These are must-play Canadian games, according to Canadian devs

Jennifer Hale said something to me a couple of years ago that’s really stuck with me.

During our chat, the legendary Canadian-American Mass Effect star, when discussing Canadian talent, lamented the fact that we just don’t celebrate ourselves enough, especially compared to our loud and proud neighbours. It was a great point, and certainly one that speaks to a larger issue I’ve faced in my nearly 10 years as a journalist: there’s just not much general awareness of Canadian games, despite our national gaming sector being one of the largest in the world.

And so, that got me thinking. I’d absolutely love to see Canadian developers champion themselves more, so why not give them a forum to do just that? And better yet, maybe even help people discover some of the many incredible games that are made here? I had already been mulling over such a feature in the summer, and it’s sadly only taken on greater relevance amid the U.S.’ recent unjustified trade war with Canada.

Clearly, then, it’s now more important than ever for Canadians to actually support Canadians. So, to help with that, MobileSyrup reached out to dozens of Canadian game developers on both the AAA and indie side. The responses were even more varied than I’d hoped, spanning several provinces and genres.

What makes these games special? What’s influential or inspirational about them? What makes them just so darn fun to play? Here’s why Canadian developers love these Canadian games, and why you just might, too.

Chris Auty — creative director (Splinter Cell)

Studio: Ubisoft Toronto (Toronto, Ont.)
Favourite Canadian game: Deus Ex: Human Revolution by Eidos Montreal (Montreal, Que.)

“I’ve been a huge Deus Ex fan since the first game released in 2000. It was a game that forever shaped my love for RPGs and exploration, and especially for games that give me the agency to do things my way… and were filled with secrets, intrigue, and attention to detail. I was so stoked when Deus Ex: Human Revolution was announced. The art style, the music and how closely they kept the gameplay to what made the first so much fun to play, explore and experiment in. It brought me back to the same feelings I had back in the early 2000s with a familiar world full of potential in front of me – and I couldn’t wait to dive back in. The soundtrack alone was to die for, and I still listen to it today. One of my all-time favourites.”

Sheldon Carter — president of Digital Extremes (Warframe)

Studio: Digital Extremes (London, Ont.)
Favourite Canadian game: Baldur’s Gate 2 by BioWare (Edmonton, Alta.)

“One of my favourite games of all time is Assassin’s Creed 2 [by Ubisoft Montreal], so I have a hard time ever not noting that. And then I did work there, but before I got there, they made Baldur’s Gate 2 at BioWare, and that’s probably the game that got me into the games industry. I know those are both old, and there’s tons and tons of really great new stuff. But I can’t help it. I’ve got old guy tastes!”

Trudi Castle — associate art director (Darkest Dungeon)

Studio: Red Hook Studios (Vancouver, B.C.)
Favourite Canadian game: Dragon Age: Inquisition by BioWare (Edmonton, Alta.)

“I have a small list of demands — a game where I can wander around some fantastical environments (but not too crazy), wield smallish sharp weapons, cast fancy spells, romance a gorgeous military advisor, have a cool theme to hum….and fight some dragons along the way. Oh wait, it’s Dragon Age: Inquisition!”

Mathieu Côté — game director and director of partnerships (Dead by Daylight)

Studio: Behaviour Interactive (Montreal, Que.)
Favourite Canadian game: Foundation by Polymorph Games (Quebec City, Que.)

“I have spent so many hours deep in admiration of the way they made an organic city-building game where every aspect adds to the narrative, every mechanic points the player to new ways to make beautiful and functional towns. It is a wonderful game [that] makes me happy.”

David Chateauneuf — studio co-founder, game and level designer (Outlast series)

Studio: Red Barrels (Montreal, Que.)
Favourite Canadian game: Journey to the Savage Planet by Typhoon Studios, now Raccoon Logic (Montreal, Que.)

“I love this type of first-person exploration game, Metroid Prime-style. Beautifully executed. Original humour. Simple yet effective action, with responsive and intuitive controls. The game really compelled me to try to do and discover everything. The colourful game world was well-designed. It had been a long time since we had seen a good and interesting Metroid-style game.”

Scott Christian — studio co-founder, creative director, co-writer, composer (Lil’ Guardsman, Curse of Resthaven)

Studio: Hilltop Studios (Toronto, Ont.)
Favourite Canadian game: Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP by Capybara Games and Superbrothers (Toronto, Ont.)

“I encountered it at a point in my life where I could easily have drifted away from games as a medium. I was spending most of my creative energy in theatre and music, and games had started to feel more like something I used to love than something I actively engaged with. Then Sworcery came along and completely blindsided me. It reminded me that games could be strange, poetic, and emotionally resonant in ways not possible in any other medium. As someone who now makes narrative games, I think back to Sworcery surprisingly often. Fifteen years later, it’s still one of the first games that comes to mind when someone asks me what games can achieve at their very best. And it’s Canadian!”

Jenn Duong — senior UI designer (Darkest Dungeon)

Studio: Red Hook Studios (Vancouver, B.C.)
Favourite Canadian game: The Outlast Trials by Red Barrels (Montreal, Que.)

“It’s creepy, weird, and twisted but also extremely fun with friends! I’m always impressed by the level design and missions in the game because they always feels new and different. Even though I’ve been through the maps and done trials countless times, I still get lost and confused on where to go. They do an amazing job of making the environment you’ve been in many times a new experience. It never feels stagnant because they’re always adding new content and challenges to keep us on our toes.”

Mitch Dyer — writer (Star Wars: Battlefront 2, Gotham Knights, Crossfire)

Studio: That’s No Moon (team is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, but Dyer is based outside of Calgary, Alta.)
Favourite Canadian game: Far Cry 2 by Ubisoft Montreal (Montreal, Que.)

“Far Cry 2 left a permanent imprint on my brain — that Ubisoft Montreal team was operating on another level, so far ahead of their time they still might be. This is an open-world first-person shooter where everything in the world is hostile toward you, and the tools available for protection are unreliable. So it’s genuinely scary to push behind enemy lines and look for lootable blood diamonds, which make your gear more reliable. Its fire propagation system was meaningful, more than just a gimmick, that made every encounter unpredictable (and regularly resulted in my demise, forcing me to take a new angle of attack next time).

“But the thing that lives in me today is how much your own character pushes back against the common design ethos of making sure the player is happy, healthy, and having a good time every step of the way. Weapons jam, or even break, in the middle of battle — at which point you might suffer a medical episode that demands medication to survive. Don’t have any? That’s your mission now. Far Cry 2 is a real accomplishment, a game so specific that nobody’s even tried to replicate it since. I’m not sure anyone can. It’s a rare game with reactive systems that honour every player action, but also one that demands players respond in turn — it’s in conversation with you at all times, but the conversation isn’t always polite.”

Manda Farough — director of production and writer (The Final Cut of Lilith Cunningham), executive producer and writer (Truck-kun is Supporting Me from Another World?!)

Studios: Strange Scaffold (El Paso, Texas), Causeway Studios (Springdale, Arkansas), but Farough is originally from Kamloops, B.C.
Favourite Canadian game: 1000xResist by Sunset Visitor (Vancouver, B.C.)

“Sunset Visitor’s debut game is more than a surrealist science-fiction adventure game. It’s an arthouse experience that could only have come from this team of Canadian performers and mixed media artists when the world closed down. This diasporic cultural story could be about anywhere, but the little touches that make it uniquely Canadian echo in the smallest details. IYKYK and Canadians, especially Canadian game developers, know. I love how the game made me think about perspective through use of fixed cameras. As a player, 1000xResist dug itself a hole in my gut, making me angry, sad, contemplative, intrigued, desperate for the next moment to show me the layers underneath.”

Paul Fogolin — president and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association of Canada

Company: Entertainment Software Association of Canada (Toronto, Ont.)
Favourite Canadian game: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge by Tribute Games (Montreal, Que.)

“I’ve been playing it with my two young boys lately, and it’s genuinely the first game we’ve all played together – it’s accessible enough for a six-year-old, but deep enough to keep me hooked (no small feat). The pixel art is gorgeous, Tee Lopes’ soundtrack is sublime, and it’s a perfect example of the kind of world-class game Canada keeps quietly producing. I can’t wait to see what Tribute does next!”

Brooks Gordon — technical art director (Darkest Dungeon)

Studio: Red Hook Studios (Vancouver, B.C.)
Favourite Canadian game: Mass Effect 2 by BioWare (Edmonton, Alta.)

“The reason Mass Effect 2 is my favourite Canadian game? You make friends with a ragtag bunch of aliens, help them with their personal issues, and then send them all on a suicide mission.”

Gavin Goulden — senior art director (Marvel’s Spider-Man series, Marvel’s Wolverine)

Studio: Insomniac Games (Burbank, California), but Goulden is originally from Halifax and now based in Vancouver
Favourite Canadian game: Neverwinter Nights by BioWare (Edmonton, Alta.)

“I remember playing that in college with like my roommates and stuff. Being a D&D nerd when I was a kid and getting to essentially play a digital version of that has always stuck in my mind. And when I was really younger, I was playing Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale and stuff like that. So [Neverwinter Nights] became the thing I was playing when I was starting to get into games, so it’s formative, showing me how games are made.”

Sarah Hayward — studio founder and creative director (The Concierge), former cinematic designer at BioWare (Mass Effect, Dragon Age series)

Studio: North Mist Studios (Edmonton, Alta.)
Favourite Canadian game: 1000xResist by Sunset Visitor (Vancouver, B.C.)

“1000xResist is one of the most ambitiously creative games I have seen in a long time. I’ve been making games for a very, very long time. It’s almost 20 years, and I’ve been doing the same thing. 1000xResist surprised me and delighted me. They went face first into things where I was like, ‘Oh, that’s not going to work. Oh, it did work!’ It surprised and delighted me in a big way. They swung for the fences, and it worked. It absolutely worked. Complete hats off to them.”

Erich Kohlweg — senior game designer (Darkest Dungeon)

Studio: Red Hook Studios (Vancouver, B.C.)
Favourite Canadian game: Inscryption by Daniel Mullins Games (Vancouver, B.C.)

“The game is set within a cryptic cabin where you’re playing a tabletop card game against an inscrutable figure. As you piece the story together, the genre pushes and bends your initial expectations. I found it oozes atmosphere and mystery, with crunchy gameplay that scratched the deckbuilding roguelike itch in a uniquely satisfying way. It’s a game filled with twists, easter eggs, and mysteries to unravel, that had my mind racing at the end. It’s a game that’s best going in blind. Honourable mentions to Grindstone and Balatro!”

Joshua Labelle — creative director (Disney Dreamlight Valley)

Studio: Gameloft Montreal (Montreal, Que.)
Favourite Canadian game: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic by BioWare (Edmonton, Alta.)

“When I was 13 years old, my big Christmas wish was an Xbox, mainly for the opportunity to play a Star Wars game where I could make my own lightsaber and swing it around. But with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, developed by BioWare in Alberta, I got so much more than that. KOTOR was the first game I ever played that gave me the freedom to define my own character and story through my choices. It let me develop relationships with a cast of colourful companions – Jedi, rogues, bounty hunters, droids — deciding what to say to them and how my friendships would deepen. It gave me the choice to go dark side or stick with the light, with divergent endings for most quests.

“This idea — that ‘choices matter’ — has become a lot more familiar in the years since, with Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Baldur’s Gate 3 being prime examples of the games that have carried on the legacy. But for me, at 13, this was all revelatory. Even now, I’m still chasing the high of that moment when I realized a game could be this, that the story could unfold and the world could change based on what the player chooses to do. KOTOR is the first game that made me think games might be something I wanted to make, to create that same feeling in players. I love knowing that, while the game may have been set in a galaxy far, far away, those feelings were stirred up by a team based right here in Canada.

“Plus, besides all that, 13-year-old me wasn’t wrong about one thing: it is pretty fun to make your own lightsaber and swing it around.”

Francis Lacuna — studio co-founder, art director (The Eventide), character artist and character director (Mass Effect and Dragon Age series)

Studio: Studio Reset (Edmonton, Alta.)
Favourite Canadian game: Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games by Sir-Tech (Ottawa, Ont.)

“The very first game I bought with my own money, which was made in Ottawa. An over-the-top, ’90s action hero style party-based mercenary tactics game that featured a Merc from Quebec.”

Kaelin Lavallée — studio co-founder, producer and creative director (The Eventide), lead narrative designer (Dragon Age: Inquisition)

Studio: Studio Reset (Edmonton, Alta.)
Favourite Canadian game: Baldur’s Gate by BioWare (Edmonton, Alta.)

“It was the first game I played that made me think about being a developer, not just a player. Thankfully, much later, I got to help craft some of the stories I loved playing so much!”

Gordon Little — studio founder, creative director (Moving Places, Moving Pieces)

Studio: Gord Games (St. John’s, N.L.)
Favourite Canadian game: The Long Dark (Hinterland Studio — Vancouver, B.C.)

“The Long Dark is a great example of a Canadian game because it proudly embraces an authentic and isolating experience of the northern Canadian wilderness rather than using a generic American territory. I think every Canadian can identify with that game; from B.C. to Labrador, we don’t have to look far to see the Canadian North!”

Joshua Mills — creative director (Rainbow Six: Siege)

Studio: Ubisoft Montreal (Montreal, Que.)
Favourite Canadian game: Pony Island (Daniel Mullins Games — Vancouver, B.C.)

“This is a tall order to pick only one game when I could list multiple studios and their entire catalogues. I’m such a fan of so many Canadian studios, and I feel like I’m gonna hurt someone’s feelings by only picking one game. So with that, I’m a massive fan of Drinkbox Studios, Digital Extremes, Daniel Mullins Games, and, of course, Compulsion Games, to name a few. (Go play all their stuff!) [But] I will single out one title, as I’ve already bent the rules a little bit.

“I’m sure many have heard of Inscryption (which is also fantastic), but Pony Island was my first exposure to Daniel’s subversive design approach. I was gifted a copy via Steam by an old friend from college, with the message: ‘I think you’re going to like this. – Mary.’ Well, she was right! I was captivated by it and became a huge fan. Pony Island 2 is already wishlisted.”

Jeremy Nelson (Red River Métis) — studio founder, designer and producer (Akiiwan: Relaxing Survival)

Studio: Little Buffalo Studios (Toronto, Ont.)
Favourite Canadian game: Far Cry 3 (Ubisoft Montreal)

“From the opening cutscene with its perfect Montreal party vibes, to one of the best video game villains ever [in Vaas], it’s still the game that most Reddit threads rate as the best in the series.”

Dave Richard — senior creative director (Dead by Daylight)

Studio: Behaviour Interactive (Montreal, Que.)
Favourite Canadian game: Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem (the now-defunct Silicon Knights — St. Catharines, Ont.)

“I have to admit I don’t know the origin of all the games I played, but one I know for sure is Canadian-made and a great horror game that influenced me is Silicon Knights’ Eternal Darkness. The way they managed to make us all lose sanity for a little while is quite special.”

Remy Siu — studio co-founder and creative director (1000xResist, Prove You’re Human)

Studio: Sunset Visitor (Vancouver, B.C.)
Favourite Canadian game: Venba (Visai Games — Toronto, Ont.)

“This is perhaps the most straight-up Canadian game ever made. It is explicitly set in Toronto. It is contemporaneous and transparent. It positions our lives as Canadians not as inward-looking, but living in a complex fabric of cultures and connections across the world. It is honest about the struggles this creates. When I see the characters from Venba, it feels like the home I recognize.”

Galen Ryder — senior programmer (Darkest Dungeon)

Studio: Red Hook Studios (Vancouver, B.C.)
Favourite Canadian game: Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP by Capybara Games and Superbrothers (Toronto, Ont.)

“Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP is a 2011 game from Toronto studios Cabybara Games and Superbrothers that sets each act of its stylish fantasy story to tracks of it’s in-world album. It mixes elements of Zelda and Punch-Out! with the atmosphere of Shadow of the Colossus while experimenting with your real device calendar, orientation and social media integration to create a wholly unique audio visual experience.”

Abhi Swaminathan — studio founder and creative director (Venba)

Studio: Visai Studios (Toronto, Ont.)
Favourite Canadian game: Guacamelee! (Drinkbox Studios — Toronto, Ont.)

“Trying to break into the industry can be brutal. Seeing this absolutely charming game was made in Toronto was very, very inspiring and made me feel it’s possible. It was a very fresh Metroidvania with a cultural focus and action that feels really, really good. The game’s art and character design are phenomenal, too! Me and my art director, Sam Elkana, would sit together during lunch at the company we worked together at previously and pause frames of gameplay to see how they had rigged 3D characters that felt so snappy and good in movement. (The answer was sprite swaps.) I’m also in awe of the studio itself because every game they make is so different from the previous one, which is something I hope we can pull off at Visai!”

Raphael van Lierop — Hinterland founder, CEO and creative director (The Long Dark)

Studio: Hinterland Studios (Vancouver, B.C.)
Favourite Canadian game: Mass Effect (BioWare — Edmonton, Alta.)

“A friend snuck me in to the E3 2007 demo behind closed doors and it absolutely blew me away. I saw something innovative and world-class, bold and ambitious, original and full of heart. It showed me that a Canadian developer could stand shoulder to shoulder with any of the greats, and it fuelled my own ambition to create great things as a proudly Canadian dev. I left that demo buzzing with energy and drive for the future, and a faith in what our medium could do to create a strong emotional reaction and a yearning for adventure from our players.”

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What are your favourite Canadian games? Let us know in the comments.

Image credit: Disney/Drinkbox Studios/Capybara Games/Superbrothers/Sunset Visitor/EA/Eidos Montreal/Visai Games