourner à mon hibernation créative et apprécier le temps de qualité que je passe avec ma famille… J’ai vraiment hâte de vous revoir tous l’année prochaine à l’E3 2011, où j’en dirai davantage sur mon avenir. D’ici là, j’espère que vous achèterez tous AC: Brotherhood et Homefront. En tout cas, c’est ce que moi je ferai de mon côté.

Update: On a related note: THQ Renews SpongeBob SquarePants Deal, via Gamasutra.

Update: Ubisoft Reacts to Assassin’s Creed Lead Departure, via IndustryGamers:

Senior international brand manager Eric Gallant added, “Patrice was a key member of a team and a good friend and his decision to leave is unfortunate for us but we’re happy for him. For Brotherhood it doesn’t really have a big impact since the creative decisions were made way before this, these decisions are always coming out from different conversations with different people… It’s not only one person that drives the entire ship, it’s a team – and the core team remains the same on Brotherhood. Some core members will always stay on Assassin’s Creed and we’re adding new people as we get bigger.”

Bonne nouvelle pour les 350 employés de l’entreprise: aucune mise à pied n’est prévue. La structure décisionnelle prendra toutefois une nouvelle forme plus décentralisée, autour de nouveaux projets qui seront divisés entre les différents studios de la bannière Visceral. EA Mobile, l’autre principale division d’Electronic Arts à Montréal, avec ses 400 employés, n’est pas affectée par cette restructuration.

Quant à Alain Tascan, un des poids lourds de l’industrie montréalaise du jeu vidéo, personne ne devrait être nommé à court terme pour le remplacer. Visceral Games, anciennement les studios Redwood Shores, est présentement dirigé par Nick Earl, de Californie.

Drôle de coïncidence tout de même, M. Tascan, à la tête d’EA Montréal depuis 7 ans, organise un dîner ce midi avec des grands patrons des autres studios montréalais afin de leur présenter officiellement Yanick Roy, le nouveau patron de BioWare Montréal – une autre division d’EA.

«Nos studios montréalais vont quand même conserver leur propriété intellectuelle et continuer de concevoir et de développer de nouveaux titres, conjointement avec les autres studios», assure M. Tascan, désireux de minimiser l’impact négatif de cette nouvelle. [...]

Lisez l’article complet sur La Presse…

Event Details

When: Wednesday, October 27th – 7pm doors open, 7:30-9pm roundtables, then bar…
What: IGDA-Montreal Roundtable Discussions Night
Where: Holiday Inn Midtown “La Plaza” – 420 Sherbrooke West
Why: Four in-depth roundtable discussions
Who: All game developers, and those related to the game industry
Entry: free, but must RSVP – priority for IGDA members (see below)

 

RSVP

Everyone must RSVP via montreal@igda.org and indicate which topic they want to participate in. Each topic has limited seating of 20. Priority access will be given to IGDA members in good standing. If you are not a member, you can join online before RSVPing.

 

Roundtables

Doors will open and attendess can mingle starting at 7pm. Doors will close and discussions will officially start at 7:30pm and will run until 9pm. After the discussions, everyone is welcome to the hotel lobby bar to unwind. The roundtable topics are as follows:

More details on on IGDA Montreal…

Entrevue avec Marc-Antoine Hamelin (JVAU04), diplômé du programme en jeu vidéo, session automne 2002, Artiste d’environnement senior chez BioWare.

1- Quel poste occupes-tu et au sein de quelle compagnie
Je suis présentement artiste d’environnement senior chez BioWare Montréal, situé au centre-ville de Montréal. Je m’occupe de la création des modèles, des textures et de l’éclairage des environnements sur la franchise de Mass  Effect.

2- Pourquoi as-tu choisi de faire carrière en 3D?
J’ai toujours été extrêmement passionné par l’univers des jeux vidéo. J’ai tenu une manette de jeu d’un Atari 2600 entre mes mains, avant même de faire mes premiers pas. Depuis ce temps, j’ai accumulé les consoles et les jeux, et j’ai su dès le début de mon secondaire que je désirais un jour faire ma formation en jeu vidéo. J’ai donc étudié en graphisme pendant 2 ans au cégep Ahuntsic avant de compléter ma formation au Centre NAD, dès que j’ai eu 18 ans. […]

Lisez le reste de l’entrevue sur le sur Centre NAD…

A call for help! Daylight hours are disappearing rapidly, and only you can save them! Actually, that’s false, as daily hours of sunlight are a function of the Earth’s axial tilt and the planet’s revolution about the Sun, and thus totally beyond our control. Allow us to propose instead a gathering of minds, games, and brews to distract us from the whims of astronomical happenstance: it’s time for another MEETUP!

WHEN: Wednesday, October 6, 7:00 pm

WHERE: Brasserie Artisanale l’Amère à Boire, 2049 rue Saint-Denis, 3rd floor

WHO: As always, musicians, artists, designers, coders, and everyone who loves to play and discuss and make videogames are welcome.

SPECIAL GUEST(S): This month, we’re very excited to have Jonathan Lavigne with us to talk about his experience as designer of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game. Part postmortem, part dev rant, we can pretty much guarantee that it will be the most excellent thing you have ever experienced for free.*

 

The Montreal International Game Summit (MIGS) is coming up on November 8 and 9, and the Mount Royal Game Society is teaming up with sister groups from Canada and the US to get our party on and showcase some awesome games and projects from within our communities. Do you have something you’d like to see showcased at the event? If so, get in touch — we’d love to hear from you. More details forthcoming shortly, so watch this space!

Check out our recap of last month’s meeting.

More info on Mount Royal Game Society…

By the way, don’t forget to follow IGDA Montreal on Twitter and Facebook!

Event Details:

When: Tuesday, September 21st – 6:30pm doors/food/drinks open | 7:30pm presentation begins
What: IGDA-Montreal Presentation Night
Where: Autodesk, 10 Duke Street (corner de la Commune)
Why: Matt Hooper discusses id’s Rage/Tech5
Who: All game developers, and those related to the game industry
Entry: free for IGDA members; $5 for non-members

Presentation:

“Controlled Rage: Production, Design and Tech Challenges of Revolutionizing the FPS”

As in industry pioneer, id Software has been pushing the boundaries of the FPS genre since its inception. With RAGE and Tech5, id is revolutionizing the modern FPS, rethinking the player experience and facing the production and technological challenges that go along with it. Matt Hooper, id’s Design Director, will walk us through a demo of RAGE and discuss key aspects of the game’s development.

Prize Raffle Action:

We’ll have the usual load of games and books and swag to raffle off for members!!!

Getting to Autodesk:

The Autodesk office is at 10 Duke Street, on the corner of de la Commune, with ample street/paid parking nearby, a Bixi rack, and the Square-Victoria metro station a few blocks up.

More details on IGDA Montreal:

Crankshaft Games (www.crankshaftgames.com, @crankshaftgames) is a Montreal team of indie game developers that brought you the award-winning Half-Life 2 mod Eternal Silence. Currently, Crankshaft games is focusing on their next title, Party of Sin, to be released on Xbox Live Indie Games.

We had the chance to ask Alexander Galasso and his team a few questions.

NextMontreal: When and how did Crankshaft Games get started?
Crankshaft Games: Crankshaft Games was originally started as a modding community for the Source engine. There were about 30 members who contributed to the development of our first title Eternal Silence, a multiplayer space and FPS hybrid. Eternal Silence formed a nice community and eventually released for free on Steam. The project lead of Eternal Silence, Daniel Menard, wanted to branch off into different genres. He started Party of Sin as Crankshaft’s follow up title. Crankshaft continues to support the development of Eternal Silence while working on Party of Sin. [...]

Read the full interview on NextMontreal.com…

Event Details:

When: Tuesday, September 21st – 6:30pm doors/food/drinks open | 7:30pm presentation begins
What: IGDA-Montreal Presentation Night
Where: Autodesk, 10 Duke Street (corner de la Commune)
Why: Matt Hooper discusses id’s Rage/Tech5
Who: All game developers, and those related to the game industry
Entry: free for IGDA members; $5 for non-members

Presentation:

“Controlled Rage: Production, Design and Tech Challenges of Revolutionizing the FPS”

As in industry pioneer, id Software has been pushing the boundaries of the FPS genre since its inception. With RAGE and Tech5, id is revolutionizing the modern FPS, rethinking the player experience and facing the production and technological challenges that go along with it. Matt Hooper, id’s Design Director, will walk us through a demo of RAGE and discuss key aspects of the game’s development.

Prize Raffle Action:

We’ll have the usual load of games and books and swag to raffle off for members!!!

Getting to Autodesk:

The Autodesk office is at 10 Duke Street, on the corner of de la Commune, with ample street/paid parking nearby, a Bixi rack, and the Square-Victoria metro station a few blocks up.