Monday , March 18 2024

Montreal International Games Summit 2019: The Games

While MIGS, the Montreal International Game Summit, is a conference very focused on networking and developers, there is a pretty large show floor too, showcasing mainly independent games.

Over the two days of the event I had a chance to walk around, meet a lot of developers, and try games of all varieties. It was refreshing to focus on discovering a lot of smaller titles instead of being wowed by the big Triple-A games.

There were over a hundred games on the show floor, with tons of interesting experiences to check out. It was definitely a showcase of talent from Canada and around the world at creating varied game concepts. I wanted to highlight a sample of the games on display.

Foregone: This title by Big Blue Bubble caught my eye immediately as it reminded me of one of my all-time favorites, Dead Cells. In speaking to folks at the booth I discovered that Foregone is directly inspired by that game as well as by Diablo and Dark Souls.

This striking fast-paced game does capture the vibe of all of those games. It was a popular destination at MIGS. I stopped there a few times, and look forward to checking it out when it enters Early Access.

Jousting Time: This was the most fun I have had playing a game in years – but it is definitely only accessible at an event like this. Jousting Time is a VR jousting sim, but the developer, Trebuchet, had movable seesaw horses with full saddle setups (stirrups and all) that we sat on while playing.

The simple premise is one-on-one jousting in VR with a focus on yelling (it increases speed – no joke) and quick strikes while passing the opponent. I had a blast playing this, with onlookers cheering us on as we yelled and gyrated madly to try and win. This was a true blast, but only with the full setup.

Some Like it Hot: This was a weird game, a coffee barista sim about relationships and finding love in the perfect pull of coffee. The visual style was quite appealing and I liked the concept of part visual novel, part job simulator.

Foundation: This was a visually striking medieval city-building sim that has a few interesting tweaks. I kept passing this game and was always struck by its elegance and great presentation.

While Foundation was not really my cup of tea game-wise, I could see the attraction of its focus on organic landscape creation and world-altering monuments. It’s a very cool game and the devs are incredibly passionate about the project.

PewDiePie’s Pixelings: I could not miss this game, as it was at the entrance of the show floor in a huge booth. It’s another mobile game collaboration with YouTuber sensation PewDiePie.

It’s a typical colorful mobile game featuring zone-based exploration, turn-based battles with pixeling (think Pokemon) companions, and PVP functionality. Again, not my thing, but it drew lots of interest from the crowd.

Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall: One of the largest-scale experiences I checked out was from the amazing CG creative firm Framestore. They have worked on everything from Marvel Movies and Downton Abbey to The Boys and the Lady and the Tramp reboot.

The game was a beautiful and immersive VR experience in the Game of Thrones universe. Framestore is one of the best CG organizations in the business, and they make incredible VR experiences as well.

Overloot: Conceived in a Game Jam, Overloot is a cute, fast-paced mobile game. The concept revolves around battling in an RPG world while collecting loot and leveling up gear.

Delve further and further to keep getting more and more loot and better gear to handle the new challenges. It was a fun, quick diversion I tried out a few times.

Tribes of Midgard: This really cool title is a co-op survival game set in a Norse mythos-themed world. Equal parts Diablo loot action, tower defense game, and survival sim, this was fun to pick up and play.

Some amazing action, with Giants and various undead enemies, along with fast-paced resource gathering made this a title with a lot of interest from attendees. The game is very early in development but looked and played amazingly well.

Warriors of Waterdeep: This is another fun but deep mobile game from Montreal-based Ludia. It’s a grid-based turn-based game with exploration in dungeons and encounters. The typical D&D character types are all here, with wizards, rangers, and barbarians battling enemies through a vibrant world.

Interesting tactical mechanics and positioning mechanics add depth I was not expecting, and the loot system is really addicting. I always love new gear and skills in games like this and Warriors of Waterdeep regularly delivers as its areas are explored.

The above is just a selection of some of the great titles I found at MIGS. Check out the floorplan and you’ll get a sense of how many developers were attending. Click on any of them to see what cool, interesting, and sometimes quirky games were on the showfloor.

About Michael Prince

A longtime video game fan starting from simple games on the Atari 2600 to newer titles on a bleeding edge PC I play everything I can get my hands on.

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