Student games shine bright at Level Up Showcase 2026 in Toronto

On Tuesday, April 7, 160 teams from 18 universities and colleges across Ontario brought their A-game to Level Up Showcase, an annual event celebrating student talent in game development.

Level Up Showcase is organized, funded, and run by the digital media faculty of several Ontario schools: Algonquin College, Brock University, OCAD University, University of Toronto Computer Science Program, and Humber College, with extensive support and partnership provided by XP Gaming Inc and gaming company sponsors like Ubisoft, Behaviour Interactive, Zynga, and 2K. First held in 2013, Level Up has become a beloved tradition for students and faculty, an opportunity to showcase their work, receive feedback, and network with the industry’s largest studios and publishers, opening avenues for connections and future employment.

This year, Level Up took place at the Sheraton Toronto for the first time, providing ample (albeit still insufficient) space for teams and attendees to mingle, chat, and, of course, game. “The event has grown drastically since the pandemic, growing by 50 per cent a couple of years ago,” notes Jason Lepine, XP Gaming’s CEO & founder. “Just finding a new home for Level Up was very important to us. I love the energy; the students love it; [there is] a lot of support from the local video games industry. It’s just a great, feel-good event.”

This year’s event was the largest yet, with 160 games on showcase and several thousand visitors checking them out over the course of the April 7 afternoon. The event was free to attend and open to the public (prior registration required), but gamers and enthusiastic spectators weren’t the only ones to enjoy the work of young Ontario game developers. A large panel of judges, comprised of experienced game developers, publishers, and industry professionals, was tasked with the task of evaluating all 160 participants to award games in six categories:

• Best Artistic Achievement
• Best Innovative Technology
• Best in Audio
• Best Achievement in Accessibility
• Best Game Trailer (new this year)
• Best Overall Game

Jeremy Nelson, a lead producer and designer at Little Buffalo Studios and one of the judges of Level Up Showcase 2026, enjoyed the process of evaluating so many games and commended the organizers on making it as smooth as possible:

“The judging was really well-organized. There were 150 judges covering gameplay, art, accessibility, sound, and so on,” says Nelson. “Everyone would get to see a few games in the first round, and then they’d go back and tabulate all the results to create a shortlist, and then we all went back, and we also had a shortlist. It ensured that the top games had a lot of judges checking them out. It was a pretty fair system.”

Additionally, each game present was also a contender for the People’s Choice Award, a trophy decided exclusively by Level Up Showcase attendees. Each person attending received a token upon entry, which they were encouraged to cast into one of 160 blue piggy banks at the front of the room. Sitting in neat rows by the stage, the blue piggies served as a lovely visual reminder of the sheer magnitude of the event and the amount of talent and effort that went into making the showcase a reality.

Each person wanting to cast a vote had their work cut out for them—there were a lot of games worthy of consideration! The variety of genres and approaches to gaming experiences was vast: from multiplayer horror and single-player narrative-driven stories to party games, co-op drive-and-shoot arcades, turn-based battle games inspired by rock-paper-scissors, and sim games where you play as a pigeon. It may be a cliché, but it is also very true that Level Up Showcase 2026 had something for everyone. (My personal favourite was a four-player co-op to control four tentacles of an octopus to help it escape into the ocean, called Gimme a Hand.)

Many teams paid attention not just to their games, but to the onsite “marketing” of their booths, directing attendees to try their game with signs, giant arrows, costumes, and even snacks. In particular, the team responsible for a multiplayer party game called Maid Mayhem told me that they put as much thought into how they would approach the showcase as the game itself. A wise choice, given the size of the crowds, which made navigating the aisles somewhat difficult. Taking marketing seriously will serve these young developers well, even when trophies aren’t on the line.

By 9 pm, everyone in the ballroom was all but ready for the final portion of the evening dedicated to the awards ceremony. Several special guests made opening remarks, including the City of Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and Canada Media Fund Chair Michael Schmalz. Notably, Schmalz announced an increase in CMF funding for Canadian interactive experiences and video games for the 2026/2027 fiscal year in his speech. The total will amount to $57 million CAD—a welcome news to the industry in dire need of homegrown funding and music to the ears of hundreds of young developers in the room.

Level Up Showcase’s sponsors awarded bronze, silver, and gold medals to winning teams in their respective categories. In the end, the marketing effort by the Maid Mayhem team paid off—they took home the coveted People’s Choice Award that they dressed up so neatly for. The title of Best Overall Game went to System Overload, an impressive achievement by students from Sheridan College—check it out on Steam.

Here’s the full list of categories and their winners:

Best Artistic Achievement Award, sponsored by the City of Toronto:

• 1st place: Omnicide (Seneca Polytechnic)
• 2nd place: a tie between Leech (Seneca Polytechnic) and System Overload (Sheridan College)
• 3rd place: Whispers (OCAD University and University of Toronto)

AMD Best Innovative Technology Award, sponsored by AMD:

• 1st place: Aroma (Sheridan College)
• 2nd place: Leech (Seneca Polytechnic)
• 3rd place: Tonight’s Dozen (Niagara College)

Best in Audio Award, sponsored by Behaviour Interactive:

• 1st place: Gimme a Hand (Sheridan College and University of Toronto)
• 2nd place: Maid Mayhem (Brock University and Niagara College)
• 3rd place: Dust Bunny (OCAD University and University of Toronto)

Best  Achievement in Accessibility Award, sponsored by Sledgehammer Games:

• 1st place: Touché Tempo (York University)
• 2nd place: Crystal Core (Conestoga College)
• 3rd place: Brass Rebellion (Niagara College)

Best Game Trailer Award (new for 2026!), sponsored by Blue Ocean Games

• 1st place: Great Wake (University of Waterloo Game Development Club)
• 2nd place: Beam it Up, Blorp! (OCAD University)
• 3rd place: Whispers (OCAD University and University of Toronto)

People’s Choice Award, sponsored by Ubisoft:

• 1st place: Maid Mayhem (Brock University and Niagara College)
• 2nd place: Beats & Brains (Toronto Metropolitan University)
• 3rd place: a three-way tie between DisGo (Brock University), Free Fall (Humber Polytechnic), and Riding Shotgun (Sheridan College)

Best Overall Game Award, sponsored by Zynga:

• 1st place: System Overload (Sheridan College)
• 2nd place: Salt, Grooves and Garlic (University of Toronto and Centennial College)
• 3rd place: Aroma (Sheridan College)

With this year’s Level Up Showcase now in the books, I can’t help but be excited about the future of game development in Ontario and in Canada at large. Perhaps an even larger ballroom for the 2027 edition?