Time is an illusion and our soft flesh bodies are temporal, but Happy New Year I guess! Here’s to 2016 being a wondrous 2.0 version of 2015, with bug fixes and armour upgrades. We at the Hand Eye Society are planning some Big Things (New logo! New programming! New dad/mom?!), for the upcoming months. For now, check out all the latest and greatest indie videogame events and socials in January. And hang out with local lunch lady Google Calendar, she serves a mean tuna casserole and has a good wrangle on posting events when they are announced.

WHERE TO JAUNT – TORONTO GAME EVENTS

Saturday, January 23

Finally, a workshop for making Twitterbots! #TheDameularity by Dames Making Games is a basic introduction to the world of automatic tweets. No coding experienced required. Starts 1 p.m., at Bento Miso.

Friday, January 29 to Sunday, January 31

The Toronto Global Game Jam, previously at George Brown College, will be at Bento Miso this year. Organized by Troy Morrissey and Randy Orenstein, this jam is unaffiliated with the Global Game Jam held at George Brown.  *** UPDATE: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED. ***

The International Game Developers Association’s (IGDA) George Brown chapter is holding its first Toronto Global Game Jam at George Brown College. Again, unaffiliated with the other. Priority spots will be given to students and first-timers, so get in while you can.

WHERE TO HAUNT – SOCIALS AND MEETUPS

Saturday, January 9

This month, Toronto Gaymers’ board game night will feature Boss Monsters. Snacks will be provided, $6 entry drops to $5 after 9 p.m.. Starts 7 p.m., at Glad Day Bookshop.

Tuesday, January 12

Toronto’s Virtual Reality (VR) Meetup group is holding their first social of 2016, which will also serve as a chance for members to demo their work and Alex Davies to recap what happened at the Consumer Electronics Show. Starts 7 p.m., at Globacore Headquarters.

Saturday, January 16

Toronto Gaymers’ Games’n Gear will be a social for videogamers and board gamers alike, while raising money for Rainbow Railroad, an organization that raises money for LGBT individuals abroad. Drinks and snacks provided, underwear encouraged. Starts at 7 p.m., location to be announced.

Wednesday, January 20

We imagine this 3D sculpting social held by Dames Making Games will probably not be like that clay sculpting scene in Ghost, and your mentors won’t be spirits or Patrick Swayze, but we can dream. Starts 7 p.m., at Bento Miso.  

Thursday, January 21

Moral quandaries tickle your fancy? Professor Mia Consolavo, a professor and research chair in game studies and design at Concordia University, will be giving the talk ““Playing (as) a better me: Choice, moral affordances and videogames” at the University of Toronto. You can RSVP for free for the lecture on EventBrite.

Saturday, January 23

Toronto Gaymers’ Queer Pubcade will have Mario Party by the fireplace and prizes for winners, so after your goombastomp your way to victory, expect your friendships with fellow players to burn to a crisp (If you’re not playing Mario Party to destroy relationships, you’re doing it wrong).

Sunday, January 24

Dames Making Games presents Sundae Sunday Social! Spend time playing food/ice-cream themed digital and board games while making custom sundaes. All are welcome, including newcomers to games and non-members.

Wednesday, January 27

Torontaru, monthly social for the game-inclined. Starts 8 p.m., at the Get Well.

#ICYMI

#1button — Electric Perfume is now hosting our one-button Torontron machine! The arcade cabinet is currently housing Silent Skies by Michael Todd.

#SeescapeNYE — The Junction got cooler with the arrival of Seescape last year. The sci-fi bar and cafe has booths ripped straight out of horror movies or Mad Max, gaming stations scattered around, and Bonnie. Oh Bonnie. Pics from their New Year’s bash are giving us bad FOMO. Y’all ain’t playing fair.

#CVA2015 – The Canadian Videogame Awards held its sixth annual ceremony, naming, to no surprise, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate swept Game of the Year, Best Animation, Best Audio, and Best Visual Arts. N++ snagged Fan’s Choice for best Canadian game, and Don’t Starve: Pocket Edition landed Best Original Music.

COMING AND GOING ATTRACTIONS

Speedrunner Vulajin will be streaming their run of Fez for charity on Tuesday, January 5 at 1:30 a.m. Eastern.

Long Story released Episode 4 part 1, which features the writing talents of Toronto local Michael Lyons. If you’re not playing it yet, the mobile game is a queer/trans/non-binary positive dating sim that’s breaking ground in fields too often ignored in mainstream gaming. The next episode will release in February.

PAPER TRAILS – GAMING IN THE MEDIA

Lots of GOTY posts going around repping Canadian games. Toronto Game Devs released their top games of the year with N++ as #1, and Capybara Games developer Kris Piotrowski reviewed humanity (“1/10”).

Shameless promotion time: We did a fun summary of what we were up to this year, as well as what other videogame arts organizations around the world thought were 2015’s highlights.

Long-form Canadian games journalism’s saviour Ookpixels did a great feature on Alto’s Adventure, and its BFF creators Ryan Cash and Jordan Rosenberg. It reads like snowsport feels, and you can’t help but get giddy at the rising moments in Alto’s development.

Toronto game podcast Built to Play interviewed Fate Tectonics’ Alex Bethke, journalists Jonathan Ore and Eric Weiss, as well as Game Curious’ own Kadeem Dunn and myself (Al!). Listen for gushing about Game Curious, a lot of cackling, and some much needed bleeped out expletives.

Game developer Kait Tremblay was on My Favourite Game to chat about Tales of Borderlands.

MVP

This month’s MVP is Gaby Aveiro, whose trailblazing for ethnic representation in 2015 was pretty fantastic to watch. She’s still working with Pytvyo Gaming, as well as a text-based game about strong emotions. Her New Year’s Resolutions are to work out, eat well, and make new friends in the game development communities. Do you, Gaby!

A BREADWINNER IS YOU – JOBS, GIGS & OPPORTUNITIES

Uken Games has a ton of job openings, as is Ubisoft Toronto. Fire up those LinkedIns.

If you’re a student with a hankering for haptic technology, the IEEE Haptics Symposium in Philly is holding the Student Innovation Challenge. Teams will be using the Vybe haptic gaming pad, which basically sends that loving rumble/vibrational feedback to users. (You can watch something similar in action here.) Prize is $2,000, and competing teams will be able to keep their Vybe pads. Applicants worldwide can send their proposals by January 8, and once approved will be shipped their equipment. Good luck!

Vector Festival has opened their call for submissions. Now branching out from video games, artists can submit new media work too. Applications are due March 1.

Black Game Devs is an ongoing list of black game developers that folks can support, follow, and buy games from. To add yourself, check out their Git Hub.

Thinking of more ways to fill your Bit Bazaar booth? U-Dimensions will produce 3D printed accessories and related merchandise for game companies by automatically transferring any 2D illustration into a printable 3D file. The company is currently incubated by OCAD University’s Imagination Catalyst and they want to know what videogame developers think about the possibility of such a service! Fill out their survey here.

Finally, co-working space LabTO in the Junction is offering 50% off any of their pricing schemes until the end of January! Just use the promo code jumpstart2016 and you’re off to the races.

Are there any video game workshops you want to see in Toronto? We want to do them! Let us know what you want by emailing sagan@handeyesociety.com.

Monthly digests are brought to you by the Hand Eye Society, a videogame arts and literacy organization based in Toronto. If you want to support round-ups like these and get in on more perks, become a Hand Eye member for the low price of your time (if you volunteer for 10 hours with us) or your money (a mere 7 bucks a month).

if you want to see your game/event/initiative featured, let us know at calendar@handeyesociety.com, @handeyesociety or @gollydrat on Twitter! 8)