JaceTheGamerDesigner

Ten years ago when I first graduated game development with honours, there wasn't any local jobs in my field or studios that would bring me over, so while working minimum wage full time for a few years I released a video game solo and several smaller projects that all made no money, and then I finally got hired.... at a shit starter job with a 1.5 hour commute time by bus. Meanwhile I had friends with wealthy parents and connections who got hired immediately.

I released more projects, and was applying to other jobs during my lunch hours, and a year later I got a software job that doubled my salary and now I am doing well. I paid off all my loans and then bought a townhouse last year at 30. I don't find recruiters now, they find me.

I do not like the idea of other people having to go through what I did. My early 20's were a hellish grindfest that no one should have to do. Genz has it even worse and I have seen it in the workplace.

I don't know what to tell you, other than you're not alone. Most people have a huge reality check in their 20s and adulthood hits hard... because we're not taxing the billionaires.

We could really use a movement to get more people to try adding beans, peas, and tofu to their grocery list. I wasn't able to stick to not eating meat, but sticking to eating less meat by adding alternatives to my grocery list turned out to be quite easy.

I have seen my family doctor many times since then. No worries.

Canadian here.

This one time 10 years ago I drove to my family doctor's office without an appointment and got lucky that it was a walk in day.

I saw my doctor within an hour of arriving and it cost me nothing.

Our emissions are already terrible. We do not need to destroy the earth more.

Alright I'm going to need all of your suggestions as this is the project I'm working on right now.

A bought a small townhouse in Ontario 7 months ago and I have a tiny yard.

The yard had mostly grass, but had a little bit of moss, crab grass, and clover. There is a small garden, and many dirt patches in the yard.

I have spread clover seed in the yard, especially in the dirt patches.

Then I weeded the garden area, removed about half the rocks but left some in the garden, I have my mother coming over next month to help me pick local garden flowers, and I had to pull a tiny tree out because it was planted right beside the foundation of the building and would eventually cause damage.

What else should be added to the lawn? Should I be pulling out the crabgrass? What wildflowers are native to Ontario?

...We can't keep doing this. Why do people still so consistently vote to destroy the environment?

Let's focus on things that don't dedicate us to a tip-based economy.

To my knowledge, the only change to tips we need is that if your tips are put into a pool to be spread amongst the staff, which is a common practice in restaurants so that the chefs and dishwashers get tips, then the owner can't include themself in the people to get paid from that pool.

I dated a girl for a while in Ottawa where the owner was taking a huge cut of her tips that way.

Hi I'm an indie dev in Ottawa.

Some of my friends created a website where you can find Ottawa made video games and Ottawa indie game companies.

https://www.ottawagames.info/

I also hate to link to reddit now, but months ago there was a reddit post with a big list of Canadian devs and games.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyCanadian/comments/1iku9sm/canadian_game_designers_to_support/

Some more notes

Cuphead - The main team is Toronto based, but all the coders were here in Ottawa. Some of which I went to school with. https://store.steampowered.com/app/268910/Cuphead/

Tunic - I believe they are all Canadian. At least one of the dev's is a local to Ottawa. https://tunicgame.com/

Spring Falls - By Eric. I remember seeing the early demo's of this at our local game dev event. https://www.springfallsgame.com/

Gataela - By Paige who is really nice. She helps curate the first link I sent. https://www.gataela.com/

Spectrum Break - A game I released solo before joining Skypyre. https://spectrumbreak.com/

We've had a few phone app game companies spring up around Ottawa but I honestly have no idea if they survived the pandemic. I haven't seen Magmic in a long time and I recall them not doing too well.

I'm also pretty sure Balatro is Canadian.

I believe the Momodora series is based in Toronto, as is the developer who made Mount Your Friends but you would have to verifiy both.

Another big name are the developers are Warframe. They are based here in Canada.

King of the Hat was by an indie team from somewhere in Ontario. It's too bad I haven't had the chance to see them at an event in a while. I hope they're doing well. https://kingofthehat.com/

We have a handful of local meetups so everyone tends to know each other.

I am part of Skypyre Studios, as is Matt who is one of the 2 people running the website. We're 10 friends who release games together.

The largest Studio is SnowedIn. They only have 1 game listed but they do a lot of contract work for studios like Ubisoft. Last I checked they had 50+ employees.

The most recognizable is Steelcrate games who made Don't Talk and Nobody Explodes for VR headsets... originally at a local college game jam.

Another cool indie Studio is Breakfall. Who have 3-4 game's listed. They're currently making their own engine.

And there are numerous local indie's who have made a game solo.