TorontoGameDevs.com 2nd Annual Game Of The Year Voting - Results!!

Well, it was a solid 2016, and there were a lot of great games that were created in Toronto and Southern Ontario. Just like last year, supporters and fans of local content took part in the 2nd Annual Game of the Year voting, and here are the results!

10) Maize - Finish Line Games

9) Kapsul Infinite - Luke O'Connor

8) Far Cry Primal - Ubisoft Toronto

7) Alone With You -  Benjamin Rivers

6) Watch Dogs 2 - Ubisoft Toronto

5) Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander - Massive Damage Inc

Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander had a huge Kickstarter. After a successful funding thank to Square Enix Collective, the game came out in Early Access, followed by a full release later in the year. The developers are still updating the game, so make sure you head over to Steam to pick it up.

4) Runbow: Satura's Space Adventure - 13AM Games

Back-to-back Years of placing 4th in voting, 13AM Games released a healthy chunk of DLC for its party platformer. Satura's Space Adventure gives players more single, and multiplayer content - while also releasing the game on Steam, and 3DS.

3) Severed - DrinkBox Studios

The first-person hack-n-slash found eventual homes on 3DS, iOS, and Wii U, but it was made from the ground up for the little Sony portable that could. Probably one of the last "exclusive" Vita games, Severed has you playing as a daughter trying to find out what happened to her family. Now I'll be praying for a Guacamelee 2.

2) Hard Vacuum Lullaby - One More Story Games

Friends of the site, One More Story Games claims our top two spots in this years Game of the Year voting, first with Hard Vacuum Lullaby. "After a savage battle in deep space, the 2nd Yagoshan Expeditionary Fleet Battlecruiser #6 retreats to the orbit of a gas giant with other damaged vessels to undergo repairs by the fleets logistics and repair corvettes."

1) Mandatory Upgrade X Marks The Spot - One More Story Games

Joining the ranks of N++, this years winner is Mandatory Upgrade: X Marks The Spot from One More Story Games. The story based game was written by Chris Tihor from Ironic Iconic Studios, and tells the tale of Special Agent Rachel Varley who has to investigate the death of a runaway cybernetic exosuit on her first day back to work. You can pick it up here for $3.99, which includes a demo as well.

Thanks to everyone for voting, and congratulations to everyone who released a game in 2016. Onwards to 2017!

Toronto Developed Severed and Modbox Win At The Canadian Video Game Awards

The Canadian Video Game Awards have come and gone, and the winners are in! There were a few Toronto developed games that were up for nominations and I've posted the winners below:

• Best Mobile/Handheld Game: Severed (Drinkbox Studios)
• Best Animation: Far Cry Primal (Ubisoft Montreal - Ubisoft Toronto helped)
• Best Educational Game: Modbox (Alientrap)
• Best Musical Score: Take My Hand by YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN & Pantayo - Severed (Drinkbox Studios)

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided took home Game of the Year, and you check out the full list of winners right here.

Toronto Developers Highlight the 7th Annual Canadian Video Game Award Nominations

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:

• Severed
• Far Cry Primal (Ubisoft Montreal nominated)

Best Console Game:

• Far Cry Primal (Ubisoft Montreal nominated)

Best Mobile/Handheld Game:

• Alone With You (Benjamin Rivers)
• Severed (DrinkBox Studios)
• Loud on Planet X (Pop Sandbox Inc)

Best PC Game

• Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander (Massive Damage)

Best Virtual Reality Game:

• Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (Steel Crate Games)
• Modbox (Alientrap)

Best Animation:

• Far Cry Primal (Ubisoft Montreal nominated)

Best Art Direction:

• Severed (DrinkBox Studios)

Best Audio:

• Far Cry Primal (Ubisoft Montreal nominated)

Best Educational Game:

• Modbox (Alientrap)

Best Game Innovation:

• Modbox (Alientrap)

Best Indie Game:

• Alone With You (Benjamin Rivers)
• Severed (DrinkBox Studios)

Best Musical Score:

• Alone With You (Benjamin Rivers)
• Severed (DrinkBox Studios)

Best Narrative:

• Alone With You (Benjamin Rivers)
• Severed (DrinkBox Studios)

Best New Character:

• Sasha - Severed (Drinkbox Studios)

Best Technology:

• Modbox (Alientrap)

Fans’ Choice Award: Best Canadian-Made Game:

• Alone With You (Benjamin Rivers)
• Severed (DrinkBox Studios)

You can check out the full nominations at the official site.

Happy Canada Day! Toronto Games Released This Year

I figured I would take this Canada Day (and half-way point of the year) to celebrate the Toronto developed games that have been released so far. They are in no particular order and I've tried to link to a page to buy them. If I'm missing one, make sure to let me know on Twitter.

Runbow: Satura's Space Adventure! from 13AM Games

Cally’s Caves 3 from VDOGames

Kapsul Infinite from Luke O'Connor

Hard Vacuum Lullaby from One More Story Games

Robo’s World: The Zarnok Fortress from Bluish-Green Productions and Throw Away Games

Robo's World: The Darnok Fortress came out on steam earlier this year and was available to patreon's

Severed from DrinkBox Studios

Far Cry Primal from Ubisoft

Fortified from Clapfoot Games

Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander from Massive Damage Inc

Real Army Simulator from The Really Serious Game Company

Dashy Square from Kastriot Sulejmani

Forbidden Dessert from Button Mash Games

Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime from Asteroid Base

Maximum Override from AlienTrap

Cryptark from Alientrap

We Are Doomed (Vita) from Vertex Pop

We Are Doomed was a perfect fit on PlayStation Vita

Ace Academy: Black Flight from Illumination Games

Alto’s Adventure (Android) from Snowman

Cel Damage HD (Xbox) from Finish Line Games

Planktos from Blot Interactive

Sago Mini Trucks and Diggers from Sago Mini

Grumz from Picnic Game Labs

Block Swop from Wooly Walrus Games

Quick Drop from Wooly Walrus Games

Loud on Planet X from Pop Sandbox

Pitfall Planet from Bonfire Games

pitfall planet won level up in 2015

Fantasy Tales Online from Cold Tea Studio

Shadow Heroes: Vengeance In Flames from Allied Games

AlphaPit from Shane McCafferty

Frank The Spider from Yahman Games

Congrats to all the developers on releasing their games, here's to a great back half of 2016. Happy Canada Day!

Far Cry Primal Gets A Free "Survivor" Mode

Ubisoft has announced that their prehistoric first person shooter Far Cry Primal will be getting a free update, which includes a new difficulty "Survivor Mode".  This new difficulty will include permadeath (optional), less humans and animals to hunt, the minimap turned off, a stamina gauge, and more. You can check out the announcement trailer below:

The Stone Age is about to get even more brutal. Far Cry Primal will receive a FREE "Survivor Mode" update on April 12 for consoles and PC, which will make Oros and its inhabitants harsher and more dangerous than ever. You'll also have the option of enabling permadeath, if you're willing to risk extinction.

“The idea of doing this mode actually started from the team, saying they wanted to create this mode based on feedback they got from the community,” says Thomas Simon, Far Cry Primal’s game director. “The keystone of that survival mode is the change in the exploration, crafting, and difficulty of the game to make it even more realistic. After that, there are options the player can activate to go further.”

Far Cry Primal was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC earlier this year, and I quite enjoyed it.  The new update will be available April 12th for all platforms.

What Was Ubisoft Toronto's Contribution To Far Cry Primal? Now We Know!

I've wondered for a while what specifically Ubisoft Toronto did for Far Cry Primal.  The first person shooter was released last week, and as I mentioned on the podcast I've been enjoying it quite a bit. Thanks to the Toronto Star, we now know what our favourite Ubisoft studio contributed to the game:

"You have to hunt animals, craft together tools and find your fellow tribesman, and thanks to the addition of Beast Master abilities, you don't have to do it alone.

"The Montreal team . . . gave us a lot of stuff that was related to the Beast Master powers, so the taming, giving (your animal) orders and creating the many great beast quests later on in the game were led by the team here," said Maxime Beland, creative director, Ubisoft Toronto.

The Toronto team also worked on your pet owl, another new feature that almost operates as a prehistoric drone. You can call your owl and see from its perspective, which lets you survey the surrounding area, mark targets and eventually, with upgrades, attack enemies for you."

You can check out the full story over on the Toronto Star website.  A big congrats again to the team over at Ubisoft Toronto. My review for the game will be up sometime this week.

Far Cry Primal Out Now

A little late on this one, but Ubisoft has released Far Cry Primal for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, with the PC version coming March 1st.  The first person open world shooter takes players to 10000 BC to control Takkar, as he tries to rebuild his tribe in the land of Oros.

Watch the all-new 101 trailer for a gameplay overview of Far Cry Primal in 5 minutes. Discover all you need to know about Far Cry Primal's weapons, powerful Beast Master abilities, and vicious human foes. Available February 23, 2016.

Ubisoft Toronto assisted with this one, along with other Ubisoft teams.  A big congrats to all of those involved.  As I've mentioned on the podcast, I'll be reviewing the game for the website soon. Until, let us know in the comments what you think of the game!

Far Cry Primal - Takkar Trailer and Behind The Scenes

With Far Cry Primal releasing next month, Ubisoft has released two new videos for their upcoming first person shooter.  The trailer shows off Hunter Takkar, who is the character that players will control, as he "helps the Wenja people rise above extinction".

Hunter Takkar comes to Oros to help the Wenja people rise above extinction ------------------------------­---- Follow IGN for more! ------------------------------­---- YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/user/ignentertainment?sub_confirmation=1 IGN OFFICIAL APP: http://www.ign.com/mobile FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/ign TWITTER: https://twitter.com/ign INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/igndotcom/?hl=en WEBSITE: http://www.ign.com/ GOOGLE+: https://plus.google.com/+IGN

The second video shows off how Ubisoft goes about creating the world, characters, and language used in the game.

A look at the work Ubisoft put into recreating mankind's earliest days. ------------------------------­---- Follow IGN for more! ------------------------------­---- IGN OFFICIAL APP: http://www.ign.com/mobile FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/ign TWITTER: https://twitter.com/ign INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/igndotcom/?hl=en WEBSITE: http://www.ign.com/ GOOGLE+: https://plus.google.com/+IGN

Far Cry Primal releases February 23rd on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

Mayor John Tory Plays Far Car Primal

Twitter follower Alex Gram let me know on Twitter that Mayor of Toronto John Tory swung by the Ubisoft Toronto offices to play Far Cry Primal.

Testing out soon to be released @UbisoftToronto game Far Cry Primal on tour of Ward 18 with Councillor @anabailaoTO pic.twitter.com/xgG9DqUn7p

— John Tory (@JohnTory) January 15, 2016

Checking out motion capture at @UbisoftToronto where they are digitizing the movement of a dog. pic.twitter.com/ry7caKnn6I

— John Tory (@JohnTory) January 15, 2016

Thanks to Mayor @JohnTory and Councillor @anabailaoTO for taking a tour of our studio #TOPoli #JunctionTO pic.twitter.com/AKPMJjZBe8

— UBISOFT TORONTO (@UbisoftToronto) January 15, 2016

Far Cry Primal is being assisted by Ubisoft Toronto, and is slated for release on February 23rd 2016 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

Far Cry Primal Trailer Shown At The Game Awards

Having been announced a few months ago, Far Cry Primal was featured last night at The Game Awards 2015.  Far Cry Primal is being developed by Ubisoft Montreal, with some help from Ubisoft Toronto.  You can check out the full trailer below:

The world premiere of Far Cry Primal from the 2015 Game Awards. For more videos, news, previews and reviews, go to http://kotaku.com

Far Cry Primal takes you way, way back. Back to a time when man was an insignificant blip on nature’s radar and beasts were larger (and meaner) than those we know today. Back to a time when the simple ability to make a fire meant the difference between life and death. Back to the Stone Age. And today, during The Game Awards, Ubisoft announced the special Far Cry Primal Deluxe Edition, packed with bonus goodies and additional content. 

You can check out the full details of the Deluxe Edition on Ubisoft's blog.  Far Cry Primal will be out for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on February 23rd, 2016.