Last week, the 11th floor of Concordia’s EV Building played host to another installment in Arcade 11! Everyone’s favourite curated collection of games both wonderful and weird drew crowds to the space once again! With natural environment as its theme and a selection of virtual experiences that range from patrolling the daunting Wyoming wilderness to trying to navigating an absurdly chaotic kitchen, this year’s co-curators, Pippin Barr, Gina Hara, and Milin Li, made last year’s event seem more like Arcade 10!*
*(Author’s Note: Last year’s Arcade 11 was also great)
For three days, the floor was packed with folks of all ages who wanted to enjoy an exciting cavalcade of games and our team of organizers and loyal volunteers were happy to oblige them. Special thanks to our crack team of helpers and volunteers for their time and help and an extra-special thanks go out to Benjamin Gattet and William Robinson for all they did for the event. After all, this three-day funfest was more than just a few PCs in a room. Our selection of games made use of all sorts of fun peripherals, be it Paloma Dawkins, Cale Bradbury and Caila Thompson’s locally-made Alea with its amazing feel-good controller decked out in flowers and moss, or Thomas Street’s Terra Farma (a game jam production, no less!) that invites players to delve into that new and mysterious virtual reality you’ve all heard so much about!
Note TAG’s trademark grassy rug on the left that really tied the farming experience together and peep that fantastically lush controller above! Green, for lack of a better word, really is good.
Of course, all the titles on display were fantastic – Florian Veltman’s Lieve Oma brought players on a child’s journey with their grandmother through a forest as well as through their own memories both good and bad.
Ghost Town Games’ Overcooked tasked players with working in the fast paced world of restaurant kitchens where their fellow chefs are often bigger obstacles than the absurd environments in which the culinary work must be done.
Campo Santo’s Firewatch allows players to navigate the many cliffs and wooded paths of a national park until they become familiar. Our team once again made use of the TAG tent and campfire to turn the experience into a bit of an augmented-reality game.
Breakup Squad by Brooklyn Gamery (another game jam game!) grapples with the fallout of a toxic relationship through team-based play. Two players embody the roles of a couple who recently separated but now find themselves at the same party and three others are tasked with keeping them apart.
Last but not least, Montreal-based KO-OP Mode’s very generous pre-release copy of GNOG invites players to play and puzzle with the titular little monsters, poking and prodding to uncover their secrets.
A strong crop to say the least! All I have to say is that I look forward to what the team will come up with for next year…
Until then folks, keep playing 🙂
