News involving the video games developed in Canada, and the people who make them. Indie Games, AAA Games, and in between featured and reported on.
Toronto-based game designer and teacher Benjamin Rivers (@BenjaminRivers) (and co-founder of indie studio Bancy Co (@bancyco)) is partnering with the newly acquired Limited Run Games to release their games Being Home, Alone with You and Worse Than Death as part of one physical collection on Nintendo Switch.
Read MoreThis week on our weekly interview show, I chilled out with Benjamin Rivers. An indie developer here in Toronto, Ben has released Home on PlayStation 4, Vita, iOS, and Steam, as well as Alone With You on PlayStation 4, Vita, and Steam. He is also a teacher, illustrator, and Twitch streamer.
We talked about his history as a gamer, and then game developer, as well as his two releases and teases for his next game. Remember to subscribe on iTunes and Google Play!
This interview was available to Patron's first.
The sci-fi romantic adventure game Alone With You from Benjamin Rivers is out now on Steam. The originally PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita game is currently enjoying a 15% discount on Steam which you can check out right here.
I enjoy Alone With You when it came out last year, you can check out the video review below:
Alone With You on PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita is a fantastic game, hear my thoughts in this video, or read them here: http://www.torontogamedevs.com/reviews/alone-with-you-torontogamedevs-review
We speak to Québécois game dev Dragon Slumber, creator of Tech Support, Aethernaut and other games.
We reveal the winners of our ‘23 Community Awards poll and discuss Drinkbox’s latest teaser for their next project- and more!
This week thousands more game developers join Stephan in the "terminated by evil, stupid people" camp as layoffs hit tons of studios all over Canada and the world. We discuss Sonic as well. Sonic supports Unionizing your Workplace!
Stephan got terminated but that’s okay he just has more time to cover Canadian games now.
After a (ginormous) hiatus, Steve and Stephan are BACK to discuss some Canadian Games Industry news from the past few months but just catch up and talk about games and big game thoughts, man… and launch our end of 2023 Community Awards Polls! Nominate now!!
KEIGH THREEEEEE! New Compulsion Games’ game, Thunder Lotus goes multiplayer, age-old game development questions pondered and Zelda hierarchy debated.
In Stephan's last recorded and produced episode in Halifax, NS, we dive into a bunch of Canadian games from Fire Station to Super Animal Royale to Project Dark. We also talk new Canadian Nindies announcements and more news!
Big few weeks of releases for Canadian indie studios Behaviour Interactive, Cococucumber Co, Mighty Yell, Red Hook and Red Meat Games! (Red!) We also talk early access, the ideal platform release schedule for your indie game (including the Limited Run Games release) and giving everyone some freakin' menstruation days.
Well we now know that Benjamin Rivers is a man of his word. Just like what we thought on the podcast, the sci-fi romance adventure game Alone With You will be getting a Steam release next month, just in time for Valentines Day.
Just in time for #ValentinesDay — Alone With You launches Feb. 9 on @steam_games! #romance #indiegame #pixelart https://t.co/WcnsYHiB19 pic.twitter.com/bakx7bcUQe
— Benjamin Rivers (@BenjaminRivers) January 17, 2017
Available February 9th - just in time for Valentine's Day! From the creator of Home - A Unique Horror Adventure comes ALONE WITH YOU, the critically-acclaimed sci-fi-romance adventure game - now on Steam! + OFFICIAL Website: http://www.alonewithyougame.com + Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/benjaminrivers + Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/alonewithyougame http://www.alonewithyougame.com
If you can't wait until Valentines Day, you can always pick up the game on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita.
Toronto-based game designer and teacher Benjamin Rivers (@BenjaminRivers) (and co-founder of indie studio Bancy Co (@bancyco)) is partnering with the newly acquired Limited Run Games to release their games Being Home, Alone with You and Worse Than Death as part of one physical collection on Nintendo Switch.
Toronto-based game developer Benjamin Rivers (@BenjaminRivers) has released Home: Postmortem Edition for Nintendo Switch.
2019 action-adventure horror game Worse Than Death is getting a sequel in the form of a comic book written and drawn by Benjamin Rivers (@benjaminrivers) with chapter one available now.
Worse Than Death, Benjamin Rivers latest, was already released on iOS earlier this year and now we have a release date for the console and PC release. On October 8th, the game will come out on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Steam, and the Humble Store.
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.
The 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.
Normally I don't write about the podcast on the main news site, but we hit a nice little milestone I figured I would share.
We've hit out 50th podcast! Bret Measor, Dan Rodrigues, and myself sat down over the weekend to talk about some of the recent Toronto Game Developed stuff, but we also answered some fan questions. Check it out below, while also subscribing to iTunes.
We passed Episode 50 on our podcast. We talked about Alone With You, Valley, N++, Severed, and answered some questions about game development. Subscribe on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/video-game-podcast-toronto/id1025606427?mt=2 Check out the main site: http://www.torontogamedevs.com/
You can also check out our podcast page for all the past episodes.
We speak to Québécois game dev Dragon Slumber, creator of Tech Support, Aethernaut and other games.
We reveal the winners of our ‘23 Community Awards poll and discuss Drinkbox’s latest teaser for their next project- and more!
This week thousands more game developers join Stephan in the "terminated by evil, stupid people" camp as layoffs hit tons of studios all over Canada and the world. We discuss Sonic as well. Sonic supports Unionizing your Workplace!
Stephan got terminated but that’s okay he just has more time to cover Canadian games now.
After a (ginormous) hiatus, Steve and Stephan are BACK to discuss some Canadian Games Industry news from the past few months but just catch up and talk about games and big game thoughts, man… and launch our end of 2023 Community Awards Polls! Nominate now!!
KEIGH THREEEEEE! New Compulsion Games’ game, Thunder Lotus goes multiplayer, age-old game development questions pondered and Zelda hierarchy debated.
In Stephan's last recorded and produced episode in Halifax, NS, we dive into a bunch of Canadian games from Fire Station to Super Animal Royale to Project Dark. We also talk new Canadian Nindies announcements and more news!
Big few weeks of releases for Canadian indie studios Behaviour Interactive, Cococucumber Co, Mighty Yell, Red Hook and Red Meat Games! (Red!) We also talk early access, the ideal platform release schedule for your indie game (including the Limited Run Games release) and giving everyone some freakin' menstruation days.
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.
Valley from Blue Isle Studios, and Alone With You from Benjamin Rivers are out now. You can check out our the review for Alone With You here.
Alone With You on PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita is a fantastic game, hear my thoughts in this video, or read them here: http://www.torontogamedevs.com/reviews/alone-with-you-torontogamedevs-review
Valley just came out on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. I'll have the full review in a week or so, but figured I would give my impressions on the first person adventure.
You can get Alone With You on PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita. Valley is available on Steam, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
Although initially announced to come out in the Spring, Benjamin Rivers romance adventure game, Alone With You, will be coming out August 23rd on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita.
Read MoreVideo game news, events, game development jobs, and podcast about the games developed in Canada.
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![Limited Run Games Releases Home On PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita [Updated]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5516beafe4b0c6d76a97bb4d/1518223639420-3H6GLTNE9AU4FPD6B4FR/home.png)
