Social gatherings, tech events, showcases and more from across Canada
Toronto Games Week is a celebration of playable arts and culture! Toronto Games Week 2024 will be on June 13-19 and is a collective coordination of events organized independently by dozens of organizations, creators, curators, and companies.
Canada’s premier business-to-business video game conference. Over two days, connect with global industry professionals to explore crucial industry trends, develop new and innovative business-building opportunities, and help shape the future of gaming.
#GDX2023 is coming July 19-23 to #YEG! Canada's largest celebration of #gamedev and games culture is back for more and bigger than ever before.
DemoNights brings back one of the most renowned showcases in the Québec video game industry.
A night of live music celebrating achievements and the future of game audio with people in video games, XR/interactive media and music
Super FESTival is an online celebration of the past decade of Hand Eye Society programming. Join us!
Back for its seventh year, Game Slice offers game industry professionals a space to gain valuable feedback from their industry peers in a collaborative and exciting environment.
Disco:MTL is bringing you an action-packed week filled with expert-led talks that will reinvigorate your marketing strategies, help you develop your community in engaging and inclusive ways, teach you how to build momentum for your game and leverage it for launch, master the use of social media, and much, much more!
Join up and be part of our general meetings, ask the chapter executives questions, post some of your passion projects, and kick back with your industry peers.
First of its kind in Nova Scotia, GameDev Atlantic is a game development conference designed to grow the industry in Atlantic Canada.
This conference will feature speaking sessions on a variety of topics. GDA also offers the opportunity for networking, funding, and mentorship. Studios of all sizes, as well as keen students or individuals, are encouraged to attend.
In 2020 this event will take place virtually, presenting to a much wider audience but still keeping the focus on the Atlantic development scene.
The first-ever intercity, online version of Dirty Rectangles (@Rectangles_TO) will be live-streamed on Twitch. The stream will feature a talk from Dave Proctor (@blankdave), Game Director on THE BIG CON at Toronto-based indie studio Mighty Yell (@MightyYell), about designing branching narratives in adventure games.
The Interactive Society of Nova Scotia is hosting a free webinar to help game developers get the most out of COVID-19.
Formerly the XP Game Developer's Summit, the event has now been moved online due to COVID-19 and renamed XP Game Developers Online.
This Black History Month, join other professional black game developer’s at Ubisoft Toronto for an evening of mixing and talks from black professionals in the industry.
Combining the best elements of tournament and convention experiences, the two-day event will feature a festival-like atmosphere. Guests can expect tournaments, free play, BYOC, live streaming events, panels, hackathons and more.
Reboot Develop Red 2019 will take place October 30 - November 1, 2019.
An indie game showcase presented by the Hand Eye Society in partnership with the Microsoft Store.
The first ever GameDev Atlantic conference is happening Thursday October 24 from 1:00 - 11:00 PM ADT in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Bonus Stage’s monthly meet-up returns with new speakers.
Unity Developer Day is part of a series of events put on by Unity. The Vancouver edition includes talks from Unity experts, demos of other Unity projects and a great chance to network.
The 8th annual Full Indie Summit is happening in Vancouver, BC at the Vancouver Convention Centre on Saturday September 28 from 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM.
The yearly Fan Expo will be held August 22nd to August 25th this year at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
VRTO IS CANADA’S PREMIERE IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIES EVENT
A unique, international conference, exploring Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, programming, game developments, arts, culture and science through immersive technologies featuring in-depth training, structured networking and a world-class symposium on the evoloution on a new medium.
You can get tickets on the official Eventbrite right here.
A trailer for the 4th Annual VRTO Virtual & Augmented Reality World Conference & Expo featuring a voice over by founder Keram Malicki-Sanchez and a look back at 3 years of amazing technology and the people who create and develop it. https://conference.virtualreality.to Twitter: https://twitter.com/vrtoronto Instagram https://instagram.com/vrtoronto
Digifest 2019 is an annual three-day design and technology festival, as well as a startup showcase. This year, Digifest explores the theme Creative Growth to highlight how creativity impacts our everyday lives. The event will look into the future and see advancements in the field of mobility, education, blockchain, cannabis and culture.
You can pick up your tickets right here.
The latest Bit Bazaar, a popular gaming/artist showcase put on by our friends at Gamma Space will be later this month, specifically:
The event will be hosted at the new Toronto Media Arts Center and you can check out the full details (and a list of playable games) here. It includes some unreleased games such as Light Fingers, and A Fold Apart so I'll see you there!
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.
I'll try to update this as we get closer to the event (November 11th on the day of writing), but VRTO will be happening next summer, and you can check out all the details on the official site.
Use the code 'TOGameDevs15' on checkout when getting your tickets for 15% off.
“VRTO aims to empower people to share their world, culture, knowledge and dreams with the assistance of emergent immersive technologies.
Recognized internationally for its high caliber, high-quality discussions, in-depth training, world-class presentations and top level speakers, VRTO brings together compelling discourse and bleeding-edge prototypes, demonstrations and innovative companies in carefully crafted schedules and environments.
VRTO is always an opportunity to build powerful and long-lasting business and personal relationships, with a very open-minded and inclusive community, unafraid to ask the big questions. Furthermore, the show provides many different tools to ensure attendees find their best matches towards meeting their goals at the show.
In 2016, VRTO hosted a town hall and summit to ratify a Code of Ethics for Human Augmentation led by inventor and Meta Chief Scientist Steve Mann. Read more about the Scientific paper and code that was written at Kurzweil AI
The VRTO conference is not a Toronto VR conference – it is an international conference that takes place in and leverages the tremendous R&D community of Toronto.”
Toronto Digifest 2018 will be next year in April, and you can check out the full details here. If you're unfamiliar with Digifest, it is and event focused around startup tech companies. Bringing leaders, entrepreneurs, designers, students and creatives to share digital content in interactive, gaming and design industries.
"This year’s theme, Hello Tomorrow: Our Creative Cities is about improving our quality of life and making creative cities of the future better through design, innovation, and technology.
As the world’s population soars to almost 10 billion people by 2050, up from today’s 7.5 billion, challenges around urban spaces, food priorities, health, education, mobility and work will make us look at how innovative thinking today will shape our world tomorrow.
We’ll be featuring emerging technology and highlight stories from around the globe using tech to tackle challenges in cities."
There is also a pitch competition going on, where start ups can get $50000 in funding, as well as a separate Student showcase.
Microsoft Yorkdale will be having a Women's Gaming Social later this month. The event will have speakers, games, snacks and drinks. You can check out the details and register right here.
Participate in Microsoft at Yorkdale's first ever, Women's Gaming Social! Our goal is to empower women who play video games, discuss the importance of community involvement and how popular streamers, competitive players and social media experts have taken their gaming to the next level. Join us for a night of discussion, icebreakers and team building activities that will make this night a memorable one!
We will be raffling off prizes and serving free refreshments during the event.
If you have any questions, please contact Savie at savper@microsoft.com
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.
The Sisters in Crime will be having our friends at One More Story Games in town this month on April 19th. You can check out all the details on FaceBook.
"We are thrilled to have Jean and Blair Leggett of One More Story Games speaking at our April meeting. They were a huge hit at Bouchercon 2017, especially with their Lily Bard game based on the Charlaine Harris books (and developed in collaboration with the author). They will be talking about interactive story telling (as well as being a sponsor!). With the variety of technical options to communicate with readers and tell story, this is a timely and relevant topic for both the creators of content and their consumers."
The monthly GameDev Drinks is set for February 21st at the The Pheasant Plucker. This month will host Don Nguyen, who is the chairperson for ConBravo and will talk about preparation for conventions.
From 7:30-10:30 p.m., GameDevDrinks is the place for you to hang out and to hear Don Nguyen speak about conventions, booth setup, and how to market your game at a convention in preparation for ConBravo. Don has been helping out ConBravo for years on top of going to other conventions marketing games like Electric Super Joy and Toronto Graffiti. Afterwards you can chat with Don, share your game concepts and ideas, tell and trade stories, show off game demos or just network and hang out because at GDD our goal is to create a casual and creative social environment for anyone - student, hobbyist, enthusiast and professional alike - who shares the common interest of game development of any kind.
You can sign up for the free event right here on Eventbrite.
Super Excited about the next @GameDevDrinks with @ArcadianDreamer talking about conventions and marketing! Feb 21st. Come on out and have a pint! https://t.co/yPPt81nUY2
— Thomas Brown (@TomBrownGameDev) February 7, 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.