April’s here, and with it comes a lot of exciting video game related news and events. Don’t forget to check out the Toronto Gaming Calendar, which will be updated as more events become announced throughout the month. (Remember, the calendar can also be added to your googlecal.) Note only the events marked with an asterisk are Hand Eye events — for the rest, we’re just signal boosting for this amazing community.

 

Toronto Video Game Events

* Thursday, April 3 – Thursday, May 8: Artsy Games Incubator: Animation Edition

Friday, April 4: 4th Annual Level Up Student Games Showcase

Saturday, April 12: Retro Runner Launch Party

Saturday, April 12: Social Justice Design Jam #1: Co-Creating Images for the World(s) We Want To Build

Wednesday, April 16: E-Poetry, Performance, Play with a Twine workshop led by DMG Members Kaitlin Tremblay and Kara Stone

Wednesday, April 16: DMG’s Introduction to Game-Making Tools

Wednesday, April 23: DMG April Social

Wednesday, April 30: Torontaru

Wednesday, April 30: Bad Dogs Epic Wednesdays: The Video Game Show

Local Game Releases

JamminGames released Spirographics on Google Play!

WordPatch was released on the App store.

I Love Donna, a game made from the DMG Game Jam Feb Fatale 2, featuring work from Beth Maher, Kim Koronya, Brittney Oberfield, and Izzie Colpitts-Campbell, was also released.

Bloom Digital Media’s Long Story was released on the iTunes/Andriod app store! (pictured above)

Shu’s Garden was also released on iOS and Andriod!

Cyborg-goddess, a game by Kara Stone and Kayte McKnight, is now available to play.

Alicia Contestabile released the first part of her Twine, Borderlines.

 

Toronto Folks in the Media

We did a roundup of Toronto representation at March’s Game Developers Conference.

10 Years Ago in the Media: Metanet Software were interviewed for the first time about N, their brand new freeware indie game, for Eye Weekly’s videogame column.

The Yawhg is on Rock Paper Shotgun and on Dorkshelf.

Check out Elizabeth Simins’ comic Bad At Games, featuring Jazzpunk!

David S. Gallant was interviewed on the Financial Post.

Soha Kareem was interviewed in the Financial Post about her Twine, reProgram. reProgram also was given the Objective Game Review treatment. Oh, and on First Person Scholar, she was interviewed about her first Twine Penalties. Did I also mention she’s profiled on Tech Girls?

Benjamin Rivers’ Alone With You GDC presentation got some good coverage over at Polygon. And it’s also over on the Financial Post.  Listen to Rivers’ GDC talk over at Giant Bomb.

Get Set Game’s Battle Casters was up on the Touch Arcade.

Bento Miso, Rocket 5 Studios, and Asteroid Base were on Inner Space.

Nathan from Capy Games was interviewed on Destructoid about Super Time Force. Super Time Force was also featured over at Dorkshelf!

Sony released the full list of their upcoming 2014 PS4 titles, which includes Drinkbox Studio’s Guacamelee!, Ben Rivers’ Home, and Cellar Door Games’s Rogue Legacy.

Retro Runner: Princess Power, which releases in April, has already started receiving great press, with coverage on the Toronto Indie Hub and Pear Caster.

Rogue Legacy also appeared on Polygon.

 

Special Announcements and Calls

The Hand Eye Society is hiring a graphic designer for web and print work. Email us with portfolio links.

Ben Rivers released the trailer for his upcoming game, Alone With You.

Will O’Neill’s Actual Sunlight was Greenlit.

Toronto Twiners, want your game covered? Soha Kareem will be doing a monthly Twine feature at Haywire Magazine, so send your Twines to her!

E-Poetry, Performance, Play is looking for digital poetry for their exhibit celebrating National Poetry Month. If you have a game you think uses digital poetics, contact Lai-Tze Fan. Please submit a brief (no more than 250 words) description of the work(s) and its/their connection to e-poetry. Websites or images describing the work are helpful.

A UWO Professor has been working on an international Developer Satisfaction Survey with the IGDA. If you’re interested, you can fill out the survey here.

 

Game-making Help Offered/Wanted

Stratum Games is working on Retro Runner: Princess Power right now. RR is an irreverent side-scroller that celebrates the best games of the last 30 years through art, music, and hidden references. We need help to get the game done, though: 1) We need an awesome 2D artist to create some transition slides for our game’s storyline. Please email us at contact@stratumgames.com if you are awesome.
2) We will be including hundreds of video game trivia questions as a sort of “mini game” within our game. We’d like our players to write some of these! Please contribute your questions about your favourite game of yesteryear by emailing us. Check out the site for gameplay footage and info about the project.

I am a creative writer and lawyer looking for an opportunity to tell a story through gameplay. I have numerous short stories as samples of my creative writing style. My experience as a litigation lawyer serves to infuse my story arcs and dialogues with a sense of plausibility and realism. I also have an undergraduate degree in Music Composition and am able to compose music for interactive media. Samples of my composition style are also available on request. I would be pleased to hear from anyone looking to form a partnership to create an adventure-style game with a focus on characters and storytelling. If interested, please contact me.

That’s all for now! If there’s any May events or Toronto video games news, releases, and rad media coverage you want shared, don’t hesitate to pass it along to Kaitlin via email or on Twitter.