ookpixels

Cally and Her Caves

by Devon Wiersma

With only two people on a team of game developers and no experience shipping games before, one might (naturally) think that getting started in development and shipping your first game could be a difficult skill to tackle.

A Peaceful World

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…

BMC Studios: The Good in the Bad

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…

The Strange in the Familiar

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. Gravitating towards classic adventure games like the Monkey Island…

A Band of Our Own

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…

Take Your Joy

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. Since Guillaume Provost founded the studio seven years ago, it has grown both in size and…

The Last Thing in the Box

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 of…

All About the Crew

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…

The Really Serious Game

By Nicole Pacampara

It was an uncharacteristically cold day in San Francisco. A few blocks away from the commotion that is the annual Game Developer’s Conference, I sat down with Toronto-based game developer Yifat Shaik to chat about her life, her game making…