With attendees dressed in everything from tuxedos and ball gowns to t-shirts and cosplay, the party presented a diverse selection of video games from across the globe. Games such as Towerfall: Ascension and Nidhogg (both above) drew large audiences thanks to their competitive play.

The AGO’s Weston Family Learning Centre proved to be the perfect venue for the night, with multiple levels, a “floating” seminar room, two bars, and various private nooks for relaxation and out-of-the-ordinary interactive experiences all set to a luxurious backdrop of concrete and glass.

One of the busiest areas for the night was JS Joust, a physical game played with motion controllers that challenged players to a 7-person last-one-standing battle.

The Interstellar Selfie Station: Print Club Edition was a non-stop human turnstile of party-goers grabbing selfie stickers of themselves in pixelated art style.

With a huge backdrop of games projected behind them, the night’s DJs Ryan Henwood (above), Dualryan and Coins set the party mood with their fantastic tunes, much of which has been featured in popular Toronto-made indie games.

Community partners Site3 coLaboratory helped us to build Splintercade machines, on which players could battle in rounds of Turnover and Tether.

Media coverage was great too!  SPACE TV (pictured) did a terrific 3 minute video, and the party was also featured in the National Post, Torontoist, Vice, Canoe, Gamezebo, Dorkshelf, Toronto Star & Got Game.

Thanks to community partners Vector Game + Art Convergence Festival, the party also hosted a roaming arcade backpack by the UCLA Game Lab.

Toughest-sport-in-the-world Super Pole Riders was previewed in its PlayStation 4 build, making for one of the more uproarious games at the party.

The massive space made for an interesting atmosphere that felt half-nightclub, half-gallery (but by all reports, all-fun). Tenya Wanya Teens with its special multi-coloured-many-buttoned controller was also featured in on the bottom floor alongside The Yawhg, both of which provided more narrative-driven offerings to the crowd.

While two large capacity areas hosted the bulk of attendees, a private room complete with bean bags and loungers was available for those desiring a chill-out space along with the visuals and sounds of Panoramical, played using a special midi controller.

More photos:

Photos: Dean Tomlinson (w/ AGO watermark) and Stephen Reese (Hand Eye Society).

How did you enjoy the Fancy Videogame Party? Feel free to sent comments/pictures to alex.h@handeyesociety.com.

Games:

Super Pole Riders (Bennett Foddy)

Towerfall: Ascension (Matt Thorson)

Nidhogg (Messhof)

JS Joust (Die Gute Fabrik)

Interstellar Selfie Station: Print Club Edition (Love Conquers All Games & Nadine Lessio)

Turnover (Chad Toprak, Kalonica Quigley, Rhys Van Der Waerden, Shannon Barnes and Arden Beckwith)

Tether (Matt Rix, Dan Cox & Whitaker Trebella)

Panoramical (Fernando Ramallo & David Kanaga)

Tenya Wanya Teens (Uvula, Wild Rumpus & Venus Patrol)

The Yawhg (Damian Sommer & Emily Carroll)

Music:

Ryan Henwood

Dualryan 

Coins

Hardware:

Splintercade (Jonatan Van Hove)

UCLA Game Lab Arcade Backpack (UCLA Game Lab)

Today we’re announcing the complete lineup for the party, curated by the Hand Eye Society with rambunctious co-organizers The Wild Rumpus and hosted by the Art Gallery of Ontario.

With an anticipated audience of almost 700 attendees, tickets are now completely sold out. If you’ve got a ticket, we look forward to celebrating 5 years of the Hand Eye Society with you! If not, try your best hunting for tickets on Twitter or the Facebook event page!

For details from the initial lineup announcement — including The Yawhg, Tether, Interstellar Selfie Station PRINT CLUB EDITION, Tenya Wanya Teens, JS Joust and Nidhogg — see our previous post.

Featured DJs

Ryan Henwood (Toronto)

Ryan Henwood is a sound designer and musician working on the upcoming Lovers In a Dangerous Spacetime and The Phantom P.I. He wears the mask of vocoding to bring happy dancey space music to the masses.

Dualryan (Toronto)

Ryan Roth aka Dualryan is an ambient electronic artist whose music has been featured in indie game hits such as The Yawhg, Electronic Super Joy and Starseed Pilgrim.

Coins (Toronto)

Performing under the moniker “Coins,” Peter Chapman has had music in Mod Nation Racers and Tales From Space: About a Blob and its sequel Mutant Blobs Attack. Best described as “Electro house chippy tune dance party.”

Gaming Fanciness

Towerfall: Ascension
by Matt Thorson (Vancouver)

This competitive arena battle game pits four players against one another in intense archery combat matches alongside a macabre collection of power-ups. Out on the Ouya now as Towerfall and coming to PC & PS4 as Towerfall: Ascension in 2014!

Pole Riders
by Bennett Foddy

Perhaps the most difficult sport ever conceived by humankind, Pole Riders challenges two combatants to knock a ball into their opponent’s zone. The catch? The ball’s attached to a wire and you each have to use a giant pole to reach it. Eat your heart out, Olympics.

Turnover
by Chad Toprak, Kalonica Quigley, Rhys Van Der Waerden, Shannon Barnes and Arden Beckwith

Best described as a “A four player multigravity steal-the-ball-n-run frenzy,” Turnover is the most likely game at the party to give you an enjoyable amount of vertigo. Turnover will be played on our custom-made Splintercade game boards — see below!

Panoramical
by Fernando Ramallo (Berlin) & David Kanaga (Oakland)

PANORAMICAL is an album of interactive musical landscapes with analog controls, a series of morphing musical places for players to explore, fiddle and immerse in. Setup in a private chill space at the party, PANORAMICAL is coming to PC/Mac in 2014!

Hardware Hacking Wizardry

UCLA Game Lab Arcade Backpack
Concept by UCLA Game Lab (Los Angeles), design by Steven Amrhein (Los Angeles)

This videogame arcade backpack will be touring throughout the Fancy Videogame Party, featuring games such as Burn & Turn (Peter Lu),  Scratch Race (Mark Essen) and Cruise Control (Eddo Stern). Brought to the Fancy Videogame Party thanks to local community partner Vector: Game + Art Convergence Festival, taking place Feb 19-23, 2014.

Splintercade
Designed by Jonatan Van Hove (Copenhagen), copy built by Site3 coLaboratory (Toronto)

Thanks to our wonderful Toronto-based community partner Site3 coLaboratory, we’ll have playable Splintercade arcade machines at the party. The Splintercade is a mixed material display platform designed by Jonatan Van Hove that is played on the floor, at standing height.

Tickets are $15 online and are currently over 2/3 sold out — so get yours quick.

The six games revealed below are some of the finest multiplayer experiences from across the globe — we can’t wait for you to get your hands on them all!

Stay tuned for further lineup announcements, including even more games and — of course — the best toe-tapping music performers we can get our grubby mitts on.

Artists in attendance on Feb 21 confirmed so far include The Yawhg’s Damian Sommer, Tether’s Matt Rix & Dan Cox, Interstellar Selfie Station’s Christine Love & Nadine Lessio, and JS Joust’s Douglas Wilson.

The Yawhg

by Damian Sommer (Toronto) and Emily Carroll (Stratford)

First created as part of the Hand Eye Society’s Comics VS Games initiative in 2012, the Yawhg is a 1-4 player choose-your-own-adventure game that creates a random, unique story every time you play. Before the impending arrival of an all-destroying beast called “the Yawhg”, players must work together to determine the fate of a medieval village.

Tether

by Matt Rix (Brampton), Dan Cox (Toronto) and Whitaker Trebella (Chicago)

Tether is a tug-of-war battle where the first player to collect 10 orbs of their colour wins. The catch: all four players are tethered together with chains! Work with — or against — your foes to achieve victory. Originally developed at the 2013 Toronto Independent Game Jam (TOJam 8).

Interstellar Selfie Station PRINT  CLUB EDITION

by Love Conquers All Games (Toronto) and Nadine Lessio (Toronto).

The Interstellar Selfie Station beams pixel art portraits straight from the stars and into your pockets. The forthcoming iOS app will be previewed in a special on-site photobooth, inspired by Japanese print clubs, that prints 2-bit pixelated selfie stickers. Created by Toronto locals Christine Love, designer of Analogue: A Hate Story and Nadine Lessio, who also designed the Torontron arcade interface.

Tenya Wanya Teens

by Uvula (San Francisco), Wild Rumpus (London), Venus Patrol (Austin)

Tenya Wanya Teens is a two-player coming of age tale brought to you by Katamari Damacy designer Keita Takahashi and Asuka Sakai along with The Wild Rumpus and Venus Patrol. All played on custom built 16 button glow-in-the-dark arcade controllers, players move and tap the correct colours to proceed through the game’s colourful levels.

JS Joust

by Die Gute Fabrik (New York)

Played without screens or controls, Johann Sebastian Joust is a digital playground where up to 7 players use Playstation Move controllers to win a motion-powered battle against their opponents. As musical selections from J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos play, players attempt to jostle opponent’s controllers while protecting their own. When the music plays in slow-motion, the controllers become sensitive to movement — but when the Bach speeds up, players can move more freely and attempt to dash at their opponents. Last one standing wins!

Nidhogg

by Messhof (Los Angeles)

Just released on Steam after years of fine-tuning, Nidhogg is an award-winning two-player fencing game. An acrobatic tug-of-war, players stab, respawn, rinse and repeat until one emerges as the victor. Mixing classic fighting game style with fast-paced swordplay, Nidhogg is as fun to watch (and shout at!) as it is to play — folks who previewed it at a legendary Hand Eye Social and our Nuit Blanche tourney can attest to that!

Update: All 550 tickets have been sold. Sorry!

Update: The second selected games, DJs and technology announcement is up!

Update: The first selected games announcement is here!

Ready to see the epicentre of the Canadian arts establishment transformed into a playground? We’re excited to announce a mind-blowing partnership between The Hand Eye Society, The Wild Rumpus and the Art Gallery of Ontario to celebrate our fifth birthday!

On February 21, 2014 at 8pm, the Fancy Videogame Party will bring together the very best multiplayer, party and physical videogames from around the world for one night only at the AGO.

The Hand Eye Society celebrates its fifth year throughout 2014, starting with this marquee event in the spirit of international collaboration — combining Toronto’s vibrant arts community with the internationally renowned games party collective The Wild Rumpus. We encourage gamers and non-gamers alike to attend, as the event is suitable for all types. With incredible previous parties in London, Austin and San Francisco, The Wild Rumpus offers a chance to experience some of the most fantastically eclectic and creative videogames out there.

As always, The Wild Rumpus’ call for games is open and we encourage game makers to submit their creations.

Purchase tickets here on the AGO website.

Tickets are 19+ and available for $15 for the public or $12 for AGO and Hand Eye Society card-holding members, who will be receiving an email with the promo code.

Facebook event page