The Comics x Games 2021 Mega-Blog!
Let’s just get straight to it! Here’s our Mega-Blog, including all our Speakers, Game Jam Participants, Games, Comics x Games Festival Schedule and more! Support all these incredible people!
Game Jammers!
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Jasmine Noseworthy Persaud
Miss You, Love
Jasmine Noseworthy Persaud is a chronically ill, nonbinary digital media artist of Guyanese and English descent living in Toronto. They create work around embodiment – part of an intentional practice to honour the body. They are particularly interested in drawing connections between micro and macro levels of intimacy, interdependence, and care. Chosen media include: illustration, poetry, and film.
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Bell Bookmark Subscribe
I am a Brooklyn-born artist with a passion for storytelling. Being a curious kid at heart and a scientist in training, I love exploring different ways to make art and to have people interact with that art. I dream to become an expert in drastic measures, bizarre characters, and mind-tingling worlds.
Freelance game designer and occasional event organizer. I release free experimental games pretty often.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Erica Lee & Kaelan Doyle Myerscough
The Faceless City
A concept artist and illustrator that absolutely loves buying plushies and dreams of becoming a knight. Also, enjoys creating stories and playing games!
Kaelan Doyle Myerscough is a trans/nonbinary critical creator, game designer and academic interested in the theory and praxis of worldbuilding. They make games and organize game jams about speculation, complex collaboration and rethinking the relationship between play and locality.
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Untitled
Kelly K is an illustrator and cartoonist who spends half their time in Toronto and the other half on the net. If they’re not at home browsing the internet (for research), reading comics (for research), or playing RPGs (also for research), they’re most likely drawing OCs or journaling.
Droqen makes beautiful playable gardens! I make frustrating nightmare mountains! I make games and videogames and all sorts of other things.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Elijah Forbes & Bryan Depuy
B-Sides
Elijah Forbes is a Two Spirit transgender creative who creates content that focuses on life beyond a gender binary, and the lifeways of Indigenous people. He works on the community level to create access to arts education regardless of economic status.
Bryan Depuy (he/him or they/them) is a queer white settler artist, punk, and DIYer. he develops tiny video games, writes speculative fiction, and records very loud music. on & offline, he aspires to balance creative practice with accountability to the people and communities who inspire and challenge him.
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MAY 8TH – 12TH, 2021
ONLINE via Twitch!
Schedule!
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[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Speakers!
Lina Wu
New Ways to Love You
New Ways to Love You explores the legacy of zines as responses to video games, centering pre-existing fanzines and how fan culture influences the creative process. Questions include: How is fan work perceived or misconceived in the arts? What compels us to respond to games with our own narratives and ephemera, and what are we building and expressing together? Do these works function as responses, or do they actually change the way we play and love video games?
Alex Rushdy
Bringing Comic Book Monsters to Life
I discuss how to blend 2D and 3D assets, complex shaders, and unique animation workflows to create a unique comic book aesthetic through our upcoming game, Dawn of the Monsters. Our process doesn’t require fancy tech, just fancy technique! I also compare and contrast various approaches to bringing comic books and manga to life on the video game screen and where our approach aligns and differs.
Jedidjah Julia Noomen
Words without audio, or how comics taught me to write for voiceless game characters.
When I started out in game writing, I had many years of experience in film, tv and theatre. But the first games I wrote for, had no voice overs… I had to write for (limited) animated characters with text balloons, and suddenly, half of my jokes and nuanced one-liners fell flat, because there wasn’t an actor to give them the right tone of voice. In a bid to learn how to write non-voiced game dialogues, I turned to one of my other favorite story-telling art forms: comics. This is what I learnt.
Geoffrey Golden
Now You’re Playing with Panels: The Art of Gamebook Comics
You’re not just a reader with gamebook comics. You’re the hero! Imagine a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book, only with panels instead of text blocks, and monsters to battle with dice rolls. We’ll take a look at the legacy of solo comic gamebooks, from the obscure British comic Diceman (1986) to Marvel’s You Are Deadpool (2018). How are these games designed? What elements do they draw from video games, tabletop RPGs, and interactive fiction? Are they fun? Turn the page and find out.
LeeAnne Ireland
Indigenous Storytelling in Comics
In this talk, we will explore how Indigenous teachings, learning and storytelling is a great mechanism to building the foundation of comics, graphic novels and games. The talk will also explore how to incorporate Indigenous processes, parallel ways of knowing and ceremony into the process to ensure it is as meaningful as the end product. Lastly, people will have an opportunity to explore some of the behind the scenes ways that we created our popular graphic novels into virtual reality game experiences.
Sharang Biswas
Understand Comics / Understanding Games: Examining Games Through the Scott McCloud Lens
What can comics teach game designers? How are the visual and interactive arts related? In an increasingly interdisciplinary world, studying an art form through the lens of an another, seemingly unrelated field can yield insights and breakthroughs that defy current expectations of art. In this talk, we’ll be examining games and game-design through Scott McCloud’s classic text UNDERSTANDING COMICS.
Bahiyya Khan
Environmental storytelling in the absence of context
This talk will focus on how screenshots from vignette video games that rely on environmental storytelling as a narrative device can exist as a comic when placed out of context as well as how the environmental storytelling present in a comic can be transmuted into a vignette video game. The talk also explores the different mediums approach to environmental storytelling with video games looking at player agency and interpretation and comics relying more on traditional exposition.
Sara Alfageeh & Meg McCurdy
Sara’s Twitter | Meg’s Twitter
Sequential Storytelling: A Look At Table-Top Roleplaying games
Sitting with Sara Alfageeh and Meg McCurdy, creative director and lead artist of ONE MORE MULIVERSE.Talking about visual storytelling by game devs with one foot in comics and the other in table top roleplaying games. Looking at how artists bring over storytelling concepts from one to the other. Understanding how visuals allow us to “move at the speed of story”, and what that means.
Games!
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It is many years into the future. A wealthy and powerful person (or persons) has claimed a rare and much sought after prize: the “vault” of 200 unreleased (this is real!) songs from renowned Canadian pop artist, CARLY RAE JEPSEN. Hired by an anonymous sponsor, your team of highly trained individuals will raid a well-defended location to retrieve said item. From planning to set-up to execution, you will see this heist through to its completion, whether that be a success or failure. There will many twists and turns along the way, and don’t always trust the specialists by your side.
Time Bandit is a dark life sim where everything you do takes time. Place down a robot to push a box for you, and it will take an actual half an hour to finish. By saving the game and coming back periodically to make progress, you are invited to explore your habits, rituals, and experience of time in general, particularly as it relates to work and exploitation.
Keyword is a near-future cyberpunk 3D detective-thriller game about a private investigator searching for his missing daughter. Players will take on the role of a private investigator and father to an 18-year-old girl, use their observation and deduction skills, coupled with their tech-savviness, hacking around social media accounts and websites in order to unravel the threads surrounding the mystery of the missing daughter.
Questlike: Pocket is a mobile, monster-hunting RPG where you battle monsters and craft awesome gear. Get swept up in the Rhythm of the Hunt- Time your attacks to best your fearsome foes and secure your place as the world’s top-ranked Hunter!
“There will always be comfort in knowing that you are comprised of other’s parts- because then, you can never be truly alone.” Midnight Identity Crisis is a multimedia surreal walking simulator, focused on how media, other people, and art influence our identities.
A slice-of-life visual novel about a seemingly ordinary girl named Nell, who has a love for horror. An eclipse transports her to a spooky town where she gets enrolled into a fancy academy!
Play as a therapist and fuck up a perfectly good girl by helping her.
Welcome to the Hex Perplex! Can you defeat the unstoppable power that lurks among these walls? Master the power of the spell books and vanquish the curse that holds the castle! Use them to fight enemies and alter your terrain! It will surely be a difficult journey!
Bombing!!: A Graffiti Sandbox is a creative lo-fi sandbox game where every inch of the environment can be painted. Armed with your trusty backpack, a bag full of gear and a selection of tools, take to the streets and fill them with your creations!
Hop into your teeny tank and blast the Chrysophods…fast, fun, arcade style action! Join alien pest control specialist (and possibly shortest mercenary in the galaxy) Bax Torpini, as he fights to rid Stalwart Academy, a school space station, of a rogue horde of out-of-control robot space monsters!
Solve pixel puzzles, date superheroes, and save the day! Dating sim meets puzzle game in this romantic comedy adventure.
START AGAIN START AGAIN START AGAIN: A PROLOGUE (or: START AGAIN: a prologue) is a short rpg where you, Siffrin, are stuck in a time loop for no reason you can find.
You’re fine though! Hiding your knowledge from your friends is easy! Fighting the same enemies is easy! Dying to the same final boss over and over again is easy!
You have to make sure your friends don’t find out about the super fun times you’re having though.
They can’t know.
They can’t.
START AGAIN: a prologue is a story-driven 3-5 hour long RPG made in RPGmaker, and is available on itch.io. It can be played with a keyboard or a gamepad.
Emergent FatesEmergent Fates is a Japanese inspired Role Playing Game about finding identity and purpose in a world where your fate has already been decided.
Duskwitch: Heroic Soul
Duskwitch: Heroic Soul is a fast-paced character action shooter where you play as Rutie, a witch tasked with saving the rest of the world after nearly ending it herself! Using her Broom, she uses soul energy to eliminate Azazoth’s Remnants which are shadows of an ancient evil being that consume human souls. Fight your way through the horde of Remnants and take them out in style!
Unify a broken community as the newly-appointed Guardian of The Grove. Traverse a vibrant island to combat invasive Rot, inspire its inhabitants, and rebuild your home. You won’t have to do this alone: fruity friends await, ready to lend a hand!
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Three years scouting the distant reaches of the galaxy. You’ve been all on your own, but now it’s time to head back, to SAGI 499: a divided colonial society on the edge of the Sagittarius spiral, and your home. Old friends calling, new faces to meet, political turmoil … and hints of something far stranger. What will you choose?
Shot in the Dark offers a unique challenge, combining nail biting pixel perfect platforming with precise point and click shooting. But many of the cruel creatures of the night remain hidden in shadow. The bandit will have to be on the lookout for glowing red eyes, shadows moving through the trees, and figures lurking in the night. Because sometimes the only sign of a demon on your trail is the slight movement of the tall grass. And sometimes all you can do is take a shot in the dark.
Facts About the Robot Uprising
Geoffrey Golden, Jordan Robins
Facts About the Robot Uprising is the first new game to be developed for the Tiger 2-XL in more than 25 years. In this trivia challenge, 3-XL (2-XL’s sinister successor) quizzes the audience on why and how robots will enslave humanity. Players who answer 3-XL’s questions correctly get a funny song! Those who don’t will become the first victims of the robot uprising…
A NEW GAME FOUND IN THIS FLAMING DUMPSTER: follow L.C. through a warped glitch campus during the FRATPARADE. destroy the three (3) police surveillance monuments and rid the campus of masculine oppression. use the queer power of glitches and begin to heal this terrible curse put on us all.
Flex your inner teenager in The Big Con, an adventure game where you hustle across the country as a teen trying to save your family video store. In classic 90s con movie style, you’ll get to persuade and pilfer your way to greatness using a whack of potential grifts.
Project Snapshot
A casual simulation game where players channel their inner photographer to capture the natural beauty of a remote island for peculiar clients!
Dawn of the Monsters
Dawn of the Monsters is a co-operative kaiju beat-em-up coming in 2021. Players take control of powerful monsters in order to take on the evil “Nephilim”- a horde of creatures that are hellbent on destroying the planet. Liberate four major metropolitan areas- from Toronto to Tokyo in this epic action game.
Dominate global leaderboards as you face off against an onslaught of geometric foes. Shwip combines straight up twin-stick arcade action with tight controls, insane pixel destruction and devastating weapons and abilities. Evade, outlast and play with style in four game modes over single and local multiplayer.
Some Like It Hot!
Some Like It Hot! is a combination of job simulation and visual novel, where you’ll be crafting complex caffeinated concoctions during the rush hours, and getting to know the regulars during your down time.
Gavin Ball / Full Circle CS Inc.
Gladiotron is a modern take on Metroidvanias, while not hiding it’s retro inspirations. It is also an online interactive story that follows the adventures of 2 Detroit area high school students as they get wrapped up in a cosmic adventure that will test their faith and resilience as they try to save the galaxy from the intergalactic space demons.
Triversal is a simply satisfying spatial puzzle game that helps you find your chill. Relaxing and rewarding; Suspend a light orb over the goal by tethering to nearby supports and complete puzzle after puzzle.
Told by Starlight is a no prep, GM-less tabletop game for 2-6 players. It is about drawing constellations and telling the tales behind them. Using a standard deck of playing cards to generate themes and prompts, you will create an entire mythology, and all the characters within.
Help bunnies bring carrots up to their friends in this charming little puzzle game.
Woken in the night by your boss, you must go uncover the murder at the mysterious Manster Mansion belonging to the most ruthless mafia clan in the world. Will you be able to get out unscathed or will you perish like the typical victim of their cruelty?
DepowerBall is a competitive game where the fate of every matchup is influenced by fast-paced gameplay and tactical decision-making. Every match, each player starts with the same set of powers to try and accomplish their task of pleasing the Dragon Queen by feeding her delicious treats! When a player wins a round, he or she will earn the Queen’s favour, but will earn the wrath of the other players as they vote to take away one of the winner’s powers! Adapt to your changing conditions, or get left behind as the other players take advantage of your weakened state!
RecalculatingThink small talk is tough? Imagine if your life depended on it. Recalculating is a soft-thriller visual-novel intended to simulate an uncomfortable position familiar to many women: being in a rideshare vehicle. Navigate your thoughts and choices by launching a ball to select dialogue options that bounce around the screen. In a game with multiple endings and plot twists, can you speak your mind when it really matters? After all, when anxieties heighten, things becomes harder to say… literally.
Adopt and care for an infant demon of your own!
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Our Partners
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Promoter Tier Supporters
Patron Tier Supporter
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Volunteers
Coordinators: Enna Kim & Sam Cuddy
Erica Coutts, Porter Crease, Kevin Ly, Sonya Tsui, Mobeedah Akhter, Amer Ali Mohammed, Ian Fyfe, Chih-Chieh Chang, Chi Ma, Leif Conti-Groome, Gresa Ago Ago, Jack Chang, Annabelle Wu, Siena Smith, Cass Alvarado, Phoenix Simms, Katelyn Campbell, and Adil Sulaiman. 🥰
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column][vc_column_text]Yay! We’re so happy to be able to have this festival to brighten up your week! We want to thank all the Sponsors, Friends, HES Staff, Volunteers and more for making this event happen! We love the Toronto Games Community so much! ♥️[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]
