August 13th
A Difficult Day 
Posted in Codename News.
Tags: codename.

I regret to announce that given the continually challenging economic environment, we've had to lay off 6 team members. I've always believed that leaders are defined by how they respond to difficult times. As leaders of the company, David, Justin, and I have already reduced our salaries.

These layoffs are difficult news, especially for our departing team members. Each of them have made important contributions to Codename and our goal is to compassionately and respectfully support them through this transition. If you are looking for talented people to join your team, please reach out so we can make an introduction.

While the coming days will be challenging as we adjust our plans and move forward, I want to reassure our players that our commitment to Idle Champions and Bush Whacker 2 remains strong. I also want to thank you for your continued support. Your passion inspires all of us.

Eric
May 28th, 2018
Codename Entertainment welcomes Chris Dupuis 
Posted in Codename News.

Award-Winning Victoria Game Studio Recruits Dungeons & Dragons Producer

VICTORIA, BC – May 28, 2018 - Codename Entertainment announced today the hiring of veteran Wizards of the Coast and Dungeons & Dragons Designer and Producer Chris Dupuis. Dupuis will be overseeing the design, production, and development of the studio’s officially-licensed Dungeons & Dragons game, Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms, as well as the award-winning Crusaders of the Lost Idols.

"It is an honor to join Codename, and I am excited to be a part of the dynamic video game sector in Victoria," said Dupuis. "This talented team loves games in all forms, which suits me perfectly. I’m looking forward to diving into our current live service games and helping to grow Codename Entertainment’s impressive portfolio in the future."

Dupuis' own award-winning achievements include credits as both a designer and a developer on dozens of major tabletop, role playing, and board games, including:
  • Betrayal at Baldur's Gate
  • Heroscape
  • Risk Legacy
  • Lords of the Waterdeep: Scoundrels of Skullport
  • Temple of Elemental Evil and other D&D Adventure System board games
  • Magic The Gathering: Born of the Gods
  • Kaijudo TCG
  • Dungeon Command
  • Battleship Galaxies
  • Mice & Mystics
“Hiring Chris and adding to the existing talent at the studio has been an enormous achievement,” said Eric Jordan, Codename Entertainment's CEO. "Chris has an impressive resume of world-class games under this belt, and we're delighted to be able to bring him to our beautiful city."
June 17th, 2016
Codename Entertainment CEO Joins DigiBC Board 
Posted in Codename News.

VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, June 17, 2016 — Codename Entertainment today announced that CEO Eric Jordan has joined the Board of Directors for DigiBC, the industry association for digital media and wireless companies in British Columbia.

“Eric brings a wealth of proven business and technology leadership experience,” said Patrick Sauriol, Executive Director at DigiBC. “I've admired his passion and commitment towards growing Victoria's video gaming community, and believe he can increase awareness from Vancouver Island's growing tech community about DigiBC's initiatives. It will be great to have Eric on the DigiBC board.”

“It's an honour to be appointed to the board,” said Eric Jordan. “I look forward to working together with the DigiBC board and management team to continue the momentum and growth of the interactive and video games industry here in B.C.”

Previously, Jordan was the CEO and co-founder of PureEdge Solutions which was acquired by IBM. Eric was an Executive-In-Residence at UVic, the President of the Premier's Technology Council and angel investor in Indochino. Eric has served on many boards including Archipelago Marine Research (Chair), BCTIA and VIATeC (Chair).

Since joining Codename Entertainment, Jordan led the launch of the international, award-winning game Crusaders of the Lost Idols. The game has stayed in the Top 2% Most Played Games on Steam and the Top 10 Most Played Games on Kongregate.com and Armorgames.com. On average, players spend almost 4 million hours a month playing Crusaders of the Lost Idols. As a result of the success of Crusaders, Codename has grown 8 to 16 people in the past year.

ABOUT CODENAME ENTERTAINMENT: Codename Entertainment was founded in 2008 in Victoria, B.C. by David Whittaker and Justin Stocks. They started making games for Facebook and evolved into making games for platforms like Kongregate.com, ArmorGames, and Steam.

Codename Entertainment and Crusaders of the Lost Idols are trademarks of Codename Entertainment Inc. All other products named herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

About DigiBC: DigiBC is a member-supported, non-profit organization based in Vancouver but with a mandate to grow digital companies across the province. Its mission is to make B.C. a globally-recognized center for Digital Media and Wireless excellence. Members include world-class companies such as Electronic Arts, Disney Interactive, TELUS, Microsoft, Hootsuite and Sony Interactive. More than 1,300 companies in the Digital Media sector create innovative products in wireless and mobile, video gaming, animation, VFX, web, software, social media, interactive marketing and e-learning. Learn more at www.digibc.org
November 16th, 2015
Codename And Extra Life 
Posted in Codename News.

What is Extra Life?

Extra Life is a fun program set up to raise donations for Children's Miracle Network hospitals. Money raised gets donated as unrestricted funds, for the hospitals to use as needed. What's awesome is that you can help by doing what you normally do: game! For more information from the Extra Life program itself, click here.

What's the Plan?

For us at Codename, our donations will be going to the BC Children's Hospital Foundation. Last year, we went the extra mile by inadvertently surviving 25 hours and beating our initial goal of $3000 by raising just shy of $7000!

This year, we're starting with a modest team goal of $1000, but Clive is determined to raise that all by himself with his promise to be in a full Princess outfit for the entire twitch stream. To donate to our team, you can visit here. To find a staff member with a reward you'd like, you can click on the "Roster" button.

We've set aside time on the weekend of Saturday November 21 from 10am PST through Sunday November 22nd at 10am PST for our 24 hours of gaming fun. We'll be taking turns in shifts to play games and chat with our viewers and you can watch it all on our Twitch! We hope to make our fundraising goal while the live broadcast is happening, but you can donate before and after!

For those staff members whose goals require doing things on Stream, as we get closer to this weekend, we'll have a rough idea of when you can see them!

Extra Life: Gaming for the kids!
March 25th, 2015
Fighting Homelessness in BW2 


Calling all Whackers!

The Commons has some very special guests for the next few days. Bob and Ruff are here to tell you about homelessness and what you can do to help.

We at Codename Entertainment are showing our support for the Victoria Cool Aid Society’s #buildhomes campaign by donating our share of the proceeds from the purchase of the adorable pet dog Ruff with his Cool Aid colour neck tie. Ruff's bonus changes up to 25% of Nothing wins into Hearts (random energy, mana, and power).

The Victoria Cool Aid Society builds homes, lives and community. They create opportunities for people who are homeless or living in poverty. They make a difference through housing, health care, support and emergency shelters. Founded in 1968, Cool Aid helps over 9,000 people in the Capital Region every year at 14 locations in Langford, Victoria and Saanich, British Columbia. The Society’s major new campaign is to Help End Homelessness by building an additional 360 apartments for people in the community who have no home. #buildhomes

For more information on Cool Aid, click here!

Ruff will be available for purchase until Friday March 27th 2015 at Noon PDT.

Celebrate your purchase by commenting on Facebook, sharing your love on the forums, or tweeting with #gamingforgood.
July 2nd, 2014
DJArts Games Becomes Codename Entertainment! 
Posted in Codename News.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Victoria, British Columbia, July 2, 2014 - DJArts Games has changed its name to Codename Entertainment, effective 13:37 PDT on July 2, 2014. The team behind the popular Egg Breaker and Bush Whacker series has leveled up and is excited to continue to push for solid game play, excellent player support and dedicated community interaction under their new name.

“Codename Entertainment better reflects the spirit and values of the company," said Eric Jordan, CEO of Codename Entertainment. “Our company has almost doubled in size over the past 18 months and this name change is part of a larger rebranding effort to reflect our growth.”

Codename Entertainment’s game, Bush Whacker 2, holds the #3 spot on Big Fish Games Online. The company is one of the key video game studios in Victoria, B.C. with highly rated games on Facebook, Kongregate, ArmorGames and Big Fish Games.


ABOUT CODENAME ENTERTAINMENT:

Founded in 2008 in Victoria, B.C. by David Whittaker and Justin Stocks with the successful launch of their first title, "Egg Breaker". Egg Breaker's success hatched three successive games, Egg Breaker 2, Egg Drop and the current title in the series, Egg Breaker Adventures. Launched in 2010, the classic Bush Whacker appealed to adventurers who were looking to smack some shrubbery and see what popped out. Following its success, in 2012 Bush Whacker 2 was released, and recently celebrated its second anniversary with much cake. It was not a lie.

Codename Entertainment, DJArts Games, Egg Breaker, Egg Breaker 2, Egg Breaker Adventures, Bush Whacker, and Bush Whacker 2 are trademarks of Codename Entertainment Inc. All other products named herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.