Tag: OntarioPage 1 of 2

Compare Your Morals in Dr. Trolley’s Problem

On 07/09/2022

Over at Wero we just launched a BIG update to our trolley problem game: Dr. Trolley’s Problem!

You can now compare what you think is the “correct” decision to thousands of other players. Are they wrong? Are you wrong? You can now see stats on decisions you make in-game. We want to know which ones players agreed on and which ones generated differences in opinion.

We also added more problems for you to address! 20 new dilemmas which will get you thinking what should I do? More moral problems! We’ve added more scenarios where you have to make tough choices about what’s right and what’s wrong, so that we can keep expanding on this aspect of gameplay and give you more difficult decisions to make.

This is something I wanted in the game since it was pushed out the door back in 2019, yes the game is that old and we still updated it.

Developer Commentary

This update to the trolley problem game is timed with Games From Ontario Steam Sale. There are over TK games and companies participating- check them all out!

As part of the promotion of Ontario made games I’ll be streaming Dr. Trolley’s Problem while providing commentary. Joining me on the first stream will be the programmer who built the stats system.

Tune into our Steam broadcast to hear about the making of the game and the real world situations that influenced the trolley problems in the game!

We’ll be live on Steam at the times below to play Dr. Trolley’s Problem. Follow Wero on Twitter for a reminder.

September 7th at 5pm EST

September 12th at 3pm EST

Honestly, just check Steam everyday from the 7th to the 14th to check out some great games made in Ontario. There’ll be deals and streams all week!

I’ll be hosting two bonus streams about another game Sept. 12 5pm and 13th at 4pm (more on that later).

Data Collection Privacy

We also care about privacy, so we had to build our own custom system to track all the trolley problems.

We’re committed to making sure that our trolley problem game is as safe and secure as possible—we don’t track or store any personal information about our users. Only you see your decisions and how you compare to others. When you make a decision it’s recorded anonymously without any data attached to you.

If you’re interested in this we’ll talk about it on the first stream.

Play the Trolley Problem Now!

<span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span><a href="https://werocreative.itch.io/dr-trolleys-problem">Dr. Trolley’s Problem by Wero</a>

Coverage of Some Toronto Game Studios

by Adam Clare

On 27/08/2013

In Business, Video Games

Toronto has a bunch of small indie studios that are constantly making great games (just look at Capy’s success). Thanks to some keen efforts by the Ontario government bigger studios have been eyeing Toronto too, Ubisoft came to Toronto because of those efforts.

What I find interesting is that these efforts have changed the digital industry in Ontario and these changes have reverberated down to the the street level.

Ubisoft has moved into the Junction neighbourhood of Toronto and has had a positive impact on that section of the city. The area suffered from old manufacturing industries closing down but saw artists moving in to fill the gap. Ubisoft hasn’t pushed out the artists (thankfully) so much as they brought new local food options for them.

Since Ubisoft Toronto opened its doors, the list of notable new restaurants and cafes to set up shop in the neighbourhood include the aforementioned Wallace Espresso, Cafe Neon, and Wallace and Co. The businesses that were open before the studio came, such as the Starving Artist, continue to flourish.
If one extends the list to include nearby Brockton Village, which is reasonable given that the studio is a short walk away from the neighbourhood boundary line of Bloor Street, then the list of new businesses expands to include places such as the Whippoorwill and Brock Sandwich, the latter of which opened as recently as this month. Obviously not all those businesses opened with the express purpose of servicing Ubisoft’s employees, but a workplace that is set to grow to 800 strong before the end of 2019 is going to have an effect on business nonetheless.

The first game to come out of Ubisoft Toronto is Splinter Cell Blacklist and the reviews have been positive. I’m proud to say that a former student has been working on the game’s story. The success of the game is a great sign for a new studio that only opened in 2009.

The CBC recently covered the studio and they quote managing director Jade Raymond:

“Setting up a new studio from scratch, hiring over 300 people in three years and shipping the biggest game ever to come out of Ontario and the biggest game in the franchise to date is quite an accomplishment,” says Raymond.
“The game industry and our team here is full of people who want to outdo ourselves each time, so we’re setting the bar even higher with all of our next projects.”

Back to the independent studios we find that Phantom Compass, They Bleed Pixels, and Little Guy Games are getting praise for their work too (there are too many studios to list!). These smaller studios benefit from support from the province too but mainly rely on contract work to keep them going while they finance their own intellectual property. Organizations like Interactive Ontario help in that process (FYI: I worked for IO a few years back).

One of the ways Interactive Ontario aims to help its members is by connecting them with potential contract opportunities, which often involve creating interactive elements for web and television.
“A lot of companies start out that way,” Henderson says. He’ll also be speaking at today’s conference. “They take some jobs to pay the bills and keep the lights on while they work on their own intellectual property (IP). Eventually they get to the stage where they’ve created their own IP and now they own it.”