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.

D.A.R.C. Productions’ Troy Morrissey and Toronto Skillswap’s Randy Orenstein are organizing the Toronto instance of the Global Game Jam.

It’s happening at George Brown College, Jan 27-29.

From the GGJ FAQ:

The GGJ brings together talented individuals from within your community. It is a unique opportunity for people to push their skills and challenge their way of working. Participants work concurrently with developers around the globe; we rally around a central theme, and then have 48 hours to create a game.

To find out how to register for this free event check out the official site.

If you’re interested in helping out (especially if you’re able to sponsor snacks or photograph the event) get in touch with them.

Friday, December 9
1pm to 7:30pm
TIFF Bell Lightbox

Subscribers to the The Hand Eye Society blog get a discount on the Women in Film, Games and New Media Conference — you can get industry tickets for $60 for the day here.

There’ll be time to meet the creators and play the videogames made through our Difference Engine Initiative  if you missed your chance at our community presentations, a keynote by Leigh Alexander (who wrote this Gamasutra article about the DEI), and a panel with some of the DEI participants and Mare Sheppard hosted by Jade Raymond. Some promo copy:

Come meet the filmmakers, game developers, interactive producers, broadcasters, creative agencies, technology hackers and transmedia storytellers who can help your upcoming projects succeed in our evolving media landscape. In partnership with WIFT-T, this fantastic learning and networking opportunity is designed to introduce creators to emerging media technologies as well as offer them unique chances to meet professionals from across diverse sectors.

We’re just one week away

For a glimpse at some of the neat things going on, check out our infographics-loving poster, snazzily designed by Benjamin Rivers!

The Gamercamp app, powered by Guidebook, was just released and is the best and easiest way to organize your time at the festival. Just head to m.guidebookapp.com and you’ll find our event listed on the home page. If you have an Apple or Android smartphone, you can download the Guidebook app and search for Gamercamp in it—one advantage is that the app saves the information locally, so even if you lose connectivity, you still have that goodness available.

We also have news that 12 brave competitors will be entering into Gamercamp Stadium for our Iron Chef Competition held on Friday as part of MakerU! Co-organized with Game Prototype Challenge, the Iron Chef Competition will be an intense three-hour jam where our competitors will have to make up a game around a secret ingredient.

In addition to Iron Chef, MakerU is an afternoon of creating where attendees can try their hands at video games, board games (with Board Game Jam co-organizer Adam Clare), and physical games (with Recess.TO’s David Fono and Kate Raynes-Goldie).

Finally, we need some help. We’re bringing back the 8-Bit Cereal Breakfast, where attendees are encouraged to dress in their pajamas, bring a bowl and spoon, and prepare for a fun morning of cereal and cartoons. Except we need to decide what cereals to bring: head over the our Facebook page to answer what we should feature for Lv3. Crushed cookie bits, anyone?

If you haven’t picked up your passes yet, do so now! Grab some buds and get set for what is destined to be another epic festival. Full details are available at www.gamercamp.ca!

Thanks and see you there! 

- Jaime

[Bonus Gamercamp content unlocked: Listen to this TIG Podcast interview with GC organizers Jaime and Mark!]

Wednesday November 23rd (doors at 7pm, start-time 7:30)
CSI Annex (720 Bathurst St., south of Bloor)
Free

The second round of the Difference Engine Initiative, a six week gamemaking incubator for women, is nearly over and we will be presenting the games that they made at the Centre for Social Innovation. The gamemakers will be presenting lightning talks about their games and their experiences making them. Una Lee, who co-facilitated the incubator with Sagan Yee, will be introducing them.

Check out some photos to see what the first round game presentation was like, and the first round games themselves here. It’ll be a great way to gear up for Gamercamp on the weekend!

The first and second rounds of the Difference Engine Initiative are part of the OMDC-funded TIFF Nexus.

The Toronto Animation Arts Festival International (TAAFI) is hosting an animation industry night this Thursday in support of the launch of their fest next summer. Tickets and more info available here.

Our newest indie arcade cabinet, the Torontron Twinstick, will be released at the event. Curated by Jim McGinley, this cab features dual joystick games made in our fair city: that’s twice the stick of the original Torontron, folks. Warning: early field tests at the Toronto Underground Cinema and Mississauga’s Celebration Square indicate that exposure to the Twinstick can cause intense excitement and spontaneous geekgasms. Luckily, usage will be monitored by cross-media HES member Matt Hammill.

The TAAFI folks have told us that their fest is about the animation arts, not just the linear cartoon form, and that they want to showcase videogame work as well. It’s happening June 22-23 2012 at the TIFF Bell Lighbox and they’re starting to take submissions in January. More details here.

This Friday has a ton of awesome stuff happening.

The TIFF Nexus Locative Media Innovation Day at Digifest features the unveiling of the Peripherals initiative, the results of what happens when you mate hardware hackers w/gamemakers. That’s a ticketed event, but the TOJam Arcade at 7pm is a free event for the public to play the games made during the last 3-day jam. (The arcade will be running on Saturday as well.)

Site 3 is throwing a Mad Engineer’s Ball Hallowe’en Party from 9pm-2am, $5, prizes for costumes. Knowing these creative makers the competition will be pretty fierce!

Toronto Skillswap is the product of large quantities of beer and gumption, both found at a Hand Eye Social earlier this summer. Michael Todd, Fernando Restituto, and I got to chatting about the huge pool of skills in the Toronto game community, and how cool it would be if we could all get together occasionally and teach each other things. I went home and created the group on Facebook, Fernando and Michael have provided a ton of support, and now here we are. A few months later, the group had over 100 local developers and artists and has weekly events booked into December.

DEI co-coordinator Mare MC'ed the evening...

...where the participants presented their games...

...and people enjoyed them.

Special guest Erin Robinson did a talk that ended with a demo of her new secrit game project...

...and bountiful applause.

Delightful Socializing ensued.

Want more? Check out Arun’s full photoset of the event!

Curious to see what what went down in the actual incubator sessions? Check out participant recaps of sessions one, two and three!