Trade Wars Can't Touch These
Some great maple flavoured games
Let's (Not) Talk About Tariffs
In recent world events between the United States of America and Canada, I (Canadian) wanted to highlight some absolute gems coming from Canadian developers that you may (or may not have) heard of. All of these games are available now through most storefronts!
Celeste
Maddy Makes Games Inc.
Help Madeline survive her inner demons on her journey to the top of Celeste Mountain, in this super-tight platformer from the creators of TowerFall. Brave hundreds of hand-crafted challenges, uncover devious secrets, and piece together the mystery of the mountain.
Celeste is an incredible story, first and foremost, about a character named Madeline surviving some harsh inner demons while they ascend Celeste Mountain. The mechanics, however, are memorable as well - Celeste is one of the absolute tightest experiences to control, with a lightning quick failure loop that really digs into the 'one more try' part of your brain.
While not for the faint of heart (it's a hard-ass game!), this game will go down in the years to come as an absolute must-play if you are someone into side scrolling, challenging platformers.
Celeste was developed by (then) Maddy Makes Games - (now) Extremely OK Games Ltd., which is a studio based out of Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Messenger
Devolver Digital
As a demon army besieges his village, a young ninja ventures through a cursed world, to deliver a scroll paramount to his clan’s survival. What begins as a classic action platformer soon unravels into an expansive time-traveling adventure full of thrills, surprises, and humor.
From one challenging side-scroller to another, The Messenger is an excellent take on a game that actually melds multiple genres together which I will not go into any further. The Messenger is a game that one should simply experience. It will also have you needing to have the soundtrack on your music app of choice up at all times for the next several weeks.
Experience an incredible flow-state as you side-scroll your way past enemies, platforming obstacles, and hilarious writing and side characters.
The Messenger was developed by Sabotage Studio out of Quebec City, Quebec.
FOUNTAINS
Crunching Koalas
Master high-skilled combat to uncover the secrets of this war-torn empire and escape your captors. Carve your way through a gritty souls-like RPG set in a sprawling, interconnected world.
About this time one year ago I embarked on my journey with FOUNTAINS. Developed by a two-person tandem out of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - John Pywell and Eric Ramirez-Erosa put together this really well made action souls-like RPG with a dark and interesting art style.
The game aesthetic/controls/feels similar to a Hyper Light Drifter (aside: Pywell has claimed it as a big inspiration for FOUNTAINS), with the trappings of a souls-like you'd come to expect in terms of progression systems and intertwined world design full of shortcuts and reveals.
The Caribou Trail
Unreliable Narrators, Indie Asylum
The WWI story where your goal isn’t to kill, but to survive. In the still trenches, three soldiers learn the harsh truth of war: reckless missions, digging trenches, collecting dog tags and ghostly whispers in the dark. Home before the leaves fall, they thought.
From Unreliable Narrators out of Montreal, Quebec, The Caribou Trail is a first person walking sim taking place from the perspective of an unlikely group of friends during WWI. The specific setting is the Gallipoli campaign, focusing on the Royal Newfoundland Regiment.
The tagline of the game sets the tone incredibly well: "Home before the leaves fall, they said...".
Get your emotional reserves ready for a wonderfully told and impactful story.
GRIDDLYBEAR is an Indigenous and neurodivergent Canadian, father, husband, brother, and goof. He streams on Twitch twice a week, and can be seen hanging around numerous internet dwellings including Kinda Funny and Hang Time. Don't ask him what the latest meme is though - he likely won't know. For a Canadian he's also weirdly obsessed with Philadelphia sports teams - GO BIRDS.