Sorry for this late entry folks! May has been a megamonth of everything wonderful and strange and rebooty happening all at once. (Translation: I got busy, Twin Peaks is back, can ya blame Your Humble Digest Writer for forgetting time was a thing?) Without further ado, here’s May Part II: The More the Mayrrier!

STUDIO MVP

Every month we highlight a game dev team that’s brought joy to our hearts and twitching to our thumbs. May’s studio MVP is Asteroid Base, one of several Studio Members whose contributions are making programming like our Camp Make-A-Game summer camps possible. Their meteoric rise to indie game awesomeness is due to a steadfast commitment to Bruce Cockburn/Barenaked Ladies references and their co-op blaster Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime. For eons, Lovers and its galactic bunnies travelled across Toronto, pit-stopping at showcases and parties and arcades. They’ve since crash-landed on XBox One, PS4, and Steam, with a new four-player feature!

JAUNTS/HAUNTS 2: THE SQUEAKEL

May 26

IGDA Toronto is hosting Getting into Games, where Big Viking developer Nathan Lutz will be dispensing industry wisdom to game students who are graduating or close to graduating.

May 31 to June 3

The Different Games conference is in town! The mini con-by-way-of-Brooklyn got a shout-out in the last digest, but we thought we’d let y’all know that the conference now has a schedule, along with a Facebook event page where speakers and games are announced every day. (Full disclosure: our radical leader Sagan Yee and Your Humble Digest Writer will be saying words at people there!)

#ICYMI

#ComicsxGames: Our annual coupling with TCAF was spectacularly fun. Games were played, panels were panelled, tweets were tweeted, and after-parties were crashed. Big thanks to everyone who came, as well as our formidable fleet of volunteers and staff. Expect a big ‘ol mega-recap soon!

#ArcSymphony: The ‘90s PS1 game experienced a massive wave of nostalgia in May, although some Amnesiac Andies seemed to completely forget this critically acclaimed classic.

#CutRokashiACheck: @SEGA *riri voice* PAY HIM WHAT YOU OWE HIM.

#SSMPUpdate: Jon’s milk mayhem ended, so guess which developer has the strongest goddamn bones in this city.  

COMING AND GOING ATTRACTIONS

A Toronto developer got the Stream Greenlight for their Shiba Inu visual novel. While One Summer With Shiba Inu is still in-development, you can watch developer Quill Studios post progress on Twitter and play a demo via Itch.io

Hand Eye member and artist liaison Alicia Contestabile released B-, which is a must play if you’re into colour-blocking, impeding senses of doom, and getting crushed.

No sunburns, no excuses. Dames Making Games is now accepting applications for SPF 90 FPS, a summer VR intensive welcoming non-binary, Two-Spirit, trans, and women developers of all skill levels. Perks include one-on-one mentorship, access to Gamma Space, state-of-the-art equipment and software, and more.

Who needs a life when you can play through 94 TOJam entries? Game Dev Cafe braved through a few during a livestream.

PAPER TRAILS – GAMING IN THE MEDIA

Dork Shelf ventured into TO Jam’s depths and came out with a profile of Jarryd Huntley, a first-time TOjammer by ways of Cleveland, and a behind-the-scenes round-up of how a few jam teams fared. (Spoilers: survivors, mostly!)

Itch.io did a short and sweet rec of SSMP, calling it a fusion of Geometry Wars and Mario Party.

OK forreal, the actual Arc Symphony was released. Created by Sophia Park and Penelope Evans, the RPG/fan community deconstructive interactive got write-ups from Polygon, Boing Boing, Kotaku, Nerdist, and freshly launched Toronto-based games journal 3rd Person!

Toronto Game Devs have been incredibly active on Youtube over the past few weeks, with tons of news recaps, hot takes, reviews, podcast episodes, and interviews.

Bleeding Cool did a write-up on TCAF that included a lovely Comics X Games mention! Heart eyes to the crew there.

By the way, if you’re heading to E3 let Mobile Syrup editor Patrick O’Rouke know! I’m assuming this is journalism-related, but if O’Rouke is just collecting victims for his next sacrifice to the Vidya Gods hey, that’s on you.

Over and out! Thanks for following along. Just as a heads up, Your Humble Digest Writer will shortly become two: expect these two digests to be written by myself and someone else (???) within the next month or two. And as always, if you dug what you read, give perpetual thanks to the Hand Eye membership! Not a member? Well not yet you ain’t.