About

We know many artists have a passion for games, and would like to make them. We know people in the games community, both industry and players, are excited about games that approach the medium from diverse places. Artists make the game world look good, and games can bring art to a broad audience. Everyone wins!

We use accessible tools. Point-and-click game making suites abound, and until we’ve developed our gamemaking chops to the point where they’re limiting, they’ll do. When programmers turn up their noses, we’ll tell them that machine language is what REAL coders use.

We make one-person games. “Team building” can simply be procrastination. When we get to the point when our games “need” better art, or better sound, we’ll be able to communicate much better with artists or musicians having done it ourselves on a crude level. Plus they’ll see we’re able to complete games and be more excited about being involved.

We will leverage our talents. All of us are good at something — visuals, sound, writing — and we’ll put that front and centre as often as possible. That being said, we will work hard at polishing all aspects until they are as shiny as we want them to be. Placeholder graphics are sooo beta.

We meet in person, as creative circles have met for millennia, to establish a consensus reality that what we are doing is worth doing. We know that when we sit down to work on something on Monday that people we like and respect will see it and discuss it on Wednesday.

We are all about making games now!

If you live in Toronto or Montreal and you’d like to be contacted for the next round of sessions, please email us your name, artistic skill, favourite game — and why it’s your favourite game. If you don’t live in Toronto or Montreal, download the manual (originally published in Game Developer Magazine) and give it a read. Then email us about what happens!

The Artsy Games Incubator was made possible through the generosity of its founding sponsors, Metanet Software and Queasy Games.