This week, the Toronto chapter of the IGDA (International Game Developers Association) will be hosting a special presentation titled: Government Assistance – Part II. The presentation will take place on Thursday, June 3 from 7p.m. – 9p.m. at Metro Hall (55 John Street, Toronto) in room 308/309, and it will feature representatives from the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) and Telefilm Canada who will be talking about the various forms of government financing and assistance available to both video game and interactive media developers.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about how to finance your own video game development project, then this presentation is for you. Several programs aimed at helping developers of video games and interactive media will be discussed, and these will include the OMDC Export Fund, the Interactive Digital Media Fund, the IP Prototype Fund, the Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit, and Telefilm’s new Canada Media Fund. There will also be more information about fund descriptions, who qualifies for what programs, and how to apply, so come on out to this presentation for a great opportunity to learn more about the resources that are available to local start-up video game companies.

The Hand Eye Society, a collective of Toronto’s video game developers, will be having their 3rd social of 2010 on the evening of Thursday, May 27 at the Unit Bar in Toronto, which is  located at 1198 Queen St West and may be difficult to find (see the bottom of this post for more detailed directions)*.  These socials usually open with some sort of video game presentation, and this one will be no exception.  Doors open for the event at 7 p.m., and the half-hour presentation will begin around 8 p.m.  However, it is suggested that attendees arrive at 7:30 p.m. since the Unit Bar is quite a small space and is likely to be packed shortly before 8 p.m.  After the presentation, the “social” part of the social will begin and bring opportunities for all to chat with some of Toronto’s biggest video game developers.

The special guest at this event will be Brandon Boyer, an editor for www.boingboing.net , founder of www.offworld.com, and a former writer for Edge magazine.  Most recently, Boyer was  named Chairman of the Independent Games Festival (IGF).

UPDATE: In addition to an appearance by Brandon Boyer at this event, Mark Essen Hoffman (aka MESSHOF), who has garnered attention from his unique, artsy games, which are usually made with Game Maker, presents his newest game, Nidhogg, a game that was commissioned by NYU’s Game Center.

This should prove to be a very fun evening for those who are interested in video games and the Toronto video game industry.  You can join The Hand Eye Society’s Facebook group (if, of course, you’re in to that sort of thing) to get regular updates about their events including the upcoming social that is  mentioned in this post.

*NOTE: The Unit Bar is a very inconspicuous bar that is located just a few steps east of the Gladstone Hotel.  See the Google map for a street guide of this place.

Over this weekend, TCAF (The Toronto Comics Art Festival) will be taking place on May 8 and May 9 at the Toronto Reference Library. Among a large exhibition of independent comic book artists and creators, The Hand Eye Society’s TCAF Arcade will also be there with the Torontoron arcade cabinet, which will feature a number of Toronto indie games available for playing. The event is FREE to the public, so come down to join in all of the events. Since this posting doesn’t really do TCAF justice, you should also see the posting about it from The Hand Eye Society‘s website.  And of course the TCAF website (www.torontocomics.com) also has more detailed information about this event.

TCAF
May 8th and 9th 2010
@ Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge St., Toronto, Canada

Admission to TCAF is Free.

http://www.torontocomics.com/

The following video game related panel discussion will also be taking place during TCAF :

The Spirit of Indie: Where Comics Meet Video Games
Saturday, May 8th, 2:00 – 2:45pm, at The Pilot (22 Cumberland Street, which is across the street from the Toronto Reference Library)
There’s more to the game industry than blockbuster, multi-system titles just as there’s more to comics than Batman. This panel seeks to explore the ways in which independent comic artists and game developers have influenced each other and spurred each other on to explore the possibilities of their medium. Cartoonists/game contributors and creators Scott Campbell, Jamie McKelvie, Jim Munroe, and Miguel Sternberg will be interviewed by games journalist Matthew Kumar.

The Hand Eye Society, which is a rapidly increasing collective of Toronto game developers, will be having another one of their special social events on the evening of Thursday, April 15 at the Unit Bar located at 1198 Queen West in downtown Toronto. Doors open for the social at 7:00p.m., and presentations will begin at 8:00p.m. There will be two major presentations at this particular event.

Jim McGinley will be premiering a new type of game that is exclusively designed for a club environment. Everyone at the Unit Bar will play this game together, and it should be a very interesting gameplay experiment to take part in. Also adding to the fun will be the first live demonstration of Benjamin Rivers’ new interactive drinking game, Drunken Rampage.

On top of all of that, you get to hang out with other cool developers from the Toronto video game industry. It certainly sounds like there will be lots of things to do and lots of people to see at this event, so hopefully we’ll see you there.  For more information, you can check out The Hand Eye Society’s homepage.

Just a reminder to everyone that the registration for this year’s TO Jam is currently open, so now is your chance to sign up for this FREE event before registration closes on Sunday, April 18.

In case you don’t already know, TO Jam is an event that takes place each year in Toronto where game developers from all disciplines (art, programming, design, music, etc.) come together over the course of 3 days to develop their own indie games. The games being developed are usually based on a given event theme, but you don’t have to follow this theme if you don’t want to. The main objective behind TO Jam is to get game developers from all levels of ability to kick-start the development of their own unique games for the sake of having fun and learning from others. TO Jam is not a competion, and teams helping each other out is encouraged. In fact, if you decide to sign up for TO Jam without a team, you can participate as a “floater”, who is someone that gets to work with all of the groups at the event to produce game content for whatever they may need help with. You may also be pleasantly surprised at who decides to participate in TO Jam, as this event has attracted big names in the indie video games industry on several occasions. This is a great event to attend for anyone who is interested in designing and creating video games.

If you’re interested in signing up for TO Jam, or just want some more information, have a look at the TO Jam website.