A A 3 6 5 0 L 12345678901234 R 4 9 8 5 12 U.S. $10.00 Can $12.99 11 LimeTM AD Dream big. ISSUE 01 From the Editor’s Desk What if creators couldn’t create? In the past, there was a major barrier to making creative work your day job: fnancial resources. Only those with the biggest wallets (or the biggest wallet behind them) could follow their dream to build, design, and create. But not anymore. New media has changed how we become part of the creative class. If you want to design a board game and sell it, you don’t have to work at Hasbro or Parker Brothers. You can crowdfund the creation and fnd customers online. Do you want to broadcast your stories to a thousand listeners? You don’t have to work your way up the ranks of a radio station. Take to the web and upload a podcast. Creativity is now as simple as what you can make with your own skill and imagination. There are now fewer and fewer gatekeepers. If you can get online you can fnd an audience. The clack of fngers on a keyboard. The sliding of a stylus on a tablet. The click of plastic pieces in a cardboard box. These are the sounds of a new generation. This is how we play and how we create. But mainstream media still treats this revolution like a fad. We’re here to change that. Today we launch a new era in new media, dedicated to the creative minds at work around us. We will take you in a new direction. Welcome to Pivot. Pivot Editor in Chief Alexander Quon Jordan Boneparty delves into the mysteries of Atlantic Canada in The Night Time Podcast 13 Darryl Wright is turning his game company Punk Science Studios into 30 Features 17 the ideal indie offce envrionment 25 Emma FitzGerald turned her love of drawing into a career in illustration. Making a name for herself with her recoginzably unique style Contents 4 Contributors 6 Dates to watch out for 8 Firewatch game strategies 9 Best cities for game development 10 How to start a podcast Exclusive boardgame The Halifax Boardgame designers group play-test their latest included inside games page 21 34 Editorial: fair comment 36 Host the perfect game night 38 Attack of the clones 39 Brain drain 40 Etsy creators we love 41 Board room café maps 42 Social media creators to follow 43 Web-tionary Editor-in-chief/ Regina, Sask. Art director/ Halifax, N.S. Interested in tabletop board games, playing soccer and hosting Managing editor/ Rothesay, N.B. Interested in video games, Avid traveller and reader. Dungeons & Dragon’s games. painting and illustration. Documentary enthusiast. Loves good Twitter: @Alexanderquon Twitter: @haleyfaxer food, great people, wine and dogs. Twitter: @nicognaz Copy editor/ Tilley, Alta. Photo editor/ Montreal, Que. Film buf, podcast afcionado and Internet afcionado, gamer, music nerd. all-around pop culture obsessive. People say I’m weird, and I tend to Twitter @jeftoth agree with them. Webcomic: Twitter: @GLG90 Perry Bible Fellowship Videogame: Firewatch Podcast: Boardgame: Webcomic: Illustrator: Mike Mitchell Reply Patchwork Perry Bible All Fellowship 4 PIVOT WHAT IF IT WASN’T SO HARD TO... SPARKMYPROJECT WHAT IF FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FILL IN THE BLANKS AT SPARKMYPROJECT.COM 2016 Summer events calendar SUN TUES April THURS SAT 2 MON WED FRI Nadeshicon 1 Red Haze/ 3 5 7 Nadeshicon 9 Enter the Winnipeg Pop Nadeshicon Gungeon Culture Expo 4 6 8 Binaries 10 12 14 16 Winnipeg Pop Dark Souls III Empty date Culture Expo 11 13 15 Cartoon Network Crossover 17 19 21 23 The Black Histrio Death 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 Gathering Lost Reavers/ The Working Dead / Dice The Song of Calgary Comic and City: All That Glitters/ events Tyrim Entertainment Expo Calgary Comic and 25 27 29 Entertainment Calgary Comic Expo and Entertainment Expo SUN TUES May THURS SAT 1 3 5 7 Boardgame Calgary Comic MON WED FRI release and Battleborn Entertainment 2 4 6 Expo 8 10 12 14 TransOcean 2: Ottawa Rivals Comiccon 9 11 13 Doom/ Ottawa Video game 15 17 19 Comiccon 21 Ottawa release Comiccon 16 18 20 Dominion Empires / Coal GiANT 22 24 Country 26 28 Mirror’s Edge Toronto Anime Catalyst North 23 25 27 Back to the Future: OUTTATIME/ 29 31 Toronto Anime North Toronto Anime Dead Island: North Defnitive Edition 30 6 PIVOT SUN TUES June THURS SAT 2 4 MON WED FRI 1 3 The Journey: Bob’s Story / Multiuniversum 5 7 Argo 9 11 Odin Sphere: Yeticon 6 Lefthrasir 8 10 Kirby: Planet Robobot/ Yeticon 12 14 16 18 Yeticon 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 No Man’s Sky 20 22 24 Poseidon’s Warriors Classic 26 Naval Warfare 28 30 27 29 Five things to know before you play Firewatch Campo Santo released its debut game Firewatch in February, a mysterious frst-person exploration of the Wyoming wilderness in 1989. Before you dive in, these fve tips will help you get the most out of Firewatch’s story, world and gameplay Bring out the camera. Firewatch will make Playthrough more than once. Though Firewatch can Instagrammers’ mouths water. Early in the game you’ll sometimes feel barren, it is brimming with things to see 1 fnd a disposable camera in an abandoned backpack. 3 that you might miss on the frst playthrough. To get the Remember to bring it out whenever you see a Kodak most out of the game, investigate the areas you wander moment. You’ll be rewarded with a presentation of into. A lot of what gives Firewatch its charm is optional for your collection near the end of the game. And PC the player and doesn’t affect the long-term completion players can pay $15 to have their shots developed and of the game. You can adopt a pet turtle, or carry around shipped worldwide! a life-sized cutout of cartoon ranger Forrest Byrnes. The game only takes four to six hours to complete, so consider going through a second time to see what The perks of the compass. Firewatch ditches the idea moments you might have missed during the frst run. of having a minimap in the corner. Instead, it maintains 2 the wilderness motif by having your character open an Read up. Some might feel reading in games slows the old-fashioned map to navigate the forests of Wyoming. pace and distracts from the fun gameplay. But to get the When you’re using the map to explore a new area, be 4 most from the plot, read every note you come across. sure to reference the compass as well. As long as you Characters you hear about in passing are only feshed out know the general direction of the next destination, in these written interactions. In order to understand the fnding the path there will be a lot easier. entire plot, you’ll need to take the time to read them. Plus, Henry will build an awesome collection of all the papers you pick up during your journey. Radio in everything. Literally everything! In an environment that 5 plays on feelings of faceless isolation, Firewatch’s dialogue is limited to the radio conversations between Henry and fellow forest ranger, Delilah. The writing and voice acting for these two characters is top notch. So avoid missing any chance to radio in a suspicious fnd or beautiful scene to your only source of human interaction. The tone of their conversations can shift from humorous to serious in seconds, while still feeling genuine and natural. The more you talk to Delilah, the better the game is. Simple as that. 8 PIVOT Find out where Canadian Top Canadian cities for game developers have the best chance to fnd the job game development of their dreams BC’s coastal metropolis is the place to be if you’re Vancouver (Dead Rising 2), EA Canada (FIFA, a game dev in Canada. It boasts not only the most Need for Speed), and Black Tusk Studios (Gears of game studios, but the most jobs. It’s home to some War). Already a console game dev heavyweight, of the industry’s top studios including Capcom Vancouver is fast becoming the centre of Canada’s mobile gaming industry, but Montreal and Toronto are closing the gap. Over the past several years, tax incentives given by the province. Industry giants Ubisoft massive, with Ubisoft Montreal has established For every three dollars a game dev (Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry), accounting for over itself as a home for game company spends on its salaries in Warner Bros. Games (the 2,000 dev jobs. That development. That’s thanks Quebec, it gets a dollar back from Batman Arkham series) and puts Montreal ahead of to the Quebec government. taxpayers. That’s a pretty sweet deal Bioware Montreal (Mass Effect) Toronto, which hosts Game companies just can’t and everyone in the industry is are just some studios that call more studios but fewer ignore the generous taking note. Montreal home. The studios are total jobs. And more devs are setting up shop in Montreal every year. On the opposite side of the game dev Indie devs like Capybara Games (Critter Crunch) spectrum is Toronto, home to a few and Queasy Games (Sound Shapes) make their Triple A devs, but also a burgeoning indie home in and around the GTA. Like Montreal, game dev scene. Developers like Rockstar Toronto is still growing. Look out for more Toronto (Max Payne 3), Ubisoft Toronto games coming out of Canada’s “centre of the (Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six), and mobile universe.” giant Zynga (FarmVille) are surrounded by numerous smaller mobile and indie game devs.