News involving the games developed in Canada, and the people who make them. Indie Games, AAA Games, and in between featured and reported on.
I've mentioned on the podcast numerous times my love for Guacamelee and DrinkBox Studios. Chris and I decided to play a bit of the coop and discuss my love for it. Check it out below, and subscribe on Youtube!
Chris and I are back! This time talking about Guacamelee and the impact it had on TorontoGameDevs.com - check out the coop gameplay from the first 15 or so minutes from the game. Remember to subscribe and leave a comment! Website: http://www.torontogamedevs.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/torontogamedevs Patreon: patreon.com/torontogamedevs Store: designbyhumans.com/shop/TorontoGameDevs/
Alone With You came out last year on PlayStation Vita, and PlayStation 4. It hit Number 7 on our Game of the Year voting, and was a personal favourite of mine as well. As hinted by Benjamin Rivers on Twitter, it looks like we'll be getting some news next week on the sci-fi adventure:
Stay tuned for some fun Alone With You news next week! This romance ain't over yet... #indiegame #gamedev #pixelart #AWYgame pic.twitter.com/3gk2ERJSpj
— Benjamin Rivers (@BenjaminRivers) January 11, 2017
Could we be in for a rerelease on a new platform? Some DLC? Something else? We'll have to wait and see, but make sure to follow Ben on Twitter in the meantime.
Well, it was a solid 2016, and there were a lot of great games that were created in Toronto and Southern Ontario. Just like last year, supporters and fans of local content took part in the 2nd Annual Game of the Year voting, and here are the results!
10) Maize - Finish Line Games
9) Kapsul Infinite - Luke O'Connor
8) Far Cry Primal - Ubisoft Toronto
7) Alone With You - Benjamin Rivers
6) Watch Dogs 2 - Ubisoft Toronto
5) Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander - Massive Damage Inc
Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander had a huge Kickstarter. After a successful funding thank to Square Enix Collective, the game came out in Early Access, followed by a full release later in the year. The developers are still updating the game, so make sure you head over to Steam to pick it up.
4) Runbow: Satura's Space Adventure - 13AM Games
Back-to-back Years of placing 4th in voting, 13AM Games released a healthy chunk of DLC for its party platformer. Satura's Space Adventure gives players more single, and multiplayer content - while also releasing the game on Steam, and 3DS.
3) Severed - DrinkBox Studios
The first-person hack-n-slash found eventual homes on 3DS, iOS, and Wii U, but it was made from the ground up for the little Sony portable that could. Probably one of the last "exclusive" Vita games, Severed has you playing as a daughter trying to find out what happened to her family. Now I'll be praying for a Guacamelee 2.
2) Hard Vacuum Lullaby - One More Story Games
Friends of the site, One More Story Games claims our top two spots in this years Game of the Year voting, first with Hard Vacuum Lullaby. "After a savage battle in deep space, the 2nd Yagoshan Expeditionary Fleet Battlecruiser #6 retreats to the orbit of a gas giant with other damaged vessels to undergo repairs by the fleets logistics and repair corvettes."
1) Mandatory Upgrade X Marks The Spot - One More Story Games
Joining the ranks of N++, this years winner is Mandatory Upgrade: X Marks The Spot from One More Story Games. The story based game was written by Chris Tihor from Ironic Iconic Studios, and tells the tale of Special Agent Rachel Varley who has to investigate the death of a runaway cybernetic exosuit on her first day back to work. You can pick it up here for $3.99, which includes a demo as well.
Thanks to everyone for voting, and congratulations to everyone who released a game in 2016. Onwards to 2017!
Canadian indie game studio Red Meat Games have released their episodic, narrative-driven audio game Project Dark on Steam and Nintendo Switch.
As part of the Mix Showcase last month, Toronto developer Kitten Cup Studio showed off some gameplay from their 2022 game Pekoe.
Quebec developer Norsfell have announced their 10-player co-op action-RPG Tribes of Midgard will be out on PlayStation, and Steam on July 27th - the game is also available for pre-order on both platforms.
Triversal, the puzzle game from Toronto developer Phantom Compass has a release date, and thankfully we won’t have to wait that long. The game comes out on July 13th, and you can wishlist it on Steam here.
BOMBING!!: A Graffiti Sandbox, the graffiti sandbox simulation game from indie dev (and friend of the site) Devon Wiersma, is out now on Steam, and itch.io.
After launching on Steam last year, St Catharines based Rocketship Park will be porting their puzzle story-driven adventure game LOVE to Nintendo Switch “soon”.
PixelNAUTS Games, who last released Lost Orbit: Terminal Velocity on various platforms have released a new trailer for their upcoming space-racing brawler Rocket Rumble. You can wishlist the game on Steam right now which is scheduled for sometime this year.
Mad Devils, the twin-stick shooter from Itzy Interactive got a new gameplay trailer ahead of its May 10th release date. Mad Devils is an arcade co-op shooter set during World War 2 but has Allied special forces hunting down Nazi occultists resurrected as demons
Last year, N++ won the Game of the Year voting. Who will be the winner this year? Vote below, and in the new year I'll post the winners!
Only one vote per person, but you can vote for as many games as you want. If I missed any there is a Write In feature at the bottom, or let me know on Twitter.
Note: Ports didn't count (sorry Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, and N++), but DLC, and extra episodes do. Feel free to use the search on the right hand side to find out more about that game.
Some of our favourite Toronto developers were at PSX this weekend, and they tweeted about their games and experiences. Check it out!
Read MoreThe nominations for the 7th Annual Canadian VideoGame Awards have been announced, and there are quite a few Toronto developers being nominated for various awards. I tooked at the local games being developed, which you can check out below.
Nominations (Local Developers Only)
Game of the Year:
Best Console Game:
Best Mobile/Handheld Game:
Best PC Game
Best Virtual Reality Game:
Best Animation:
Best Art Direction:
Best Audio:
Best Educational Game:
Best Game Innovation:
Best Indie Game:
Best Musical Score:
Best Narrative:
Best New Character:
Best Technology:
Fans’ Choice Award: Best Canadian-Made Game:
You can check out the full nominations at the official site.
While it is certainly fun for a while, it suffers from the same problem other mobile games on Steam do: Cube Samurai: RUN!’s price tag of $5:49 feels a little steep for the amount of time you might ultimately get from it, so I’d recommend installing the mobile version and giving it a go on the commute to work or on the toilet and see if it’s the sort of experience you’d enjoy on the PC. This aside, it certainly does seems like it would make for an equally fun mobile experience, but it doesn’t do anything exceptionally different than what most people have seen in an infinite runner before.
Overall, Kapsul Infinite’s $4.49 price point on Steam doesn’t quite feel worth it to me. There simply isn’t enough to keep me invested in the gameplay for very long, and without any integration of achievements or leaderboards of any kind it just falls a little flat. It is, however, a game that would be perfect for a mobile device where one play session consists of a few levels on the bus or while waiting out an unpleasant family reunion on the toilet. While the PC is not the platform to play it on, I’d definitely recommend giving it a try on mobile devices.
We live in an age where it’s easy to get bogged down in new features, and developers often seem to push for complex mechanic after complex mechanic. N++, however, sends itself off with a warm reminder that the series has always been created around one sole value: fun.
Despite flaws such as these, I honestly do myself blown away by the potential the game has down the road. It features a robust level editing tool that allows for the creation of scenarios and huge, complex maps. It has Steam Workshop support for user-generated content and (if the patch notes and Longbow Game's Facebook page are any indication) it's still being improved and updated tirelessly by the team at Longbow so many issues described here could very well be patched and improved in future updates.
Alone With You gives you an exceptional story about love, and loneliness, with gameplay that gives you a little more than your traditional visual novel.
There was once a girl named Cally, who was an ordinary girl who lived an ordinary life. One day she found her parents kidnapped by Herbert, a mad scientist seeking revenge for a tragic past. Cally, deciding it was in her best interests to not have her parents in distress and doing what any respectable young woman would do in this situation, grabbed her semi-automatic pistol and medieval bastard sword and made chase, filling anything that got in her way full of lead before tearing it asunder.
Lost Orbit is a 2D top down, action-arcade game with a focus on quick reflexes and the age-old struggle to beat a stage faster than you did two minutes ago. It features a time trial mode devoted to achieving exactly that speedy time as well as a campaign mode geared towards a more laid back experience for casual players.
Far Cry Primal has players controlling Takkar, a Wenja tribesman who is stranded in the fictitious world of Oros. The story comes down to pretty much "I hate that other tribe, so let's go kill them" but over the course of 20 or so hours players will hunt and control animals, craft and improve weapons, and gather your people to rebuild the Wenja tribe.
#SEVERED is now available on Nintendo 3DS In North America! pic.twitter.com/4yaLtg25li
— DrinkBox Studios (@DrinkBoxStudios) October 13, 2016
You can pick up Severed directly on 3DS, or on Nintendo's website. We'll probably have to wait a little bit to see what DrinkBox Studios is working on next, but we'll have it on TorontoGameDevs.com when its official.
I've said on the podcast many times, I love the Vita. There's also a lot of great Toronto developed games on the Vita! So I gave my top 5, check it out below and subscribe today!
I'm a huge fan of the PlayStation Vita, so I decided to just give my Top 5 PlayStation Vita games that were developed in Toronto. You can find out more about these games, and others at: http://www.torontogamedevs.com/
Hey everyone! It's another Week In Review! Our videos which basically summarizes what happened this week for Toronto developed games. Remember to subscribe on Youtube!
Another week in review! This week N++ , Alone With You, Valley released, and we know have a release date for Severed on Wii U.
First it was released on PlayStation Vita, then it was announced it was coming to iOS, Wii U, and 3DS. The iOS version is out for players to enjoy and now we know when the Wii U version comes out.
Nintendo announced the Nindies Summer Jam, and Severed is part of it and will be out September 22nd for Wii U, with the 3DS version coming out sometime in the Fall.
Get ready for #Nindies Summer Jam! Every Thursday in September, a new digital release for Wii U, Nintendo 3DS or both, will hit the Nintendo eShop at 10% of listing price for the first week! Check out these participating #Nindies Summer Jam titles, as well as a variety of upcoming Nindie games for the rest of 2016 and beyond!
You can check out the video below of what I thought of the iOS version against the Vita version as well:
I chat about Severed, and my thoughts on how the PlayStation Vita game plays on iOS. Check out more at www.torontogamedevs.com
Part of the same video showed Runbow Pocket coming to 3DS in Q4, so we'll have more on that and Severed 3DS as it becomes available.
