There’s a lot looming this month: a new prime minister, angry Thanksgiving squabbles, and untold skeleton war casualties. Thank the almighty spaghetti dad in the sky that October also means a whack of local indie game events, releases, and socials (including the biggest and most bloodcurdling party of the year, our very own Society Ball). Keep up with our discreet but flirty friend Google Calendar for events to be added as they are announced. 

WHERE TO JAUNT – Toronto Game Events

Friday, October 2

The good folks at the Toronto Reference Library are holding a free lecture on trends in game development, featuring Uken Games technical artist and digital creator Kyle Dwyer. His projects span video games, Twitterbots, and Vitual Reality (VR) exhibitions, so you best believe he knows trends.

Friday, October 2 to Sunday, October 4

Royal Ontario Museum’s final game jam will be a night to remember — if a night was actually three times as long and had copious junk food, sweating, and screaming at team members to haul ass. Theme this year is space rocks because, well, space rocks rock.

Saturday, October 3

Sheridan just keeps getting cooler. They’re holding Paper Bag jam over the weekend, where participants make non-digital games with simple items. While no videogames will be developed, game design skills honed during the jam are meant to be transferable to pixelated projects.

Friday, October 9

This is the night of our much anticipated Society Ball, the fancy videogame party you can’t stand to miss. For one thing, tickets are going like hotcakes that give you laser vision and nice teeth, which is to say, very fast, so get yours asap. We’ve got a games and cocktail preview and a FAQ for those who like some heads-up, but if you wanna wing it, we guarantee a good time.

And in another free lecture the following week, Dames Making Games (DMG) superstar Izzie Colpitts-Campbell will be talking about everybody’s favourite feminist game not-for-profit. So you might as well not leave after Dwyer’s talk and live at the library for a week. There’s good penny-fishing to be done at the foyer pond, and foraging in the hanging gardens. Word is they’ve even got books, if you’re so inclined.   

Tuesdays: October 13, October 20, and October 27

Dames Making Games is holding weekly introduction to Maya classes. The first is an intro to modelling held by Kimberly Koronya, who is so amazing that the first time we met I threw an apple across the room. Try not to do that when you’re learning how to make 3D assets in this class.

Thursday, October 15

imagineNATIVE film + media arts festival, the largest Indigenous arts festival in the world, is touching down in Toronto from October 14 to 18. On Thursday, expect gaming, virtual reality experiences and all things digital at the Digital Media Art+Cade. You’ll also be lucky enough to play games made in Indigicade, an incubator for Indigenous girls aged 15 to 24. Look out for Métis-Cree game developer Megan Bryne’s spirit world puzzle platformer Wanisinowin | Lost.

Also, teaser: there’s gonna be some virtual reality involving Tanya Tagaq and A Tribe Called Red. Just to remind you how fantastic they are, give your ears some love with Electric Pow Wow Drum and Uja.

Friday, October 16

Electric Perfume is a brand-spanking new Danforth studio space where interactive and immersive projects will be built, play-tested, and exhibited with a focus on public feedback and learning! The launch party is Friday evening, exact time TBD. Website, launch party and submission details are forthcoming, but you can subscribe to their Facebook page to keep afloat of new updates.

 

WHERE TO HAUNT – Socials and Meetups

Friday, October 2

Launch party on Friday. You know you gotta. Invisible Locomotive, a new video game collective in the GTA, is releasing Mango Deathwish and In A Flash. They’re promising a night of live music and game demos; notably, In A Flash is the futuristic story of a sex worker-turned-detective that’s actually donating 10 per cent of its revenue to the PACE Society, a British Columbia-based organization by and for sex workers.

Thursday, October 8

The Unreal Engine Toronto group’s having their first ever meetup at Town Crier Pub, starting at 7 p.m. All skill levels and involvement with Unreal are welcome.

Saturday, October 10

Toronto Gaymers’ board game night at Glad Day Bookshop, starts at 7 p.m.

Saturday, October 17

Dames Making Games: October Speakers’ social at Bento Miso, starts at 6:30 p.m. and features Macy Kuang of MiaoMiao Games.

Wednesday, October 28

Torontaru: Monthly social at Get Well, starts at 8 p.m.

Thursday, October 29

Dreadcade, Dames Making Games’ Halloween party and bash, starts at 7:30 p.m. and ends when the dead rise. We’ll update when there’s more info, but for now, DMG members can sign up to showcase their spookiest games.

On the same night, Toronto Gaymers are holding an encore board game night at Mind Games Cafe, starting at 7 p.m.

 

#ICYMI

#ItWasFate – Fate Tectonics launched on Steam last month, a world-builder where you try to keep on the good side of the divine Fates.

#SoundsOoky — Ookpixels, Canada’s premier long-form publication for videogames, has a podcast running just for Patreon subscribers. Their September podcast just aired, but there’s still time to contribute in time for this month.

#Continue? – The social gaming group Level 25 is on hiatus until they can find a new venue. Their last meetup at Bitmaker Labs had them raffling gift certificates, holding tournaments, and giving pizza. If you know a place they can crash (they have their own equipment and want to pay reasonable rates), let the organizers know.

#GOBLUEJAYS – Not videogame related at all, but GO JAYS GO.

#AdiósIceman – Iceman Games in Kensington is no more. You can still visit their Queen Street West location, which is good news if you’re a Hand Eye Society Member  — not to brag, but we get a pretty good discount there. Okay, we’re totally bragging, but you can always join our illustrious ranks and sign up.

#GETTHEGOAT – Toronto Game Jam veterans from Juicy Beast released Toto Temple Deluxe, out on Xbox One, PS4, WiiU and Steam.

 

Coming Attractions

P.A.M.E.L.A., by Mississauga-based NVYVE Studios snagged #1 on Steam Greenlight. It’s no wonder, because their open world survival horror is one of the most gorgeous games to come out of Sauga. You can’t help but marvel at how beautiful the graphics are, making their 2016 release date a hard wait.

 

Paper Trails – Gaming In The Media

Kill Screen called Damian Sommer’s Chesh the “drunken, rule-breaking sister of chess.” So yeah, more incentive to come play it at the Society Ball.

Toronto-based Inuit filmmaker Nyla Innuksuk is doing really cool things with virtual reality. In a VICE interview, she speaks about how she’s always centering her work around her home in Nunavut. She’s also a part of Pinnguaq, the studio behind the game Art Alive.

Chris de Castro’s Wizards in Trinity-Bellwoods got coverage from the Toronto Star that he can show his nanay.

The Star also did a piece on the clock-building hackathon inspired by Ahmed Mohamed, where young makers tinkered with time-telling.

Mobile Syrup featured Drinkbox Studios’ newest game, Severed, which will likely be released on mobile soon.

We’re going to give a shout out to our Quebecer friends. Set in Montreal, Missing: An Interactive Thriller was featured in the National Post and is described as an escape room experience turned into a videogame. Which is weird, when escape rooms were inspired by videogames…*insert outdated Inception joke here*

 

MVP

This month’s MVP is Leisha-Marie Riddel, creator of Project Solace and designer at Guru Studio. We’re featuring here because she’s cool and doing cool things in the community, like posting stunning character art on her Tumblr, volunteering for Dames Making Games, and speaking out about making events safer spaces; she managed to rouse up a code of conduct at Torontaru that’ll keep creepy behaviour at bay. She’ll be a speaker at GaymerX this year, a gaming convention and queer space in sunny San Jose welcoming all gamers. She’s doing a fundraiser to cover travel expenses, so chip in if you want to help a starving artist feed herself a little more around December holidays.

…Okay, we’re mostly featuring her because SHE SAW THE WHITE SQUIRREL!

 

A BREADWINNER IS YOU – JOBS, GIGS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Pop Up Arcade Callout – the very cool Amanda Wong is looking for video game developers to showcase at a pop-up in Ryerson University’s Student Learning Centre. She’s doing the arcade for her Master Thesis, and is hoping to show games by anyone in the city — be they finished, incomplete, commercial, indie, whatever. And hey, you’ll be able to say your work graced the same campus as Drake did that one time, so message a10wong@ryerson.ca if you’re interested.   

If you’re a student with a disability, you can apply for the $50,000 AbleGamer Fellowship. They’re looking for students with disabilities in a computer science program focusing on videogame development. Deadline’s Halloween, so be sure to submit before then.

Wordplay, our free interactive fiction festival, is in early November. Still a ways to go, but let us know if you can volunteer!

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This digest is brought to your screens by the Hand Eye Society, a Toronto videogame arts non-profit organization. You can become a member by volunteering over 10 hours or donating $7 a month. Perks include a free game a month, discounts all over the 6ix, and exclusive access to the best pocket dimensions. And if you sign up for a year, you get free entry to this year’s Society Ball!

if you like what you’ve read or want to see your game/event/initiative featured, let us know at calendar@handeyesociety.com, @handeyesociety or @gollydrat on Twitter! 8)