Episode 175 - The Scavengers Allegations

CanadianGameDevs.com Podcast

Support Indigenous movements across this land: Land Back Lane in Ontario, Wet'suwet'en in British Columbia & Mi’kmaq in Nova Scotia. Watch Night of the Indigenous Devs up now on YouTube!

Overview:

After much excitement over the reveal of Season, we were incredibly disappointed to learn about serious sexual assault and abuse allegedly took place over the past several years at the Montréal studio. Steve and I believe the allegations and have received several personal messages from other devs who confirmed what we read in the GamesIndustry.biz report. As such we're stopping coverage of the studio and Season going forward.

This week we also discuss several Canadian indies entering early access in February (including Stephan's), as well as another studio getting investment from Tencent, EA's new Vancouver studio taking over the Skate franchise and Google Stadia shutting down their Montréal office.

Jobs:

- Sago Mini - Data Engineer, Unity Game Developer, and Talent Acquisition Manager (Toronto, ON)

- Game Developer Jobs - Popreach - Lead Game Programmer, Senior Game Designer, User Acquisition Manager, and Product Manager (Vancouver, BC)

Events:

- Game Breakfast Audio Club (Feb 3 @ 9:30 AM)

- Unity Club by DMG TO (Mon Feb 8 @ 6:30 PM)

- Dirty Rectangles (Feb 10 @ 8 PM EST)

- Annual General Meeting by DMG TO (Sat Feb 27 1:00 PM)

News:

- Scavengers Studio Accused of Sexist, Toxic Workplace - CEO Placed on Indefinite Leave, Lamarche Steps Down

- Tencent Acquires Minority Stake in French developer Dontnod, Who opened a Studio in Montréal in 2020

- Undermine Releases on Switch Feb 11

- Bravery Network Online Enters Early Access Feb 16

- Sentience Enters Early Access Feb 25

- EA opens new studio in Vancouver to develop ‘Skate 4’

- Google closes internal Stadia studios, including one in Montreal

Wishlist This:

1 - Deflection by Coreffect Interactive (@Coreffect) in Montréal, QC. Releasing 2021, Wishlist on Steam. “Lasers, portals, mirrors... what could be more awesome? Destroy the enemy's king with your laser by moving and rotating mirrors and by strategically using the special abilities some pieces possess. Play against friends (local and online) or against the AI!”.

2 - Cheese Runner by one of our wonderful patrons Kai Hutchence and Massive Corporation (@Massive_CA) in Saskatchewan. Still aging, Wishlist on Steam. “Trade illicit cheese in a dystopian cyberpunk city filled with police killbots trying to hunt you down in this ASCII Art text-based early 80s retro trading game. Like a fine blue cheese, this isn't for everyone.”

3 - Bombing!! by another one of our awesome patrons Devon Wiersma (@Devon_Wiersma) in Toronto, ON. Releasing when it’s ready, Wishlist on Steam. “Bombing!! is a creative graffiti sandbox where every inch of the environment can be painted.”