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.

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.

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.

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.