Nov 09

Video Game Development Timeline in Winnipeg & Manitoba

by Chris Billows in Nerdism in Winnipeg 0 comments tags: Book Writing, Video Game History, Winnipeg
Welcome to the Winnipeg & Manitoba Video Game Development History Timeline (Nov/2025). After compiling the previous timeline, I wanted to create a timeline of Video Game Development in Winnipeg & Manitoba. This timeline is not complete and I welcome additions and corrections (see link at bottom). The criteria to be listed on this timeline is: A) Must be (or include) a Winnipeg / Manitoba based developer and, B) Must release commercial games on a Console/Mobile/Steam/VR platform, or C) Be noteworthy for some other reason that has an impact on video gaming. — 1970 – University of Manitoba launches its Department of Computer Science 1971 to 1999 – research pending on arcades, retail selling computers and consoles, and early BBSs and Internet in Winnipeg and Manitoba 2000 – New Media Manitoba is formed 2001 – Complex Games is formed 2006 – Fortune Cat Studios is formed 2007 – Bit Blot (with Winnipeg’s Alec Holowka) releases Aquaria and wins awards and critical acclaim 2008 – Government of Manitoba introduces Manitoba Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit 2008 – Government of Manitoba launches Canada’s First Interactive Digital Gaming Business Incubator 2008 – Fortune Cat Studios hosts an open house 2009 – Complex Games releases […]
Sep 13

Video Game Development Segments: Electronic Game Machines

by Chris Billows in Nerdism in Winnipeg 0 comments tags: Book Writing, Video Game History, Winnipeg
This post took me about 18(!) months to write because of the volume of information I collected but it was worth it (I think). This post provides what I think is the first of its kind to my knowledge – a comprehensive timeline history of video games across all of its segments! Welcome to the next segment of Nerdism in Winnipeg. The previous post talked about Nerds by outlining various definitions, this post talks about Electronic Game Machines, and illustrates what they are through an extensive timeline. I do acknowledge that neither of these two posts provide any insights into Winnipeg as I am still in the definitions stage of this project. What is an Electronic Game Machine? It is any electronic device built to assist humans to play games. These electronic devices are the core of the video game industry and encompass everything including university computers, video arcade machines, video game consoles, personal computers, handhelds, mobile devices, smartphones, etc. There is a nice precedent to my definition that I just discovered before publishing this post related to a 2006 book called Encyclopedia of Game Machines. I want to emphasize that my definition has the word Electronic in it which […]
Mar 03

Video Game Development Segments: Nerds

by Chris Billows in Nerdism in Winnipeg 0 comments tags: Book Writing, Video Game History, Winnipeg
In the first post, I said that I was going to write about Game Development in Winnipeg. Yet you cannot have Game Development without Nerdism (defined as the behavior and practices of Nerds). So this post will investigate the term ‘Nerd’ and its related terms such as Geek and such and explain why it is needed to for Game Development. So what is a Nerd and how is that different from Geek or other similar words? I believe that definitions are the first step to outline and guide one’s written (and coding) work. I am reusing the definitions from this comprehensive Gizmodo article. Nerd The word nerd was first used in the 1950 Dr. Seuss book If I Ran the Zoo, in which a nerd was one one of the many oddly named creatures in the titular zoo. According to Ben Zimmer of Vocabulary.com, a 1951 Newsweek article mentioned it as one of the new terms being used by teenagers. It seems unlikely for teens to have latched on to a single proper noun in a Dr. Seuss book so quickly, but there is no recorded source of the word being used previously. It’s possible that it was based on the 1940s slang […]
Dec 02

Researching Video Game Development in Winnipeg

by Chris Billows in Nerdism in Winnipeg 0 comments tags: Book Writing, Video Game History, Winnipeg
I have been toying with the idea for a long while to consider writing a book and the book would be related to a history of Video Game Development in Winnipeg. The prompt to this idea has to do with the following things: I personally know a major player in the Winnipeg Game Dev community and have seen him grow his company to become successful. It is a great rags to riches story that would be a main thread of such a book. The other thing is my personal passion and connection to technology and video games. I grew up as Video Games took off and have always loved playing them and seeing how they have evolved. I’ve even taken the first tentative steps to creating my own game. The third thing is that I am fascinated to recount how this all came to be in my only home town of Winnipeg. I have always believed that Winnipeg does quite well for itself despite its small size and geographic isolation. I think this is something that I’d like to tease out in a book. Writing a book is a huge endeavor but I think that having passion for the topic […]
Jun 27

Response about Ludic Narrative

by Chris Billows in Playstates Theory 0 comments tags: Blog Response, Games Analysis, Playstates, Video Game History
I posted a response to The Digital Antiquarian blog post: Ludic Narrative née Storygame These kind of thought experiments can be allot of fun. Humans love to categorize things and there are a few of us that obsess over them (sheepishly raises own hand). I’ve spend the past few years working on a theory that points to a layer of play that cuts across genres, themes, and motifs. It is called Playstates and sees there being five distinct motifs of play found in Video Games and in all other aspects of play. They are more like an chemical compound than like a border. Some products will have more toy-play and some will have more narrative-play and some will have game/sports-play. We see these eventually congeal into the popular genres that have captured our imagination. We would see RPGs being x parts game-play, x parts playground-play, x parts narrative-play, and so on while IFs would be mostly narrative-play, puzzle-play, and some parts playground-play. One thing that old Adventure and IF video games used allot of is puzzle-play. The puzzles were there to delay the narrative reveals. This became frustrating for many who wanted to see the story mostly or wanted to […]

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Jun 03

The History of Game Development

by Chris Billows in Playstates Theory 0 comments tags: Games Analysis, Video Game History
Based on my categorization exercise in my last post, I’ve gleaned what I consider to be a synopsis of Game Development history. It starts off appropriately as a fun and experimental exercise on the University campuses. 1961 HobbyDev GameDev that is for fun and experimentation, not intended for commercial purpose Prime example: In 1961 we see the release of Space War! by Steve Russell, in collaboration with Martin Graetz and Wayne Wiitanen. In a separate realm, where software development was serious business (as early software developers worked for Defence Contractors) we see how Ralph Baer and his Sander’s Associates carved out a niche within his larger company to explore GameDev as a commercial venture. 1967 ProDev GameDev is sold as a commercial product, with fun being its market need Prime example: Begun in 1967 up to its release in 1972, the Magnavox Odyssey was the first commercial Video Game Console. Ralph Baer, Bill Harrison and Bill Rusch spent those years creating the first games for the Brown Box, the Odyssey prototype. What these two ecosystems share is that they are both closed systems. The HobbyDev was restricted to only people who could attend University while ProDev was limited to the […]
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