Category Archives: Events

Special events that are happening within the utGDDC and the video game community.

IGDA panel discussion entitled Project Management: Maximizing Capacity on November 4 at 7:30p.m.

IMPORTANT EDIT: The IGDA panel discussion begins at 7:30p.m., NOT 8:30p.m. as I had originally posted by accident.

A good catch from our Vice President, Gabriel. The IGDA will be having a panel discussion this week on a topic entitled Project Management: Maximizing Capacity – scheduling, organization and implementation strategy. This discussion will take place on Thursday, November 4 starting at 7:30p.m. (after our game club meeting) at Metro Hall, located at 55 John St. in Toronto, in room 308. If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about how to effectively manage a game development team, then this would be the discussion for you to attend.

There appears to be a great set of panellists lined up for the evening including three video game industry professionals, Alex Parizeau (Producer on Splinter Cell Conviction at Ubisoft), Lesley Milner (Producer on Bioshock 2 at Digital Extremes), and Rhys Yorke (Producer on The Secret World at Funcom). The panel will be moderated by former utGDDC member and founder (yes, you read that correctly) Andrei Petrov.

It should prove to be a very informative evening for those of you who are interested in attending this panel discussion, and it’s likely that a few of us will head on down to the IGDA event after the game club meeting this Thursday. Naturally, anyone is welcome and encouraged to come along if they wish to. There is also an IGDA social event after the discussion panel.

Come out to the Hand Eye Society’s social event on November 11

Next week there will be social event held by the Hand Eye Society, which is a collective of individuals from Toronto’s video game communities that is comprised of students, teachers, video game developers, and other industry professionals. Events held by the Hand Eye Society are a great way to learn more about the game development industry in this city and to meet the professionals who work in it. You may be surprised to find out that many popular indie games have been developed by Toronto-based video game developers with a few notable examples being Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes for DS, developed by Capybara Games, and Everyday Shooter, developed by Queasy Games. However, there are many other developers in this city who have also seen great success.

The Hand Eye Society’s social event will be taking place on November 11 at the Unit Bar, which is located at 1198 Queen St W. (see the map and image below for more detailed directions). The event will start at 7pm and will feature an appearance by Jason DeGroot, who was one of the main team members that created the indie game Fez, which was given the Excellence In Visual Art award at the 2008 Independent Games Festival. The event will also include a sampling of some of Japan’s finest indie games so come out to the bar and have some fun.

Directions to the Unit Bar


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The Unit Bar

The Digital Interactive Gaming Conference (DIG) is being held on November 18 and 19

The Digital Interactive Gaming Conference (DIG) is a huge event that will be held in London, Ontario throughout November 18 and 19. It will feature a number of keynote speakers from leading North American video game developers as well as other industry professionals. With tons of learning and networking opportunities available, it certainly appears to be a great event for game developers of all areas of expertise to participate in.And if that wasn’t enough, DIG will also feature a Game Expo with a wide variety of games designed by local DIG companies that you can play until your heart’s content. Top that all off with the 2010 Vortex Game Competition, where notable video game industry judges rate competitors on their video game prototypes and designs, and you have a very full 2 days of game industry education and fun.

If you love video games and want to become more connected to the industry, then this conference seems to be developing into a very profitable experience for you. If you’d like to get more information on DIG LONDON 2010, check out their website to get the details.



Get ready for Gamercamp on November 13 and 14

Gamercamp is an upcoming event that celebrates the art, creativity, and fun of video games. Taking place here in Toronto, Gamercamp brings together local developers, industry speakers, and video game enthusiasts for 2 full days of demos, presentations, and gaming goodness. This event appears to be shaping up nicely as a meeting of Toronto’s video game industry, and it even includes a former utGDDC member among its list of influential guest speakers! (I’ll let you try to figure out who it is).

Gamercamp takes place on November 13 and 14 across the George Brown School of Design and the Toronto Underground Cinema. See their website to get more information about this exciting event and how to get tickets.

Come out and enjoy the Arcadian Renaissance at Nuit Blanche

Toronto’s annual event, Nuit Blanche, will be starting on the evening of Saturday, October 2 at precisely 6:57p.m. and will run until sunrise on Sunday, October 3.  You read that correctly, Nuit Blanche is an event that runs all night and turns Toronto into a showcase of various artistic exhibits throughout the city.

Among the exhibits will be the Hand Eye Society’s Arcadian Renaissance, which will display 6 custom-made arcade cabinets featuring some of the hottest indie games to have ever been developed right here in Toronto.  You may even recognize some of these video game titles from Valve’s popular video game catalog on Steam.  You can visit the Arcadian Renaissance exhibit in the atrium of the brand-new TIFF Bell Lightbox during Nuit Blanche and have some fun trying out these indie games for yourself.  It’s certainly shaping up to be quite a memorable event to come out and experience.

Talks of a utGDDC Reunion to Happen Soon

Hey, everyone.

It’s summer! And, it’s also a great time to have a utGDDC reunion for all of the game club’s members and alumni. There has already been some talk about this during the past few months on the utGDDC forums (http://forum.utgddc.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1252), and some of the club’s members are now interested in making this happen. Since it’s Canada Day at the end of next week, hopefully many of you will be available to come out and meet up around that time. I’m not sure if we will be able to book a room at the Bahen Centre for this event, but if we can’t, then perhaps we can all meet up at some quiet pub or something. I think that this event would be a really great opportunity for everyone to see each other again after several days, months, or years, and it would also be a great event to meet with some of the current and past members of the utGDDC. Plus, I’m hoping that some people will also want to bring in their laptops with video games made from previous GMDs so that other people can play them and they can show off their games (GMD 2010 submissions should all be available on the website very soon).

Recently, Liez told me about a free online service called agreeadate.com, which I will be using to co-ordinate a convenient date, time, and location for everyone to meet up at for the game club reunion. You can go to the following link, add your email, and let everyone know when you would be available to come out: http://www.agreeAdate.com/9680684167C2A7660418DCD37D5A3987CA

And just in case you’re a little concerned about submitting your email to a strange website that you may have never heard of before, like I was, then be rest assured that your email will not be passed on to third parties or used by agreeadate.com for marketing purposes. In fact, this is stated on agreeadate.com’s following web pages:

http://www.agreeadate.com/privacy.htm – agreeadate.com’s privacy policy

http://www.agreeadate.com/faqs.aspx#qrevenue – how agreeadate.com makes money

If you are still skeptical about using agreeadate.com, then you can always send me a brief email to let me know when you’d be available attend. The possible dates that are being considered for holding the utGDDC reunion are on:

June 27

June 28

June 29

June 30

July 1

July 2

July 3

July 4

I’m predicting that people will want to hang out for about 5 or 6 hours. Hopefully, more of the details will become clear as people start letting me know when they would prefer to meet up. I hope that everyone is having a great summer, and I’ll be in touch with all of you shortly to give you an update on the status of the utGDDC reunion event.

P.S. If you know any other utGDDC members or alumni who have not received this message yet, or if you have any friends that you’d like to bring along, then please feel free to forward this message on to them.

UPDATE:

Unfortunately, due to the lack of respondents for a utGDDC summer reunion and a very limited number of days left for everyone to meet up, it’s looking very doubtful that this event will be worthwhile enough to take place within the next week. If you have any opinions about when else you think that we should have this event, then post them up on the utGDDC forums and perhaps we may be able to better plan a reunion date to take place in the future. It appears that such a large event as this should have been organized several months in advance, and for that mistake, I take full responsibility. Hopefully there will still be a time in the near future when a utGDDC reunion will take place. Until then, the game club will continue working to try to organize a time when it will be worthwhile for everyone to participate.

Come on down to the 2010 TOjam Arcade this Saturday, June 5 from 7p.m. – midnight at the Imperial Pub in Toronto

Now’s your chance to come out on Saturday, June 5 from 7p.m. – midnight at the Imperial Pub (54 Dundas St E) in Toronto and see more than 72 video games on display, which were created at TOJam 2010. This huge event is open to the public and available to all ages (if you want to drink, then you’ll need I.D.) with speeches, prizes, the opportunity to play these video games, and a People’s Choice vote for the best game on display. It’s certainly something not to be missed if you like video games and are interested in seeing what Toronto’s veteran and up-and-coming video game developers were able to create during the recent TOJam 2010 event. Visit the TOJam website for more details.

IGDA Toronto Presents Government Assistance – Part II on Thursday, June 3 from 7p.m. – 9p.m. at Metro Hall

This week, the Toronto chapter of the IGDA (International Game Developers Association) will be hosting a special presentation titled: Government Assistance – Part II. The presentation will take place on Thursday, June 3 from 7p.m. – 9p.m. at Metro Hall (55 John Street, Toronto) in room 308/309, and it will feature representatives from the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) and Telefilm Canada who will be talking about the various forms of government financing and assistance available to both video game and interactive media developers.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about how to finance your own video game development project, then this presentation is for you. Several programs aimed at helping developers of video games and interactive media will be discussed, and these will include the OMDC Export Fund, the Interactive Digital Media Fund, the IP Prototype Fund, the Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit, and Telefilm’s new Canada Media Fund. There will also be more information about fund descriptions, who qualifies for what programs, and how to apply, so come on out to this presentation for a great opportunity to learn more about the resources that are available to local start-up video game companies.

Come out to The Hand Eye Society’s 3rd social of 2010 on Thursday night, May 27 at the Unit Bar

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.

The Unit Bar

Come out to TCAF (The Toronto Comics Art Festival) this weekend for FREE on May 8 and May 9

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.