Toronto Thumbs

PAX East Almost Sold Out
Hand Eye Society Road Trip Impending

PAX East in Boston is just a few weeks away! While tickets are still on sale, when I last checked there were only 600 three-day passes available to the event. I attended PAX’07 in Seattle and it was one of the strangest yet also one of the most enjoyable events I’ve been to. Oddly, we haven’t seen a schedule for panels, a list of guests, or a list of bands that will be at PAX East and yet so many tickets have already sold.

Since so many members of Toronto’s indie game community will be attending PAX East this year, Mark Rabo (one half of the super team that brought us Gamercamp) has put out an open call to Torontonians to see who’d be up for a road trip. In a message sent to Hand Eye Society members, Rabo counted the benefits this road trip would afford: “Fast food, car farts and interminable boredom await… not to mention car-to-car WiFi gaming battles!”

Along the way, the road trippers will stop at NCHEG (the National Center for the History of Electronic Games). There’s also the promise of debauchery before continuing the journey on to PAX the next day.

If you’re interested in taking part in this trip, live in the Toronto area, and are up for spending way too much time with nerds, take this survey. Also: if you want to be subjected to me listening to Electric Six’s phenomenal album, “Kill” repeatedly and loudly for hours on end, convince me to let you ride in my car. Also: Convince me to drive.

Posted in Awesome, Events, TORONTO | 5 Comments »

MADE OF SOAP (AND WIN)!
Peter Project’s “FRESH” EP

I’m a huge fan of people doing things differently. Take Toronto-based hip-hop DJ/beat maker Peter Project, for instance. His new Fresh EP is not only fresh in the sense that the cuts are new, but also in the sense that it’s a download embedded into a bar of soap! Granted, the EP is also available sans-soap, but how cool a play on the oft-used term, “Fresh!”

I’m not sure I’d want to use the soap just to get to the download code. But this is more a reflection of my pack rat/hoarder mentality and less because I don’t like being clean. The soap itself sounds like it’s pretty awesome. It’s handmade and naturally scented. Given the fact that there are plenty of sweaty dudes at Toronto shows who don’t appear to realize how horrible they smell, getting people to clean themselves by any form of trickery seems like a great idea to me.

While I have yet to hear the entire Fresh EP, I can guarantee you it’s awesome. Considering I had nothing but praise for Peter Project’s self-titled album when I reviewed it for Popshifter earlier this year, I have the utmost confidence that the Fresh EP delivers the goods despite its short length. But don’t take my word for it; just listen to “Unorthadox,” a preview track from the EP that features More or Les throwing it down over Peter’s beats. There’s also this sampling that features a mix of sounds from the Fresh EP. Then there’s the video Peter recently posted that shows him cutting up some beats with a newly broken arm.

The Fresh EP can be purchased online at the Fuzzy Logic Recordings shop.

Posted in Art, Awesome, Canada, Indie, Music, TORONTO | 1 Comment »

Tiny Cartridge Interview
Capybara Games talks about Clash of Heroes

The crew over at Tiny Cartridge recently had the opportunity to chat about Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes with the game’s developers, Toronto-based Capybara Games. Co-founder/President Nathan Vella and co-lead designer Greg Georgiadis had a lot to say about not only the game, but a variety of other interesting subjects. Their discussion covers topics such as the industry’s movement away from pixel art, developing for the DS versus the PSP, and being an independent studio working for a bigger publisher. It’s a great read, so go check it out!

Posted in Canada, Indie, Interviews, News Bytes, TORONTO | No Comments »

SUPERBROTHERS: SWORD & SWORCERY EP
Dark Moon Teletex Bulletin 004 offers Wallpaper

Today we received the Dark Moon Teletex Bulletin 004 concerning the still highly-secretive Superbrothers/Jim Guthrie/Capybara Games project Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. The bulletin contained links to large desktop backgrounds featuring “digitally remastered” artwork that was originally meant to accompany the project’s announcement. Other than this, no new information was provided on what the project actually is, save for the mention that the next update we’ll receive will be the Bright Moon Bulletin on December 31, 2009 at 14:14 EST.

Excitement builds while the mystery continues to be… well, mysterious. In the meantime, the wallpaper is tasty.

Posted in Art, Awesome, Indie, iPhone, iPod Touch, Music, News Bytes, TORONTO | No Comments »

Relive The Wizard
Mario Kart Tournament in Toronto

On Thursday, December 3, 2009, Offshoot is holding a Mario Kart Wii tournament at The Bait Shop (358 Dufferin St., Suite 117) in Toronto. The event kicks off at 7 p.m. sharp and attendants are asked to register at the event’s official site as space is limited.

The tournament will start off with 32 players, and after each round the number of contestants will be halved. Up for grabs is cool prizing from Skull Candy, PKG, and Red Bull, among others.

For those of you who just want to watch the festivities, DJ Hot Magma and several special guest DJs are set to provide some music for the night.

I’ll be sitting this one out, as my idea of reliving The Wizard includes a Super Mario Bros. 3 tournament instead of a Mario Kart Wii one. Maybe I’ll have to set that up myself.

Posted in Awesome, Events, Nintendo, TORONTO, Wii | 2 Comments »

First Look
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP

A Trio of Toronto powerhouses (pixel artist Superbrothers, game developer Capy, and musician Jim Guthrie) have teamed up to bring the world a project called Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. Today they released the above video teaser for the project, along with the vague description that the project is a brave experiment in I/O cinema, a crude videogame haiku about life, love and death, and a choice cut of myth and dreams. The project’s official site also suggests that more information will be coming December 16, 2009, at 7:03 a.m. EST.

UPDATE: It’s headed to the iPhone.

Posted in Indie, News Bytes, TORONTO, Videos | No Comments »

Event Re-cap
Gamercamp Wows, Leaves Me Wanting More

Organizers Jaime Woo and Mark Rabo welcome the crowd. Photo by Gavin Hay from the Gamercamp Flickr Pool.

Saturday’s Gamercamp was unlike any other gaming-related gathering I have attended. Since many of them are sponsored by software and console manufacturers and used to promote upcoming big-budget titles from studios with hundreds of employees, the contrast provided by Gamercamp was both refreshing and much needed.

Instead, the event celebrated local talent and featured demonstrations of upcoming indie games as well as insights from successful indie developers about the creative process, business decisions, and team dynamics. Gamercamp was a casual gathering with snack and chat breaks punctuating demonstrations and lectures.

During these breaks I was fortunate to meet with several local gamers and writers, many for the first time, to talk about gaming and other geeky subjects. Among these personalities were the amicable Imaginary Thomas (who was making his annual public appearance), Lori Dance and Dave Waisglass from the new and awesome game blog A Couple of Gamers, Don Tam from GameNorth.ca, Will Perkins and Lucas Rizoli from Dork Shelf, Ry-Tron and Nadine from Aboot Play, Zack Kotzer from Steel Bananas, and Jaime Woo and Mark Rabo, the minds behind Gamercamp.

What was surprising and most humbling was hearing from people who’ve read Toronto Thumbs and enjoyed the site – so to those of you who expressed kind words, thanks again.

Read the rest »

Posted in Arcade, Art, Awesome, Canada, Events, Indie, TORONTO | 7 Comments »