Students get their game on at Level Up Showcase

Technology moves so quickly that it’s always interesting to see what the next generation comes up with, which makes the annual Level Up Showcase one of the year’s most interesting local video-game events.

A showcase for student-made video games, the exhibition is in its sixth year and takes place Wednesday at the Design Exchange in Toronto.

Last year, more than 80 teams took part, from schools such as OCAD, Uof T and Algonquin College.

Brimming with creativity, it’s a packed exhibition that has had stu- dent creations move on and become full fledged games, like Runbow, which was showcased here in 2014 and is now available for Nintendo’s Wii U. Last year’s much-lauded Pitfall Planet may also launch this year.

There are opportunities ahead for these students. Ontario has the fastest-growing video game industry in Canada, with full-time employment up 26 per cent in 2015.

Here are just five of the games being displayed at this week’s event: Plunder: Created by a team of OCAD and U of T students, this is a game for anyone who wants to actually be the Kraken. Up to four players control pirate ships or massive sea monsters in a capture-the-flag type of scenario. Pirates seek treasure chests, while the monsters seek pirates. Pirates use grappling hooks to collect treasure and move around the map, while the sea monster’s tentacles give it similar abilities. Shadow Tag: Another OCAD and U of T combination, this game takes inspiration from the game of tag. The multiplayer game requires players to try to steal each others’ shadows by stepping on them. get smaller as they are stepped on, and the light moves around so the shadows are always changing. Players can also hide in the shadows, which protects them. There’s also a Freeze power-up that locks players in place. Chrominance: Can you bring light back to the world? That’s the plan here, where monsters and magical colour-changing structures dot the landscape. The single player must explore the world using colour and stealth to navigate and discover how to restore peace. Collecting prism fragments spread throughout the land will brighten the world and destroy the monsters. Empyria: Created by a team called Awkward Interactions from Algonquin College, this steampunk-in- spired game is set in an open-world flying city. You play as the title character, harnessing electricity to vanquish his foe. Shot from a first-person view, players can customize different spells into more than 300 combinations, and promise some emergent gameplay, letting users adapt to their preferred play style. Solanka: Journey to the Sun: Team Fancy Forge created this adventure game that requires your sword-carrying hero to roam across a vast land and take on larger, animal foes. There is also a definite Shadow of the Colossus inspiration, as there are also giant Titans to take out.