Square Enix Highlights Dragon of Legends On Collective Page

Remember when the developers behind Halcyon 6 just absolutely destroyed Kickstarter? No doubt that part of the reason was they were backed by Square Enix on their Collective page, which helps promote independent developers trying to get funded.

Enter, Dragon of Legends, which has now made its way onto Square Enix Collective. Square Enix simply asks if you would fund this game if it went onto Kickstarter.  

"After creating your own custom character and selecting a faction, you will set out on an epic quest to conquer evil and save the lands of Havamal from impending doom, or succumb to the darkness and act as an agent of destruction. You will have your own background, racial history, and character specific storyline that will provide direction, and motivation behind all of your actions. Along your adventures you will acquire new equipment and learn powerful skills to aid you on your path, and you will be constantly interacting with other players from around the world. In order to defeat the most complicated and challenging dungeons, you must strategically coordinate your efforts and work effectively as a team to reap the rewards. You can band together with like-minded players in clans and guilds and wage war against other rival factions - or even turn on your own."

Make sure to vote for Dragon of Legends on their Square-Enix Collective page, and follow them on Twitter.

Rocket 5 Studios Releases Wheels of Rage

Indie Developer Rocket 5 Studios announced today their newest game, Wheels of Rage, has been released on the Cartoon Network's website.  The game is based on The Amazing World of Gumball television show.

"In Wheels Of Rage, you take on the role of Gumball’s mom Nicole Watterson as she attempts to avert family disaster while racing around town to get the last minute items she needs for Gumball’s surprise birthday party. Money is tight, so if you want to get Gumball the perfect birthday gift you’ll need to start up a taxi service, win street races and deliver pizzas for tip money. All while making sure that Gumball doesn’t find out about the party and that Richard doesn’t burn the house down."

If you're located in USA then you can play the game here.  Once the game is available in Canada, I'll be sure to post about it again. Make sure to give lots of love to Rocket 5 on Twitter.

Hand Eye Society Offers Additional Way To Support Toronto Developed Games

Big shout out to Metroidvanias.com who pointed out to me a new program over at Hand Eye Society, which helps support Toronto Developed Video games.  For only 7 dollars a month you can get the following:

• a free Toronto (or Toronto-affiliated) game each month;
• discounts at Iceman Games and The Beguiling/Little Island/Page & Panel: The TCAF Shop;
• our official membership card mailed to you;
• voting rights at the Annual General Meeting.

Pretty awesome! The first game is Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition from DrinkBox Studios.  Also for a limited time if you sign up for a whole year you will get a Hand Eye Society t-shirt and Superbrothers art.

Make sure to check out the Hand Eye Society for full details.

Toronto GameDev: 3DKupkake

It really does seem there are a lot of students creating their own games these days. I found out about lot of them at LevelUp back in April.  If I'm not mistake, games like Runbow, and Quench started off as student projects as well.

Next up in student games is 3D Voxom, from the independent developer 3DKupKake. Voxom looks like a really interesting twin stick shooter:

"Gameplay The game was inspired by popular franchises such as Geometry Wars and Tron. The play takes control of a ship and is attacked relentlessly by tiny viruses that sprout from the super virus that is virtually indestructible. The player will destroy the super virus many times, only to have it heal itself and continue its attack. Destroying the super virus increases the score multiplier but also causes the tiny viruses to speed up and become more difficult to attack. The goal is to try to get to the high score list, the highest of all time is at the center of the arena."

Uploaded by 3D KupKake on 2015-05-01.

Make sure to give the developer a follow on Twitter, and keep your eye on Voxom.

Toronto GameDev: Haven Games

I thought I would take this time to display one of the newer formed developers in Toronto, meet: Haven Games!  A group of three working on Space Booty, which I found a tweet that shows off some gameplay.

"What is Haven Games? We are an independent game studio located in the heart of Toronto, Canada. All three of us live together and eat, sleep and breath games. Most of our time is spent either ordering pizzas, or working on a local multiplayer couch-competitive game very seriously entitled Space Booty"

Guy on the left has hit Space Booty veteran status. He's now explaining the rules to new players. pic.twitter.com/zVpAMnHSG3

— Haven Games (@havengames) May 16, 2015

Make sure to give them a follow on Twitter, and I'll be posting more about Space Booty as it continues to be developed.

Steam Concept Page Up For Dragon Of Legends

Developer Thrive Games have posted up a Concept page for their upcoming MMO Dragon of Legends.  The page right now is for the concept for the game, and you can provide feedback to the developer. It's definitely a page to keep an eye on as development moves forward.  I've posted the trailer below:

CLOSED-BETA SIGN UP: DRAGONOFLEGENDS.COM / THRIVEGAMES.NET --------- OST PREVIEW: https://soundcloud.com/thrivegames FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/thrivegames TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/thrive905 Dragon of Legends is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for PC, Mac, and Mobile platforms; heavily influenced by the mythic cycle of Gaelic Ireland and Norse mythology, where the lights of faeries border the realms of darkness.

Make sure to keep up to date on Dragon of Legends because it's looking really great, you can follow the developer on Twitter here.

Toronto GameDev: Incubator Games

Next up on our shout outs to Toronto GameDevs is Incubator Games, who are busy working on their turn based tactic games Trudy’s Mechanicals.  I grabbed some screenshots from their official site.

Make sure to check out the rest of their site here, and follow them on Twitter.

Blog Post: Swag At Bit Bazaar 5

Bit Bazaar 5 is over. Personally I had a great time, and it was great to meet all the developers I've been talking to over Twitter the last few months, and play all the games I've written about.

I thought I would make a post just showing all the cool swag I got at the show.

Pins! These pins are from (top to bottom): Planet Of The Eyes, WE ARE DOOMED, GastroBots, Dames Making Games.

Cards from Planet Of The Eyes, GastroBots, and Arielle Grimes

T-shirts from: DrinkBox Studios (I was fanboying the whole time I was playing Severed), and Dames Making Games.

Posters from: Loud On PlanetX, DrinkBox Studios, and Bit The Game.

I just want to thank everyone involved with putting Bit Bazaar on, it was a really fun event and I can't wait to attend Bit Bazaar 6.

Countdown To Bit Bazaar: Pitfall Planet

Pitfall Planet from independant developers Alexander Biggs, Daphne Ippolito, Adam Robinson-Yu, Emma Burkeitt, David Czarnowski, and Guy Torsher will be at Bit Bazaar tomorrow.

"Hundreds of years ago, on a distant planet, explorers discovered huge treasure-filled caverns. Quickly, the industries of Planet Earth set up great mining operations to scour the planet of its riches. One by one, the mining operations were withdrawn, scared off by the seemingly endless stream of hostile native creatures.

The mines are filled with many dangers, many wonders, and of course, many rewards for those daring enough to brave them. Are you the team that can conquer its mighty depths?

Play as the two brave astronauts P1 and P2 as they collect ore digging deeper and deeper into the mines."

ake sure to check out the full site here, and follow the game on Twitter.

Countdown To Bit Bazaar: GastroBots

I've spoke about XMG Studios before, and I'm really excited to check out their upcoming game GastroBots at tomorrow's event.  I've managed to get some screenshots from the official Twitter page, as well as a summary of the game that Kris Gay was kind enough to provide.

"GastroBots is a cute lil' arcade/puzzle game where you, an adorable space-robo-cowboy, save the food galaxy from being eaten by greedy space-robo-critters the only way you know how... wranglin’!"

There are some small videos on the Twitter page, so make sure to check them out. See you guys tomorrow!

Countdown To Bit Bazaar: femmepocalypse

Bit Bazaar is less than 24 hours away, and there are going to be a lot of developers there.  I do not think I'll get to everyone, but I'll try my best.  Next up is femmepocalypse from developer Alto Punk.

"A tiny game inspired by those barbie/dress-up games where you... put on makeup Except in this one you also take over the world Started at DMG Toronto's Feb Fatale game jam, finished afterwards. It also uses a Makey Makey mask that you look through and touch to change parts of the face on screen. :) (But you don't put it literally on your face) This is the prototype version, uploaded as is. The hair button does not work, and never will. Slight seizure warning! There are some flashy bits at the end, no euphemism intended EVERYTHING = PAR MOI"

Make sure to check out the developers official site here, and follow them on Twitter.

N++ Shows Off Another Enemy: The Micro Drone

Metanet Software released another video showing off an enemy for their upcoming platformer N++.  Much like the Deathball, the Micro Drone will kill you frequently.

In this series of 6 videos, we give you a small taste of what you'll be up against in N++. Trailer by Richard E. Flanagan Music by Raigan Burns www.nplusplus.org (c) Metanet Software Inc. 2015 Micro Drones: these bite-sized variants of Zap Drones are twice as fast -- and twice as deadly.

Make sure to follow the developer on Twitter, since it looks like N++ will be releasing pretty soon now.  N++ will also be shown at The Bit Bazzar. So here is your chance to play the platformer before it launches on PS4.

Countdown To Bit Bazaar: Cryptark

Indie developer had just released Apotheon on PS4 and PC earlier this year, and they've been busy working on their next game Cryptark, which they'll be showing at Bit Bazaar.

Make sure to follow Alientrap on twitter, and check them out at this years Bit Bazaar.

Countdown To Bit Bazaar: Unavowed, Job Lozenge + Chopsquares

Next up on our countdown to Bit Bazaar is indie developer From Smiling, or Taylor Bai-Woo.  The developer will be brining some of his games, including Job Lozenge, and Chopsquares.

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Make sure to follow the developer on Twitter.

Countdown to Bit Bazaar: Fate Tectonics

Fate Tectonics from Golden Gear Games will be at Bit Bazaar this year, which is a great way to show off their game since it was recently greenlit on Steam.

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"Build up a world piece-by-piece using the power of the god-like Fates, while keeping them happy enough to avoid world-shattering temper tantrums!"

Make sure to give Golden Gear a follow on Twitter.