Attention Hand Eye Pals,

On May 25th, from 4pm on, representatives from Valve will be in Toronto to talk about submitting, marketing & powering your games with Steam.

Join the Steam reps at the Gladstone Hotel Ballroom (where our Hand Eye socials have been lately) for the session, and then let Valve buy you a couple round of beers!

Space is **very** limited so please RSVP to nathan.v@capybaragames.com with STEAM RSVP in the subject soon if you’re interested. In your RSVP please provide your name & what studio you’re from (if any). Please note that due to limited space we’re asking that you only RSVP for one person per studio. If there’s space left over (there won’t be) then we’ll open it up to more per studio.

This is a great opportunity to learn about, and interact with, one of the best distribution channels available for independent developers… so get RSVP’ing!

And of course, a huge thanks to Valve for setting this up!

Take a peak at the flyer for all the details.

 

Come play the awesome games in the trailer at our Comics VS Games closing reception Thursday, May 3rd (7-10pm) at Magic Pony (Artists in attendance, RSVP via FACEBOOK) or check them out at TCAF on the weekend.

Matt Hawkins has written up a post about the first day of the Comics VS Games show at Magic Pony with lots of sweet pics!

But now, you can put a fork in them, cuz they’re done! Catch the Humber College Game Programming student showcase on Monday April 23rd starting at 6PM. The best news is that you don’t have to cross the river to attend: they’re bringing the games downtown to the the ING Direct Cafe at 221 Yonge.

Here’s a map

And here’s a list of the games you’ll see during the event:

6pm – Introductions

6:30pm – 7pm – Series of 5 minute presentations

• Stephanie: Sheep Sweep (ActionScript, Away3D)

  A herding game where the player’s goal is to realistically drive a flock of sheep across a field of obstacles
  and into pens.

• Jordan: The Pool (Ogre, Bullet, C++)

  Guide a pair of robots with different abilities, getting them to cooperate in order to defeat enemies and solve puzzles.

• Devon: Planet Towor (UDK, UnrealScript)

  A tower defense game in which the user must fend off increasingly difficult waves of enemies by upgrading and strategically placing towers.

• Kyle: Block Academy (Unity, C#, Objective C)

  An augmented reality puzzle game in which users build shapes in 3D space by positioning a series of differently behaving blocks.

• Martin: Immersion (Unity, C#, JavaScript)

  An FPS shooter that’s based inside a computer game. The player has to fight their way out of the game.

7pm – 7:30pm – Break and student demos

7:30pm – 8pm – Series of 5 minute presentations

• Jaleel: Capstone Temple (UDK, UnrealScript, ActionScript)

  An action RPG in which the hero must pass through an ancient temple facing new enemies he has never
  seen before and passing tests in order to reach the temple guardian.

• Wayne: Robot Sergeants (Ogre, Bullet, C++)

  A third-person shooter where robots seek to destroy each other using guns!

• Kanghee: Paper Wings (Unity, JavaScript, C#)

  A flight race game where two players compete with each other based on how many rings they collect in
  a limited time.

• Stephen: Tank Commander (OpenGL, C++)

  A 3D real time strategy game where the player commands their tanks to destroy the enemies.

• Steven: Legend of the Elements (Unity, JavaScript, C#)

  Battle your way through demons in this first-person action RPG.

8pm – 8:30pm – Break and student demos

8:30pm – 9pm – Series of 5 minute presentations

• David: Bullet Server (Ogre, Bullet, C++)

  Multiplayer Doom combined with Mario Kart Battle mode.

• Derek: Ballin’ (OpenGL, Cocos2D, Box2D, C++, Objective C)

  A charming and addictive physics puzzler.

• John: Quarantine T.O. (XNA, C#)

  A top-down shoot ‘em up zombie apocalypse survival game.

• Daniel: Teleportals (DirectX9, Havok, C++)

  A portal puzzle game.

9pm – Closing remarks

ZED is an immersive narrative experience that simulates an end of the world scenario and encourages its participants to engage with the story through various mediums… By charting the rise and fall of ByoLogyc, a fictional biotech corporation, ZED is an investigation into the hubris of mankind in its hurry to innovate and improve itself – regardless of the price.

Hi everyone, another TIFF Nexus conference and jam is just around the corner, April 20th. With the Hand Eye Society as one of the leading partners you may find it interesting if you’re making games, involved with youth, education, or interested in where media is heading.

What is it?

TIFF Nexus is an “initiative designed to equip Ontario storytellers with the network, skills and partners they need to succeed in the rapidly evolving digital media landscape“… or put another way, creative people across industries joining to talk about the future and making interesting things.

April 20th’s event is the third instalment and focuses on New Media Literacies – these are the skills needed to navigate, create, and participate in the connected world. You probably use many of them without knowing it but a lot of folks don’t. Scary? An opportunity? We’ll be talking about this and how human-media interactions are changing, particularly around youth and education.

Why should you come?

As game makers, you can’t just be making games anymore – the line between games and other forms of media is blurring.

Film: Uncharted, God of War, and most any AAA title liberally uses cinema techniques to tell story, MGS4 is practically five movies with gameplay intermissions, and it’s no accident Journey is no longer than a feature film.

Music/Sound: Silent Hill wouldn’t be very frightening without Akira Yamaoka’s haunting compositions, Jim Guthrie’s Sword and Sworcery Ballad of the Space Babies soundtrack could be released as an album with no mention of a game at all, and well, Guitar Hero and Rockband used to be something right?

Social Media: In indie, no game succeeds without a social media campaign; it can weave into the story and add to the experience (when done well); and social marketing companies like Zynga have even started making games.

The Internet (of Things): As the machines around us become connected with one another, new gameplay possibilities emerge and when machines take over the world they might be more lenient if us humans amuse them.

The future of games is in the mixing and connecting of different industries. Many smart folks participating in these industries come together at Nexus and hopefully games are nicely represented by you.

I’m Still Here

Tickets are $30 for students (with student ID), $60 for industry (if you make games that’s you), and $99 for the public.

It starts at 1pm and ends in the evening with an open bar mixer and presentation of the experimental creations of the Youth New Media Literacy Jam. Maybe we’ll see you there?

Links
Schedule
Speakers
Events
Youth Media Literacy Jam

U of T prof Steve Engels writes:

This year’s event is going to be even bigger than last year’s, if that’s possible. Last year, UofT’s computer science students and OCAD U’s design students demonstrated the games they collaborated on, along with students from UOIT. Not only are the games even better this year, but Seneca, George Brown and Humber will also be sending students to show off their games at this event! It’ll be huge, so we want to make sure that the game design community hears about this event, and gets a chance to come by and take a look

The projects are built with the same casual gaming theme as last year. We had to move from the Lightbox to the Courthouse though, in order to accommodate the huge number of students who will be displaying their creations this year!

It’s happening Monday April 2nd and we have an event page on Facebook, if people would like to sign up there or pass that on.

Adam Proctor from Uken writes:

I wanted to invite you to the MolyJam Toronto Event on the weekend of March 30th to April 1st.  Molyjam is a 48-hour global game jam based on the tweets of Peter Molydeux. (www.whatwouldmolydeux.com)

We’re going to be hosting it in the Uken Games office downtown.  If you’re interested in coming, the event details are posted on facebook here.

If you know anybody else that may be interested, please feel free to spread the word.

Canadians @ GDC 2011

Hey everyone,

I’m doing another Canadians @ GDC photo this year – it’s nice having a souvenir of that moment in time with great friends in a great place and the birthplace of internet memes.

I won’t know when and where the photo will be until I have a chance to scout Moscone. I will send out one email with all the details so if you want to join us, sign-up to the mailing list.

Follow arrow to mailing list ==> http://eepurl.com/jan-P

Also, feel free to pass this on (or come along with) others, not just Canucks. We do a “world” photo afterwards. Good times.

See you in SF!

Rabo.

GameChangers is a game design competition for diverse teams to collaborate, network, support and mentor people in software and game development. No game experience necessary — people bring an interest to collaborate and learn along the way. We’ve got amazing response from students in comp sci and professional coders who are into making games as a creative outlet and building community.

It all started with the goal to increase the number of women in tech.  We’re excited that this creative hands-on project has emerged as a way to help make this happen by creating mentoring relationships. Both men and women are welcome to participate.

Interested in being on a team? Come out to the Open House on this Sat Feb 4th from 4pm – 6pm.

Interested in giving direction or feedback as a mentor? Shoot over an email.

Mare Sheppard and Mark Rabo have contributed posts to the GameChangers blog.

We’re not doing a Hand Eye Social in February, so we’re co-presenting D-Pad instead. D-Pad is a new series at Interaccess, an art gallery that has hosted the Torontron, put on by Skot Deeming, the organizer of Winnipeg’s Data Dances and other videogame event goodness.

Friday Feb. 3rd, door at 8pm (performances at 9:30)
Interaccess Gallery (9 Ossington Ave. at Queen W.)
$5

Check out the Interaccess page and the Facebook page.