Inspiration – Hand Eye Test https://test.handeyesociety.com My WordPress Blog Wed, 02 Oct 2019 16:00:59 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 How to Play With Your Food: Game Curious at Evergreen Brick Works 🍪 https://test.handeyesociety.com/2019/10/02/play-food-game-curious-evergreen-brick-works-%f0%9f%8d%aa-2/ Wed, 02 Oct 2019 16:00:59 +0000 https://www.handeyesociety.com/?p=30276

How are we playing with our food in this workshop? We will be playing a variation of one of Jenn Sandercock’s games in her Edible Games Cookbook called “Roll for Flavour”. In her version of this game, players compete with one another by rolling dice to obtain their favourite cupcake ingredients and toppings to create a yummy–or questionable–flavour combination!

Roll For Flavour on ‘The Games‘ tab of Edible Games.

Instead of baking cupcakes, we have modified Roll For Flavour into 3 rounds, or 3 courses if you will, of competing for ingredients that will go towards a non-alcoholic mixed drink, an appetizer bowl, and a dessert tray. Roll for ingredients to assemble the most delicious meal you can dream of! Sabotage other players by stealing or swapping the ingredients they want for themselves! Or try new food & drink combinations you would have never thought of before! This activity will require assembling your meals. No cooking or food prep will be happening on your end. NOTE: we suggest that you grab an actual meal before or after this event as the foods prepped during this activity are not meant to be a full meal replacement.

Food options provided are based off of what’s available during the fall season and has been planned for what works best with the format of this game. Because the Fido Kitchen is a communal activity space, we unfortunately cannot guarantee that the space is free of ingredients that may cause severe allergic reactions (e.g. nut-free, gluten-free).

Play with your Food may use a wide range of ingredients during gameplay, including nuts, soy, dairy and gluten products. If you are signing up as a participant please contact us with your dietary preferences before the event. Please email us at info@handeyesociety.com and we will accommodate as best we can.

This event is FREE to attend. To ensure your spot, we would like to ask you to pay a refundable deposit of $10 + tax and fees prior to this event. Your deposit will be returned at the start of the workshop. If you do not attend the workshop, your deposit becomes a donation to the Hand Eye Society.

The Evergreen Brick Works Shuttle Bus hours will be extended for the following times: 7.30pm, 8.00pm, 8.30pm, 9.00pm, 9.30pm, 10.00pm

Do I need to bring anything? OPTIONAL: a kitchen apron.

Is the venue accessible? Yes! Please let us know your accessibility needs upon registering to ensure your needs are accommodated.

When: Oct 9 and Oct 23, 7-9pm

Who: Ages 16+

Where: Evergreen Brick Works (FIDO Kitchen)

Up to 20 people, register on Eventbrite

Secure your spot with a refundable Deposit of $10 per person

If you are interested about the Edible Games Cookbook, please follow Jenn Sandercock on Twitter or sign up on her newsletter (on her website) to learn more.


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Anti-fascist Game Jam Toronto https://test.handeyesociety.com/2019/04/24/anti-fascist-game-jam-toronto/ Wed, 24 Apr 2019 15:43:20 +0000 http://handeyesociety.com/?p=29114

Want to fight fascism and make games? Then this is the jam for you!

The Hand Eye Society and Game Workers Unite Toronto are co-hosting an Antifascist Game Jam in Toronto alongside our friends at Curieux de Jeux / Game Curious MontrĂ©al and various locations around the world. If you aren’t exactly sure what anti-fascism is or not sure if you can make a game, check out the Antifa Game Jam itch.io page for a comprehensive overview about anti-fascism, simple game-making tools and tutorials, and other frequently asked questions available in French, Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish.

Have a game idea but not sure how to put it together? Bring it! Want to work together with other people to fight fascism by making games? Come on by! Rather jam on some ideas than jam on a game? You’re more than welcome to come!

[button size=large” style=” text=’Register for the Toronto site here!’ icon=” icon_color=” link=’https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScaaj3lVImV_4o-TX2_XjCkV-7GGMIQQmJyNKRj9AGxsGDHFw/viewform’_self’ color=” hover_color=” border_color=” hover_border_color=” background_color=” hover_background_color=” font_style=” font_weight=” text_align=” margin=”]

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/354304015191018/

Accessibility details: We will provide free snacks including vegan and gluten-free options. The location is wheelchair accessible and there are gender neutral bathrooms on the premises.

All participants are expected to read and abide by our Safer Space Policy. The International Anti-fascist Game Jam is co-organized by Curieux de Jeux / Game Curious Montréal, Ataque, and Montréal Antifasciste and is being held in multiple locations in Bari, Italy, Bothenburg, Sweden and participants from different Brazilian cities.

Thanks to Game Curious Montréal for putting together all this information ♥

 


 

     

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đź–ŤAnnouncing our Spring Zine Artists Participants đź–Ť https://test.handeyesociety.com/2019/03/29/%f0%9f%96%8dannouncing-spring-zine-artists-participants-%f0%9f%96%8d/ Fri, 29 Mar 2019 19:52:44 +0000 http://handeyesociety.com/?p=28925

The birds are tweeting, the trees are budding and winter is taking its very last breath. Hurray! Winter is dying! Now that winter is (almost) gone we can really get to the good stuff. You’ve had the pleasure of meeting our game jammers, and now it’s time to meet our talented artists who will work alongside our jammers to create a zine through our programming with Evergreen Brick Works!

These participants will be paired with our jammers and release a zine booklet, which will be released on Sunday June 16th! More details on that coming soon~

 

Without further ado, our illustrators!

Lina Wu

Instagram/Portfolio

Lina Wu is an artist, illustrator, and storyteller from Toronto. She is figuring out how to be soft and strong at the same time.

Pree Rehal

Personal Instagram/Art Instagram

Pree (pronouns: they/them) is basically a trans Batman (except not rich, also not a white dude), they are an Account Manager by day, artist by night.

Vincy Lim

Portfolio/Instagram

Vincy Lim is a Chinese-Canadian illustrator whose work revolves around their queer, disabled, and abused identity. Their work focuses on self-love, humanizing disability, and creating an understanding around abuse. In addition to supporting survivors through shared experiences, and telling them the importance, and the fact, of healing.

Shel Kahn

Twitter/Instagram/Website/Comics

Shel Kahn is an illustrator, cartoonist, game designer and educator. Her work in tabletop RPGs includes art, writing, self publishing, GMing and mentorship; she also self-publishes comics and teaches art, games and more with local Toronto community organizations, museums and schools.

Hayden Maynard

Twitter/Website/Instagram

Hayden is an illustrator and cartoonist. He grew up in Kingston, Ontario and currently lives in Toronto. Nowadays he mostly sit in his apartment and draw pictures.

 

Alejandra Paton

Instagram/Website

Alejandra is a designer and administrator based in Toronto. Her illustration work has been published by Creative Quarterly, Format Magazine, Broken Pencil, and Applied Arts Magazine. She is a graduate of OCAD University with a Bachelor’s in Illustration, and a Graduate degree in Arts Administration from Humber College.


In Partnership With

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âśż Announcing Our Spring Game Jam Participants âśż https://test.handeyesociety.com/2019/03/18/springjamparticipants/ Mon, 18 Mar 2019 16:00:31 +0000 http://handeyesociety.com/?p=28871
Top-down view of the Evergreen Brick Works. Photo credits to Geoff Fitzgerald.

*Takes in a breath of fresh air* Is spring really here??…The mud’s replacing the ice, it’s raining a lot, like A LOT, and the garbage is unearthing itself from the various snow banks. This wonderfully confusing time of year is just in time for our Spring Jam as part of the Game Curious at Evergreen Brick Works programming. We are super excited to announce our line up of game jam participants who will spend 3 days to create a game inspired by the various systems living at the Evergreen Brick Works.

Interested to see what they end up making? Us too! You can come and play test their games on Sunday, April 7 from 1-3pm in the Young Welcome Centre at Evergreen Brick Works. In part 2 of the Spring Jam program, 6 local illustrators will be paired up with each of the game jam participants and create a ‘zine booklet that we will be distributing on Sunday, June 16 also at the Evergreen Brick Works (stay tuned for more details!).

Say hello to our Spring Jam participants below!

Jord Farrell
Twitter

In the past 5 years, Jord Farrell has made hundreds of games.

Ananda Gabo
Twitter / Instagram

Ananda is a designer/ veg cook/ microbe collaborator/ maker. They are accumulating a lot of weird skill sets in anticipation of running a weird farm.

Ben Moull
Twitter

Ben Moull is a sometimes writer, wanderer, economist, and hobbyist game designer. They live, work and play in Toronto.

Jacob Niedzwiecki
Twitter / Instagram

Jacob Niedzwiecki is a software developer, filmmaker, and choreographer whose work fuses code, media, and movement into inventive new forms. His immersive app-based performance Jacqueries won the Vanguard Prize for Risk and Innovation at the 2014 SummerWorks festival, and toured internationally. He has created app-based experiences in collaboration with TIFF, bluemouth inc, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, It’s Not a Box Theatre, and others.

Sebastian Pines
Twitter

Sebastian Pines is an artist, academic, and neutral good gnome druid with a keen interest in roleplaying games and queerness. The themes of their body of work revolve around queer identity and queer modes of play. They also have a penchant for the macabre and love all manner of spooky media.

Phoenix Simms
Twitter / Medium

Phoenix is the former managing editor of Third Person, Toronto’s premier site for diverse and story-driven games coverage. She’s also a biracial game writer and illustrator who’s fascinated by the intersection of art and science, urban and green spaces, as well as exterior versus interior realities. She migrated from a visual arts diploma to a masters in English literature, with a self-directed focus on game studies.

 


In Partnership with

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Introducing Game Curious at Evergreen Brick Works! https://test.handeyesociety.com/2019/02/12/introducing-game-curious-evergreen-brick-works/ Wed, 13 Feb 2019 00:13:01 +0000 http://handeyesociety.com/?p=28676

Have you ever heard of people talking about games and wanted to know more? Already in the industry, but want to learn about different perspectives and experience games from another angle? Interested in how game design can go beyond digital screen-based work to intersect with nature, urban renewal, and food? We got you.

Game Curious at Evergreen Brick Works is a free, public event series that uses game design and playful media as a lens to explore interconnected systems of urban sustainability, food security, arts/culture, history, and technology. Based on our popular Game Curious initiative, programming will take place on-site at Evergreen Brick Works in the Don Valley over the course of one year, activating different areas and audiences throughout the changing of the seasons.

For updates and more information on the individual programs planned throughout the year, check out our Game Curious at Evergreen Brick Works page, subscribe to our newsletter, hit us up on Twitter, or contact us at info@handeyesociety.com with questions. Don’t be shy, come play for yourself!

Spring

A game jam—no, you can’t eat it, as much as some games do look delicious—typically means getting a group of people to work collectively or solo to make an interactive project within a limited period of time. But this is no ordinary game jam. Six selected participants will tour Evergreen Brick Works to learn about its history and various initiatives. They will then spend a weekend in April designing playful, bite-sized interactive works based on their observations. The final game concepts will be documented in the form of a digital and printed zine, designed by Chris White and illustrated by local artists.

Say hello to our jammers!

[button size=” style=” text=’Click here for more information, FAQ, and our jammers!’ icon=” icon_color=” link=’http://handeyesociety.com/game-curious-spring-jam/’ color=” hover_color=” border_color=” hover_border_color=” background_color=” hover_background_color=” font_style=” font_weight=” text_align=” margin=”]

Dates: April 5 to 7 (Jammers Only) / June 16 (Public Zine Launch)

Location: TBD

Audience: 6 jammers and 6 illustrators selected via submission process. The zine launch is open to the public.

Summer

An all-ages event where participants interact with technology that reacts to touch, heat, water and more! A more hands-on approach to learning how tech can be used to facilitate curiosity, exploration, and wonder. A collaboration with Little Dada.

Dates: [Update: POSTPONED DUE TO WEATHER]

Location: Children’s Garden

Audience: Drop-in, children and families/all-ages.

Fall

Have you ever seen a game so delicious that you wanted to eat it? Well, now’s your chance. Inspired by projects like Jenn Sandercock’s Edible Games Cookbook, this workshop gives participants the opportunity to utilize different kinds of food and use it to create a game that you can eat.  This is a fun event where you can learn elements of game design as well think about how we interact with food beyond mere consumption. Bring an empty stomach just in case!

Dates: Oct 9 and 23, after work hours

Location: FIDO Kitchen

Audience: Pre-registration required, ages 13+.

Winter

An interactive experience created by artists Julia Gingrich, Rehka Ramachandran and Kara Stone reflecting on time and climate change. Rocks Die? investigates the Anthropocene, the material and the virtual. It consists of a quilt made of used plastic, dipped in water and then frozen, with materials such as flowers and notes written by participants in advance surrounding it. The pieces are hung, letting the ice drip off them and revealing what is inside.

Dates: Dec 28-31

Location: TBD

Audience: Drop-in, all-ages.


Partners

Through research, design and collaboration, Evergreen moves sustainable city building ideas into action. We believe that flourishing cities are created through the alchemy of placemaking—holistically improving the intersections and interdependencies between people + natural + built worlds. This is evident in our work designing school grounds; building community programs; collaborating on transportation, housing, and water issues; and imagining and developing the Evergreen Brick Works social enterprise.

Since 1991, Evergreen, a Canadian charity and international thought leader, has provoked bold action in transforming public landscapes into thriving community spaces with environmental, social and economic benefits. At the core of our work is the belief that involving people directly in the process of restoring the health of local ecologies and their communities positively affects the attitudes and behaviours that lie at the core of the sustainable city.

 

Toronto Arts Council (TAC) is the City of Toronto’s funding body for artists and arts organizations. Since 1974, TAC has played a major role in the city’s cultural industries by supporting a very broad range of artistic activity. From the emerging artist to the most established, from celebrated institutions to arts that challenge convention, TAC is typically the first funder to offer support. Today, TAC grants lead to exhibitions, performances, readings and workshops seen annually by over 9.5 million people. Through our ongoing funding, TAC cultivates a rich engagement between artists and audiences.  We are proud to reflect Toronto’s vibrancy through the diversity of artists, arts communities and audiences that we serve.

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Are you Food Curious? https://test.handeyesociety.com/2018/08/03/are-you-food-curious/ Fri, 03 Aug 2018 14:57:28 +0000 http://handeyesociety.com/?p=27531

Tighten up your aprons and replace those singed oven mitts, as we are cooking up some brand new programming heading into 2019! We are always super hungry to present videogames in multidisciplinary ways and we are taste-testing the idea of creating a menu of videogame and food events. We have a few ideas in mind but would like to reach out to the greater community to see the kind of work that’s already being done and gauge the interest in this mĂ©lange.

If you have a friend that’s making a more accurate (or more difficult) Cooking Mama in VR, let us know! If you’re writing a Twine about the kind of food you had during your childhood, please tell us more about it! Want to create a game jam about donuts? There’s already been a game jam about watermelons, let’s up the ante and do a VEGAN DONUT GAME JAM!

“How can I get involved?” says the hungry Snorlax in you. We have a very lovely Google Form set-up where you can submit your ideas, including games, events, or any kind of playful media related with food and eating culture. We are open to anything including and not limited to: food, cooking, eating/tasting/drinking, ways of eating, food security, hunger, culinary-eating institutions, diets, gardens/farms, consumption of animal-plant products, fishing/hunting, global/cultural cuisine, social/economic-related topics, and any topic you can think of that is remotely related to food. This is a sort of prelude to an open call.

We will also be holding a General Info Meeting on August 20 at Trinity Square Video from 6pm-7:30pm. We will talk about some ideas we have floating around and gauge interest and we most definitely will talk about food at some point. If you’ve submitted something in our form, come out and let’s talk details.

RSVP at the Info Session Facebook Event

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at info@handeyesociety.com.

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Videogame Arts Around the World in 2016 https://test.handeyesociety.com/2016/12/29/videogame-arts-around-world-2016/ Fri, 30 Dec 2016 00:09:13 +0000 http://handeyesociety.com/?p=25019 As the last post recapped, we were pretty busy in Toronto in 2016. One of the things that keeps us inspired is seeing what other people are doing in the videogame arts community internationally — it shows us that we’re part of a growing movement of collectives and organizations that view videogames through an arts and culture lens. Plus last year many of our international game pals suggested some of the games we ended up featuring in the Hand Eye Society Ball!

We put a call out to like-minded groups for their 2016 highlights and got a dozen responses covering cities like Montreal, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, New York, Milan, Melbourne, Brighton, Utrecht, Vancouver and Berlin. Enjoy!

Pietro Righi Riva from Italy writes: “In September, the Milano Game Festival offered an entirely new format – a real play hall with many seats, similar to a movie theater, in which to dedicate the right amount of time to enjoying immersive interactive experiences. For one week, all participants played each night a different game for two hours, met the authors, and shared a common experience to discuss and remember. (photo by Alex Camilleri)”


Marina Pecoraro from Brazil writes: “BIG Festival (Brazil’s Independent Games Festival)  is the first festival in the marked focused on the independent production of games in Brazil and the only one in Latin America. In its fourth edition, BIG has consolidated in 2016 as the largest business HUB in Latin America for local and international developers. Take a look at the video of the last edition. Next year BIG Festival is gonna happen from June 24th to July 2nd, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.”


Lauren Gardener from NYC writes: “This was from Kara Stone’s ‘Mystical Digital’ exhibit at Babycastles back in May. Photo by Emi Spicer.”


Davis Cox from New York City writes: “I curated ArtCade this fall for CultureHub in La MaMa Theater for our second year, with nearly 30 titles selected from multiple organizations, including Sheep’s Meow, Finji, NYU Games Center, and Games for Change. Panels during the weekend included discussions on the independent games marketplace, journalism, and an in-depth artist spotlight on Robert Yang – videos are located here.”


Chad Toprak from Melbourne writes: “This year my lovely team and I put together Contours, a month-long videogame exhibition in partnership with the City of Melbourne. Contours explores a brief history of the fringes of independent games in Melbourne and Australia. The exhibition has a large variety of work on display, including playable games, artwork, photography, videos, sculptures, zines, artifacts and other cultural gems. The curated selection ranges from quirky to provocative, personal to political, inspirational to festive, demonstrating the unique variety of grassroots Australian independent games. We also had several feature nights throughout the month, including an In Conversation series with three very special guests as well as a New Arcade night with Australian local multiplayer games. Check out photos from the Opening Night and New Arcade Night. We’re also working on an exhibition catalogue that’ll be available on our website.”

Kitty Calis from Utrecht writes: “BROEIKAS was a three-month pop-up exhibition and workspace in the back of cafe BROEI. At its heart, BROEIKAS was a simple idea that arose from games being still intimidating to the outside world, not knowing that they can be more than Call of Duty. With free workspace for local designers and an exhibition of independent games, a bridge was created between developers and coffee lovers.”


Zuraida Buter writes: “In 2016 zo-ii curated Incubate Arcade together with Reverse Landfill for the Incubate festival in Tilburg (NL). Incubate Arcade 2016 explored intimacy, alternative controllers and the work by female indie devs in a 4-day exhibition with 35+ games & installations. During Incubate Arcade: Conversations, (international) artists shared their ideas and experiences with the audience through workshops, panels and talks.  zo-ii curates and documents events focused on playful culture and games. Check out the events calendar with events from around the world!”

Iris Peters from Amsterdam writes: “With Playful Arts Festival we ran a couple of events in 2016. We focused on the playful body this year and hosted masterclasses, workshops, talks and playful experiences in collaboration with other festivals. We also commissioned a playful labyrinth and worked with different universities & art schools, culminating in a one day event called Playful Arts Sessions, pictured above. Playful Arts Festival explores the intersection of interactive performing arts, visual art and playful design with a focus on social interaction and is an initiative of zo-ii and Wave of Tomorrow.”

Lorenzo Pilia writes: “The 5th edition of the A MAZE International Independent Videogames Festival took place in late April, as part of the International Games Week Berlin, attracting artists from all over of the world. It featured 3 days and nights of games (indoors, outdoors, in a pool!), talks, panels, workshops, screenings, awards, performances, parties, watermelons and the usual unclassifiable stuff which makes the event unique, such as Sos Sosowski’s Fire Truck Open Sound System (pictured above, image by Jens Keiner – see more here).”

Rebecca Cohen Palacios from Montreal writes: “Pixelles,​ in collaboration with​ Festival MontrĂ©al Joue​ and WB Games Montreal​, celebrated ​sixteen new makers who created their first game, from start to finish, in just six weeks. ​​With over 200 people attending the Pixelles Game Incubator showcase, we’re proud to have such a supportive community welcome new game developers to this medium. Bonus: PBS’ Qulture even featured this as a part of their documentary.”

Jo Summers from Brighton England writes: “As part of the Spring Forward Festival, and Women’s History Month, Press Fire to Win hosted Pixels and Prosecco, an evening of talks from women who create games, playful experiences and events, with fizzy wine and cake.  Speakers included: Alex Grahame, Helen Kennedy, Mink ette and Maf’j Alvarez. Photos here.  Pop up Arcade returned again to Brighton Digital Festival – bigger than ever before.  Featuring and supported once again by Unity. Photos here.”


Lujan Oulton from Buenos Aires writes: “Game on! El arte en juego organized a series of talks and game jams promoting women’s involvement in videogames and the use of games for serious causes. The highlight of the year was the ‘Sex & Games Jam’ promoting sexual rights and gender equality. ”

Last but not least, Ian Nakamoto from Vancouver sent some nice pics from the 3D modelling course he ran for Game Curious Vancouver! Many thanks to Maurice Grela, Leanne Roed and the Richmond Public Library team for coordinating the West Coast iteration of the Game Curious initiative.

Want more international inspiration? Check out our 2015 post. Do cool game arts stuff and would like to be included in a round-up next year? Email us!
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The Videogame Arts Around the World https://test.handeyesociety.com/2015/12/28/the-videogame-arts-around-the-world/ Mon, 28 Dec 2015 21:56:25 +0000 http://handeyesociety.com/?p=23377 As the last post recapped, we were pretty busy in Toronto in 2015. One of the things that keeps us inspired is seeing what other people are doing in the videogame arts community internationally — it shows us that we’re part of a growing movement of collectives and organizations that view videogames through an arts and culture lens. We put a call out to like-minded groups for their 2015 highlights and got 14 responses covering over a dozen cities: Montreal, Cape Town, Kyoto, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, London, Helsinki, Chicago, Melbourne, Perth, Brighton, Austin, and Vancouver. Enjoy!


lyst2Helsinki

Patrick Jarnfelt writes: “The Lyst Summit aims to bring light and love to a somewhat controversial subject in games; even though romance, love and sex are some of the most natural aspects of human behaviour, it is not portrayed very often, or very well in games. In 2015 our symposium was held at the cosy WHS teatteri Union, Helsinki, and afterwards we travelled to the beautiful island Vartiosaari, close to Helsinki city center. The island is inhabited by a handful of artists and we were camping there.”


summitVancouver

Alex Vostrov writes: “The big event for Full Indie in Vancouver was the 2015 Summit. We’ve had 500+ indies come together to mingle and to listen to some great speakers. We had Valve do a live VR demo, the Darkest Dungeon team talk about navigating Early Access, Matt Thorson discuss Towerfall design and a bunch more. You can check out recordings of the talks here.”


 

12321122_1236032529748276_7117894327583844144_nAustin

Wiley Wiggins writes: “This year Juegos Rancheros partnered with Humble Bundle to put together a weekly bundle full of games from Fantastic Arcade, which raised money to commission 6 new games by indie developers, and funded the construction of six mini arcade cabinets that we used to bring the games to places like Fantastic Fest, Marfa Film Fest, and the Museum of Human Achievement. This was part of our continuing efforts to show off the creativity happening in the world of games to other arts and culture festivals.”


 

BitBashforHandEyeSociety

Chicago

Ryan Wiemeyer writes: “​​Bit Bash is an interactive arts festival that celebrates video games by throwing wickedly cool events in Chicago. At our 2015 event we had over 50 games, curated art exhibits, live music and over 1400 attendees. For info on upcoming events check out our website  or to see past events, check out our tumblr.”


 

pop-up-arcadeBrighton

Jo Summers writes: “Press Fire to Win hosted: Pop Up Arcade, a three-day event celebrating alternative games, with a party, games exhibition, and talks from developers and artists, as part of Brighton Digital Festival. In 2015 we had live music performances from Chipzel and Shirobon, and free beer kindly supplied by Unity! Press Fire to Win organises alternative games events and meet-ups in Brighton throughout the year – we have a Twitter, if you want to find out more.”


 

intimatePerth

Louis Roots writes: “After touring the western world for three months, including the spectacular Hand Eye Society Ball, the Perth-based SK returned to Australia and threw a party in Melbourne, on the one day between Australia’s big games conference, GCAP, and convention, PAXAUS. Featuring dick pic simulators and a controller made from sex toys, the show was a display of games that would never be represented in the mainstream, and it went amazingly until it was shut down by the cops. See the photos here.”


 

hovergarden (1)

Melbourne

Chad Toprak writes “In 2015, Hovergarden hosted ‘This Is Probably A Party‘, an afterparty for Freeplay, Australia’s longest running independent games festival. We had a lineup of over 15 international videogames for people to play together and around each other, at the rooftop pavilions of RMIT’s Design Hub in the heart of Melbourne. Hovergarden is a curatorial duo, co-directed by Chad Toprak and Andrew Brophy, and is dedicated to contributing to and celebrating the growing culture of independent games and the new arcade.”


 

teacade

Montreal

Rebecca Cohen Palacios writes: “Teacade was our lovely, afternoon tea parlour x arcade event. We had homemade treats, tea, amazing speakers who spoke on alt games/art, curated games, and quiet blanket forts for relaxing away from the crowds ♥ !”

princessofarcade_1stexport-8330

Carolyn Jong writes: “Princess of Arcade, the arcade party formerly known as Prince, was one of the biggest events of the year for the Mount Royal Game Society (MRGS). The radical party featured 15 wonderful games created by LGBTQA folk, people of color, and women, alongside two DJs, at a gorgeous club in Montreal’s Gay Village. For more info about MRGS, and the other events we run, check out our website or join our Facebook group.”


 

BitSummit3

Kyoto

Kelly Wallick writes: “BitSummit was founded 3 years ago and marked the first fully indie focused gaming event in Japan. Held each year in Kyoto it aims to support the growing independent developer community and shine an international spotlight on Japanese games. BitSummit 3, in 2015, was organized with the help of a newly formed collaboration of local and international companies called the Japan Independent Games Aggregate.”


 

5161e547-be4f-4661-aca0-04c3849e0c8d

Cape Town

Richard Pieterse writes: “2015 was the best year ever for Super Friendship Arcade! We threw four radical parties, built a bunch of new controllers, started a bevy of new games… Inspired by the work of Dames Making Games we formed our own organization The Amber Key Collaboratorium aiming to help bridge the space between the local game development scene and women who want in. The first two workshops were fantastically received and we are eagerly anticipating 2016!”


npt-joined-images

London

Holly Gramazio writes: “Now Play This is a new London festival of games and play – board games, street games, video games, playable drawings, anything that responds to the world through play. It ran at Somerset House from 4-6 September, combining existing games, new commissions, workshops and talks.”


 

Game on!Buenos Aires

Luján Oulton writes: “This time the main theme of Game on! El arte en juego was the DIY culture, we opened an international call and it resulted in over 20 works from Argentina, United States, Ireland, Italy, PerĂş and France. All in exhibit for 10 days within the principal public electronic cultural center of Buenos Aires: The Cultural San Martin.”


PAF_NewGameGrounds_2015

Amsterdam

Zuraida Buter writes: “New Gamegrounds was a two-day mini-festival that brought together the worlds of games, theater and performance. It featured talks, an exhibition, performances, games and a playful jam. During the jam artists, designers and performers got together to create playful works in 18 hours. The mini-festival was a collaboration between Playful Arts Festival, theater De Brakke Grond and zo-ii. Playful Arts Festival (PAF) continuously explores the cross-overs between interactive performing arts, visual art and playful design with a focus on social interaction.”


Do cool game arts stuff and would like to be included in a round-up next year? Email us!

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Whispering to Machines, Cleaning Couches, & Punching Everything: Some TOJam Reviews https://test.handeyesociety.com/2015/06/10/whispering-to-machines-cleaning-couches-punching-everything-some-tojam-reviews/ Thu, 11 Jun 2015 01:41:25 +0000 http://handeyesociety.com/?p=22493 [In honour of our friends at the Toronto Game Jam hitting their 10th (10th!) year, we asked Al Donato to write some capsule reviews of the games made last month over 3 days. You can check out 105 TOJam 10 games here. Congrats to everyone who made a game — these were just a few that caught Al’s eye.]

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Cosmic Couch Cleanup Chronicles by Camp Cult
Camp Cult perfectly captures the last-minute panic of cleaning filthy furniture in the equally alliterative Cosmic Couch Cleanup Chronicles, where you’ve been hired to clean someone’s couch for 27 seconds before their mom arrives. You’re not exactly in a living room. You and the disgusting couch transcend space and time, existing in a pocket dimension where the starry sky is eternally eating itself. A glitzy gold knockout title greets you before whisking you to your invisible boss. Storytelling is sparse. Your unseen host’s randomized laments before every round speak less than their mess. Watching incredulously as illicit substances, USB drives and forks spill from the cushions mimics real-life bewilderment at the knicknacks you’d find there in your own couch if you’d bother to clean (which you won’t, let’s be honest). There’s great satisfaction in indiscriminately vacuuming chunky low poly syringes, toonies, bobby pins and keys. All are equal in the void.[/vc_column][/vc_row]

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F Minus 1 by Infinite Solutions
If you thought Mario Kart‘s rainbow road was hard, this one will have you weeping uncontrollably. You pilot a red ship through the vast expanse of space, racing your way across a twisting techni-coloured highway as your spacecraft leaves trails of glittering stars. The game controls and the shtick of adhesing to walls are a steep learning curve. Drifting off-track happens frequently, so the quick restart function’s pretty handy. Still, losing’s pretty fun too – once you find yourself spinning out of control and falling into the abyss, cruising towards the massive planets you’ll never reach as the electro-synth music washes over.[/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Tentacular Madness by Ryan Miller
Lovecraftian’s the genre that keeps on giving, with the latest installment courtesy of this endless shooter. You zip around in a jetpack firing at a tentacled abomination, while evading the whipporwills chirping your ensuing death. The physics and player movement are well-executed, with every slight sway and drop into the sickly green fog escalating the atmospheric creepiness. Add in the growing bird frenzy following you, and the cosmic horror waiting below is all the more terrifying.[/vc_column][/vc_row]

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No Sudden Movements by World8
This simulation of a real-life encounter one of the developers had with a moose is short, but manages to recreate an essential Canadian experience – driving down an empty road in the middle of winter and peering into the dark ahead, watching for telltale antlers. Just do as the name says.[/vc_column][/vc_row]

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INFINIDEER by svblm
Svblm’s signature pastel savagery and quality music production collide to form the cheerfully fatal INFINIDEER. There’s something cathartic about this game. I don’t know if it’s being tasked as an endlessly reincarnating deer running headfirst into traffic or the relief of watching yourself getting rear-ended and causing a seven car pile-up. (The latter I can probably attribute to my recurring fantasy of some rich guy hitting me with his car and getting him to pay off my student debt, but whatever.)[/vc_column][/vc_row]

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The Arm by Dom+Nat
You are an arm named Arm and all you do is punch pig-snouted purple monsters until they burst into meat and bones. What more could you ask for? You can choose to charge your fist for a helluva knockout or rapid-fire punch like you’re from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. It deals less damage than the screen-shaking charged punch, but the satisfaction of seeing a flurry of fists onscreen is worth it. Kudos to the developers for making the monster’s quips charming as heck, as if they were greeting an old friend/opponent.[/vc_column][/vc_row]

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IT’SALLCOMETOTHIS by gemsoup
This two-player game is so not a staring contest. It’s the final showdown between bitter rivals (in this case, a goat, someone who looks like they stumbled out of a shoujo manga, and another who looks like an aged saiyan from Dragon Ball Z.) You just so happen to be fighting with your eyes. It can get pretty intense, but the occasional action panels flying behind them that are literally just close-ups of their eyes are hilarious.[/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Expong Whispers by Chris Baragar
A space sci-fi Twine game of bygone love, mutiny, eavesdropping and saving humanity. Also, you whisper “dicks” at a machine, so that’s pretty cool. Sci-fi jargon is explained through nifty, occasionally fourth wall-breaking, asides. Liked the varied ways hyperlinks would morph, sometimes into definitions or become truer meanings; a welcome change of pace from how many Twine games’ links lead down a rabbit hole of routine clicking to-and-fro. The writer’s voice is concise and dry, making fantastic use of timer functions and Twine’s interactivity to enhance the storyline.[/vc_column][/vc_row]

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NMTV by jeo77
Any game where the developers tells you the scores mean nothing and advise against running it for too long’s bound to be good or computer-crashing. In Neon Mountain Television’s case, it’s both. My system overloaded after the first minute into this. When I rebooted, a ton of my memory was eaten and I had to clear disk space just to finish writing this review. I can’t tell if this was intentional modern art shitnanigans meant as a metaphor for how MTV eats your brain, just a program glitch or some impressive melding of both. I guess that’s TOJam for you. If you’re into artsy OCAD stuff meets internet memes and tongue-in-cheek skit humour, you’ll dig this. (You can watch a playthrough of the game without fear of getting your computer messed with here.)[/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Our New Show About Toronto Game Culture https://test.handeyesociety.com/2015/03/16/our-new-show-about-toronto-game-culture/ Mon, 16 Mar 2015 15:37:43 +0000 http://handeyesociety.com/?p=22181 Launched for a live audience at our Annual General Meeting in January, you can now watch YYZ Gameshow episode 1 in its entirety online.

YYZ Gameshow is a new series about Toronto game culture that we’ve been working on with Curio and Bell Local, and is available on channel 1217 of Bell Fibe. Episode one features a piece on our first To the Streets guerrilla game exhibition; an artist profile on Hannah Epstein who made the games The Immoral Ms. Conduct and Psxxyborg; and a piece on last year’s Comics vs Games and Bento Miso’s Bit Bazaar.

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Watch them all or check out the trailer!

We are just starting on episode 2. If you want to get involved, we’re looking for:

  • Story ideas! Got an idea for an interesting game-related person, place, or thing?
  • Music! Got some amazing tunes we could use for the show?
  • Studio space! Got an interesting space we could shoot in for a bit?
  • Graphic artists! We need sharp segment graphics!
  • Sponsors! We have room for short spots at the end of the eps that go to our international online audience as well as Bell Fibe, a service with a subscriber reach of over a half a million across the GTA.

 

Email jim@handeyesociety.com if you would like to talk about any of the above.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch the segments as they’re released.

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