this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
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Give'r Gaming

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Canadian video games, gamers, and gaming news!

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Canadian Game Developers Megathread (lemmy.ca)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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This megathread serves to showcase a list of Canadian game developers. This list will grow over time, and will be better organized as time goes on. Major game titles will be highlighted next to the studio names:

Independent Canadian Game Developers:

Edmonton:

Gatineau:

Halifax:

Hamilton:

Kitchener:

London:

Montreal:

Ottawa:

Quebec City:

Regina:

St. Catharines:

Saskatoon:

Toronto:

Vancouver:

Victoria:

Waterloo:

Multiple Locations in Canada:

Somewhere in Canada:

Individual Canadian Game Developers:

Game Studios based in both Canada and the U.S.:

  • Other Ocean - Partially based in Emeryville, California

Canadian Game Developers Owned by American Companies:

Canadian Game Developers Owned by Other Foreign Companies:

Game Developers with Offices in Canada:

Inactive Canadian Game Developers:

Defunct Canadian Game Developers:

  • Alpha Dog Games - Shuttered 2024, Subsidiary of Zenimax Media and Xbox Game Studios
  • Artech Digital Entertainment - Disbanded 2011
  • BigPark - Shuttered 2016, Subsidiary of Microsoft Studios
  • Camerica - Filed for bankruptcy in 1993, developer of unlicensed NES games
  • Commercial Data Systems - Dissolved 2010, stopped producing games for Commodore 64 around 1990
  • Gaslamp Games - Announced closure in 2019, archived site still online
  • Genius Factor Games - Defunct 2012, Developed iOS games
  • Gray Matter - Disbanded 1997
  • Groove Games - Defunct 2009
  • Orbital Media - Defunct 2014, Developed games for GBA and DS
  • Propaganda Games - Closed 2011, Subsidiary of Disney Interactive Games
  • Pseudo Interactive - Shuttered 2008, revived briefly in 2021
  • ReadySoft - Defunct 1996
  • Sanctuary Woods - Defunct 2001
  • Silicon Knights - Filed for bankruptcy in 2014
  • Slant Six Games - Shuttered 2013
  • Stirling Games - site down, site for only developed game down, socials inactive since 2021
  • Tiny Titan Studios - Website down, socials inactive since 2021, assuming defunct
  • Trapdoor - Dissolved 2012
  • Typhoon Studios - Defunct 2021, Subsidiary of Stadia Games & Entertainment
  • United Front Games - Defunct 2016 - Sleeping Dogs
  • XMG Studio - Acquired by Highmark Interactive in 2017
  • ZAPiT Games - Manufacturer of the Game Wave, as well as iOS and Blackberry games, closed 2009
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

This might help with your list. https://canadiangamedevs.com/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Funnily enough I was actually utilising their news articles to make this list!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

The news might be best, I am not sure if they keep their database updated. I was checking some studios websites, and they seem very dated, some do not offer HTTPS.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Check out https://www.ottawagames.info/

It's an Ottawa website run by my friend's Matt and Paige, and they chronicle all of our community's games and developers.

It should have all the links you need.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Awesome! Thanks for the help!

I'll be sure to look through and take a look at what all's there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

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/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

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/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Tynan Sylvester / Ludeon Studios, creator of Rimworld. Based in Ottawa (or that is where he lives according to his LinkedIn atleast.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I'll have to give this one some thought. While the LinkedIn does say that, the Ludeon Studios website says the company is based in New York, so it's hard to distinguish if I should add it and how to categorize it if I do.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

I took the initiative and actually emailed their support email address and asked them how much of the company is based in Canada. Hopefully I hear from them soon!

I hope it is not a situation where the studio just happened to be founded/owned by a Canadian. A Canadian owning a company does not make it a Canadian company -- by that logic, twitter/x is a Canadian company.

I think this community should decide what exactly constitutes a "Canadian Game" or Studio.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Fair -- it is a bit of a grey area in that regard. I've been playing Rimworld for about 5 years now, and can attest that a large majority of the Game's creative direction is from Tynan himself. The wikipedia article for Rimworld elaborates on the development history of Rimworld a bit more, and seem to imply it was at least originally created in Canada, back when it was just Tynan and a few other devs.

Could be worth directly asking the studio how Canadian they are or consider themselves to be. They are rather active with the community with a active community engagement person on the subreddit.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Will continue working on this tomorrow, need to step away for now.