My OWN Indie Showcase

EDITS: Some names corrected, some links corrected, thanks for the reminders everybody!

Okay so it's not my own Indie Showcase... I just sort of hijacked the Hand Eye Society's showing at this year's Fan Expo.

Really, I'm just upset that I didn't attend the Indie Showcase this past Saturday. Mild illness be damned! I should have just gone!

Be forewarned, Mac users (like myself) may have a hard time playing some of these games. A lot of them, although free, will require a PC! Hijack a friends if you can - it's worth it! And afterward they'll probably thank you for providing them with gaming goodness.

As usual, photos are taken using the Nintendo DSi Camera!



If I remember correctly, Michael Todd is showing off Silent Skies here, a game that isn't available for download - he actually only demos it at shows. How cool is that!? His current project, Go Go Dream Samurai, based on the Silent Skies concept, seems pretty incredible too. You can download his games at www.spyeart.com!


How cool is this? Miguel Sternberg from Spooky Squid Games is pictured here standing next to an arcade cabinet featuring Night of the Cephalopods! If you haven't played it, there's no reason why you shouldn't click on this link here. They're pretty awesome, right? Check out the Guerilla Gardening dev blog while you're soaking it all in.


I can't remember this guy's name to save my life!!! He was cool and his game was certainly cool... can somebody help me fill in the blanks in my memory!? EDIT: So it turns out this is Shawn McGrath from ][ ... the funny thing is, I was on the ][ website when I was typing this post and didn't really think anything of it. Whoops! Thanks for the correction! Help me apologize for my forgetfulness by checking out Chain 3 on the iPhone ... I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but the idea of a dynamically generated soundscape is exciting!


Jim McGinley from Big Pants Games is a busy, busy man from what I can tell. Here, he's showing off Mondrian Provoked which is something like Frogger. That description isn't really quite adequate though so make sure you download and try it! It's worth noting that this game will also be available on the Torontotron arcade cabinet. I didn't get to spend too much time with this one, but that will be corrected soon. You can't really see what's going on in the picture here, so please, please click this link to see the craziness for yourself. I'll have to personally thank him for providing me with so much info about the Hand Eye Society as a whole. I'll also have to tell him that I read his comic and now I have nightmares about a stick-man's goofy grin. That is scary stuff. Seriously, I wonder why that guy freaks me out so much.


Have you ever sat down to play a game just to see what it was like... and ten minutes later you realize that you're still playing it? Derek van Vilet from Get Set Games introduced me around their iPhone game, Mega Jump, and that's just what happened. These guys make good games and, as far as I can tell, are pretty excited about what they do. What I like most about this game is that there's a certain sense of discovery that comes with jumping higher and higher, testing your little guy's limits and seeing how far he can go. It's really something. Derek, of course, like everybody there, was super nice and filled me in on what the event was all about. If I remember correctly, this was actually the first game I tried at the event. Thanks, Derek! EDIT: This is not Derek - pictured here is actually Rob Segal. And I am, evidently, bad with names! Sorry, guys!


Some other awesome people I met, but failed to get pictures of (cause I'm a winner like that) include Alex Bethke from Golden Gear Games and Ryan Creighton from Untold Entertainment, whom I've had the pleasure of meeting on a couple of occasions now. Both Untold Entertainment and Golden Gear seem to sponsor Hand Eye Society events as far as I can tell. Ryan Creighton is also involved in IGDA meetings, which happens to be where I first saw him speak.

There's probably more. Who am I forgetting? Sorry if I forgot you. Drop me a line and I'll compensate by dedicating an entire post to you! ;)

So as it turns out, the Hand Eye Society is a very impressive and very active body involved heavily in the Toronto indie community. Why did it take me so long to catch on to this!?!!?! Well, I guess I'm just slow like that...

More to the point, on October 2nd, the Hand Eye Society is presenting the Arcadian Renaissance, where a number of custom-made arcade machines will be playing a choice selection of indie games by Toronto developers! Isn't that amazing? Well, I'm certainly not missing out this time...