The Hand Eye Society, a collective of Toronto’s video game developers, will be having their 3rd social of 2010 on the evening of Thursday, May 27 at the Unit Bar in Toronto, which is  located at 1198 Queen St West and may be difficult to find (see the bottom of this post for more detailed directions)*.  These socials usually open with some sort of video game presentation, and this one will be no exception.  Doors open for the event at 7 p.m., and the half-hour presentation will begin around 8 p.m.  However, it is suggested that attendees arrive at 7:30 p.m. since the Unit Bar is quite a small space and is likely to be packed shortly before 8 p.m.  After the presentation, the “social” part of the social will begin and bring opportunities for all to chat with some of Toronto’s biggest video game developers.

The special guest at this event will be Brandon Boyer, an editor for www.boingboing.net , founder of www.offworld.com, and a former writer for Edge magazine.  Most recently, Boyer was  named Chairman of the Independent Games Festival (IGF).

UPDATE: In addition to an appearance by Brandon Boyer at this event, Mark Essen Hoffman (aka MESSHOF), who has garnered attention from his unique, artsy games, which are usually made with Game Maker, presents his newest game, Nidhogg, a game that was commissioned by NYU’s Game Center.

This should prove to be a very fun evening for those who are interested in video games and the Toronto video game industry.  You can join The Hand Eye Society’s Facebook group (if, of course, you’re in to that sort of thing) to get regular updates about their events including the upcoming social that is  mentioned in this post.

*NOTE: The Unit Bar is a very inconspicuous bar that is located just a few steps east of the Gladstone Hotel.  See the Google map for a street guide of this place.

Over this weekend, TCAF (The Toronto Comics Art Festival) will be taking place on May 8 and May 9 at the Toronto Reference Library. Among a large exhibition of independent comic book artists and creators, The Hand Eye Society’s TCAF Arcade will also be there with the Torontoron arcade cabinet, which will feature a number of Toronto indie games available for playing. The event is FREE to the public, so come down to join in all of the events. Since this posting doesn’t really do TCAF justice, you should also see the posting about it from The Hand Eye Society‘s website.  And of course the TCAF website (www.torontocomics.com) also has more detailed information about this event.

TCAF
May 8th and 9th 2010
@ Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge St., Toronto, Canada

Admission to TCAF is Free.

http://www.torontocomics.com/

The following video game related panel discussion will also be taking place during TCAF :

The Spirit of Indie: Where Comics Meet Video Games
Saturday, May 8th, 2:00 – 2:45pm, at The Pilot (22 Cumberland Street, which is across the street from the Toronto Reference Library)
There’s more to the game industry than blockbuster, multi-system titles just as there’s more to comics than Batman. This panel seeks to explore the ways in which independent comic artists and game developers have influenced each other and spurred each other on to explore the possibilities of their medium. Cartoonists/game contributors and creators Scott Campbell, Jamie McKelvie, Jim Munroe, and Miguel Sternberg will be interviewed by games journalist Matthew Kumar.