This post is a break from the usual interviews I post on The Happy Medium. It’s a reprint of an article I wrote for OpenFile about the Ottawa indie game collective called Dirty Rectangles. Keep in mind that it was written for the general public, and not a video-game audience. Check out the Dirty Rectangles site here, and if you’re in Ottawa be sure to check our their monthly showcase at Avant Garde bar.
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Dirty Rectangles spur local game design
Canada is no stranger to independent video games. The movement of art-focused, largely un-financed video game designers has produced some of the most critically acclaimed games of the decade. And Canada is home to award-winning indie studios like Montreal’s Polytron and Winnipeg’s Infinite Ammo.
Since January 2010, a video game design collective called The Dirty Rectangles has earned Ottawa attention in the indie games world by organizing events including monthly video game showcases and 48-hour design challenges called game jams. The Dirty Rectangles, made up of Eric McQuiggan, Justin Dempsey and Derek Ledoux, includes a loose collective of members who meet up to showcase game ideas, share design philosophies and encourage independent game making in the city.
The three graduates of the Algonquin game design program work as Flash developers at local game studio Fuel Industries and design experimental games outside of their day jobs.
“We were all sort of thinking of Triple-A development [as students],” says Dempsey, referring to his hopes of working at a major studio. “Then you get this big [realization] that video games are an art form and that you can push boundaries and be really creative.”
Games to come out of The Dirty Rectangles events include Regrowth, McQuiggan’s game based on the growth cycle of trees after forest fires; The Photograph, Ledoux’s meditation on addiction and isolation; and Life of the Party, Dempsey’s multiplayer game based on cellular automata.
The collective earned attention from the indie games community when they threw an indie-focused after party called Prince of Arcade for the Montreal International Games Summit in November 2010. Dirty Rectangles recruited help from Toronto collective Hand Eye Society, Montreal collective Mount Royal Game Society, and New York City collective Baby Castles to organize the event. The party showcased musicians and games by top-tier indie game designers.
What did the indie community think of Ottawa before that well-recieved party? “They didn’t,” says Ledoux.
“Part of me feels sad about that, and another part of me just feels that there’s an opportunity there. In the past year people have been starting to recognize Ottawa a little bit more, and people are starting to become more successful in Ottawa,” says Ledoux.
Those success stories include Dinosplode, a game designed by Algonquin students that is now available on Xbox Live; and Star-Twine, an abstract strategy game designed by Eric Billingsley, who showcased his work at a previous Dirty Rectangles event.
The monthly Dirty Rectangles events take place at Avant-Garde bar and normally feature a video game showcase or powerpoint presentation on game design—and bring in up to 20 game enthusiasts per event.
“Afterwards, we open up the floor, so if anyone wants to show anything off, you can show it off,” says Ledoux. “And if not, we can just hang out and drink beers.”
The designers actively recruit attendees from the Algonquin game design program, and still keep in close touch with their former professors.
“They think it’s great,” says McQuiggan, who is also the vice president of the International Game Developers Association Ottawa Chapter, of which all three Dirty Rectangles are members. “The program coordinator wants the students to be engaged in the indie stuff at least as much as, like, playing World of Warcraft or whatever. This is accessible. You are one step away from making [your own games]. You just have to realize it.”
