WATCH: It's looking to be a big year for the Edmonton video game industry. Many independent studios are creating anD releasing new games in 2024, and they're seeing some international recognition and awards. Jaclyn Kucey has the story.View image in full screen“The next day we were pitching and then we were upgraded to the winner,” said Isael Huard, the co-founder and one of the producers.
They’re about halfway through game development. “We’re just starting to kind of publicly come out and talk about it trying to build a community around it,” said Huard. They’re recruiting players to join their Discord to play-test the game every month and give feedback.Caldera Interactive is newer to the independent game industry in Edmonton. They started in 2019, as a group of friends coming out of their University of Alberta game development certificate program.
“At that point, a bunch of larger studios decided that they were going to come and set up shop in Edmonton,” said Kulyk.“For that one year that we had it, the expansion in the industry was literally overnight,” said Kulyk. “Immediately after that tax credit was removed, everything just as quickly shrunk.”
There are other supports from municipal and federal levels like the Edmonton Screen Industries Office and the Canada Media Fund.