April showers brings May flowers, and by flowers I mean more experimental game design workshops! We’ve got Gardening for the 4th Dimension, Phaser.JS ProcGen Party and one more to be announced for this month alone. Thank you to all our participants, our coordinators, and our membership whose contributions have been indispensable to allow us to run these at an affordable price while making sure folks git paid. Give yourselves a huge hand!

Also on the docket: Gamma Space and Friends Play/Make Games are back; TOJam and TCAF fill the rafters with the sounds and laughter of indie art-making; Game Workers United Toronto has their first chapter meeting; and there’s even a couple of videogame documentaries making the rounds! This year’s TOJam theme may be “Winning Is For Losers”, but  Google Calendar wants you to know that anyone who subscribes to them is a true winner in their heart. Not a fake winner who is actually a loser. A real live, bonafide, winners-don’t-do-drugs type winner!

WHERE TO JAUNT – EVENTS

May 1

Learn about the history of indie VR at How to Make Money in VR and Other Myths.

May 2, 3, 4

Playing Hard is a documentary about the trials and tribulations of Jason Vandenberghe and his dream game For Honour, as they experience the complex process of AAA game development at Ubisoft Montreal. Catch it at Hot Docs Film Festival this week.

May 3-6

Ubisoft is having a free weekend where you can play For Honour! Yes, the very game which the aforementioned documentary is about. The timing could not be more perfect.

May 4-6

It’s that time of year again! Come make games at TOJam 13: Flirteen With Danger at George Brown College aaaaall weekend long.

May 9

An alumni from our OMDC IDM Fund Futures professional development program, Nick Fox-Gieg, will be giving a free demo of a new project he’s working on at InterAccess’ new digs. Join him for Naplps: An Adventure in New Media Art History.

May 10

The Toronto Game UX Meetup is happening at the new Toronto Media Arts Centre!

May 12

Hypergame Storytime is back at Electric Perfume! Hyprgm Vol 12: Teaches of Peaches will be a live choose-your-own adventure experience that crudely smashes together elements of tabletop RPGs and improv comedy, accompanied by elaborate projected visuals and a musical score assembled on the fly.

May 13

Want to find out what Gamer Workers Unite is all about? Want to help shape its direction? Want to know what unionizing can do for you? Then come to the first meeting of the Toronto chapter on Sunday May 13th at 6pm! RSVP here to get location details.

May 12-13

Comics x Games is back for our 7th year at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. Check out our amazing exhibitors for 2018! Panelists to be announced verrrry shortly…

May 14

Make a Dreamy POP Portrait with Paloma Dawkins at the Toronto Animated Image Society, a 2D animation workshop with brand new Wacom 22HD Cintiqs! A very cool workshop co-presented with HES. HES members get a TAIS discount, and vice-versa for the workshop below!

May 15

Paloma returns for our Experimental Games Workshop series, Gardening for the 4th Dimension, co-presented with the Toronto Animated Image Society. Learn to make a splendid landscape of looping 2D animations in a 3D world. HES and TAIS members, look for your discount code!

May 19

Make your own DIY sound synthesizer, learn about the 555 chip, practice your soldering and circuit building skills, and make some old school sounds with the Atari Punk Console! This is an InterAccess workshop, woot.

May 20

Come learn about Phaser.JS ProcGen Party with Alex Leitch! This one’s for all you Javascripters, and for those who want to explore making narrative games with a procedurally generated twist. As part of our Experimental Games Workshop series, HES members get $15 off the regular price.

May ??

We have one more Experimental Games Workshop coming out this month TBA near you…

May 26-27

For the first time ever, the Performance Capture Studio at Ubisoft Toronto is opening its doors to the public during Doors Open 2018. Visit the link to learn more and register via Eventbrite! Photo above by Jordan Probst.

WHERE TO HAUNT – SOCIALS

May 3

It’s time for Breakfast GA Club! 9Am as always at the Black Cat Espresso Bar

May 4

May the fourth be with you when you meet up for the fourth GameDev Meetup! [EDIT] This GameDev Meetup was accidentally linked to a 2016 event, sorry about that!

May 9

Dames Making Games’ monthly VR meetup will help you get your prototype off the ground just in time for summer!

May 22

Come and hang out at the Toronto Unity Developers Meetup!

Or, if Unity isn’t your thing, there’s also the Toronto Unreal Engine Meetup 🙂

May 30

It’s time for Torontaru! Get yourself to Get Well and hang out and talk about games!

May ???

Gamma Space is back in action with Friends Play Games and Friends Make Games, your monthly pair of chill, inclusive indie game hangouts where you can get feedback on your projects and see what else the Toronto gaming community is up to. Follow them on Twitter and Facebook to get updates, but they’re usually on a Monday evening.

COMING AND GOING ATTRACTIONS

Boat Rocker Games releases Fusioneer on mobile. It’s about cats! And science!

Sky Rogue is now out on Switch.

Soul Reaper: Unreap Commander is now out on Steam Early Access.

Toronto local Daniel Steger is having a sale on Steam until May 7 for Mount Your Friends 3D: A Hard Man is Good to Climb for 20% off and 25% off  bundled with the original or if you already own the original!

The XboxOne announcement trailer for Russian Subway Dogs is up. Look for the game sometime this year!

PAPER TRAILS – GAMING IN THE MEDIA

Felicia Valenti was interviewed by TorontoGameDevs about her voice work in games and other media. This is apparently a weekly thing, so keep checking back for more!

TMAC is once again in the news, this time with more details about the settlement reached with the City and Urbancorp regarding the space’s eventual fate. Cross all fingers, toes and eyes for a positive resolution! Toronto needs a space for gaming arts to thrive!

Congratulations to local game dev Meagan Byrne on her new position as Digital + Interactive Coordinator at imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival!

#ICYMI

We had a great time at Establishing Scene and Crafting the Beginning of a Game with Taylor Bai-Woo! Later in April, utilizing the oldest game-making engine known as Reality, we made games with Damian Sommer in the Forget Virtual Reality, Try Actual Reality. We still have at least 3 if not more workshops to go, so make sure to sign up for our newsletter and/or grab a HES membership for those sweet discounts!

Do you love video games? Ever wonder how they started out and who were the mad geniuses behind their origins? An exclusive screening of The Artists, a new documentary about the first 3 decades of video game design, took place April 28 at the Royal Cinema. If you missed it, we’ll try and figure out when it’ll be screening next as this looks like it shouldn’t be missed! Apparently resident Kokoromi member and game art prof Cindy Poremba makes an appearance.

HES director Sagan Yee went to A MAZE Berlin and made a Weird Unity for Beginners tutorial doc! Follow the steps to make colourful architecture (courtesy KO-OP Mode), make a flower bloom, and put a video on a sphere. Learn better in an in-person environment? I’m sure that can be arranged…

Dames Making Games is partnering with Black Film Canada for a VR 360 film workshop! Speaking of which, TMAC has just posted an update on their website about the first month in their new space. If April was this jam-packed, we can’t wait to see what May will bring!

BREADWINNER – JOBS/GIGS/OPPORTUNITIES/DEADLINES

May 4

Queer Games Conference call for games closes!

May 6

Different Games Conference is back and they have extended their call-out for track chairs until May 6! “Tracks can include a series of paper presentations, talks, panels, workshops, or games (for the Different Games Arcade) that explore a particular topic or theme in areas of interest to the DG community.”

May 14

Game Devs of Color Expo in NYC is looking for games to showcase! Submission form closes May 14.

May 15

Call for Games for Print Screen Festival in Israel!

Moar Jorbs

Rockstar is looking for an Animator.

Gameloft is looking for a Data Tracking Analyst and a Programmer.

Registrations for our Camp Make-a-Game programming are still open. There are limited spots left for certain weeks. so sign up your kid/a kid you know ASAP!

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Disclaimer: This is a monthly compilation of various Toronto game news and events in and around the city — many of which are not organized by Hand Eye Society — and is by no means comprehensive. Always check official links for accurate details and credits, and please send any corrections, additions, or submissions for future months to calendar@handeyesociety.com