Wishing you a happy holidays, from the GAMERella team! --- Nous vous souhaitons de joyeuses fêtes, de la part de toute l'équipe GAMERella !

Happy holidays everyone from the GAMERella team! We had an absolutely amazing year and we are extremely grateful to all of you, for your support and the lovely GAMERella community 💖✨

What does working in video games really mean - Audio, Writing and Behind-the-Scenes edition! Love working with sounds, there's audio engineering and sound designers; love creating a narrative, become a writer; love playing games, there's game testers.

✨️Mentor Highlight✨️

What does working in video games really mean - Design and Development edition! For those who lean more into the engineering and mechanics of it all, there are a ton of options for you in video games.

✨️Mentor Highlight✨️

What does working in video games really mean - Arts and Animation edition! If you're looking to explore artistry, sketching, visual effects and more, these are some of the jobs out there.

Take a walk through our 2025 Game Jam and we reminisce 💭 Nous sommes très reconnaissants d'avoir vécu une autre année extraordinaire et d'avoir vu des projets créatifs sortir de notre espace. Thank you everyone who came and who supports GAMERella so we can continue to share what we love🎮

✨️Mentee Highlight - Kira Fountain✨️ A game developer with 3 years of Unity C# experience, 8 months of corporate software development experience and graduating in 2026 with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Computation Arts from Concordia University, Kira is one of our wonderful mentees.

The Game Jam may be over but the mentees are still gaming away. What can we say, GAMERella yearns for the mines. ⛏️

✨️Mentee Highlight - Maëlig Beaupérin✨️ Working as a concept artist Maëlig has several projects under her belt, from illustrator to character artist. One of her newer projects is Stormriders, a new game from Hippie Punk Games that's still in production.

Warmups from the Gamerella Game Jam ! The theme is about handmaid things and this cardboard cutout style just makes me feel warm! posting our files soon, @gamerella.bsky.social <3 #indiedev #sprites #gamedesign #lowpoly #sketches

QUEL RÉSULTAT INCROYABLE ! Thank you everyone who came to the Game Jam this weekend and congratulations to everyone who created something over the last two days. You should all be unbelievably proud of of the work you've done and we're so excited to see where your games go! À la prochaine fois !

As part of keeping GAMERella accessible and a safe space for everyone, we have our Low Sensory Room as well as a prayer/meditation room amongst the services we offer to make the Jam for everyone. N'hésitez pas à venir nous rendre visite !

As we head into our last day, we just wanted to shout out our two main sponsors for the Game Jam today, EA Motive and @bhvr.com Ce fut une expérience formidable, et tout cela grâce à votre soutien.

Day #1 of the annual GAMERella Game Jam! Despite transit strikes and endless snowfall, the love for games perseveres. The jam begins with fresh team, new ideas and creativity brewing. Merci à tous d'être venus, en personne ou virtuellement, et rendez-vous demain pour continuer à s'amuser !

Whether it's your first game jam or your tenth, you can never be too prepared. Here are some tips from our team to prep for tomorrow's 12th annual GAMERella Game Jam:

✨️Mentee Highlight - Briar Lee Molto✨️ Briar is an indie game developer, UI designer, and illustrator with a passion for immersive and innovative gameplay experiences. One of their big projects before joining GAMERella's mentorship was the game Monstrum Mysterium. @nachogender.bsky.social

Our annual Game Jam is 3 DAYS AWAY! Read what other folks had to say about their experience to get you hyped about an experience you'll never forget with fellow gamers and creatives this weekend. See you soon!

✨️Mentee Highlight - Des Cendres Rivière✨️ Des Rivière is a composer, sound artist, inter-disciplinary creator, wildlife tracker and a member of the GAMERella mentorship. Blending ambient textures, analog tape, and field recordings, their art gives voice to hidden creatures and forgotten objects.

🚨 Announcing our 2025 Game Jam Keynote Speaker... 🚨 @thatmegbee.bsky.social ! Meagan is an Âpihtawikosisân (Fed: Métis of Ontario)​ game designer, interactive digital media artist, writer, and philosopher. Her most recent work is the Indigenous cybernoir detective game Hill Agency: PURITYdecay.

✨️Mentee Highlight - Alissia Bocarro✨️ A 2D/3D video game artist and generalist with a passion for storytelling through her projects, Alissia is now a member of the GAMERella mentorship cohort!

The GAMERella Game Jam is NEXT WEEK! While the in-person event is sold out already, there are still some online spots available for those who can't make it in person but still want to make something amazing together.

✨️Mentee Highlight - Darius Fang✨️ A game developer and software engineer, Darius is another talented member of the GAMERella mentorship program. @dariusfang.bsky.social

The Game Jam is almost upon us, so we're taking a trip down memory lane... We're grateful to be able to put on the GAMERella annual Game Jam every year and sell out every year, thanks to the amazing people like you who support us.

✨️Mentee Highlight - Inès Bouakkaoui✨️ Inès is a technical game designer and animator. She is passionate about scripting and technical integration in Unreal Engine 5. She gives her all to her projects and is always ready to learn new things.

GAMERella is proud to have hosted thousands of gamers over the years and been a home for them to foster their talent in a safe space.

✨️Mentee Highlight - Justin Roberts✨️ A recent MA Media Studies graduate from Concordia University, whose practice bridges the areas of academic research, intermedial work, and video game development, Justin joined the GAMERella mentorship with projects like Stream Evil.

✨️Mentee Highlight - Justin Roberts✨️ A recent MA Media Studies graduate from Concordia University, whose practice bridges the areas of academic research, intermedial work, and video game development, Justin joined the GAMERella mentorship with some projects in the works including Stream Evil.

Are you looking to try your hand at making a game from scratch?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Check out some of the GAMERella teams fav spooky games to get you in the spirit: 🎃 Psychroma by Rocket Adrift and Until Dawn by Supermassive Games ~ @jessromarcotte.bsky.social 👻 Signalis by rose-engine ~ @missmystie.bsky.social

Participating in a game jam is a fun and rewarding experience, but can seem daunting to a lot of people. In this workshop, we’ll explore the structures, best practices, and tips for a successful jam experience.

🌟 Have you gotten your FREE ticket for tomorrows @gamerella.bsky.social panel yet? 🌟 Some of our fantastic #IGDAFVirtualExchange alumni will be speaking about their unique paths to games--definitely one to make time for! 🎟️FREE SIGN UP www.tickettailor.com/events/gamer...

Indie or AAA? Game Designer or Project Manager? Narrative Games or Action? When you're stepping into the games industry for the first time, it can seem like there's so many choices to be made. But careers in the industry are never as simple as it seems.

#TBT to our Pitching Workshop last week! We had the amazing Jongwoo Kim, an award-nominated game designer, programmer, and the co-founder of Studio Imugi teach us all things pitching, and we are so thankful to have had his expertise. @studioimugi.bksy.social

GAME JAM OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT We have our 2025 theme... ✨️ i made this for you ✨️

Throwback to GAMERella at @qgcon.bsky.social ! Co-founder and co-director Gina Hara and one of our mentees, @justinrobs.bsky.social, both did a presentation as part of the annual Queerness and Games Conference.

✨️Mentee Highlight - Nicholai Avigdor Melamed✨️ A multimedia writer-artist making comics, games, poetry and illustrations, Nicholai joined the GAMERella mentorship program with an art style and ambition to make games. @artofnamelamed.bsky.social

✨️Mentee Highlight - Tuana Bıçakcı✨️ Now a member of the GAMERella mentorship program, Tuana came to our program with quite a few games under her belt as a developer and artist, including narrative roleplay games like Sleepy Haven Hotel and adventure survival games like Academic Weapon.

In honour of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we would like to highlight some Indigenous groups creating in the video game space to check out and support, including...

If you are at @qgcon.bsky.social come to the arcade and suggest a theme for this year's GAMERella Game Jam! If you sign up to our newsletter there, you can win a bundle of Canadian videogames!! ✨🤗

GAMERella Co-Director Gina Hara will be talking on the importance of queer-driven game research on Saturday with the amazing @alexcustodio.com

#TBT to our Unions Workshop presented by Game Workers Unite Montreal! What are unions? Why do they matter? What does this look like in practice? These are the questions our mentees got answers to last Friday. Shout out to our panelists @inspectorbeans.bsky.social and @vladadraws.bsky.social !

A special shout-out to a past GAMERella staff member, Michael Iantorno, who has created the ultimate post-jam resource, "What's Next Jammer?" Keep it in your back pocket post the GAMERella annual Game Jam this year! @michaeliantorno.com

✨️Mentee Highlight - Sarah Raine Wari✨️ One of her prior projects was Daughters of Ruin, a sapphic tactical RPG where you lead a band of rebels and witches against the oppressive chains of a holy empire. Check it out for yourself here: missmystie.itch.io/daughters-of... 🎮 @missmystie.bsky.social

🎮 MARK YOUR CALENDARS 🎮 The next GAMERella Game Jam is happening November 15–16, 2025! This inclusive, beginner-friendly, and super accessible game jam is made for you! Join us for a weekend of creativity, collaboration, and cookies. ✨️ Sign-up is now open ✨️ www.eventbrite.ca/e/gamerella-...

✨️Mentee Highlight - Hitesh Kumar Sharma✨️ Hitesh is a game Designer and game programmer for Detective Dotson, which has players explore cozy alleys, bustling markets, and colourful festivals as they solve intricate mysteries. Check it out for yourself here: www.hiteshks.com/detectivedot... 🎮

We wanted to give a special shout-out to our main sponsor at GAMERella - the Canadian Media Fund! We thank them for their help in creating this opportunity to aspiring game-makers, and we can't wait to see what we're able to do together in the gaming industry going forward.

✨️Mentee Highlight - @isabelaura.bsky.social✨️ Laura has teamed up with our mentor Nicolas Barrière-Kucharski to learn all things gaming from a Senior Game Designer at Behaviour Interactive.

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