The Prince of Arcade came and went last week, and it’s safe to say it exceeded all our expectations. Roughly 250 MIGS attendees and other (highly intellectual and morally sound) lovers of indie games came together to sample from a glorious variety of titles:

• 1… 2… 3… Kick It! by Dejobaan Games
• A Slow Year by Ian Bogost
• Halo 2600 by Ed Fries
• JoustPong by Kirk Israel
• Nidhogg by Messhof (Mark Essen)
• Octopounce by Anna Anthropy & Saelee Oh
• Pico3 by Les Collégiennes (Aliceffekt & Renaud Bédard)
• Project SkyFortress by Owen Deery & Gabriel Verdon
• Highlights of TOJam 5, curated Jim & Em McGinley

Thankfully, there was a soundtrack to match, featuring some righteous DJ, chiptune, beatbox, and ukelele heroics from widely-acknowledged Super Awesome People:

• Aliceffekt
• Cadence Weapon
• Marc & Coriander
• circle triangle square
• Rebecca Jurkovic

Of course, the party wouldn’t have been possible without: the incredible crew at the Eastern Bloc; the generous sponsors and benefactors; and all the volunteers who helped out whenever and wherever possible. Many thanks to each and every one of them, as well as to all the featured game developers and musicians who transmuted the event from a neat idea into something memorable. And look! There’s even photographic evidence of The Majesty:

• Our friends and co-organisers The Dirty Rectangles have a Flickr set online.
• Nick Rudzicz, co-organiser, has a set on Picasa.
• Aliceffekt, who contributed music and a game to the event, has posted a Facebook album.
• Jason Della Rocca has a nice writeup of MIGS itself, as well as some Prince of Arcade photos.
• Trevor Jensen, another local photographer, also has a Picasa set.

Of course, let us know down in the comments if you have any more pictures you’d like to share.

Let’s do this again sometime.

Long Live the Prince.

Somebody, let Huey Lewis know: this is it.

The Prince of Arcade arrives triumphantly in Montreal TONIGHT! Are you ready for the raddest, baddest, most ultimate gaming experience since the Nintendo Power Glove? The question is rhetorical, of course!

THE GALLERY — Delicious feasts of indie gaming, writ large and taking charge.
- Pico³ by Les Collégiennes
- Nidhogg by Messhof (Mark Essen)
- 1… 2… 3… Kick It! (formerly ooo! ooO! oOO! OOO!) by Dejobaan Games
- Project SkyFortress by Owen Deery & Gabriel Verdon
- BONUS: Special Mystery Guest
- BONUS: Brutally Unfair Tactics Totally Ok Now (B.U.T.T.O.N.): Cyborg Edition by Copenhagen Games Collective (Babycastles Remix)

THE HOMEBREW LOUNGE — The consoles of yesteryear; the designers of todayeryear.
- A Slow Year by Ian Bogost
- Halo 2600 by Ed Fries
- JoustPong by Kirk Israel
- SCSIcide by Joe Grand

THE MUSIC — Get down with your bad/Mirror-world self.
- Aliceffekt (DJ set)
- Cadence Weapon (DJ set)
- Marc & Coriander (psychedelic folk beat-boxing)
- circle triangle square (Gameboy crew)
- Rebecca Jurkovics (ukelele heroine)

THE DETAILS — Be there. Play fair.
Tuesday, November 9 2010
8pm to 1am
Eastern Bloc
7240 Rue Clark, 2nd floor
(De Castelnau metro)

$10 at the door ($5 with a MIGS conference pass)*

And last but not least…

THE SPONSORS & BENEFACTORS — Sine qua non

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* Please specify Kosher or Vegetarian videogame options with ticket purchase.

Our penultimate pronouncement of princely playables!

Project SkyFortress is an upcoming game by duo Owen Deery & Gabriel Verdon, themselves talented up-and-coming mover-and-shakers hailing from Ottawa. A sidescrolling blue-skies build-’em-up, the Prince of Arcade preview of SkyFortress will most certainly feature brutally balletic broadsides, fearsome fusillades, and scathing salvos of sizzling split-screen ship-on-ship action.

A lovely trailer down below. The appointed hour draws near! Can you taste it?

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If there’s one thing The Prince of Arcade enjoys in his leisure time, it’s wicked-sweet music and falling/flying through abstract 3D spaces at high speeds.

Finally, a developer understands.

Dejobaan Games, who brought us the award-winning AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! — A Reckless Disregard for Gravity last year, have a new game coming down the pipes (pun righteously intended), and we’re thrilled to announce that The Prince of Arcade will be bringing it to the public for the first time! Formerly under the working title of ooo! ooO! oOO! OOO!, it is with great solemnity and pride that we present:

1… 2… 3… Kick It! — Drop That Beat Like an Ugly Baby, by Dejobaan Games

Glorious. We absolutely can’t wait!

Check out the trailer for Kick It! below, and stay tuned for more announcements!

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The Prince of Arcade approacheth, and the list of gameseth continues to groweth!

Looking for a break from the eye-bleedingly gorgeous visuals of today’s modern games? Nostalgic for the abstract-yet-compelling gameplay of the late 1970′s? Did you even exist in the late 1970′s? No matter: neither did the games in our retro homebrew lounge! We’ll be setting aside a room full of vintage consoles and not-so-vintage homebrew games, to relive the spirit of ingenuity and the focus on unique gameplay so much a part of the games of yesteryear.

To wit:

• A Slow Year, by Ian Bogost. The Georgia Tech professor, videogame researcher, critic, designer (and so on) presents his IndieCade-winning collection of meditative game poems.
• Halo 2600, by Ed Fries. A demake of Microsoft’s definitive Xbox franchise, from one of the prime movers of Microsoft’s Xbox project itself. Don’t miss Fries’ keynote at MIGS on “beauty, constraints, and the Atari 2600.”
• JoustPong, by Kirk Israel. “The future of gaming can be summed up in two words — Pong and Joust.” We couldn’t possibly put it any better. A glorious mash-up of two iconic games from the golden age of the arcade.
• Marble Craze, by Paul Slocum. The multitalented artist/musician/hacker presents a technical accomplishment that also puts familiar hardware to novel and creative use.

Don’t forget to stay tuned for more Prince of Arcade news!

Long Live the Prince!

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A Slow Year, Ian Bogost