4d ago

Gamers, don't forget to support Canadian devs and game studios

I don't game much anymore, but Canadian devs shouldn't be ignored.

On mobile, Rebuild 3 is developed in Canada. Of course, Death Road to Canada was dreamed up by abguy from Kitchener Ontario and it kicks ass!

On all major platforms Ubisoft has some awesome games from their Canadian studios like the Farcry series (Ubisoft Montreal & Ubisoft Toronto), Rainbow Six Seige, For Honor, and Watch Dogs.

Dead by Daylight is also developed by a Canadian game studio.

Share your favourite Canadian developers and game studios!

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Balatro https://mobilesyrup.com/2025/02/24/canadian-made-balatro-lands-on-xbox-game-pass/
- I had no idea this was Canadian! Seems like Canadian game devs are really making top notch games.
- This games Canadian? Last month I sunk so much time into it. Great game.
- Balatro is Canadian?! Well shit, I already bought it like 4 times for various platforms.

Rimworld is created by Tynan Sylvester, who lives in Ottawa. Fantastic colony sim game that still gets consistent and major updates alongside the DLC releases.
Torn Banner Studios, creators of Chivalry and Chivalry 2, the Medieval multiplayer combat games are also Based in Toronto. They recently declared Chiv 2 to be a completed game, ceasing anynew content updates but still supporting the servers and community. They seem to be cooking up something new, but no info yet.
Hinterland Studios, creators of The Long Dark, a survival game, are based in Vancouver. The game is slower paced with realistic survival mechanics in rural north BC I believe. It's not abandoned, but updates very slowly. Cool devs though.
All of these games have active dev and fan communities. Rimworld has a SUPER talented & stable modding community.
- RimWorld is one of my favorite games ever
- I've been playing Rimworld for years and I'm just now finding out that it's a Canadian dev. I'm ashamed of myself.
  
  Same! I've got 3,250 hours on it. Tynan really keeps it on the down low that he is based in Canada!
  It's strange, somehow nearly all of my favourite games are Canadian made. Despite being disconnected from Canada by living in the US for over a decade, so many of my favourite musicians, games, movies and even youtubers are Canadian. Stuff Canadians make just appeals to me more often than not, and it makes me feel fuzzy and like I'm still Canadian despite being gone for so long. So excited to move back this year.
- Oh man, how did I forget The Long Dark?? I was a very early access player of the game! One of the coolest survival games around. TLD 2 is also coming.
  
  I think I've played TLD twice as much as any other game ever, and it's not close. We're talking maybe upwards of a thousand hours at this point; it's my factorio.
  Highly recommend it if you like survival games! Or just like Survivorman lmao (who is also Canadian, coincidentally. He's got a great YouTube channel for those unaware)
  
  Dude Sam, I I actually just installed it again the other day but I haven't played it yet. It was such a fun game though.
- Digital Extremes, the company behind Warframe, is based in London Ontario and has a yearly convention there every July.

My disdain for Ubisoft is chafing against my Canadian patriotism!
I might sit this one out until they stop requiring an account for every game.
- Ubisoft is not really a "Canadian company" as far as I am concerned, they have Canadian employees, which is nice I suppose, but they're a French company. At least it's not American, but I prefer when the owners at least nominally live here so as much of my dollars go back into my own country as possible. Lots of great indie games out there, I guess if you can't live without AAA games then maybe Ubisoft is one of the better choices, but I think it's preferable when we can support our locally-owned indie studios instead. I'm tired of being pillaged for profit by foreign companies.
- stop requiring an account for every game.
  Yeah, this is annoying, and so many companies do this. I don't mind if they want me to log in to save progress, especially in cross-platform games, but we know damn well they use "the account" as another way to track, data-harvest, and invade someone's privacy.
  
  Also to stop game resales, which seems to have completely died off.

https://canadiangamedevs.com/ has a huge list!

On top of the games already mentioned, here are my recommendations.
First, I must mention:
Crosscountry Canada (1991)
Quebec City
Just Shapes & Beats — rhythm bullet hell with lots of EDM
Montreal
Ultimate Chicken Horse — build your own platformer level and race your friends
N++ — platformer focused on momentum and agility
Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided — cyberpunk stealth and action
Ottawa
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes — defuse a bomb while your friends read the defusal manual
Toronto
Super Time Force Ultra — side-scrolling shooter with time manipulation
A Short Hike — a short, open-world hike
Vancouver
Beastieball (in early access) — creature collecting with turn-based volleyball
Crypt of the NecroDancer — rhythm roguelike
Rift of the NecroDancer — "guitar-like" rhythm
Inscryption — spooky card game… at first
- I absolutely want UCH and the new bike version they're working on so badly but none of my friends or my immediate family would play it.

No mentions of Sea of Stars? Made in Quebec city and they even released a Québécois localization.

warframe is made in london.

Drinkbox Studio (Guacamelee 1 & 2, Nobody Saves the World), Capybara Games (Sword & Sworcery, Super Time Force Ultra, Below, Grindstone), and Thunder Lotus (Spiritfarer) are Canadian as well, to name a few.
- I was so about to name drop Drinkbox too, I always found it weird Guacamelee is Canadian.

Celeste.

I’ll throw in a mention for Tunic.

Absolutely! To add to this... Buy Stalker 2.

cuphead is canadian too

I don't really care too much about Ubisoft's games, but everything Ubisoft Montreal, specifically, has made that I've played at least was polished really well. They even have some pretty neat ideas occasionally. It's just that most of the games Ubisoft makes under any of their development studios tend to also be samey and not innovative outside of, like, multiplayer options that nobody even plays (despite having some bangers out there like Watch Dogs' MP).
- When I did game more, I gravitated towards Ubisoft games like Wildlands, the Division, Farcry, etc. Not sure if it was the aesthetic or gameplay, but I've got a lot of ubisoft games. Lol
  Granted, these games are developed by either the Canadian Studios or NotAmerican™ studios (Ubisoft Paris, etc.).
  Games in general have lost their innovation and have just become too enshittified to enjoy these days. I'm glad I was a gamer before all that.
  
  Games in general have lost their innovation and have just become too enshittified to enjoy these days. I’m glad I was a gamer before all that.
  If they're too shitty to enjoy, why are you playing them?
  If you're not playing them, how do you know they're shitty?
  And regardless, how would you know that it's not you who changed?

Outward - Nine Dots Studio - Quebec. As a big Morrowind fan, I love Outward

1000XResist is by Canadian devs if weird not-quite-visual-novel-but-close games are your jam (eg paradise killer, mouthwashing).

The upcoming Pathfinder 2E CRPG, Dragon’s Demand, is being developed by Ossian Studios, based in Vancouver.
https://www.ossianstudios.com/2024/09/10/pathfinder-the-dragons-demand-official-announcement/

Wildkeepers Rising, its part of Steam Next Fest, and out next month. Super small studio, one of the main devs is a childhood friend.

Northern Forge Studios
Mobile ORNA: The GPS RPG
Old school style rpg with a GPS element like ingress/Pokémon Go. Pvp and Pve elements.

rainbow sox :D 🌈 🧦
- LOL. oops. Corrected!

43 comments