It’s March, so we all know what means: it’s GDC month! This year there is a fair amount of Toronto representation at the San Francisco conference, so be sure to read below to see who’s nominated for what prize, as well as a look back at how Toronto folks have faired at IGF in the past few years. All the GDC and IGF announcements will follow the regularly scheduled Digest items. (Above: Toronto contingent at GDC 2011 searches for a cell signal, courtesy Mark Rabo.)

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.

 

March Events

Saturday, March 1 – Sunday, March 2: Board Game Jam

Monday, March 3: Games with Friends #52

Wednesday, March 5: Pre-GDC OMDC Meet-and-Greet

Friday, March 7: Long Winter 2.5, with games curated by TOJam

Thursday, March 13: She Got Game Launch Party

Monday, March 17: Games with Friends #53

Thursday, March 20: Introduction to Game-Making Tools

Saturday, March 22: DMG March Social

Wednesday, March 26: Torontaru

Wednesday, March 26: DMG Open Studio/Workshop Session

Wednesday, March 26: Meet the Artists: Jim Munroe and Jonathan Mak

Wednesday, March 26: Bad Dog Epic Wednesdays: The Video Game Show

Friday, March 28: Dames Playing Games #2: Girly Board Games

Saturday, March 29: #DMGTalks 3: Freelancers Rights and Union Literacy

Monday, March 31: Games with Friends #54

Local Game Releases

Necrophone Games released Jazzpunk!

The Yawhg hit Steam!

The ezine Flushed was released, and contains the Twine games as {f}art by Soha Kareem.

Not to stop there with Twine, Soha Kareem also released reProgram (pictured above).

 

Toronto Folks In The Media

The 2014 Canadian Video Awards were announced and the nominees include: Pipe Trouble, Actual Sunlight, Guacamelee!, Rogue Legacy, and The Yawhg.

Kris Ligman wrote about Fancy Video Game Party for Gamasutra. Gamezebo got in on the Fancy Video Game Party fun, too. You can also check it out on BlogTO.  Alex Hayter was interviewed about 5 Things Not to Miss at Fancy Video Game Party over at Dorkshelf.  And finally, the event was also previewed in the Torontoist.  

For footage of the actual event, check out Inner Space‘s look at Fancy Video Game party.

Jazzpunk was reviewed over at Polygon! Also read more about it on PC Gamer.  AND also on CBC.  OH, and Giant Bomb and Canada.com. Have I mentioned Jazzpunk was released?

Christine Love’s Even Cowgirls Bleed was up a Valentine’s Day themed-post over at The Guardian.

Guacamelee! was spotted on Haywire Magazine’s List of Games We Liked in 2013. This list also includes Christine Love’s Hate Plus  and merritt kopas’ s Consensual  Torture Simulator.  It also featured Starseed Pilgrim  and Rogue Legacy.

The Star talks to Jim Munroe about the Hand Eye Society’s Torontrons.

Capy Games was named one of the Top 10 Most Innovative Game Companies by Fast Company.

Stage Select Expo got covered by Indie Statik!

Now Toronto did an awesome write-up of Vector.

Rollers of the Realm was nominated for a Gamer’s Voice Award at SXSW!

And it’s a Toronto Twine takeover, as Soha Kareem’s reProgram and Kaitlin Tremblay’s Lights Out, Please were featured on Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

 

Gamemaking Help Offered/Wanted and Special Calls

People write in to say:

“I love writing music and I find being able to contribute to projects extremely rewarding. I’ve always wanted to write music for a video game but was never sure how to go about doing so. Learning about the hand eye society was very exiting! In the past I’ve composed for a Canadian short film that was shown internationally, a limited production play, music for college and university students and even had a piece played on the CBC. I have a bit of experience restoring arcade cabinets if anyone needs some advice or if that’s helpful at all. I’ve just signed up for a soundcloud account so my music can be sampled. Please contact Nik Stewart.”

“My name is Brent Pollard, and I’m looking for opportunities to get involved in video game design and development, in addition to learning how to use tools like Unity and various programming languages. I love creating things, and am very good at writing and editing. I would love to get involved with a project of any size – and feel free to email me with any writing or editing requests. Please contact Brent Pollard.”

“Greetings! Avi Kohl, 3D Generalist at your service and soon to be relocating to Toronto. 3 years ago, I discovered Blender and the rest is history. Please contact Avi Kohl.”

Not what you’re looking for? You can also check out the Help Offered/Wanted board for earlier postings.

And We’re Off To GDC and IGF!

OMDC presents The Ontario Social at GDC with partners Interactive Ontario and the Hand Eye Society on Thurs. March 20th, 6-8pm. Invite only, email Kim Gibson for details.

GDC IndieMegaBooth lineup includes Asteroid Base’s Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime.

MK-Ultra Games will be at GDC with Knight and Damsel. Castle Pixel will also be there with Rex Rocket.

Phantom Compass will be at GDC Play with Rollers of the Realm. As will Rocket 5 Studios with The Phantom P.I.

 

GDC Panels Featuring Local Games Folk

Monday, March 17: Rogue Legacy Design Postmortem: Budget Development: feat. Kenny Lee and Teddy lee (Cellar Door Games)

Monday, March 17: Massively Multiplayer: A Dozen Schools Teach Together, Collaboratively and Competitively: Steve Engels (University of Toronto)

Tuesday, March 18: Super Time Force: Solving the Time Travel Paradox: feat. Kenneth Yeung (Capy Games)

Wednesday, March 19: What Modern Interior Design Teaches Us About Environment Art: Dan Cox (Ubisoft Toronto)

Wednesday, March 19: Indie Game Public Relations: 5 Years of Painful Lessons: Chris McQuinn (Drinkbox Studios)

Wednesday, March  19: Make Things Worse: Enabling Setbacks for Consequential Play: Patrick Redding (Ubisoft Toronto)

Thursday, March 20: #lostlevels

Thursday, March 20: Learning from our Mistakes: A Postmortem of Guacamelee!: Chris Harvey (Drinkbox Studios)

Thursday, March 20: Enter the Stage: Cinematic Dialogue in Performance Capture: Richie Nieto (Ubisoft Toronto)

Thursday, March 20: Bridging the Gap Between Your Audio Engine and Your Game: Sean Lohrisch (Capy Games)

Friday, March 21: Curating Video Game Culture: The New Wave of Video Game Events: feat. Jim Munroe (Hand Eye Society)

Friday, March 21: Super Spy Crash Course: Teaching Players in Splinter Cell: Blacklist: Laurent Malville (Ubisoft Toronto)

Friday, March 21: Modernizing Splinter Cell’s Gunplay: James Everett (Ubisoft Toronto)

 

IGF 2014 Toronto-based Nominees

Seumas McNally Grand Prize: Jazzpunk. Honourable mentions include The Yawhg.

Excellence in Design: Honourable mentions include The Yawhg.

Excellence in Audio: The Yawhg. Honourable mentions include Jazzpunk.

Excellence in Narrative: The Yawhg.

2014 IGF Main Competition Finalists: Jazzpunk and The Yawhg.

 

A Look Back at IGF

2013: Guacamelee! and Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime were nominated for Excellence in Visual Art. Starseed Pilgrim was nominated for Excellence in Design. Guacamelee!, Starseed Pilgrim, and Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime were also nominated for the 2013 IGF Main Competition.

2012: Super T.I.M.E. Force won the Microsoft XBLA Award. It was also nominated for the 2012 IGF Main Competition.

 

That’s all for now! If there’s any April 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.