Toronto Thumbs

Highlight
The Immoral Ms. Conduct

We’re incredibly lucky here in Toronto to have such a vibrant game development community. One of the most interesting things to come out of that was an incubation session designed to get more females into the game-making field. We here at Toronto Thumbs have covered the Difference Engine before; but one game in particular stuck out because of its unconventional medium and subject matter.

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Posted in Awesome, Indie | No Comments »

Upcoming Event
X-Summit: Chatting with Yves

The title of this article may sound like a very boring dramatic film; really it’s about how I was hanging out in a bar with Yves Bordeleau, from Cyanide Studio. I’m not sure if you have heard of them, but if you are a fan of Game of Thrones, you soon will. While I am not at liberty to discuss exactly what we talked about, I would like to share a few snippets of what we talked about that have increased my excitement for the next two days at X-Summit.

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Posted in Awesome, Events, Indie, Previews | No Comments »

Interview
David Board – Stage 2 Studios

David Board, from Stage 2 Studios, recently sent us a note about his latest venture: Lifeless Planet. Pitched as an action/adventure gaming experience in the spirit of games like ICO, The Dig and Out of This World, LP follows the adventures of a skeptical astronaut searching for life on a distant planet. However, instead of coming up short, this space traveler discovers a Russian laboratory. Wondering if this is a hoax, he is saved by an unlikely being from a deadly phenomenon.

The visuals look great (especially for an indie developer) and the premise is pretty cool. We had a chance to ask David a few questions about this neat-looking game.

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Posted in Indie, Interviews, PC | No Comments »

Watch Out!
TBP!

Shaun Hatton.

Remember that guy? Well, he’s working on game with Spooky Squid Games. Click above or below to see more of what could be the game of the year for whatever year it is released in!

Watch the trailer! »

Posted in Awesome, Indie, News Bytes | 1 Comment »

Tribes of Mexica:
Makeover for a Cipactli

Toronto developers Incubator Games is giving its upcoming game, Tribes of Mexica, a makeover. Over at their official site, interested parties (that’s you!) can vote on a new look for the Cipactli character (that’s the green guy up top). Cipactli currently looks pretty cool, admittedly. But the poll includes some very awesome and quite different renderings from various artists – all of which are even better than the current version.

I won’t post those here, as I don’t want to unintentionally influence your vote, but I do urge you to head on over to vote. It’s not every day that a games developer asks the community for such direct feedback. How cool would it be if the design you chose made it into the game? Think of the indie cred you’ll gain!

Speaking of cred, Incubator Games is a small team comprised of former project leads from Capybara Games. They’ve worked on some titles you probably love, including Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes and the original Critter Crunch.

Posted in Art, Canada, Indie, TORONTO | 2 Comments »

First Trailer For
Guerrilla Gardening: Seeds of Revolution

Today Spooky Squid Games released a teaser trailer for Guerrilla Gardening: Seeds of Revolution, a game I’ve been following the development of somewhat closely. Even though the trailer contains footage from an early build of the game, it still looks like a lot of fun to play.

In it, Molly Greenthumb is a revolutionary who tries to cheer up oppressed and depressed citizens by planting beautiful trees, flowers, and the like. The isometric game has a heavy puzzle element to it, where certain plants need to be placed in specific locations to provoke a desired result. For instance, and the video shows this, you can use a screaming flower to draw the attention of patrolling officers in order to make a run for another section of the map. Other flowers emit bursts of pollen, attracting citizens to the area. It’s a good way to gather up protestors in key locations.

Check out the trailer »

Posted in Art, Awesome, Indie, TORONTO, Videos | 3 Comments »

ART
General Bauhaus

Meet General Bauhaus. Kick-ass name, isn’t it? As expected, he’s quite the baddie in Guerrilla Gardening, the upcoming PC strategy game being developed by Toronto’s own Spooky Squid.

The colouring is by Miguel Sternberg of Spooky Squid, and the character design is by comic book illustrator and homegrown hero Eric Kim. Great to see this game’s progressing nicely, because I’m looking forward to playing it.

Check out the full-size artwork over at the Guerrilla Gardening dev blog.

Posted in Art, Awesome, Comics, Indie, TORONTO | No Comments »

INDIE:
Frozen Synapse by Mode 7 Games

Mode 7 Games, a UK indie developer, is in the midst of developing a rather stylized tactical game called Frozen Synapse. The title has an interesting play mechanic: moves are selected and paths are plotted beforehand, and once the “execute” button is pressed, the scenario plays out. Players have to anticipate enemy moves, in other words.

An official teaser trailer released for Frozen Synapse shows it in motion, and even though it depicts an early build, things are looking sharp. The combination of the art style and music chosen reminds me of the magnificent Defcon.

Posted in Art, Indie | 2 Comments »

THROWDOWN!
DJ Finish Him Vs. Oxvylu

If you missed the DJ Finish Him vs. Oxvylu live set this Saturday at Hard Luck Bar in Toronto, here’s a photograph Terence Cheng took of the set. Now just picture really loud blippy music and sound effects where half the crowd is into it and the other have is mostly confused. Now it’s like you where there!

Evidently parts of this performance were filmed, in HD, no less, so I’ll try to track that down and post it here for all to enjoy.

Posted in Awesome, Indie, Music, Photos, TORONTO | 2 Comments »

A W A R I S C O M I N G
– Y’all Been Warned.

Zack Kotzer of Steel Bananas fame posted a vague but intriguing note via his Facebook page tonight. Along with the above image, he wrote:

A war is coming.
It brews between conventions
Concepts
It will take your tears and sweat
It will take your hands and blisters
It will take your quarters
It makes strange noises
And it will come
Once it is inside you it lives with you forever
You won’t hate the invader
You will love the invader
No matter what
Isn’t this terrifying?
I’m terrified too
Soon you will know

But what does it all mean? He most likely has created something awesome that he’s waiting to unleash upon the world. Will Toronto or its gaming-loving citizens be the same? We shall see. I just hope he’s not planning on beating everyone up for lunch money again.

Posted in Awesome, Indie, News Bytes, TORONTO | 4 Comments »