Play Godsend For Free On itch.io

If you didn't get a chance to play Patchworks Godsend at EGLX, or Levelup here's your chance! The platformer has you shifting souls from creature to creature to solve puzzles and is available now on itch.io.

"Play as a trickster demon, out for revenge against the gods. You are physically weak, and rely on your ability to shift your soul into other creatures. Exploit their abilities to solve puzzles, crush those who oppose you, and invoke in-fighting amongst their ranks."

Friend of the site Colin Cummings had some kind things to say about the game on Third.Person after playing it at LevelUp.

"A puzzle platformer with a twist, as the way forward is found within your enemies! A unique concept that felt fun to play, and fun to puzzle out. Creating an interesting game demo and having it be fun within moments of grabbing a controller, especially during a busy event is hard but Godsend proved to be up to the task. I took no hints from the developer leading my demo (shoutout to Coley!) and so I had a real sense of accomplishment finding all the shrines, though my time could have used some work. I fell an embarrassing amount."

You can check out some gameplay below, or play the game yourself for free on itch.io and make sure to follow the gang on Twitter!

Level Up 2018 Showcases The Best New Game Developers

Stephen R Clark checked out LevelUp last night and gave me some of his thoughts about the event, and pictures. You can follow him on Twitter at @theMediaman3.

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The Game Development scene has exploded over the last few years and that’s in no small part to all the Ontario post-secondary education programs focusing on video game development. Just as these students are preparing for exams, Level Up 2018 showcases many of the team and solo projects built by Ontario’s newest game developers.

Level Up is a free event hosted on two floors at the Design Exchange in the heart of downtown Toronto. More than a dozen college and university programs send students to show off their hard work and compete for awards.

Additional sponsorship of the event comes from partners AMD, Ubisoft, Microsoft, Zynga and more; all are looking for the next generation of innovative game designers and artists. There’s no shortage of innovation as traditional game genres are mashed up, reinvented, and perfected.

There were four categories of completion; Best Tech, Best Art, People’s Choice, and Best Overall Game:

Technical Innovation:

PRIMEOPS (UOIT)

Artistic Achievement:

That Night (OCAD)

People’s Choice:

Stop Running (Brock U)

Best Overall:

Super Random Heroes (Sheridan)

OddBird Studio created Super Random Heroes. The team is also known Arrow Heads, which is available on Steam and Xbox One, and soon on PS4. Super Random Heroes grants random (though not always enviable) superpowers to ordinary citizens. The twisted humour and creative gameplay make it an quick game to pick up. Still in early development, the game only has one level and three superpowers. The game is targeted for release in 2020 so there should be many more unique skills and scenes to play by then.

Super Random Heroes also received funding recently at the EGLX Pitch Competition. Several other games that were present at EGLX less than four weeks ago and showed considerable improvement at Level Up 2018. Skies of Iris, Head Rush and Critterbox were also refined following user feedback. Wanderfall, Kojiki54% and Godsend look a lot better after massive graphics and lighting work. Godsend also refined their gameplay and shows a lot of potential as your hero possesses different enemies in order to solve puzzles.

Zephyr didn’t win any awards but should also receive mention since it placed 2nd or 3rd in Best Art, Best Overall, and People’s Choice. At first it looks like a standard 3D platformer, but with the control to immediately switch seasons to Spring, Summer, Fall or Winter the gameplay and visuals make Zephyr unique and fun to play.

Since students are at the end of their school year, most of these games are as complete as they’ll ever be. Many will be posted to Itch.io, others will get a full release on Steam. Many will simply become portfolio pieces as their developers enter the gaming industry. Ontario’s Indie game industry is growing, and each year there are a lot of creative minds at Level Up Showcase to fuel it.

Remember to check out Stephen R Clark on Twitter, and also GeekDad.

COLHEX Out Now On iOS

Last we heard from Alessandro Profenna we interviewed him for his game COLHEX, which is out now on iOS (iPhone, and iPad). You can play the multiplayer game for free, but make sure to bring some friends for the hectic finger tapper. You can check out some of the iPad screenshots below.

COLHEX is an iOS arcade game that can be played on an iPhone or iPad with up to 6 players locally! Each player chooses one of 6 colours to play as. The game field is a matrix of hexagons, where the goal is claim as many hexagons with your colour in 30 seconds!

Head over to the Apple Store to check out the game.

PULL - Year End Show by George Brown College

The School of Design at George Brown College is hosting a year end event, PULL, to showcase the talent of their 2017 graduating class.  The graduates are from not only the Game Design and Game Development programs, but also from Concept Art for Entertainment, Graphic Design, and more.  It's a great opportunity for recruiters looking for new talent, to play video games created by the students, and check out the art that their creative graduates can offer.

“PULL — Year End Show 2017
School of Design, George Brown College
230 Richmond St E

Please join us for the School of Design Year End Show!

PULL celebrates the talent and diversity of students across nine School of Design programs:
- Art and Design Foundation
- Concept Art for Entertainment
- Design Management
- Game Design
- Game Development
- Graphic Design
- Interaction Design & Development
- Interactive Media Management
- Interdisciplinary Design Strategy

Highlights of this year’s show include:
- Three whole floors! The School of Design, along with the newly formed School of Media and Performing Arts, will occupy all floors of 230 Richmond Street East for the first time
- Live mural painting and video games featuring work by students in Game Design, Game Development, Game Programming, and the brand new Concept Art for Entertainment post-grad program
- Reboot Detroit, a series of themed immersive environments brought to you by the second year Interaction Design students
- Beyond the Edge: an inside look into a year at the Institute without Boundaries and the future of Toronto’s Waterfront

Pull is part of ShowGBC, a series of events showcasing talent from the 2017 graduating students across George Brown’s Centre for Arts, Design and Information Technology.

Schoolofdesign.ca/yearendshow
ShowGBC.ca

@designgbc
#yespull
#SHOWGBC17”

You can RSVP for the event here.  The reception will be on Wednesday, April 26, 2017 from 6pm to 9pm. at 230 Richmond St E.  Don't forget to check out our events page to keep up with the gaming events happening in the Toronto area.  See you there!

LevelUP TO 2017 Winners Announced!

LevelUP TO, the student game development competition has announced the winners for the 2017 showcase, which took place last night. Our friends over at Ubisoft Toronto tweeted them our last night and here they are!

Audience Choice Award:

• 1st place: Unspokin
• 2nd place: Joustaposition
• 3rd place: Twin Switch

Best Technical Innovation:

• 1st place: Disco is Dead!
• 2nd place: Detective VR
• 3rd place: Twin Switch

Best Artistic Achievement:

• 1st place: Disco Is Dead!
• 2nd place: Unspokin
• 3rd place: Valhalla Showdown

Best Overall Game:

• 1st place:  Disco Is Dead!
• 2nd place: Shots Fired
• 3rd place: Detective VR

@5HorsemenGames took home first place for @LevelUpTO 's People's choice award tonight! Big thanks to everyone who played and voted! 🐻🌿 pic.twitter.com/8CZTNo8uoW

— 5 Horsemen Games (@5HorsemenGames) April 6, 2017

Wow, what a groovy night! Thank you @AMDGaming @UbisoftToronto @ukengames & @LevelUpTO for an amazing night! Forever @sheridancollege pride! pic.twitter.com/cFwz0qBgoH

— Disco is Dead! (@DiscoIsDeadGame) April 6, 2017

Congrats to Disco is Dead for taking home three of the four awards, including Game Of The Show, and Unspokin for grabbing the Audience Choice. Sherdian College walked away with most nominations from the games you see above. You can find out more about both of those games in our interviews we did last week:

5 Horeseman Games (Unspokin) Interview

Disco Is Dead Interview

Congrats to everyone who got to show off their games! We'll see you at LevelUP TO next year!

A Look At Some Local Student Games Going To LevelUp TO

Next month is the 7th annual LevelUp TO which is a gaming showcase for locally developed student games. Out friends at Oddbird Studios won it last year, and I'm excited to check out some of the games this year.

If you want a head start, check out some of the Tweets below - if you're a developer who will be there - tweet at my on Twitter and I'll update this story.

Valhalla Showdown is being showcased @LevelUpTO! bring your friends and be Ready to Dropkick your way to victory
@TorontoGameDevs

— Suplex Games (@Suplex_Games) March 21, 2017

DISCO IS DEAD! will be playable at @LevelUpTO! Be sure to bring a buddy! 👬 Also check out all the other awesome @sheridancollege games! 👏 https://t.co/qUmshLNs7r

— Disco is Dead! (@DiscoIsDeadGame) March 17, 2017

#DetectiveVR will be showcased @LevelUpTO!! Bring all your friends and play some awesome student-made games! #gamedev #indiedev #VR https://t.co/JNpbZvgn1r

— Sixty Forty Games (@SixtyFortyGames) March 17, 2017

Can't wait to show off the game that I've been working on with @5HorsemenGames for the last 8 months 😊 https://t.co/nDvY7WdtNJ

— Katherine Elliott (@elliottkat) March 17, 2017

Guess we're heading to Toronto in April!. #roadtrippin #indiedev #LevelUpTO pic.twitter.com/WUI4olFuce

— Paul Ungar (@PaulUngar) March 6, 2017

@TorontoGameDevs @gamedevs @LevelUpTO our @McMasterU game design class is aiming to demo our end of term team project! :)

— Daven Bigelow (@DavenBigelow) March 18, 2017

Humber Is Having A Gaming Capstone Showcase On April 16th

Jake Deichert let me know about a Gaming Showcase hosted by Humber for student developed games on April 16th. You can sign up for the event here.

Game exhibitors will be explaining their game design strategies, language choices and libraries utilized.  Unity developers will be reviewing the game component structures.

Some comments from our game exhibitors:

• Alice of human sacrifice.
• Be the overseer in a burglary.
• Come for the sun, stay for the fun.
• Did you ever want to build your own spaceship and lead it into battle?
• Do you have what it takes to be a real cop?
• Dodge them all, kill them all.
• Explore a mysterious world hunting powerful enemies for their advanced weapons and arms.
• Gobble, gobble.
• Have you ever wanted to throw a rock at a friendly?
• Hovercrafts? Multiplayer? EXPLOSIONS!?
• It's getting hotter, can you feel it?
• It's the year 2868 and war is coming
• Only the strongest survive.
• Spells n' combos
• Suck'em chuck'em
• Tug of war
• Who done it?
• You're bored come waste your time playing my game - I am not crazy, you're crazy

I got to play Jake's VR game Instincts last week at LevelUpTO and had a lot of fun with it. There are plenty of examples of student developed games being released, so be sure to check this out if you want a sign of things to come.

Event: 5th Annual Level Up Showcase - Thursday April 2nd

On Thursday, LevelUpTO will be hosting the 5th annual LeveL Up Showcase, between 5pm-10pm.  The event is designed to demonstrate student-developed video games from our area.

"On April 2, 2015, the 5th annual Level Up Showcase launches at the Design Exchange, featuring dozens of student­-designed video games and over 2000 expected attendees from Ontario's diverse games community.

The five hour event is co­-hosted and organized by the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), University of Toronto, OCAD University and Algonquin College in partnership with AMD, George Brown College, Sheridan College and Ubisoft Toronto.

This year’s FREE event will present over 80 interactive projects across 16 different institutions: University of Toronto, OCAD University, UOIT, Centennial College, Humber College, Seneca College, Sheridan College, Algonquin College, George Brown College, TriOS College, Niagara College, Ryerson University, York University, University of Waterloo, McMaster University, and Brock University."

You can sign up for the free event on their FaceBook page. I'll be showing up for part of it, let me know on Twitter if you want to meet up.