It’s finally August, meaning the sweltering heat is almost over. Soon we can all return to playing video games indoors and not feel guilty for missing the beautiful weather. July saw lots of indie game releases, including many animal themed ones.

Don’t forget to check out the Toronto Gaming Calendar, that will be updated as more events become announced throughout the month. (Remember, the calendar can also be added to your googlecal.) Note that these events are not Hand Eye events — we’re just signal boosting for this amazing community.

 

Special Announcements: Grant Applications

The OAC Media Artists: Emerging Artists grant is now open for applications! Be sure to see if you qualify and apply! (The deadline is November 1, 2013.)

 

Toronto Video Game Events

Monday, August 5-Monday, August 12th: #GPCV13 kicks off!

Friday, August 9-Sunday, August 11th: ROM Game Jam.

Saturday, August 10-Sunday, August 11th: #GPCV13 LIVE! at Bento Miso.

Thursday, August 15th: Games in Progress.

Friday, August 16th: Reading Beyond Presence: Race and Ethnicity in Games workshop at Bento Miso.

Saturday, August 24th: Nerd Noise Night, featuring Shaun Hatton’s band (who did the soundtrack for Spooky Squid’s They Bleed Pixels).

Saturday, August 24th: DMG Speaker Social.

Tuesday, August 27th/Thursday, August 29th: Playing With Ideas: Point-Of-View Games.

Wednesday, August 28th: Torontaru 3!

 

July Video Game Releases

Globalcore has released their first pass of PaperDude VR, a mash-up of Oculus Rift + Kinect + KickR.

Cococumber released their arcade game, Bunny Bonker, for Android, with an iOS and Windows Phone version coming soon!

Garden Knight Games also came out with Bat Pack for Android and iOS devices.

From bunnies to bats, now to birds, Vinyl Games Studio released Circuit Panic also for Android and iOS devices.

Breaking from the animal theme, Alex Hayter’s TOJam game Journo is now live and playable.

Ian Campbell’s action platformer Bleed was released on Steam.

And while it was technically released in June, we don’t want to forget to mention Cellar Door Games’s Rogue Legacy.

Lots of great games from local indie devs popped up on the Steam Sale. While the sale’s over, it’s never too late to check ‘em out.

 

Toronto Video Games and Their Creators in the Media

To kick things off, check out the PAX Prime 10 list to see Asteroid Base’s Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime, Cellar Door Games’ Rogue Legacy, and Sokobond (with Ryan Roth’s sound design).

Benjamin Rivers’ Home keeps getting publicity from its June iOS release, with a review over at Giant Bomb.

And spotted being previewed over at Destructoid is Necrophone’s Jazzpunk.

Drinkbox Studios’ Guacamelee not only made the Top 10 Platformers list over at Game Trailers, but got listed as Number One!

Not to stop there, Guacamelee’s DLC “Diablo’s Domain” was also covered at IGN.

The exciting ROM Game Jam got covered by CBC and on Polygon.

Pop Sandbox’s Pipe Trouble’s showed up on Huffington Post!

For those fluent in Italian, Vinyl Games Studios Circuit Panic was featured on Android Planet.

You can find Cococumber’s adorable Bunny Bonker on Fubiz. Want more Bunny Bonker? Check ’em out on Yet Another Review Site and Super Game Droid.

Phantom Compass’s Tony Walsh was interviewed on the Examiner about their upcoming release, Rollers Of The Realm.

 

Help Wanted/Needed

2D artist needed to collaborate with programmer on current game…

 

If there’s any September 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.