Reporting on the games made in Canada and the creators behind them
From Kickstarter, to Ubisoft Indie Series and now to Steam - Reptoid Games' fossil digging game Fossil Hunters is out now on PC (Steam, itchio, and Crytivo).
#FossilHunters is officially available for sale for PC and Mac on @steam_games, @crytivo, and @itchio! Please check it out, tell your friends, play it, stream it, tweet it! 🦕🦖⛏️💀https://t.co/zfJATFUgVc pic.twitter.com/mViUCQAyQx
— Reptoid Games (@ReptoidGames) February 13, 2018
Fossil Hunters is also planned for PS4, Xbox One, and Switch - but we'll have to wait a bit longer for that. Congrats to the team at Reptoid Games!
Snowman announced today that their follow up to Alto's Adventure, Alto's Odyssey will be coming to iOS (iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV) February 22nd. You can pre-order the game on the iTunes store right here.
Just beyond the horizon sits a majestic desert, vast and unexplored.
Join Alto and his friends and set off on an endless sandboarding journey to discover its secrets.
Soar above windswept dunes, traverse thrilling canyons, and explore long-hidden temples in a fantastical place far from home.
Along the way, you’ll grind across vines, bounce atop hot air balloons, ride towering rock walls, and escape mischievous lemurs – all while uncovering the desert’s many mysteries.
Pre-order now on the App Store: http://appstore.com/AltosOdyssey Just beyond the horizon sits a majestic desert, vast and unexplored. Join Alto and his friends and set off on an endless sandboarding journey to discover its secrets. Alto's Odyssey launches on iPhone, iPad & Apple TV on February 22nd, 2018!
Local and indie developer Rob Lehrbass emailed me this week to let me know about his indie game on the Google Play Store Borbudo - which you can pick up for free right here. Sadly I am without a Google device right now, but you can check out the description and screenshots below!
Borbudo is more than a simple shoot-em-up game; it's a collection of worlds to explore, each with diverse characters, challenges, quests, puzzles, missions, and more! Battle your way through abandoned space stations, jungle battlefields, arctic dungeons and puzzling labyrinths.
Your journey through the worlds of Borbudo will never be the same, but it will always be epic!
You can download the game on your Android devices here, and check out Rob's Patreon if you want to help support him and Borbudo.
Ubisoft have released a new trailer for Far Cry 5 which introduces the Gun for Hire characters in the game. You can check out the trailer below - and make sure to pick up Far Cry 5 on PS4, Xbox One, or PC March 27th.
See who joins the fight! Build the resistance and team up with Guns & Fangs for hire to take back Hope County. Far Cry 5 will be released on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Learn more at farcry.com. Available March 27, 2018.
Solo indie dev expert and longtime friend-of-the-site Devon Wiersma joins us to talk their latest release Centauri Dark, working across AAA, mid-sized and solo indie dev and how to fix this goshdarn industry.
David B joins us from the west coast best coast to talk about the upcoming Quiver Games Incubator!
Bizdev extraordinaire Eric Beer joins us to give his Hades II impressions and chat v-bucks subsidized game preservation.
We break down Baldur Gate 3's unprecedented success & the knock-on effects it'll have on the industry and how we make games moving forward. We also speak to Ontario-based indie game devs Twinolli about their upcoming action-puzzler Highlighters which just got a (Dad Deck-verified) Steam demo!
We speak to Québécois game dev Dragon Slumber, creator of Tech Support, Aethernaut and many more!
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.
Bootdisk Revolution have released their action platformer Bleed 2 on PlayStation 4, and Xbox One - previously the game was released on Steam. The ports were handled by Digerati Distribution and Nephilim Game Studios.
You can pick up Bleed 2 on Xbox One here, and PlayStation 4 here. Make sure to check out the trailer below!
PS4 NA/EU: 6/7 February 2018 Xbox One: 9 February 2018 A furiously fun and fast-paced arcade action game, Bleed 2 welcomes back pink-haired heroine Wryn, the world's greatest - and only remaining - hero, as she fights to defend the globe from an invading force of villains.
Moonray Studios have announced a co-op mode will be coming to their underwater game - which you can pick up on Steam right now.
"You and a friend are trapped together, yet still somehow alone. An unconventional narrative co-op game set in a surreal frozen seascape. Developed over 3 years, this first-person co-op story takes place in a surreal sunken world locked between ice and rock. Following an accident, players must scramble to find power, defeat strange creatures and decipher what mysterious forces are attempting to prevent their escape. Debris is designed based on the challenges facing those affected by psychosis and created with the help of medical professionals, Debris explores the interplay between perception and reality in an unconventional narrative-driven co-op format."
Escape together. Debris co-op coming February 26th! Check out our new co-op trailer:https://t.co/eUE8HEoHR9#ComingSoon #indiegames #alta 🐟🦈
— debris (@debris_game) February 5, 2018
Solo indie dev expert and longtime friend-of-the-site Devon Wiersma joins us to talk their latest release Centauri Dark, working across AAA, mid-sized and solo indie dev and how to fix this goshdarn industry.
David B joins us from the west coast best coast to talk about the upcoming Quiver Games Incubator!
Bizdev extraordinaire Eric Beer joins us to give his Hades II impressions and chat v-bucks subsidized game preservation.
We break down Baldur Gate 3's unprecedented success & the knock-on effects it'll have on the industry and how we make games moving forward. We also speak to Ontario-based indie game devs Twinolli about their upcoming action-puzzler Highlighters which just got a (Dad Deck-verified) Steam demo!
We speak to Québécois game dev Dragon Slumber, creator of Tech Support, Aethernaut and many more!
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.
Ubisoft has gone ahead and announced the Season Pass for Far Cry 5 and...it seems pretty awesome. Included in the season pass will be a port of last generations excellent Far Cry 3 - which will come out in Summer 2018 and will be our 4 weeks earlier for season pass holders.
Re-experience the thrill of the Far Cry 3 single player campaign with Far Cry 3 Classic Edition, available for free in the Far Cry 5 Season Pass on PS4 and Xbox One. Far Cry 3 available on PC. Learn more at farcry.com. Available summer 2018.
Take your Far Cry® 5 experience beyond Hope County with the Far Cry® 5 Season Pass. Go on a ride through three uncanny adventures: face off against hordes of zombies, escape from behind Vietcong enemy lines, and save Earth from a Martian arachnid invasion.
Far Cry 5 will be out for Xbox One, PC, and PlayStation 4 on March 27th.
Coming close to the anniversary of the games release, For Honor will have its 5th season - titled Age of Wolves - on February 15th on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. You can check out the trailer below:
Season 5 begins on February 15th. Introducing the new season of For Honor: Age of the Wolves, bringing a major change with the implementation of the dedicated servers. It will also feature new training modes, changes in hero balancing, player progression and other gameplay updates.
For Honor will also implement dedicated servers - which was a big deal to some gamers when the game released a year ago:
Age of Wolves will also herald the implementation of a dedicated server infrastructure. By changing the way you connect to For Honor matches, the development team is doing away with resyncing, session migrations, and NAT requirements in order to deliver stable connectivity on all platforms.
You can check out all the details on the Ubisoft Blog.
Ubisoft has announced that Prince of Persia is returning…sort of. The series, which hasn’t seen a console game since 2010’s Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is coming as a limited-time event in For Honor. The update includes 30 pieces of Prince of Persia-inspired loot to unlock.
Ubisoft is having a special Halloween event for For Honor - live now until November 1st the “Fans of the Otherworld” in-game event is free for all players. It comes with a new game mode, exclusive Halloween-themed loot, and new executions
Ubisoft announced that Season 3 of their third year for For Honor on August 1st will introduce new Viking Hero ‘Jormungandr’, as well as a new Breach map, and various quality of life and balance changes. Check out the full trailer below.
OK K.O! Let's Play Heroes, the Capybara developed brawler in partnership with the Cartoon Network Show is out now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam. You can check out the trailer for the game below:
Killer punches. Jump attacks. And epic robo-butt-kicking moves. Don't just cheer for the heroes, BECOME a hero ✊🎮💥 OK K.O.! Let's Play Heroes arrives January 23rd on Xbox One, PS4 and Steam. SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/109Y6wq WATCH MORE: http://bit.ly/1RBYuNi About Cartoon Network: Welcome to the Cartoon Network YouTube Channel, the destination for all of your favorite cartoons and videos.
Next up...Below?
Toronto-based CAPY Games continues to release updates for their matching hit 5 years after its Apple Arcade debut.
One of our favourites on iPhone, and Nintendo Switch is now heading to PC via the Epic Game Store. Grindstone, the Capybara Games hit also recently received a new Daily Grind mode and Fortune Grind on both Nintendo Switch and Apple Arcade, the Epic Game Store version is out tomorrow.
We’re a little late on this one, but Capybara’s mobile hit, Grindstone, is out now on Nintendo Switch.
Toronto-based Capybara Games (@CAPYGAMES) has released an update to their 2019 sword-slashing puzzle battle game Grindstone adding new levels, bosses, items and more.
As previously announced, Capybara’s roguelike Below has launched on PlayStation 4, while also enjoying a 10% launch discount. You can head over to the PlayStation Store right here to pick it up.
The studio co-founder is leaving after 16 years of making indie games with the Toronto-based studio.
It's a been a while since we've seen FutureGrind, but one of the games developers Owen Goss recently tweeted the new teaser trailer which you can check out below. FutureGrind is a futuristic stunt racer that is set to release on PlayStation 4 and PC this year.
Grab your bike and hit the rails in FutureGrind, a stylish stunt-racer all about tricks, skill, and speed. Use your futuristic motorcycle to do crazy combos on tracks made of floating rails, but be careful: If you touch the wrong rail you'll explode! FutureGrind is coming to Steam and PS4.
Something I often hear from game developers is their troubles with marketing. How to get your game out there to as many players as possible? A usual follow up topic to that is, when the game gets released it has all sorts of hype/press surrounding it, but unless it really takes off, the hype dies down - how do you combat that?
Enter: Throwback Thursday - a weekly article on a game that came out from the local Toronto scene back in the day. Maybe you forgot about it, or maybe you never knew of its existence. That's what I want to do with these articles. Check out the first one below, and let me know on Twitter what you think!
First up! Monumental Failure from Scary Wizard Games. A game that just hit its 1 year anniversary recently, and is on a 35% sale on Steam.
Monumental Failure was released a year ago today. To celebrate, you can grab it for 35% off all week! https://t.co/NrAuZ1JdIi pic.twitter.com/iMpYf3SQrc
— Scary Wizard Games (@ScaryWizard) January 17, 2018
"Monumental Failure is a historically (in)accurate physics-based monument construction simulator. The game empowers you to recreate some of the world's most impressive architectural feats using incredible, and hard-to-believe, construction techniques."
Monumental Failure is available now on Steam, Itch and the Humble store! Monumental Failure is a comedic and historically (in)accurate physics-based monument construction simulator! The game empowers you to recreate some of the world's most impressive architectural feats using incredible, and hard-to-believe, construction techniques.
Although I haven't played it (I'll be fixing this soon) - the game has received mostly positive reviews on Steam:
"This game is extremely goofy and wonderful. I love being able to build no matter how shoddy the final result is. The coop is hilarious. A great party game. May or may not cure cancer."
"8/10 - Would drop my workers out of a plane, strapped to a 40-ton slab of stone with bungie cords, without a parachute, as a delivery system for Stonehenge again."
"I don't review games usually, but this game is just so much fun/frustration to play with someone couch co-op. I genuinely recommend this game.
The game mechanics are different from level to level so you need to learn on the fly, it's really challenging but is really satisfying when you get it right!"
So head over to Steam, pick the game up in a sale, and follow the guys on Twitter. If you have a game that would make a good Throwback Thursday - let me know on Twitter!
Far Cry 5 will be out March 27th, 2018 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. You can check out some open world gameplay running on PS4 below.
Witness the madness, mayhem, and utter destruction you can wreck in Far Cry 5. Watch our brand new open world gameplay demo on the latest episode of PS Underground. Coming to PS4 on 3/27/18: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/far-cry-5-ps4/
Matt Kap, who previously released Castle in the Darkness has opened a new studio - LABS - and announced their first game Astalon: Tears of Earth which will be releasing later this year.
According to the blog post we'll have to wait a bit longer for details, but we do have this blurb about the game - "Three explorers wander through a post-apocalyptic desert to find a way to save the people in their village. A dark, twisted tower has been pushed up from the depths of the Earth... but does it hold the answers they seek?"
Three explorers wander through a post-apocalyptic desert to find a way to save the people in their village. A dark, twisted tower has been pushed up from the depths of the Earth... but does it hold the answers they seek?
Though not developed in Toronto or the surrounding area, Brawlout does have a connection to the game development scene here in the GTA. Similar to Runbow, there are a few indie characters in the game and the Smash Brothers-like game includes Juan from Drinkbox Studios' Guacamelee series as a playable fighter.
A humble agave farmer turned legendary luchador, Juan is always prepared to piledrive evil.
Following his demise at the hands of the villainous Carlos Calaca, Juan was revived thanks to the mysterious powers of a magical wrestling mask. Transformed into the luchador he always dreamed of, Juan set out to defeat Calaca, save his beloved and bring peace to the worlds of the living and the dead.
With moves like the Rooster Uppercut, Frog Slam and Dashing Derpderp, Juan is one wrestler you don’t want to grapple with. If that’s not enough, Juan can transform himself into a chicken, should the mood strike him. It’s no poultry skill, I’ll tell you that!
Out now on Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/brawlout-switch Brawlout is the party fighting game, designed for couch play, online matches and competitive tournaments. A NEW CHALLENGER HAS APPEARED IN THE PLATFORM FIGHTER ARENA! For more details, follow @brawloutgame : https://twitter.com/brawloutgame
We'll have to wait a bit more to play Guacamelee 2, but until then gamers can get their Juan-action on in Brawlout which is out now on Switch and Steam, and coming Early 2018 on PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
With Far Cry 5 coming out next year (despite a little delay), Ubisoft is in full swing promoting the game. The latest trailer shows how your activities in Hope County affects the world of Far Cry 5. Check it out below. Far Cry 5 is out on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One March 27th, 2018.
Learn more about how the world of Far Cry 5 reacts to your activities as you fight alongside your local allies, the Guns & Fangs for Hire, to take back Hope County.
