Edmonton Screen is coming to Game Con Canada for a second year in a row to showcase the work of our participants in the Trailhead Program and the Summit Push Program.

THE TRAILHEAD PROGRAM

The Trailhead Program was set up to support recent graduates of the University of Alberta’s Computer Game Development Certificate program to take their projects to the next level, providing hands-on industry experience, mentorship and an opportunity to add to their portfolio and help prepare them for jobs within the games industry.

Edmonton Screen recognized an opportunity to bolster the current program and provide students with an opportunity to get hands-on industry experience, mentorship and get a project portfolio under their belt, to prepare them for jobs within the games industry. The 6 week program culminated in each team showcasing their work at Game Con Canada 2025.

The 2025 teams were reviewed by a committee comprised of UofA faculty and Edmonton Screen and the selected team are:

The official home to a team of aliens who also happen to make games. Our team of aliens is dedicated to always making weird and endearing content.

Follow an Auri Field Researcher from the planet Auriga, as they land in an enchanted forest full of creatures who speak an unknown language. Interact with the inhabitants of the forest, and learn their language to fill out a dictionary and complete your research task–and maybe even learn a thing or two about what Auri really means.

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CTRL + Z Studios is an Edmonton-based indie studio founded by a group of game developers who graduated from the University of Alberta. Our philosophy is that much like there is no undo button in life, we embrace the creative process for its successes and failures; we push forward, creating games that reflect the authenticity of reality and beauty of our imagination.

Play through the story of life as you stumble through trials, tribulations and celebrations in just five minutes! Run through and try to hit every experience beat and put together the song of your life which will come to fruition as you fall into your grave. Create a rich melody recounting your mortal experiences.

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No Pressure, Games! is a game development team formed for INT D 450, the University of Alberta’s Computer Game Development capstone course. Band Together is the culmination of the team’s efforts. As the name suggests, the team works towards developing games with as little stress and crunch as possible. (results may vary.)

Band Together is a 2D platformer game with cute pixel art graphics and challenging gameplay. Search for your fellow bandmates as you traverse a deserted island! Find and utilize the power of magical musical instruments in order to make your way past rough terrain and surprisingly dangerous creatures. Are you able to get the band back together before the island defeats you all?

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Overdrive Studio consists of three students who love games and are dedicated to creating unique and engaging experiences. As a team, we are open to new concepts and always eager to apply our academic knowledge in practical, creative ways.

Prepare for Test Zero, a high-octane roguelite, cyberpunk, shooter-platformer. Featuring dynamically generated maps and an ever-changing array of procedurally created weapons, Test Zero delivers an immersive and replayable adventure every time you play.

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SUMMIT PUSH PROGRAM

The Summit Push Program aims to increase the visibility of local producers/developers by showcasing their work at internationally recognized events and providing support to engage their ideal investment targets. The program includes an educational component to prepare participants to showcase at these events through workshops or other activities about exhibitor strategies, presentation skills, and effective networking at industry events.

Edmonton Screen will lead and coordinate showcase opportunities at specified events for participants by providing access exhibition space for demos, sponsored events, meetings, and other events or activations benefiting the group. Edmonton Screen will also provide financial support to succesful applicants to help alleviate the burden of costs studios face in preparing to attend these events.

The 2025 particpant studios are:

COG Studios was formed as part of the capstone class for the University of Alberta’s game development certificate in 2024. They’re a passionate team of friends who incorperated after the class ended and released their game, Infernal Bloodrush. They recently recieved funding to work on a new game Our Eyes See No Evil, and are hard at work.

Our Eyes See No Evil is a single-player survival horror game where the player finds themselves haunted by a mysterious clown doll. As their home is slowly corrupted, they must either confront the creeping horror—or choose not to look.
The central theme of the game is “closing your eyes to the horrors of the world.” This is embodied in our core mechanic, which integrates real-world eye movement through webcam tracking. Closing the player’s eyes provides safety from the terror, but also leaves them vulnerable to the unknown. This mechanic twists the classic horror trope of “Don’t look at the monster” into a terrifying choice: how long can you stand to not look? The player must push through a constant sense of unease and tension in a familiar environment in order to progress (e.g. how it feels to fetch a glass of water late at night). By merging the player’s real-world eye movements with psychological horror, Our Eyes See No Evil delivers an immersive and terrifying experience unlike anything before.

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We’re ThirtyThree, an indie studio from Edmonton. We made ATOMIK: RunGunJumpGun and Apes.io. We build games with tight mechanics, strange worlds, and a sense of flow.

Grab. Throw. Bounce. REBOUNDER is a fast, flowy precision platformer about juggling fungal orbs and launching yourself through alien megastructures. You’ll pull off trick shots and ricochets to reach new heights in a world that rewards timing and feel over brute memorization. Levels are quick. Respawns are instant. It’s tuned for platforming freaks, but friendly enough for anyone to pick up. REBOUNDER is wrapped in a strange indie comic aesthetic, with printed textures, tiny palettes, and punk energy. You play a shift-worker at the end of her rope, running lines through ancient alien infrastructure. Why? Because the man told you to. Get back to work.

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We’re Void Cup Games. A team of three. Cheers!

Welcome to Fowl Scourge, a single-player Boss-Rush Action-RPG set in a Gothic Fantasy world! You play as Erwin, a physician employed by the Plague Birds Guild – an organization dedicated to treating a mysterious disease that’s turning people into monstrous abominations. Considering the nature of the patients, the treatment process may turn violent…

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We Need Weevils is a dedicated team of six individuals developing The Drawnjuring—an absurdist game based on the rivalry of an immortal lich and a disembodied hand. Our game began as a capstone project for INT D 450, a class offered by the University of Alberta, and has since evolved into a passion project that we agreed to continue developing after the end of the Winter 2024 semester.

Play as G’lich—a pixelated, immortal lich—on a quest to maintain peace and quiet in your space prison. Your prison mate, arch-enemy, and giant-floating-hand: the ‘Oodler’ has escaped. To track him down, fight your way through the Oodler’s ferocious, animated doodles—or Oodles! Consume the life forces of your enemies, and raise your own army of the slain in swift retribution. Finally, confront the Oodler and maybe, just maybe, he’ll leave you be (maybe, no promises).

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FRIENDS OF YEGINDIES

This year, we are joined by two guest studios joining us at our YEGINDIES booth. We always love making new connections among our developer communities locally and around the world!

We are a small indie studio based out Calgary who are making games we would like to play! We want out games to be accessible by all and enjoyable by any and everyone. We are currently working on our first game, Founder of the Final Cult, which is slated to release this year, and we have many more ideas for fun games in the future!

Recruit followers and guide them to the right path. Choose the teachings that best fit your cult. Collect ancient knowledge to better equip yourself for your future attempts. And survive the onslaught of other cults and their leaders trying to take you down! If you survive long enough you will be the last cult standing! Founder of the Final Cult is a rougelike survivor type game where your goal is to defeat enemies and bosses while trying to survive for 20 minutes.

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Jaggy Snake Games is an Irish independent studio dedicated to making unusual, story-driven games. Founded in 2023 by Ian Lynch, formerly of CD Projekt Red, Scopely, and Donkey Crew, the studio is set to release its debut game, Questing, in 2026. It also has a secret second project in the works, due to be announced later this year.

What happens when the Chosen One refuses to be chosen? Questing is a satirical love letter to classic 16-bit adventure games such as A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, and Secret of Mana. The gameplay involves a combination of exploration, puzzles, and a Pong-meets-bullet-hell battle system that tests your timing, reflexes, and strategic thinking. Tying it all together, a subversive, oddball story about a main character who refuses the destiny forced upon him, avoiding the good vs evil conflict consuming the land, and trying to get to his parents’ house to do laundry. It deals with themes of identity, fate, and alienation, while also taking a post-modern look at players’ cognitive dissonance when it comes to the virtual worlds we jump into.

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