Game Slice 2018

Last years Game Slice is back - offering developers to show off their unfinished games, and gamers to play and give feedback. It's in London Ontario on May 25th - but check out the FaceBook group for all the details. If you're interested in showcasing your game, you can apply right here.

WORLD'S ONLY INDUSTRY NIGHT FOR PLAYTESTING UNRELEASED GAMES RETURNS FOR THIRD YEAR
Fanshawe College hosts Mikutech's Game Slice downtown on May 25th, 2018

LONDON, ON - January 16th, 2018 --- Mikutech, a London-based software development company specializing in game development, confirmed the return of its third annual Game Slice, an event that will take place at Fanshawe College’s Centre for Digital And Performance Arts (CDPA) in downtown London, Ontario on Friday, May 25th, 2018.

Game Slice is a first of its kind event, that gathers local game industry professionals to provide a sneak preview and gather feedback for unreleased games made in Southwestern Ontario. It's an event made exclusively for game developers, by game developers. it aims to provide constructive feedback for game makers on vertical slices, alphas, betas and release candidates, in a collaborative, exciting and fun atmosphere.

Last year, over 120 professionals from more than 30 game development companies showcased 25 unreleased games. The event was made possible by the support of Big Blue Bubble, Fanshawe College, Robertson Hall, and the Montreal International Gaming Summit, among others.

Mark Mikulec, Mikutech’s founder and chief technical consultant, said “I'm excited to bring Game Slice to a beautiful facility like Fanshawe's CDPA. Game Slice was created two years ago after hearing people’s surprised comments that London actually had a game development community. As we grow into this new, larger space, I look forward to continuing to raise awareness of our industry alongside one of the province’s best game development schools."

The 2018 edition of Game Slice will feature an improved itinerary, more time for playtesting and feedback on the games and the Industry Choice Award now being judged by a elite group of veteran game developers. More information about the event can be found at http://gameslice.mikutech.com as details are released.

Event Details
Who: Mikutech and Fanshawe College
What: Announced the return of Game Slice for its third year.
Where: Fanshawe College’s Centre for Digital and Performance Arts, 137 Dundas St, London ON
When: Friday May 25th, 2018

Contact for Mikutech: Mark Mikulec, Chief Technical Consultant, 519-636-7019, mark@mikutech.com

Contact for Fanshawe College: Michelle Giroux, Supervisor of the Centre for Digital and Performance Arts, 519-452-4430 x6401, mgiroux@fanshawec.ca
 

About Mikutech: Founded in 2012, Mikutech is a London-based collection of versatile technical consultants and programmers who provide work-for-hire services in software. With an emphasis on games and game-related technologies, Mikutech's strengths in high design and rich media have also been put to work in the specialized fields of education, engineering, e-commerce, and medicine. In recent years, Mikutech has gained a reputation as a harbor of advanced knowledge and proven skill in the burgeoning field of augmented and virtual reality.

About Fanshawe: Fanshawe is a comprehensive college serving the greater London region by providing flexible learning arrangements and experiential education opportunities developed in response to labour market needs.One of Ontario's largest colleges – with four campuses in London, Simcoe, St. Thomas and Woodstock - Fanshawe serves close to half a
million people with a promise to educate, engage, empower and excite.

For more information about Mikutech, please visit our website. Mikutech is also on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Throwback Thursday - Monumental Failure

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!

Cellar Door Games Releases Full Metal Furies Today

As previously announced, Full Metal Furies is out now on Xbox and PC.

From the creators of Rogue Legacy comes a "true-cooperative" action RPG. FULL METAL FURIES puts an emphasis on team play with a unique combat system where everyone is important. Work together to defeat special enemies, string organics combos to deal massive damage, and save a war-torn world that is battling itself to extinction. Play on the couch or online with friends, and make it a party for up to four players! Or go solo in single-player, and show off your skills through a Pick 2 quick-switch system that retains all the nuances of multi-play.

Full Metal Furies is coming January 17, 2018! Wishlist on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/416600/Full_Metal_Furies/ Check out the game at: http://www.fullmetalfuries.com Visit us at: http://www.cellardoorgames.com http://www.facebook.com/CellarDoorGames http://www.twitter.com/CellarDoorGames

Comics X Games Arcade Submission Due January 31st

Little community news here, but friend of the site Sagan Yee let me know that submissions for the annual Comics X Games Arcade is due January 31st (a littler earlier than normal). Non-Toronto artists, and works-in-progress are accepted.

Comics x Games fosters collaboration between the independent game and comic communities through a variety of projects, partnerships and events. Every year with our partners during the Toronto Comics Arts Festival (TCAF), we present unique, game-focused content — from original games and gallery shows, to panels and talks.

You can check out the FAQ right here, and the submission form right here. If you got an interesting thing going on, might as well show it off! Comics X Games will be Saturday/Sunday May 12th-13th.

News Byte! January 16th - Astalon, N++, and Blossom Tales

Remember to Subscribe!

Astalon: http://www.torontogamedevs.com/blog/new-studio-labs-created-announces-astalon-tears-of-the-earth-for-this-year N++: ...

Over 20 Minutes of Far Cry 5 Gameplay

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/

Metanet Software Releases N++ Ultimate Edition on PS4

N++ has been in the news a lot since first being released in 2015, after a few ports, and the announcement of the Ultimate Edition - it's come full circle with the Ultimate Edition being released on PlayStation 4 last week. This new edition, which is free to owners of the original version, now includes 4000+ levels.

In fact, Mare Sheppard talked about creating all those levels over on the PlayStation Blog. You can pick up N++ Ultimate Edition on PlayStation 4 right now.

N++ Ultimate Edition is now out on PS4! 🎉 https://t.co/uCxQBggeWK

— Metanet Software (@metanetsoftware) January 12, 2018

New Studio LABS Created - Announces 'Astalon: Tears Of The Earth' For This Year

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?

News Byte! January 12th - Game of the Year Results

Full List: http://www.torontogamedevs.com/blog/torontogamedevs-game-of-the-year-winners Follow Jake at: https://www.youtube.com/c/jakebutineau https://twitter.com/jakebutineau

Patreon Early Podcast Episode 95

A friendly reminder that Patron's at the 4 dollar and more level get early picks on certain things, including the Podcast! Episode 95 is now available to them, and will be available to everyone else on Tuesday.

Check out Episode 95 here, and become a Patron here.

TorontoGameDevs Game of the Year Winners

The results are in, and we now have our Game of the Year winners! As you recall, because of Patron's, we actually had five categories: Best Port, Best Mobile Game, Most Anticipated Game, Best PC-only Game, Best Multi-platform Game.

Here we go!

Best Port

3rd: Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime (Asteroid Base)

2nd: Jazzpunk: Director’s Cut (Necrophone Games)

1st: Severed (Drinkbox Studios)

Best Mobile Game

3rd (tie): Bee Odyssey and Skies of Fury (Illumination Games)

2nd: Star Pirates Infinity (Snakehead Games)

1st: Oh No! Ninjas! (Blot Interactive)

Most Anticipated Game

3rd: Shakespeare's Landlord (One More Story Games)

2nd: Far Cry 5 (Ubisoft)

1st: Guacamelee! 2 (Drinkbox Studios)

Best PC Only Game

3rd (tie): A Mortician's Tale (Laundry Bear Games) and Disco is Dead (Third Floor Games)

2nd: Bleed 2 (Bookdisk Revolution)

1st (tie): Polyball (Studio Monolith) and Danielle's Inferno (One More Story Games)

Best Multi-platform Release

3rd (tie) Embers of Mirrim (Creative Bytes) and For Honor (Ubisoft)

2nd: Graceful Explosion Machine (Vertex Pop)

1st: Cuphead (Studio MDHR)

hanks to everyone who voted! And congrats to @Jonavan22 who won the $50 PSN/Xbox/eShop/Steam card for RT'ing us on Twitter.

Blossom Tales Publisher Hits Milestone On Switch

Thanks to the release of Blossom Tale last month, FDG Entertainment (the team that published Castle Pixel's Zelda inspired RPG on Switch) hit 100,000 units sold (across all of their games) on Nintendo's console.

With the addition of our latest game #BlossomTales we surpassed 100,000 games sold on #NintendoSwitch alone! This is amazing! Thank you so much everyone <3 pic.twitter.com/iUdTXKDLhH

— FDG Entertainment (@FDG_Games) January 10, 2018

The sales milestone is shared with two other games, Oceanhorn, and Monster Boy. Congrats to everyone involved!

Edit: Tyler Bud, one of the developers behind Blossom Tales let me know on Twitter that Monster Boy isn't actually out yet.

T-Shirts, Tank Tops, Sweaters, and More Swag!

A friendly reminder that we do have an official shop that puts our neato logo on T-shirts, Tank Tops, Sweaters, Phone Cases, Mugs, and a few more things. You can see some samples of clothes below - and check out the official store here (Design by Humans has a lot of fan created swag)

News Byte! January 9th! Little Red Lie, Nindies Sale, and Skies of Fury DX

Nindie Sale: https://www.nintendo.com/games/sales-and-deals Nindie AMA: ...

Little Red Lie Releases On PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita Today

Released earlier last year on Steam, indie developer Will O'Neill is brining his latest game Little Red Lie to PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita - better yet the game is releasing today (January 9th)

Little Red Lie is a narrative-focused, interactive fiction experience that reduces the traditional nine-verb adventure game structure down to a single, context-dependent interaction: lie.

Learn more at http://www.littleredlie.com

It is the truth: LITTLE RED LIE comes to PS4 and PS Vita on January 9th! https://t.co/ITG9I3Kq8h via @Playstation

— Will O'Neill (@willoneill) January 6, 2018