Super Street Fire

Our Toronto hardware hacker pals at Site 3 have another awesome project getting started and they’re looking for videogame maker involvement.

SUPER STREET FIRE: TURBO CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION is a simulated fighting game in the style of Street Fighter. However, instead of playing a traditional video game, the participants interact with the game with motions and thoughts. Instead of an actual fight, the participants face off by controlling a two-dimensional wall of fire, creating flames of their own color to attack and defend.

Check this out for the kind of help they’re looking for, where they’re planning to stage it and other details.

Also, if you haven’t checked it out, their Thursday open nights are a great way to get to see some projects and talk to some folks.

The Arcadian Renaissance Games

Less than twenty four hours til the beginning of the Arcadian Renaissance! In the atrium of the TIFF Bell Lightbox there now looms a huge white iceberg, a white tarp covering an entire arcade of Toronto indie games to be unveiled to the public tomorrow… but we wanted to give the Hand Eye Society members a little sneak peak.

Here are the six games to be showcased at Nuit Blanche tomorrow.

Cabinet sponsored by:

A two-player game where you play a ladyscientist or her robot butler fighting to keep your cottage cephalopod-free. Now with sound guaranteed to send you spinning into a Lovecraftian fever dream.

More about Cephalopods: Co-op Cottage Defence.

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Cabinet sponsored by:
In the tradition of  the Japanese shmups, or abstract shoot-em-ups, is a game backed by gentle indie rock explosions, procedural graphics and a singular artistic vision.

Find out more about Everyday Shooter here.

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Cabinet sponsored by:
You play a tiny green pig who lures monsters to their doom with your delicious balls of snot.  Loved for its gorgeously expressive hand-drawn animation, this is the long-awaited new version’s debut.

Find out more about Gesundheit! here.

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Cabinet sponsored by Metanet Software:

The classic physics platformer has been adapted to a two-player arcade cabinet, with co-op play and a revamped health mechanic.

Find out more about N here.

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Cabinet sponsored by:
Eject mass to propel yourself. Absorb and grow. Zoom out for the big picture. An ambient videogame in the best sense. [Update: Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties we could not showcase Osmos & instead swapped in the original Torontron games.]

Find out more about Osmos here.

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Cabinet sponsored by:

Take a weird, roundabout trip through a minimalist landscape, with only one button to push.

Find out more about Silent Skies here.

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See you tomorrow between sundown and sunrise! The Nidhogg tournament at midnight is sure to be a crazy bloodbath.

The Arcadian Renaissance Flyer

Saturday, October 2, 2010.
Sundown (6:57 p.m.) to sunrise
Midnight Nidhogg tournament
The Atrium of TIFF Bell Lightbox, 350 King St. W. at John
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Exhibit #51 (Zone C)
Free

Please spread the linkage widely!

Your Game on an Indie Arcade Cabinet!

The first time you saw the Torontron, did you think “How can I get a game on there?” Well, Hand Eye needs 18 games to fill 3 new Torontron-style cabinets. This is your chance to have your game played by the public on an old-school machine.

Requirements:

• created by Toronto-area developers
• compatible with one of our control schemes (see below)
• runable on a 3 gigahertz Windows box with an okay graphics card
• submitted to info@handeyesociety.com by September 15th, 2010

Control Schemes (6 games per machine):

• Torontron Classic: one eight-way joystick and a button
• Mousey McTrackball: a trackball with two buttons
• The 2UP: two eight-way joysticks with two buttons apiece

The trackball means we can support games that require mice! And the 2UP can be used both for 2 player games or for 1 player games that need two sticks.

What we’re looking for:

• approachable arcade-suitable gameplay, “pick up and play”
• game can’t be too complicated, any instructions must be simple
• quality and originality of graphics and sound
• per-cabinet diversity of games
• existing/older games are acceptable, but we prefer new
• short games are fine

One cabinet will be installed for 6+ months at the new TIFF Bell Lightbox and another at the OMDC office, both places where interesting cultural intersections happen. One will be on tour like the Torontron has been.

Send us a link to your game along with installation instructions so we can download and evaluate it (using a mouse/keyboard/360 controller). If you’re improving a game that’s already publicly available (TOJam, Gamma, Artsy Game Incubator), mention what has changed since we have likely played the existing version. Additionally, let us know what cabinet control scheme(s) your game sould be considered for. More schemes means a better chance of having your game chosen. If your game is selected, it will need to be re-jigged to support the cabinet controls.

We will provide short feedback upon request, and be as transparent as possible about our selection process. We will get back to people by October 15th, with the cabinets being released in November.

If there are questions, and I’m sure there are many, please leave them as comments on this post.

Note: Due to different objectives, and a small number of slots, these games will likely NOT be part of the upcoming Nuit Blanche Arcadian Renaissance event. Updates on that coming soon!

The Arcadian Renaissance

The Indie Arcade Cabinet, the Torontron, is currently one of a kind and consequently much in demand. It popped by the Toronto Comic Arts Festival at the Toronto Reference Library and before that was at the Flash in the Can Festival at the Hilton. After having been at the fine Function 13 gallery for the last month, it’s moved to InterAccess for June and July.

The Torontron spews delight, causing exclamations of “awesome!” and inspiring high-fives where ever it goes. A classic arcade cabinet retrofitted to play modern local indie games, what could be better?

How about SIX of them?

Nuit Blanche, the all night art thing that attracted close to a million people last year, has accepted the Hand Eye Society as a partner in its 2010 event on Oct. 2. We’re planning to present not just the Torontron, but a full arcade of indie goodness for the event in something we’re calling The Arcadian Renaissance. The venue? The atrium of the new TIFF Bell Lightbox at King and John.

As well as the Toronto International Film Festival support, we’ve gotten sponsorship from Metanet, Spyeart, and ][ so far.

Email us if you can help with any of the following:

• Sponsor a cabinet for $1000. Show your indie support and get your name/logo in front of a massive audience. What happens to the cabinet after Nuit Blanche? Well, either your machine is made available to the public with your logo on it, or you can have it for your home or office (provided the Society can borrow it when needed). Also, going halfsies on it with someone else ($500/$500) is fine too.
• Donate some hardware to the project. We need 20″ or bigger displays (TV/CRT/LCD), PCs (boxes/laptops), arcade cabinets — send us the specs and we’ll tell you if we can use it. The less we have to buy the more money we have to do more projects.
• Volunteer your time. If getting local indie games in front of a million people sounds like something you can get behind, let us know if you’d be into helping out with logistics, documentation, promotion, design, or construction. The only way this thing has gotten rolling is thanks to the involvement of members like Peter Marshall and Nick Pagee.

It’s gonna be sweet!