Ontario / Canada game developers?

[KNau]

Hi! I was wondering how many Canadian developers are on these boards and, more specifically, how many from Ontario?

I thought it would be cool to put together a map of local indie developers and host it on-line. I get asked all the time about indie development and I'd like to be able to point out other local developers in the same business.

So if you live in Ontario (or Canada in general) and have one or more completed projects for sale (can be as simple as a screensaver, small utility or a full game) then I'd love to hear about it! Let me know your web addy and your home town and I'll put together a map of links for people to see.

Incidentally, I'm from London, Ontario - my first game was Power Mad (a Nuclear War clone) and I recently released 2 budget games (Ghost Manor and The Mighty Muddles) that are being repackaged for the relaunch of my website www.mybrainplay.com in December.

It would also be cool if someone wanted to set something like this up for the States as well - we could document the growth of the "indie movement" as new developers and products come online. Just thought it would be neat to see. Thanks!

[SunAndGames]

KNau

It's a cool idea. Hope you get some good responses. Being able to network locally (maybe even face to face) would be a good thing for all involved.

I'm in Ontario, right in your backyard actually. London. I'm in the northwest end of town in Whitehills. There are a few of us here in London. PoV is in London, working at a small startup, indie-minded studio. SpikeSpiegel was also from London. I haven't seem him here since the boards moved from Dexterity though. We were planning a little London indie game developer conference in this old thread (http://www.indiegamer.com/archives/t-2489.html).

I'm currently slaving away at TD as a database developer and hating every second of it. I developed my first game (http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?500000019185) a few years ago. I'm currently working on my first real commercial game, to hit the streets soon (but not soon enough).

[PoV]

Yep another Londoner here. Former Sandbox Studios and Digital Illusions monkey, now establishing Big Blue Bubble with several good friends also from the mentioned companies, with the help of a healthy supply of UWO students. :D.

Either of you guys 'experience' the Halo 2 midnight thang at Masonville on launch night? hehe... boy was that a bad idea.

[Sillysoft]

I was born and raised in Toronto. Then I went off to university in Montreal and have stayed here.

[KNau]

Thanks for the replies!

I'm living in the downtown area, just up the street form Labatt Park. I'm currently on a startup program through the Small Business Centre to try and get my business going but it's been pretty rough so far. None of them have any belief in online businesses and I keep getting pressure to print CD-ROMs and try hocking them at stores. Although since I screwed up my initial launch I just may end up doing that :(

So, if you ever see a guy downtown selling puzzle games on the street corner you'll know why, lol! The small business centre is a great place for general advice but I think I may have forever tainted their view of the game development biz.

Anyone else? I thought there was someone here from the Kitchener / Waterloo area. With the game design program at the Academy of Design there must be a few Toronto-nians. I also imagine there must be lots of people in Montreal and Vancouver, strange there isn't much organization to indies here.

Have any of you guys been to the IGDA meetings in Toronto?

[KNau]

Oops, sorry Sillysoft - you must have posted while I was editing my typos. Glad to hear from you :)

[PoV]

I was at some odd event in Toronto a couple years ago that I thought had something to do with the IGDA, but most likely was just glorified an nVidia, Maya, and Intrinsic Alchemy commercial.

[Dingo Games]

Wow, it seems like quite the crowd of indies in London!

I'm from White Rock, BC (close to Vancouver ), but I go to school in Toronto. So I live in Toronto for most of the year.

[wazoo]

Sheesh, even in the Indie world, there's barely any representation from the West, but it IS good to see some CDN content here. We need to show the world that we have more than just great beer and women. :)

I'm based here in Calgary for now, working on my first game among other projects.

My day job is a web-architect/backend programmer downtown..

[carl]

Anyone else? I thought there was someone here from the Kitchener / Waterloo area. With the game design program at the Academy of Design there must be a few Toronto-nians. I also imagine there must be lots of people in Montreal and Vancouver, strange there isn't much organization to indies here.

I believe it was Lizardsoft who was from K/W.

I was from south western Ontario (almost equidistant between London & Kitchener), and I now make my home in Ottawa. It's great to see so much interest in game development from back home. Good luck to everyone!

[the2bears]

Sheesh, even in the Indie world, there's barely any representation from the West, but it IS good to see some CDN content here.

Well, I don't live in Canada anymore (but after the election it's looking better... offtopic) but I am from Calgary originally and spent a good 30 years of my life there.

Bill

[SmartMelon]

I'm from Fredericton, New Brunswick, although I was born in Charlottetown, PEI. There's not many east-coasters around the forums, although on the old Dexterity Forums I did manage to find one other New Bruswicker. Cheers!

Graeme Sweet

[radiance]

I'm definitely from Toronto! I too am surprised there aren't more developers here. Maybe it just takes us longer to crawl out of the woodwork and announce ourselves.

And I guess I just started qualifying as an official developer this week having finally released my first game (yay!). If you have a Mac, check out the url in my signature (and just in case, for those of you who have signatures turned off, it's www.angelFrogGames.com (http://www.angelfroggames.com))

[Promaginy]

Hi everyone,

My name is Chris and I am from Winnipeg. (the support group responds "Hi Chris").

Neat thread. I was thinking of asking the same thing.

Any unique problems being a Canadian developer? Does the U.S. exchange rate matter to you? Any export problems?

[the2bears]

...Does the U.S. exchange rate matter to you? Any export problems?

Like the weather in Calgary, wait awhile. It'll change. The US dollar is likely to drop further in the near future due mainly to international uncertainty (contempt) for Dubya and his policies. I think it's the new "Loonie":)

Bill

[Dingo Games]

Does the U.S. exchange rate matter to you? Any export problems?
Yes, the U.S. exchange rate matters a lot. If you are selling your game in US dollars ( which a lot of people do ) then your income fluctuates directly with the dollar.

American dollar, please go up. :rolleyes: