By Devon Wiersma Violence is a common thread in many games. In fact, anyone browsing through games this holiday season will likely be hard-pressed to find a title that doesn’t feature killing, fighting or shooting in some capacity. Beating and shooting things are as ubiquitous to games as the holidays…

By Devon Wiersma Indie games frequently struggle to find their place. Whether it’s attempting to appeal to browsing users on services like itch.io or developing content unique enough to stand out against the ever-expanding service that is Steam Greenlight, creating games that are one-of-a-kind and marketable is always an uphill…

By Nicole Pacampara For Dietrich “Squinky” Squinkifer, their love affair for games was born out of a love for stories. As a kid, they relished becoming part of the stories themselves. …

By Nicole Pacampara On a searing hot day in July, I trekked over to the Junction, a neighbourhood in Toronto’s west end, to find Axon Interactive. Started in 2010 by Tabby and Jeff Rose, the studio is housed in an unassuming red-bricked building once home to a rubber factory. Intrigued…

By Nicole Pacampara Nestled in a former gramophone factory in St-Henri, a neighbourhood just outside the rustle and bustle of Montreal’s downtown core, lies the studio of Compulsion Games. …

By Alex Roberts It’s late summer 2015, and I’m at a beach house in New Jersey, about to play the most Canadian game ever made. I don’t know this yet; I just know it’s a freeform scenario called Hope was the Last Thing in the Box. Freeform is a style…

By Nicole Pacampara The crowd screams. Anticipation rises. Two dancers pace up and down the screen. Finally, the music starts and the battle begins. In 2007, a short animated film about street dancers went viral. Set amidst Jonathan Ng’s entrancing hand-drawn 2D animations and the uptempo musical beats of Eric…

By Nicole Pacampara It was an uncharacteristically cold day in San Francisco. …

If you were to meet me in real life, you’d no doubt see my bespectacled face and have a hard time picturing it any other way. With the exception of sleeping and bathing, I’m never without my glasses. …