Sowrey.org

In a previous life, I worked for Radical Entertainment, maker of video games. Very fun company, very fun job. Well, when I wasn’t writing technical documents, which is about the most boring job I think I’ve ever done.

Even though it’s been almost 7.5 years, I do still miss working there. But I know that today, Radical’s a very different place.

Some of my friends from Radical have moved on to form a new company, Hothead Games. They’re taking a much more boutique-like approach to video games, as the larger companies tend towards mass production-like techniques.

Anyhoo, I mention this only because I came across a link for Play Arcadia, which is the Great Canadian Video Game Contest. Basically, Canadian companies submit their ideas for games, which are judged by Telefilm Canada. In turn, the winners of the rounds get some cash to develop the idea, to create, well the next Great Canadian Video Game.

And in case you think there’s no such thing as a great Canadian video game, I offer you the following words:

World of Warcraft.

‘Nuff said.

Anyway, Hothead’s game is pretty slick. It’s called Swarm, and it looks sort of like a neater version of Lemmings or WoW, where you gather your  … um … well, whatever they are to do things. It seems sort of environmentally-based, but doesn’t beat you over the head with it.

Check out the site, vote for the games (especially Hothead’s Swarm — I really want to play it, now!), and help Telefilm choose the next great game.