Thank the Canadian government for these great games

by Ben Gilbert on Aug 9th 2009 7:30PM

Ever heard of Fez? How about N+? DeathSpank, maybe? If any of these games are near and dear to you like they are to us (we're looking at you, N+), then you have the Canadian government to thank. Government funding towards game development in Canada helped make each of the aforementioned games come to fruition, according to Gamasutra.

Similar initiatives are being proposed or practiced in many US cities, however, the Canadian government has a long history of promoting game development in the country. It even gave DeathSpank developer Hothead Games over a half million dollars -- to develop a game named DeathSpank! Though it'd be nice to say that such quality stuff was being developed in our backyards, we'll take what we can get. Good games are good games, no?

Source

Tags: canada, deathspank, fez, gamasutra, game-development, government-funding, hothead, hothead-games, n

Reader Comments (68)

I've only heard of N+. This is the first I hear about Deathspank. Canada GAVE a half million dollars to develop it!?

N+ is so awesome.

"Canada GAVE a half million dollars to develop it!?"

It's Ron Gilbert's new game, man! I would have given him twice that, if I had it.

Oh Canada. Oh Canada. I love thee games by thee.

Is this why Ubisoft Montreal makes such big-budget games? If so, I'm moving there if I get a job in games.

Try Dundee in Scotland. There's a lot of big developers there and they seem desperate to get anyone, particularly artists and coders.

See! We knew all along! Blame Canada!

In other news, Dethklok, the world's best band EVUH, has decided to go to the Devil's house and MELT his FACE OFF.

Wow, Canada is better than Germany.

Racist.

Only racist if it's not true.

Lots of racist beliefs are based in truth though.

i don't care what people say, canada rules.

Who said Canada didn't rule? I'll find them, and break them.

From your friendly neighborhood Canadian. ;)

I've been to Canada. It was okay. Got to see the CN tower, and that was pretty impressive. Also got to spend 3 months shoveling snow from a drive way. That was actually rather fun for some reason.

The one thing I didn't like about Canada was the attitude people kept giving off. Many of the Canadians I met thought they were better than people in the US, and would cite tons of random half-true "facts" to make themselves seem better. In the end I realized the two nations share most of the same problems. The difference seemed to be mostly just the judicial/financial stuff.

Canada does not have many Latinos or Blacks, like America does. They have much higher crime rates than other groups, and stuff like this ultimately makes white people more conservative. I don't think it makes sense to compare Canada to America when the demographics of the two nations are so different.

I was staying in the "boonies" of Ontario, Richmond Hill. Everytime I talked about going to Toronto or sight seeing the family I was with warned me about how bad the crime rates were, what colors I should/shouldn't wear, what areas of town to avoid, etc. To hear them tell it gangs were all over the place just looking for a fight.

I also heard a few complaints about the max sentence, and how people could get smaller sentences (compared to the US) for their crimes then be back out sooner than they would be here.

Finally, one of the friends I knew there was doing a report on the health care system and in her report included something like, "While free health care is a great thing to have, it can have it's prices too. Once when I was waiting in a hospital waiting room I saw a guy bleeding. He had been stabbed and was told to wait his turn because others like me had arrived sooner."

Though I gotta say, being able to buy 3 liters of alcohol at age 19 sure makes for a nice story when you get back home.

"Finally, one of the friends I knew there was doing a report on the health care system and in her report included something like, "While free health care is a great thing to have, it can have it's prices too. Once when I was waiting in a hospital waiting room I saw a guy bleeding. He had been stabbed and was told to wait his turn because others like me had arrived sooner.""

That's a lie, plain and simple. There's a thing called triage, which dictates which people are treated in which order, depending on the seriousness of their wounds, their ability to live after being treated, the urgency of attention required, etc. If there was a stabbed man who was bleeding severely, he would have been one of the first to be treated.

Unfortunately the people who live IN Toronto don't seem to realize just how much worse it is in other places around the World, particularly similarly sized cities in the US. The warnings about crime rates and gangs is not completely unwarrented, but it's also something to take with a grain of salt. The media goes out of their way to scare the crap out of people whenever anything happens in the city. In contrast, half of the stuff reported on as crimes in Toronto wouldn't even make it to a community newspaper in New York City. But people here would never know it.

@Charlie_Six

You do realize that every time you go to Canada you're still in America, Right?
Thte continent is called "North America" no matter how you look at it. The nation
you're trying to refer to is the "United States" of America.

America plays host to:
Canada
United States (the country in the middle of N. America)
Mexico
Brazil
Chile
Ecuador
Puerto Rico
Republic of Dominica

So the misconception that America = USA should die. Better yet, get a globe people.
The United states is NOT America. Even our politicians don't know this.

@Geist, the actual thing she put in the report wasn't what I quoted word for word, but that is pretty much what she wrote. She was one of those Canadian people I met who swore everything about Canada was in every way better than the US, so I took every negative critique she had about Canada with a bit of seriousness.

Of course I found it hard to believe, but perhaps there were other circumstances at work that day. It may have been a small wound, all the surgeons/doctors were busy with other patients, all the rooms were filled, etc.

I've also heard "Toronto is such a big and amazing place, it's like your Hollywood." Take that as you will...

Oh Canada.

Well then here's to America's Hat!

*raises glass*

Here's to Canada's toilet.

That's one expensive toilet, you sure canada can afford it?

Probably not, tmac, but this toliet sucks. All the debt is overflowing! :(

I'll just ask China for a price check

Makes me proud to live in such a great nation!

I've played N+ and it is truly a great game.

What part of Canada do you live in? I used to live in B.C.

I live in Toronto, Ontario. Are you not living in Canada anymore?

I live in Toronto too!

Nah. I moved a while ago. I loved Canada, though. It was just a really fun place. I was right near Seattle so I could come into the States when I needed to, but taxes over the boarder were crazy sometimes.

Look at all the Canadian love up in here!

I LIVE IN TORONTO ALSO ? king and dufferin represent

Hey toronto buddy!

I used to live in Alberta, Calgary.

It was a truly great city.

woot woot
yeah canada!

I've only heard of N+, I bought it and haven't touched it in a year. People barely played online which is one of the reasons I bought it and even a year later after the sale online is quiet. Hopefully someone understands me.

To be fair, Canada hands out grants for pretty much *anything*, so they were bound to get behind a few notable games at some point. They will financially back: dance, inter-arts, media arts, music, theatre, visual arts, writing and publishing. With a properly worded application, you could even get a grant to film your pasty gamer ass sitting on the couch all day, as long as you had some Canadian content (such as, for example, your pasty Canadian gamer ass!) in there somewhere.

yeah fuck this country!! fuck arts!!

Meanwhile they're laying off loads of teachers.

Canada is either run by a 12-year-old, or someone seriously bitter about detention and homework.

@ Ben

last that i heard, it's the provincial governments that handle education, not the federal governments.

at lest that's what it is K-12.

@Uncontrol:

Honestly? Yes, fuck a system of grants that has no sensible filtering process or accountability, that allows tens of thousands of liberal arts dropouts to crank out a crappy, incoherent film crewed by family members, cast with people they know from work, produced for a grand sum of $10k and issued a grant for $150k. As an adult and a taxpayer: Fuck those guys. Being a jackass with a dream of not having to work to pay rent on your studio apartment for the next two years does NOT make you an artist. These types are the Canadian equivalent of Uwe Boll, milking a system too large and stupid to regulate itself, like some giant, retarded dinosaur made of money.

That being said... The system needs reform, not eradication. I have no problem with grants being issued to the arts, I just get disgusted by how abused the program is due to the complete lack of quality control and accountability. Frankly I'd like to see more funding for indie game developers.

Canada: relax. Fucking hell, it was a joke.

A friend of mine recently managed to get a job in a private school and was explaining to me that not only was it difficult for him to get a visa to live there, but it was even harder to find a school that was hiring, rather than firing, teachers.

I took this anecdote and combined it with the news that the government is funding video game development. Video games + less teachers = some witty pun that I clearly didn't come up with.

Ahh... The sound of people who have never gone through, looked at, or analyzed the grants system bitching about it's ineffeciencies.

God, I love the internet.

...Or anything released by Bioware?

They're a Canadian company too, remember

Color me confused.

What difference does that make when it comes to being a Canadian Company that sells videogames?

(Serious question, no sarcasm, honest)

Well you can't thank the government for the work of a private company.

Ah, yeah you can...well, at least here in Alberta, the government does give grant money to private companies as well.

ahhhh right-wing gamers beware, Canadian games were funded by socialism!

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Thank the Canadian government for these great games

Reader Comments (68)

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