Ottawa Region Folks, Check Out Girl Force!

Interested in building a skill set to help you develop games? Live in the Canadian Capital Region? Check out Girl Force! Monday, March 7th? 

Roll'n Bump is a Canadian Toy Testing Council Best Bet!

How did I just find out about this!? The Canadian Toy testing Council (CTTC) awarded Roll'n Bump it's top honours of 'Best Bet'!! 

Starwhal Is Coming to Xbox One!

Oh man! I've been holding on to this nugget since the Ottawa International Games Conference last month. It was announced this week at E3 that Starwhal, the best game about narwhals fencing in space, from the talented team at Breakfall will be coming to the Xbox One!

PlayStation Owners, Get Your Starwhal On!

That's right PlayStation lovers, Starwhal is now available on the PlayStation Store for both PS3 and PS4! So if you have a hankering for a good old fashion competitive party game to bust out when you've got pals over, you can NOT go wrong with Starwhal. It is ridiculous fun and I recommend it for everybody! Also a reminder for folks who don't own a console of the PlayStation persuasion that Starwhal is also available for Mac and PC on Steam.

Well hey hey hey, how appropriate for the season! Local indie dream team Breakfall will be re-releasing their super chill (pun intended) exploratory platform game Marvin' Mittens on Steam on December 17! If you're interested in checking it out, you'll be able to pick it up here. The game is a really unique experience that I totally recommend folks try out. So grab your toque and toboggan and see you in the snow!

Great Saturday Spent at Cardstockawa!

Every year (sometimes more), Martin Éthier of the Game Artisans of Canada invites us all into the woods for a cottage weekend of board game design and testing we've come to call Cardstockawa! 

Check Out Salad Shark on Android!!

A friend and colleague of mine, Simon, has released his first game for Android under the Overtoast banner: Salad Shark! You can pick it up now in the Google Play store. Read on for a short description.

So, the Ottawa International Game Conference is officially kicking off tomorrow, Monday, May 26, but I got to attend a pre-conference workshop featuring the Unity game engine. I've been following the development of the Unity engine from its humble roots as a Mac only development platform to the multi-platform powerhouse it is today. Most of the territory treaded by the workshop was old hat to us grizzled ancients, but just about perfect for those unfamiliar with Unity hoping to learn how things are done in this powerful yet easy to use engine. The best part was definitely meeting folks from Unity Technologies and being promised a look at some of the rad upcoming features in Unity 5 tomorrow at the conference, including (drum roll) the much anticipated new Unity UI system!! I am SO psyched! I hope I can sleep tonight!


Image from www.unity3d.com

CoreTechs Tactics Kickstarter Campaign is Live!

Click This Link To Check Out The Kickstarter Campaign!

Some friends of mine have launched a Kickstarter campaign for their turn based strategy game CoreTechs Tactics.

The ideas behind CoreTechs are all really cool, but the community involvement aspect is really what sets this project apart! The team put on these rad "Cardcasts" over on their Twitch channel allowing anyone and everyone to contribute ideas toward the design of new units for the game. I highly suggest you all hop on over to the Kickstarter page and see what the game is all about!

Image from: http://coretechsgame.com/

Ottawa Jam Game Making Headlines!

Kotaku.com recently posted an article about one of the most innovative games to come out of this year's Global Game Jam, Keep Talking and No One Explodes. The gist of it is that one player puts on a VR headset and tries to diffuse a bomb before the timer runs out while their team mates, who can't see the bomb, have to walk them through the procedure because they have the instructions! I haven't had the chance to play this game yet but all my friends who have tell me it's an amazing and totally unique experience. So, big props to everyone from www.keeptalkinggame.com for getting covered by such a prominent gaming news outlet! I wish them the best of luck with the game, the concept is just amazing!

Amazing Looking XNA Port of Heretic

A friend of mine who goes by the name of Daivuk has been fiddling around with porting the classic FPS game Heretic to XNA. Along with just getting it to run, he's been implementing some pretty damn fancy graphical upgrades. I recommend checking out his YouTube channel as he frequently posts updates explaining what he's been working on. The graphics nerd in me loves this stuff!

ONLY ONE From Ernest Szoka Now Available!

Only One, the ridiculously fun and surprisingly tactical hack and slash from Ottawa developer Ernest Szoka is now available for free on iOS and Android. I've been a big fan of the game ever since I first played a rough build. There's something unique about the feel of combat that's really compelling. Oh, and the dude's little leg dance during the whirlwind attack still cracks me up!

Check out the trailer and game info here.

Starwhal Up on Kickstarter

My friends from Breakfall here in town have launched a Kickstarter campaign to help raise money to put the finishing touches on their ridiculously fun game, Starwhal. Hit this link to check out the Kickstarter page and have a look at the game in action. There's even a demo you can play on the web! If you have fond memories of raucous times playing games on the couch with your friends back in high school, then you need to back this project. This game is phenomenal fun!

Image from www.starwhal.com

Blueprints and Northwest Passage At Ludo Outaouais 2013

It was Ludo Outaouais time again this week end and attendees on Saturday got a special treat in the form of early sale copies of Blueprints and Expedition: Northwest Passage courtesy of game shop Multizone! So, these are a couple of great games, but the really awesome part of all this is that they are both designed by local Ottawa designer Yves Tourigny! Hit the jump for more on Yves and the games.

Wicked First Day at the Toy and Game Expo!

I'm holding down the fort this weekend at the Toy and Game Expo on behalf of the distributor of Roll'n Bump, Îlot 307, and it's been a wicked first day.

Charity Event Declared Awesome! Thank you Everybody!

Well, I think a big thanks is in order to everyone who attended my charity event last Friday and to the awesome sponsors. A big thanks to Ka and Ashley of the Meeple's Republic for lending me the games for the event and getting folks into the groove. And I wouldn't have had such an awesome pile of prizes to give away without the generosity of The Comic Book Shoppe, Games for All and Îlot 307! And, finally, thank you to the local designers, Al, Yves and Daryl for teaching their games and helping out with the tournament! We raised a nice wad of cash for the kids at Actua.ca! Check out some pics after the jump. 

Charity Board Game Event Reminder!

A reminder that THIS FRIDAY, I am hosting a fund raising event. It's $10, all for a good cause. You can come learn to play some new games, bring your favourite game to share with others, get some gift ideas for the holidays and participate in the tournament featuring three locally designed games! Great games and game related prizes to be won in the tournament and raffle! I sure hope you can all make it!

Video Game Event Recap

Above, we have Nick and Dave the top bracket and bottom bracket winners of the tournament. It was a small-ish turn out after all but a ton of fun. Lot's of scream-at-the-screen moments and a nice wad of cash for charity! A big thanks to everyone who was in attendance and I hope no one was unable to get in because we were all busy during the tournament! If so, I'm soooo sorry! I'm going to make sure there's someone at the door from 7 to 9 next friday for the board game event. So, big thanks to the attendees and a huge thanks to Breakfall, Flathead Studios and my buddy from Northernbytes for providing download codes for the prize packs. And a big thanks to a certain someone for generously picking up some gift cards to sweeten the top prize even more!

Charity Video Games Event Reminder

A reminder that THIS FRIDAY I am hosting a fund raising event. It's $10 all for a good cause. If you bring a game you've made or are working on to play along with the hardware to play it you can get it for $5!! Raffle tournament and prizes to be had!

October Charity Events! Save the Dates!

Click through for more info.