Don’t forget to check out the Toronto Gaming Calendar, which will be updated as more events become announced throughout the month. (Remember, the calendar can also be added to your googlecal.) Note only the events marked with an asterisk are Hand Eye events — for the rest, we’re just signal boosting for this amazing community.

Toronto Game Events

Wednesday, Jul 2: Body Games: Wearable Electronics

Thursday, July 3: Learn to Program Video Games with Stencyl

Saturday, July 5-Sunday, July 6: Julivewire! A Hardware Game Jam

Saturday, July 19: DMG Speakers Social

Wednesday, July 30: Torontaru (turned 1 year old last month!)

Thursday, July 31, 2014: Introduction to Game Making Tools

Local Game Releases

Lightbound, an arcade multiplayer shooter (or “tactical light show” in the words of the creators) is now on Steam Greenlight. Promote it here!

Get Set Games’s dungeon crawler Storm Casters is out on iTunes. (pictured above)

Also released was a collaborative science fiction romance Twine game, You Were Made For Loneliness, featuring work from Kaitlin Tremblay.

Toronto Folks In The Media

The Toronto Star’s coverage of E3 had a local twist, featuring Below, N++, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, and Knight & Damsel. Lovers also showed up on Paste, as one of their Top 10 Favourite Games of E3.

It’s a good month for coverage in the papers, as the National Post has gotten in on it too, with coverage of Boss Level, featuring work from Kara Stone and Golden Gear Games’s new release, Fate Tectonics.

Will O’Neill’s Actual Sunlight has recieved an extremely thoughtful, philosophical analysis on Pixels or Death.

TOJam 9’s coverage on DorkShelf continues with an interview with Kim Koronya, a member of Team Fembots, about motherhood and Game Jams.

Meanwhile, DorkShelf has also interviewed merritt kopas about her newest creation, SPACE/OFF. You can also check her out on Tech Girls Canada’s Portraits of Strength.

Storm Casters can be found on Touch Arcade, also!

Want to hear more from Retro Runner: Princess Power? Check them out on Retro Yak, Episode 5 of Grab It Magazine, and on their Greenlight page.

Special Announcements

Mark Chandler says: “Toronto is filled with gamers like you. We deserve a dedicated PC & Video Game Expo. Together we can make it happen!” You can support the GamesCon Kickstarter here.

Gamemaking Help Offered/Wanted

Illustrator for your digital and board games! I have experience with both, but I’m looking to get some more. Find my art in my website. Or on Tumblr. Contact Katherine Verhoeven.

I am interested in making games, but I don’t have any working experience, just examples from classes I’ve taken. I have my bachelors in computer science, and I have some computer science graduate credits as well, including classes in game AI, android games, and game theory. Here is my linked in page for more details here.

I am not currently in the Toronto area but looking to move there once I find employment. Anyone looking for a student willing to learn new things, or just help out with random coding projects on the side, you can email me here (please put something about the HES in the subject so I know its not spam).

That’s all for now! If there’s any July events or Toronto video games news, releases, and rad media coverage you want shared, don’t hesitate to pass it along to Kaitlin via email or on Twitter. Thanks to Anthony Geremia for help this month.

Christine Kim from Stage Select fills us in on their first-ever gaming expo:

On Saturday June 28th, doors will open at 9AM at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre and stay open til 2AM for the first-ever Stage Select Gaming Expo. There are many events happening on this day including panel talks, developer showcases, gaming rooms, live music, marketplace, artists alley and more!

Gamers, developers, educators and enthusiasts of all ages are encouraged to attend this inaugural event. This all-inclusive celebration of play includes video games, table-top games, board games, live-action, cosplaying and, you guessed it, even more…

KEYNOTE SPEAKER – DR. SARA GRIMES
The events at Stage Select will begin with a keynote address by Dr. Sara Grimes. Grimes’ speech frames Toronto as a leading community in promoting a more diverse gaming culture. This is due to a number of initiatives that have been started here in Toronto and also through the games that are designed in this city. Her talk will discuss some of the research that has been conducted at Semaphore lab, where she is Associate Director. Learn more about some of the reasons why “inclusive play” is a vital goal that benefits the game community as a whole.

DEVELOPER SHOWCASES | GAMING ROOMS
Visit your favourite local studio as they show off their latest releases or yet-to-be released games at our developer showcase tables! Some of the studios you’ll see out are Rocket 5 Studios, creators of Jazz Punk Necrophone Games, Asteroid Base, Drinkbox Studios, Uken Games just to name a few.

Castle Board Games will be serving up sweet treats and fun board games in the Table Top Gaming Room. There is so much to play at this event including: a multiplayer arcade, LARPing, RPGs, and more.

LIVE PERFORMANCES
Let’s Play videos are fast-becoming one of the most popular types of videos on YouTube and for the first time in Toronto watch your favourite YouTuber play live! We are featuring the hilarious duo The C_ntrollers and also The Collegiate Alliance who are based in New York. Other live performances will include Improv by the Dandies!

LIVE MUSIC
Start the night off right with performances by The Blast Processors, Epic Game Music and our DJs, Dj Cynex, DJ MartyMcFly, and Used DJ!

Saturday June 28
Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (9 Garamond Court, Toronto)
9AM – 2AM
Tickets: $25 online $30 cash at the door

stageselect.ca
Twitter: @StageSelectTO
Facebook: facebook.com/StageSelectTO

LISTEN TO THE EDGE 102.1 TO WIN A CHANCE FOR FREE TICKETS!
Starting on June 16th The Edge 102.1 radio will be giving away 20 free tickets. More details to come on the Stage Select website. In case you’re not one of those lucky 20, get your tickets today at stageselect.ca!

ABOUT STAGE SELECT
Stage Select is a volunteer-run organization whose mission is put on the most exciting, inclusive, and innovative events that celebrate everything encompassing play.

It’s June — school’s out! Even if school’s a distant memory, we’re hardwired with the feeling that it’s finally time to play!

Don’t forget to check out the Toronto Gaming Calendar, which will be updated as more events become announced throughout the month. (Remember, the calendar can also be added to your googlecal.) Note only the events marked with an asterisk are Hand Eye events — for the rest, we’re just signal boosting for this amazing community.

Toronto Video Game Events

Saturday, June 14: DMG June Speakers Social

* Sunday, June 15: Animators Can Code: Gamemaking

Thursday, June 19: Toronto Unity Developers Meet Up: Unity 5 Demo

Monday, June 23: IGDA Meeting (more info TBA soon!)

Wednesday, June 25: Toronto Gaymers: Diverse Voices in the Toronto Game Community

Wednesday, June 25: Torontaru

Saturday, June 28: Stage Select Gaming Expo

Local Game Releases

Kara Stone’s Medication Meditation, a look at health and life, was released on iOS and Google Play.

Loose Strands, an interactive children’s novel, was released for iOS and Android.

The long-awaited time travel-themed action title Super Time Force was released on Xbox (pictured above).

Vagabound Dog released Always Sometimes Monsters, an emotionally charged adventure game, for PC.

Toronto Folks in the Media

Asteroid Base’s Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime won Best Gameplay at the Brazilian Independent Games Festival.

Indie Game Reviewer featured Toronto Global Game Jam, and talked about some of the featured titles.

Their amazing 3D art at VRcade, Bit Bazaar, and Comics vs Games 3 were up on Kotaku again.  Comics vs Games 3 was also up on the Financial Post.

Jennie Faber was interviewed in the National Post about the secret origins of Bit Bazaar.

Paper Droids also showcased some of the games that featured at The Bit Bazaar.

There’s a bundle of Super Time Force reviews, courtesy of Eurogamer, Polygon, and Destructoid!

Meanwhile, Always Sometimes Monsters was reviewed favourbly on Eurogamer.

Game designer Christine Love was interviewed on First Person Scholar.

Finally, check out some gameplay from Stratum Games’s Retro Runner: Princess Power on IGM’s Hitbox Live. Retro Runner was also up on Nev Games, as well as Dangergerbil.

Retro Runner: Princess Power is trying to Greenlit, as well, so check out their Steam page.

Special Announcements

Site 3 is opening up a temporary storefront called Site Bee (from May 25-July 25), and they’re looking to sell artist/maker work. They’re after any type of work, including illustrations, comics, t-shirts, jewelry, paintings, or electronics, or even furniture. If you would like to get involved, you can fill out this form to apply.

That’s all for now! If there’s any July events or Toronto video games news, releases, and rad media coverage you want shared, don’t hesitate to pass it along to Kaitlin via email or on Twitter. Thanks to Anthony Geremia for help this month.

Don’t forget to check out the Toronto Gaming Calendar, which will be updated as more events become announced throughout the month. (Remember, the calendar can also be added to your googlecal.) Note only the events marked with an asterisk are Hand Eye events — for the rest, we’re just signal boosting for this amazing community.

Toronto Video Game Events

Saturday, May 3: Toronto Global Game Jam 2014 Video Game Expo

Thursday, May 8: Comics vs Games 3D + VRcade Opening Party

Saturday, May 10: Bit Bazaar

*Saturday, May 10-Sunday, May 11: Comics Vs Games 3

Monday, May 12:– Games with Friends #57 

Wednesday, May 21: IGDA: Made in Canada: Video Games as National Art

Wednesday, May 22: Introduction to Game-Making Tools by DMG

Saturday, May 24: DMG May Speaker Social: TOJam Showoff Edition

Monday, May 26: Games with Friends #58

Wednesday, May 28: DMG Open Studio/WIP Night

Local Game Releases

Actual Sunlight is now on Steam.

Retro Runner: Princess Power is on iOS (pictured above).

Pixelrama was released on iOS.

Circuit Panic is now out for iOS.

Alex Hayter released Leif, a game he made at TOJam.

Also made at TOJam was BioMii, with art by Kim Koronya and Beth Maher, game design by Brittney Oberfield, andprogramming by Benjamin Langerak.

More from TOJam is Popcorn Punch with art by Rachel Kahn and music and programming by Matthew Rapati.

Another TOJam game is Care Control with sound by Ryan Roth and everything else by Arielle Grimes.

Want more TOJam games? Check them out here!

Toronto Folks In The Media

Toronto game Osmos had a cameo on the Simpsons earlier this month!

Metanet’s N++ has been grabbing media gold at Financial Post, Polygon, Edge, Digital Spy, and will be playable at Bit Bazaar.

Rocket 5 Studio’s The Phantom PI was named one of the Top 10 Best Mobile Games at PAX East by Evolve Entertainment.

Rocket 5 was also on InnerSpace, along with Golden Gear, Asteroid Base, and Love Conquers All Games.

Shu’s Garden was featured on KillScreen!

Canada.com featured Phantom Compass’s Rollers of the Realm.

An interview with Will O’Neill about Actual Sunlight is up on PixelPacas. Actual Sunlight can also be found on on Die Hard Game Fan, at Digital Love Child, and on Errant Signal. Oh, and also on Hooked Gamers.

Gamezebo has a preview of Get Set Games’s next release, Battle Casters!

Retro Runner: Princess Power was reviewed on Paper Droids.  It’s also over on NerdyButFlirty. Not to stop there, though, Retro Runner can also be found on CanadianGamer.net, Indie Game Magazine, and on Weise Gamer.

Lana Polansky covered Soha Kareem’s game reProgram.

Destructoid covered the announcement of Drinkbox Studios’ upcoming game, Severed. It’s also on Joystiq. And they were interviewed at Polygon.

Asteroid Base’s Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime is in Destructoid.

Comics Vs Games 3 was covered on Polygon.

Special Announcements and Calls

Our Torontron indie arcade cabinets have relocated to TAIS, Site 3, and Iceman Games on Queen, but need new hardware since the stress test at the AGO. If you have an old CPU you could donate to help showcase Toronto games to an appreciative public, let us know.

The Hand Eye Society is also looking for a studio space to shoot for a few days. Shoot what, you ask? An exciting unannounced project! Email us if you have a space with character and 2-day availability windows!

Our Artsy Games Incubator partners at the Toronto Animated Image Society are looking for 10 second robot animations!

Gamemaking Help Wanted/Offered

I’m the founder of Singspiel, a small Toronto-startup looking to make apps that teach music lovers how to play instruments through feedback and addictive feedback loops. Think DuoLingo but for music. We are currently building out our design team and I’m looking for an art directorUX designer to make the front-end of our app beatiful, addictive and intuitive. Contact Ivan.

That’s all for now! If there’s any June events or Toronto video games news, releases, and rad media coverage you want shared, don’t hesitate to pass it along to Kaitlin via email or on Twitter.

April’s here, and with it comes a lot of exciting video game related news and events. Don’t forget to check out the Toronto Gaming Calendar, which will be updated as more events become announced throughout the month. (Remember, the calendar can also be added to your googlecal.) Note only the events marked with an asterisk are Hand Eye events — for the rest, we’re just signal boosting for this amazing community.

Toronto Video Game Events

* Thursday, April 3 – Thursday, May 8: Artsy Games Incubator: Animation Edition

Friday, April 4: 4th Annual Level Up Student Games Showcase

Saturday, April 12: Retro Runner Launch Party

Saturday, April 12: Social Justice Design Jam #1: Co-Creating Images for the World(s) We Want To Build

Wednesday, April 16: E-Poetry, Performance, Play with a Twine workshop led by DMG Members Kaitlin Tremblay and Kara Stone

Wednesday, April 16: DMG’s Introduction to Game-Making Tools

Wednesday, April 23: DMG April Social

Wednesday, April 30: Torontaru

Wednesday, April 30: Bad Dogs Epic Wednesdays: The Video Game Show

Local Game Releases

JamminGames released Spirographics on Google Play!

WordPatch was released on the App store.

I Love Donna, a game made from the DMG Game Jam Feb Fatale 2, featuring work from Beth Maher, Kim Koronya, Brittney Oberfield, and Izzie Colpitts-Campbell, was also released.

Bloom Digital Media’s Long Story was released on the iTunes/Andriod app store! (pictured above)

Shu’s Garden was also released on iOS and Andriod!

Cyborg-goddess, a game by Kara Stone and Kayte McKnight, is now available to play.

Alicia Contestabile released the first part of her Twine, Borderlines.

Toronto Folks in the Media

We did a roundup of Toronto representation at March’s Game Developers Conference.

10 Years Ago in the Media: Metanet Software were interviewed for the first time about N, their brand new freeware indie game, for Eye Weekly’s videogame column.

The Yawhg is on Rock Paper Shotgun and on Dorkshelf.

Check out Elizabeth Simins’ comic Bad At Games, featuring Jazzpunk!

David S. Gallant was interviewed on the Financial Post.

Soha Kareem was interviewed in the Financial Post about her Twine, reProgram. reProgram also was given the Objective Game Review treatment. Oh, and on First Person Scholar, she was interviewed about her first Twine Penalties. Did I also mention she’s profiled on Tech Girls?

Benjamin Rivers’ Alone With You GDC presentation got some good coverage over at Polygon. And it’s also over on the Financial Post.  Listen to Rivers’ GDC talk over at Giant Bomb.

Get Set Game’s Battle Casters was up on the Touch Arcade.

Bento Miso, Rocket 5 Studios, and Asteroid Base were on Inner Space.

Nathan from Capy Games was interviewed on Destructoid about Super Time Force. Super Time Force was also featured over at Dorkshelf!

Sony released the full list of their upcoming 2014 PS4 titles, which includes Drinkbox Studio’s Guacamelee!, Ben Rivers’ Home, and Cellar Door Games’s Rogue Legacy.

Retro Runner: Princess Power, which releases in April, has already started receiving great press, with coverage on the Toronto Indie Hub and Pear Caster.

Rogue Legacy also appeared on Polygon.

Special Announcements and Calls

The Hand Eye Society is hiring a graphic designer for web and print work. Email us with portfolio links.

Ben Rivers released the trailer for his upcoming game, Alone With You.

Will O’Neill’s Actual Sunlight was Greenlit.

Toronto Twiners, want your game covered? Soha Kareem will be doing a monthly Twine feature at Haywire Magazine, so send your Twines to her!

E-Poetry, Performance, Play is looking for digital poetry for their exhibit celebrating National Poetry Month. If you have a game you think uses digital poetics, contact Lai-Tze Fan. Please submit a brief (no more than 250 words) description of the work(s) and its/their connection to e-poetry. Websites or images describing the work are helpful.

A UWO Professor has been working on an international Developer Satisfaction Survey with the IGDA. If you’re interested, you can fill out the survey here.

Game-making Help Offered/Wanted

Stratum Games is working on Retro Runner: Princess Power right now. RR is an irreverent side-scroller that celebrates the best games of the last 30 years through art, music, and hidden references. We need help to get the game done, though: 1) We need an awesome 2D artist to create some transition slides for our game’s storyline. Please email us at contact@stratumgames.com if you are awesome.
2) We will be including hundreds of video game trivia questions as a sort of “mini game” within our game. We’d like our players to write some of these! Please contribute your questions about your favourite game of yesteryear by emailing us. Check out the site for gameplay footage and info about the project.

I am a creative writer and lawyer looking for an opportunity to tell a story through gameplay. I have numerous short stories as samples of my creative writing style. My experience as a litigation lawyer serves to infuse my story arcs and dialogues with a sense of plausibility and realism. I also have an undergraduate degree in Music Composition and am able to compose music for interactive media. Samples of my composition style are also available on request. I would be pleased to hear from anyone looking to form a partnership to create an adventure-style game with a focus on characters and storytelling. If interested, please contact me.

That’s all for now! If there’s any May events or Toronto video games news, releases, and rad media coverage you want shared, don’t hesitate to pass it along to Kaitlin via email or on Twitter.

It’s March, so we all know what means: it’s GDC month! This year there is a fair amount of Toronto representation at the San Francisco conference, so be sure to read below to see who’s nominated for what prize, as well as a look back at how Toronto folks have faired at IGF in the past few years. All the GDC and IGF announcements will follow the regularly scheduled Digest items. (Above: Toronto contingent at GDC 2011 searches for a cell signal, courtesy Mark Rabo.)

Don’t forget to check out the Toronto Gaming Calendar, which will be updated as more events become announced throughout the month. (Remember, the calendar can also be added to your googlecal.) Note only the events marked with an asterisk are Hand Eye events — for the rest, we’re just signal boosting for this amazing community.

March Events

Saturday, March 1 – Sunday, March 2: Board Game Jam

Monday, March 3: Games with Friends #52

Wednesday, March 5: Pre-GDC OMDC Meet-and-Greet

Friday, March 7: Long Winter 2.5, with games curated by TOJam

Thursday, March 13: She Got Game Launch Party

Monday, March 17: Games with Friends #53

Thursday, March 20: Introduction to Game-Making Tools

Saturday, March 22: DMG March Social

Wednesday, March 26: Torontaru

Wednesday, March 26: DMG Open Studio/Workshop Session

Wednesday, March 26: Meet the Artists: Jim Munroe and Jonathan Mak

Wednesday, March 26: Bad Dog Epic Wednesdays: The Video Game Show

Friday, March 28: Dames Playing Games #2: Girly Board Games

Saturday, March 29: #DMGTalks 3: Freelancers Rights and Union Literacy

Monday, March 31: Games with Friends #54

Local Game Releases

Necrophone Games released Jazzpunk!

The Yawhg hit Steam!

The ezine Flushed was released, and contains the Twine games as {f}art by Soha Kareem.

Not to stop there with Twine, Soha Kareem also released reProgram (pictured above).

Toronto Folks In The Media

The 2014 Canadian Video Awards were announced and the nominees include: Pipe Trouble, Actual Sunlight, Guacamelee!, Rogue Legacy, and The Yawhg.

Kris Ligman wrote about Fancy Video Game Party for Gamasutra. Gamezebo got in on the Fancy Video Game Party fun, too. You can also check it out on BlogTO.  Alex Hayter was interviewed about 5 Things Not to Miss at Fancy Video Game Party over at Dorkshelf.  And finally, the event was also previewed in the Torontoist.  

For footage of the actual event, check out Inner Space‘s look at Fancy Video Game party.

Jazzpunk was reviewed over at Polygon! Also read more about it on PC Gamer.  AND also on CBC.  OH, and Giant Bomb and Canada.com. Have I mentioned Jazzpunk was released?

Christine Love’s Even Cowgirls Bleed was up a Valentine’s Day themed-post over at The Guardian.

Guacamelee! was spotted on Haywire Magazine’s List of Games We Liked in 2013. This list also includes Christine Love’s Hate Plus  and merritt kopas’ s Consensual  Torture Simulator.  It also featured Starseed Pilgrim  and Rogue Legacy.

The Star talks to Jim Munroe about the Hand Eye Society’s Torontrons.

Capy Games was named one of the Top 10 Most Innovative Game Companies by Fast Company.

Stage Select Expo got covered by Indie Statik!

Now Toronto did an awesome write-up of Vector.

Rollers of the Realm was nominated for a Gamer’s Voice Award at SXSW!

And it’s a Toronto Twine takeover, as Soha Kareem’s reProgram and Kaitlin Tremblay’s Lights Out, Please were featured on Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Gamemaking Help Offered/Wanted and Special Calls

People write in to say:

“I love writing music and I find being able to contribute to projects extremely rewarding. I’ve always wanted to write music for a video game but was never sure how to go about doing so. Learning about the hand eye society was very exiting! In the past I’ve composed for a Canadian short film that was shown internationally, a limited production play, music for college and university students and even had a piece played on the CBC. I have a bit of experience restoring arcade cabinets if anyone needs some advice or if that’s helpful at all. I’ve just signed up for a soundcloud account so my music can be sampled. Please contact Nik Stewart.”

“My name is Brent Pollard, and I’m looking for opportunities to get involved in video game design and development, in addition to learning how to use tools like Unity and various programming languages. I love creating things, and am very good at writing and editing. I would love to get involved with a project of any size – and feel free to email me with any writing or editing requests. Please contact Brent Pollard.”

“Greetings! Avi Kohl, 3D Generalist at your service and soon to be relocating to Toronto. 3 years ago, I discovered Blender and the rest is history. Please contact Avi Kohl.”

Not what you’re looking for? You can also check out the Help Offered/Wanted board for earlier postings.

And We’re Off To GDC and IGF!

OMDC presents The Ontario Social at GDC with partners Interactive Ontario and the Hand Eye Society on Thurs. March 20th, 6-8pm. Invite only, email Kim Gibson for details.

GDC IndieMegaBooth lineup includes Asteroid Base’s Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime.

MK-Ultra Games will be at GDC with Knight and Damsel. Castle Pixel will also be there with Rex Rocket.

Phantom Compass will be at GDC Play with Rollers of the Realm. As will Rocket 5 Studios with The Phantom P.I.

GDC Panels Featuring Local Games Folk

Monday, March 17: Rogue Legacy Design Postmortem: Budget Development: feat. Kenny Lee and Teddy lee (Cellar Door Games)

Monday, March 17: Massively Multiplayer: A Dozen Schools Teach Together, Collaboratively and Competitively: Steve Engels (University of Toronto)

Tuesday, March 18: Super Time Force: Solving the Time Travel Paradox: feat. Kenneth Yeung (Capy Games)

Wednesday, March 19: What Modern Interior Design Teaches Us About Environment Art: Dan Cox (Ubisoft Toronto)

Wednesday, March 19: Indie Game Public Relations: 5 Years of Painful Lessons: Chris McQuinn (Drinkbox Studios)

Wednesday, March  19: Make Things Worse: Enabling Setbacks for Consequential Play: Patrick Redding (Ubisoft Toronto)

Thursday, March 20: #lostlevels

Thursday, March 20: Learning from our Mistakes: A Postmortem of Guacamelee!: Chris Harvey (Drinkbox Studios)

Thursday, March 20: Enter the Stage: Cinematic Dialogue in Performance Capture: Richie Nieto (Ubisoft Toronto)

Thursday, March 20: Bridging the Gap Between Your Audio Engine and Your Game: Sean Lohrisch (Capy Games)

Friday, March 21: Curating Video Game Culture: The New Wave of Video Game Events: feat. Jim Munroe (Hand Eye Society)

Friday, March 21: Super Spy Crash Course: Teaching Players in Splinter Cell: Blacklist: Laurent Malville (Ubisoft Toronto)

Friday, March 21: Modernizing Splinter Cell’s Gunplay: James Everett (Ubisoft Toronto)

IGF 2014 Toronto-based Nominees

Seumas McNally Grand Prize: Jazzpunk. Honourable mentions include The Yawhg.

Excellence in Design: Honourable mentions include The Yawhg.

Excellence in Audio: The Yawhg. Honourable mentions include Jazzpunk.

Excellence in Narrative: The Yawhg.

2014 IGF Main Competition Finalists: Jazzpunk and The Yawhg.

A Look Back at IGF

2013: Guacamelee! and Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime were nominated for Excellence in Visual Art. Starseed Pilgrim was nominated for Excellence in Design. Guacamelee!, Starseed Pilgrim, and Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime were also nominated for the 2013 IGF Main Competition.

2012: Super T.I.M.E. Force won the Microsoft XBLA Award. It was also nominated for the 2012 IGF Main Competition.

That’s all for now! If there’s any April events or Toronto video games news, releases, and rad media coverage you want shared, don’t hesitate to pass it along to Kaitlin via email or on Twitter.

February is a month for sharing love — specifically if you love video games. There are a lot of exciting video game events happening in February, so be sure to check them out.

Don’t forget to check out the Toronto Gaming Calendar, that will be updated as more events become announced throughout the month. (Remember, the calendar can also be added to your googlecal.) Note only the events marked with an asterisk are Hand Eye events — for the rest, we’re just signal boosting for this amazing community.

February Events

Saturday, February 1 – Sunday, February 2: Feb Fatale: The Glitch is Back

Wednesday, February 5 –  Wednesday, February 26: Discover Digital Games

Thursday, February 6: DMG Public Policy Edition

Friday, February 7 : Long Winter 2.4 with games curated by Bento Miso

Saturday, February 8-Sunday, February 23: Vector’s Impedance: Games + Resistance exhibition

Thursday, February 11: Game On Or Game Over talk

Wednesday, February 19 to Sunday, February 23: Vector Game Art Festival (individual exhibitions, panels, and screenings are listed on the calendar)

Thursday, February 20: Vector Game Art Festival Opening Reception

* Friday, February 21: Fancy Videogame Party

Saturday, February 22: DMG Speaker Social: Feb Fatale 2 Showcase

Wednesday, February 26: Torontaru

Saturday, March 1 – Sunday, March 2: Board Game Jam (early bird tickets end February 15)

Local Game Releases

Quentin Preik released the PC party game, Battletank L.O.B.A (pictured above).

Hard Head Games released World Destroyers.

merritt kopas created a Naked Twine Jam, featuring Twines from some local Toronto game-makers.

Toronto Folks in the Media

The Dames Making Games make an appearance in The Star. As well, their Long Winter Takeover game curation at the AGO was in the Torontoist and The Canoe. Not to stop there, but the DMG was also in the Winter 2014 issue of McClung’s Magazine (print issue).

Soha Kareem was mentioned The Globe and Mail for her work around feminism in video games.

Rollers of the Realm was featured in the Steam Indie Showcase.

Alexander Martin, aka Droqen, made Forbes’ Top 30 Under 30 In Gaming list.

Game Informer’s 25 Indie Games To Watch in 2014 featured Capy’s Below and Super Time Force, as well as Asteroid Base’s Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime.

Exist, featuring art from Torontonian Kim Koronya, was featured on Rock, Paper, Shotgun’s The Spectacular 2014 Preview Part Two.

Congrats to The Yawhg and Jazzpunk for making the IGF Nominations.

Not to stop there, IndieGames gave a shout to Damian Sommer’s work on The Yawhg as a highlight of 2013.

Guacamelee! got a Game Developers Choice Awards Honourable Mention.

There is an interview with Christine Love on Gameranx.

Alex Hayter was interviewed on SportsNet GotGame about the Fancy Videogame Party.

Indiestatik gave a nice shout out to the Naked Twine jam.

CBC’s Matt Galloway spoke with Hand Eye Society’s co-founder Jim Munroe about his Artist in Residency position at the AGO.

Indie MegaCast discussed Kaitlin Tremblay’s There Are Monsters Under Your Bed.

NerdAppropriate covered Jazzpunk, also.

Gamemaking Help Offered/Wanted and Special Calls

I’m a game designer and PhD candidate from Melbourne, Australia (I also co-direct and curate Hovergarden, our indie games event thing here in Melbourne!). I’m visiting the US and Canada for about three months, from Feb to May, attending IndieCade East, GDC, the Fancy Videogame Party in Toronto and a few other shenanigans. I visit Toronto twice; once on Feb 18 – Mar 2, and again on Apr 24 – May 7. I’d love to be able to stay with indies in Toronto during my stays, not only to avoid hotel costs but also to experience and interact with Toronto’s rich local indie scene in a more personal way. Email Chad if interested.

(With Vector and the Fancy Videogame Party happening, we have a number of other visitors from the international game scene as well. If you can help them out with a couch for a few days, please drop Jim a line for details.)

Vector is looking for volunteers!

I would like to offer my artistic skills wherever they may fit. My portfolio page at andreiradu.daportfolio.com should provide a good idea as to the quality and artistic style I can achieve.

Not what you’re looking for? You can also check out the Help Offered/Wanted board for earlier postings.

That’s all for now! If there’s any March events or Toronto video games news, releases, and rad media coverage you want shared, don’t hesitate to pass it along to Kaitlin via email or on Twitter.

Happy new year, everyone! Hope 2014 brings just as many exciting and amazing events, game releases, and special announcements as 2013 did.

Don’t forget to check out the Toronto Gaming Calendar, that will be updated as more events become announced throughout the month. (Remember, the calendar can also be added to your googlecal.) Note only the events marked with an asterisk are Hand Eye events — for the rest, we’re just signal boosting for this amazing community.

January Events

Monday, January 6: Games With Friends #48

Friday, January 10: The Long Winter Year 2 Volume 3, with games curated by Team Vector

* Sunday, January 12: The Hand Eye Society Annual General Meeting

Wednesday, January 15: Brainstorm Session for the Social Justice Open Studio at Bento Miso

Saturday, January 18: Dames Making Games’s January Speaker Social

Friday, January 24: Dames Playing Games #1: Horse Play

Friday, January 24-26: Toronto Global Game Jam 2014

Saturday, January 25: Designing Games For Behavioural Change workshop

Tuesday, January 28: Dames Making Games Annual General Meeting

Local Game Releases

You can now play the full game version of Rokashi’s I’m Fine.

Golden Gear’s Fate Tectonics was also released, pictured above.

BlotInteractive released an iOS app called Save the Earth: Asteroid Defense.

Kaitlin Tremblay released her second Twine, There Are Monsters Under Your Bed.

Untold Entertainment’s Spellirium was Greenlit!

Christine Love released a PC/Mac version of her Interstellar Selfie Station.

For a list of local games in development, check out Toronto Indie Hub’s Toronto Gaming Directory.

Toronto Folks in the Media

Bit Bazaar appeared on the National Post, NOWToronto, and Guys With Pencils.

Soha El-Sabaawi talks about her Twine, Penalties, on the Episode 4 of the Venus and Mars podcast. Also check out Penalties on Forest Ambassador.

Also on Forest Ambassador is Cecily Carver’s Feed The Ducks.

Hand Eye Society’s Jim Munroe was interviewed about WordPlay on the Built To Play podcast.

Merritt Kopas was interviewed by Leigh Alexander on meaningful violence in video games at Gamastura.

Sword & Sworcery was featured on an Italian website, Oorlandoo.

Dames Making Games got featured on 5 More Women in Tech Organizations You Should Know About on Craig Connects (from Craig’s List).

Drinkbox Studios’ Guacamelee! is up for GOTY at Destructoid and Gamasutra.

Kaitlin Tremblay’s Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before was on the Best of 2013: Horror list at Free Indie Games.

Exist, a game that features the art of Torontonian Kim Koronya, was featured on IGN.

Phantom Compass’s Rollers of the Realm was featured on Gamezebo‘s list Games We Can’t Wait to Play in 2014.

Rogue Legacy was put on Talking Ships‘ GOTY list. Rogue Legacy also won the Best Greenlight/Kickstarter 2013 game on Press Play.

Special Announcements

DMG’s Swipe Comic Anthology was released for the iOS app store, and is a fundraiser for DMG.

Professors from two Canadian universities are researching working environments for video game developers, and are looking to interview 30-35 game developers in Toronto. Contact Johanna Weststar if interested.

Vector announced its first workshop, glitch.jam 2. There’s only 10 spots, so get your ticket soon!

Gamemaking Help Offered/Wanted

Mark Animation is seeking an experienced Game Programmer who knows the ins and outs of Torque 2D for a full-time position… Please email resumes.

I am freelance composer / sound designer interested in volunteering my skills for indie developers... If interested, please email Scott.

Need an iOS/Android developer & possibly an artist …

If anyone needs some custom music/sound design for their game/project shoot me a line! I have been working on short films as of late, but would love to get involved developing a game.

Not what you’re looking for? You can also check out the Help Offered/Wanted board for earlier postings.

That’s all for now! If there’s any February events or Toronto video games news, releases, and rad media coverage you want shared, don’t hesitate to pass it along to Kaitlin via email or on Twitter.

December’s here, meaning it’s the time for good friends, good fun, and lots of holiday cheer. So why not spend the cold winter month with your friends in the Toronto video game community?

Don’t forget to check out the Toronto Gaming Calendar, that will be updated as more events become announced throughout the month. (Remember, the calendar can also be added to your googlecal.) Note only the events marked with an asterisk are Hand Eye events — for the rest, we’re just signal boosting for this amazing community.

Toronto Games Events

Monday, December 2: Games With Friends #46

Friday, December 6: Bento Miso’s Bit Bazaar Winter Market Opening Party, with a performance by the Cybertronic Spree

Saturday, December 7: Bento Miso’s Bit Bazaar Winter Market

Wednesday, December 11: Game Design For Artists (Twine Workshop) w/ Daniel Murtha

Friday, December 13: Skillswap Holiday Bash

Friday, December 13: The Long Winter Year Two Volume Two, with games curated by DrinkBox Studios

Friday, December 13: DMG Talks #2: Feminist Game Salon

Monday, December 16: Games With Friends #47

Local Video Game Releases

David Fono released Jumpalot Junkbot on the iOS app store!

Chopsquares was released to lots of good fanfare.

Actual Sunlight is being re-released in 3D (and is available for free while it’s waiting to be Greenlit).

The IndieGoGo campaign for Archive the Game went live.

From WordPlay’s Twine workshop, we have Level Up by Matthew Kirshenblatt.

Toronto Games Folks In The Media

Actual Sunlight has been talked about on both Rock, Paper, Shotgun and Polygon.

Benjamin Rivers’ horrifying Home was featured on Zero1Gaming.

Kaitlin Tremblay’s body horror Twine, Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before was on IndieHaven.

Hand Eye Society’s own WordPlay got pre-event coverage on BoingBoing, Canada.com, Torontoist, Open Book Toronto and Quill and Quire, and was blogged about after the fact on Untold Entertainment and Incubator Games.

Indiestatik came down with Chopsquares fever.

Asteroid Base chatted up the Guys With Pencils podcast.

Canadian Business illustrated how the Canadian indie video game scene is booming, with spotlights on Blot Interactive and Capy Games.

Cecily Carver talks about her experiences learning to code (in an inspiring and non-terrifying way) over at Medium.

The Long Dark was covered in a print version of Game Informer.

BlogTO says Bit Bazaar “might be the coolest holiday craft event of the season.”

Calls For Submissions and Very Special Announcements

Vector’s call is now LIVE, with a deadline of January 1st, so don’t forget to submit your game art projects.

Registration is now open for the Toronto Global Game Jam 2014, and is live until January 17th, OR whenever tickets sell out, so get yours now!

TAG/Design and Computation Arts put out a call for a visiting game designer for Spring 2014!  This is a 8 week residency starting May 7, 2014 for an accomplished game designer to work at TAG’s research centre, mentor and advise students and faculty and teach an undergraduate studio course in game design.

Call for submissions for the Wild Rumpus are also open, so submit your game!

Help Wanted/Offered

I have 3 years experiences in mobile gaming industry as a Lead Artist/Animator. 2 years experience in TV animation production as Layout and Key Animation Artist. 2 years as Pencil Artist in Comic industry, worked on title such as “Transformers” and “SandScape” from Dreamwave Comics…  

I’m  requiring an AI Programmer on StencylWorks 2.x.x. The studio’s project is about 95% completed. Your role for this project would be to solve several issues about AI enemy with the melee combat for clarification enemies fighting with sword,hammers,club, etc …

We at Darned Sock Productions are looking for some coding help to finish up our first app. In the short term we’re looking for someone to help bring our animations into the app–creating sprite sheets from PNG sequences, then coding them up with proper timing etc. Eventually we’ll also need help building a few new features: a save game module, some text parsing functions etc…

I’m looking to join a solid team as an Artist. Mobile focused last 4 years. But have a lot of experience in many areas…  

That’s all for now! If there’s any January events or Toronto video games news, releases, and rad media coverage you want shared, don’t hesitate to pass it along to Kaitlin via email or on Twitter.

Happy holidays, folks!

Welcome back to another edition of the Toronto Games Event and News Roundup!

As well, don’t forget to check out the Toronto Gaming Calendar, that will be updated as more events become announced throughout the month. (Remember, the calendar can also be added to your googlecal.) Note only the events marked with an asterisk are Hand Eye events — for the rest, we’re just signal boosting for this amazing community.

Toronto Video Game Events

Friday, November 1 to Sunday, November 3: Gamercamp: Highlights include the free TOJam Party on Friday night, the Salon Speakers series, the kid-friendly Arcade, and so much more — check it out!

*Saturday, November 2: Game Curious: Exploring The Untapped Art of Video Games (this week has a focus on educational and political games)

MakerKids 25hour Gameathon Fundraiser For SickKids (Through Extra Life)

LightHack at Social Game Universe

Monday, November 4: Games With Friends #44 

Bit Bazaar Workshop for making physical objects for your games

Friday, November 8: Toronto Long Winter with games curated by Dames Making Games

Verold Game Hackathon

Saturday, November 9:No Jam 2: Video video Workshop Day 1

DMG November Speaker Social

*Game Curious: Exploring The Untapped Art of Video Games (Final Session)

Friday, November 15: Skillswap: Project Management and You 

*Saturday, November 16: WordPlay Festival of Writerly Games

Design a New Board Game

Saturday, November 16 – Sunday, November 17: No Jam 2: Video video

Monday, November 18: Games With Friends #45

Wednesday, November 27: Torontaru

Local Game Releases

The Yawhg and Rollers of the Realm were both Greenlit on October 29th!

Toronto Folks In The Media

No Meda Kings’ and Hand Eye Society’s own Jim Munroe landed an Artist-in-Residency gig at the AGO!

Kaitlin Tremblay’s Twine, Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before, was reviewed by Porpentine on Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Droqen’s Starseed Pilgrim was discussed on Medium.

Drinkbox Studio’s Guacamelee! found all its TV tropes.

Phantom Compass’s Rollers of the Realm was featured on Red Couchin’s CouchCast, over at Polygon, and also at LA Time’s HeroComplex for their IndieCade showcase.

Speaking of IndieCade, Capy won best level design for Super Time Force, and Towerfall and Cellar Door Games’s Rogue Legacy got Best of Shows mentions on My Geek Review. 

Kara Stone’s MedicationMeditation was featured on Kill Screen, which then got picked up by The Atlantic.

Gamemaking Help Wanted/Offered In October

Looking for a Unity 3D programmer. Part-time/~1 month contract. Paid. Game is in 3D, GUI is NGUI, networking is Photon. Message me or Quick Fix Inc for details.

Are you a weird 3D artist? Not a lot of orcs or tanks in your portfolio? Maybe you want to jam at the next Verold hackathon with me! We made this last time. Email me a link to your stuff and we’ll talk!

To post an ad for gaming help wanted or offered, check out the Help Wanted/Offered section on our website, or email Kaitlin.

That’s all for now! If there’s any December events or Toronto video games news, releases, and rad media coverage you want shared, don’t hesitate to pass it along to Kaitlin via email or on Twitter.