As usual, businessmen and women crowd the underground PATH system of Toronto’s Design Exchange building on an especially rainy April 6 afternoon. But unknown to them, hundreds of game development students from across Canada were preparing to showcase their work to the public.
Algonquin College game development students, who — for the sixth year in a row – were among them, participating in the annual Level Up games competition.
They were there not only to showcase their capstone projects for the semester, but accompanied by Dushan Horvat and Jodi Tilley, professors of the college’s game development program, both of whom organized the event.
They were shepherding 55 of their students who traveled from Algonquin to Toronto to gain the opportunity to show off the games that they’d been working on to industry professionals as well as other game development students and the public.
Games were judged and given prizes based on technical innovation, artistic achievement, overall achievement and of course, fan favourite. While none of Algonquin’s six participating teams placed in any category this year, the games were awesome nonetheless. Here’s a summary of what the Algonquin team presented:
Deathstrict
Deathstrict is a local four player tank battle arena. Played in split screen, players control tanks and attempt to demolish their opponents in deathmatch style. Each tank, of which there were three, was equipped with four MOBA-esque abilities.
“We wanted to make League of Legends with tanks,” said Logan Fairbairn, art lead for Deathstrict.
With an art style influenced heavily by Deus Ex: Machina, Deathstrict’s simple concept once included a storyline which was later removed because “it didn’t stick.”
“(Players) like the art-style, customizability,” said Fairbairn. “And it feels good to move most tanks.”
The aim was to attract a larger player base due to the multiplayer nature of the game, according to Fairbairn.
But Deathstrict was quickly overshadowed by Oddbird Studio’s Arrowhead, a 3D four-player multiplayer battle arena heavily inspired by Towerfall, which sat across from Deathstrict and attracted the largest crowd of the night, winning both the overall achievement and the people’s choice awards.
“Arrowhead definitely has a similar concept, and was more effective,” said Fairbairn.
Symbiosis
Symbiosis is a co-op two player action shooter by Nonachron Studios. Taking place inside a cyborg’s body, the goal is to defeat the cyborg’s immune system. Inspired by games like Bit.Trip, Symbiosis functions similar to a rhythm game with the enemies reacting in tune with the beat.
Symbiosis attempts to push players into working with each other with mechanics that require both players to co-operate, as projectiles bounce in between players or increased visibility with shorter distances in between players.
“The idea came from wanting to play co-op games,” said Jamie Hargrove, project manager for Symbiosis. “It appeals to a wider audience.”
Empyria
Empyria is a steampunk first-person spell-slinging adventure. Created by Awkward Interactions, the game is inspired by the aesthetic of Bioshock: Infinite, while leaning to combat similar to Dishonored.
The game was praised by judges for its ability to house a large number of NPCs, which was made possible by spawning the NPCs off screen.
Using the power of electricity, the player fights his way through enemies and explores the land jumping from rooftop to rooftop.
Empyria’s focus was heavily tilted towards the scope of the game. Its huge playable area paired with the intense amount of NPCs travelling throughout the land allow the Awkward Interactions team to show off their technical prowess.
Solanka: Journey to the Sun
Solanka: Journey to the Sun is a third-person action RPG by Team Fancy Forge taking place on a desert planet filled with environmental storytelling through abandoned structures, destroyed machinery and more.
“We were really inspired by seeing how Journey made a desert so beautiful,” said Nico Blier, project manager on Solanka: Journey to the Sun, citing its minimalistic and mysterious aesthetic as specific points that they took into consideration while developing the game.
The player, playing as Solanka, travels and fights enemies, collecting resources in order to upgrade equipment so that eventually Solanka can fight the giant titans that roam the land.
Inspired by Monster Hunter in its concept, Solanka: Journey to the Sun attempts to implement fast-paced combat similar to hack-n-slash games like Devil May Cry, or Bayonetta.
“Obviously people see it and talk about Shadow of the Colossus,” said Blier. “The comparisons were inevitable and pushed the design forward, if you play the game you can see that victory requires a mix of skill and experimentation with the mechanics.”
Coral Thief
Coral Thief is a third-person 3D puzzle adventure game taking place under the sea. Playing as a mermaid, you swim around and collect points similar to games like Spyro or Banjo Kazooie.
The aesthetic was inspired by Endless Ocean in terms of locale and concept and Ratchet and Clank in terms of visualization, according to Ryan Gainford, art lead at Iolite Studios.
Iolite had brainstormed many ideas including a space racing game inspired by the 80s and a mech game involving alchemy, but ultimately decided on Coral Thief after coming to a vote.
“It was the most viable,” said Gainford. “We felt that we could pull it off better.”
But Coral Thief’s development was rockier than simple democratic voting as half the team wanted to work on games focused on realism and the others wanted it to be cartoon inspired.
Iolite was also forced to remove parts of the game that they decided “were just not working” due to time limitations after coming back from the holiday break.
However, on the show floor Coral Thief shone judging from its positive audience reception.
“People apparently really want to play a game as a mermaid,” said Gainford with a chuckle.
Treasure of the Land
Treasure of the Land is an agriculture simulator by Bendy Straw Studios. And while that may not sound as exciting to some as the other games highlighted in this article, it’s a very intense genre that is beloved by many.
Inspired heavily by Harvest Moon, Alex Imray, project manager on Treasure of the Land said that they wanted to not only make something similar but also build on design elements that they felt Harvest Moon lacked.
“We wanted to give the player a lot of freedom,” said Imray. In order to do that, Bendy Straws implemented time skips and farm hands which “gives freedom to do whatever [players] want to do.”
Unlike most other agriculture simulators, Treasure of the Land includes combat along with its modular building. Both reiterate the initial goal that Bendy Straws set out to accomplish, freedom of choice.
“We got a lot of comparisons to Minecraft,” said Imray.
Due to Runefactory and Harvest Moon being primary inspirations, the unintended comparisons to Minecraft came as a positive surprise to Imray.
Treasure of the Land’s aesthetic stood out amongst its peers due to its unique nature.
“We stylized it to be realistic but not too much,” said Imray. “It’s cartoony, fun.”
But like most other games at Level Up, Treasure of the Land’s development wasn’t dry cut.
“We only had two artists,” said Imray. “But we had to find a way to make it work.”
And much like Bendy Straw’s sister teams, Imray mentioned the struggle in communication as a major detractor from the development of the game along with limited time. “It took a lot to get (our saving and loading) feature to work,” said Imray.
“I’m pretty happy with how the game turned out,” said Imray. “I think it’s fun, enjoyable and lengthy.”
Algonquin showcased six unique and interesting games at Level Up and although they didn’t win any awards, students described the experience in a positive light.
“The way our course is structured it’s such a way that we focus on AAA quality,” said Gabrien Boileau, lead programmer on Solanka: Journey to the Sun. “We are instructed on how to create AAA games with larger scopes, to prepare us for the industry. And the winning games at Level Up were, in general, quite small and very polished.”
“I think that every game that was made this year was awesome and I believe that we’ve all worked very hard,” said Boileau.