‘It’s about helping people come together:’ Canadian studio featuring Aric and Leslie McBay claim grand prize in a global competition for its democracy-themed video game
A Canadian studio featuring a pair of siblings with roots in the Sault has claimed top prize in a global competition for video game developers.
Polyvale Studios — featuring the work of Sault natives Aric and Leslie McBay — recently earned the Best Overall and Best Aesthetics awards in Citizens Assemble!, a competition hosted by Global Game Jam and One World or None that saw more than 50 teams competing to find new ways to make democracy playable.
The studio was awarded $10,000 USD for submitting the video game Diem, which Aric describes as a “cozy democracy simulator” where the player is responsible for taking care of their citizens.
“You help them to learn more about the challenges and possibilities of climate change and climate action, as well as helping them to eventually vote on a series of resolutions about what should be done,” Aric explained to SooToday.
“It’s about anti-polarization — it’s about helping people come together.”
The McBay siblings began developing video games together a few years ago. For Aric, it was a chance to do something new after writing several books as an author.
Last year, they collaborated with music composer Winnie Liu and claimed the grand prize in Just Play: A Game Jam for Climate Futures, another global competition for video game developers.
“We had a lot of momentum and decided maybe it’s time to form our own studio, and start making games that have a social impact,” Aric said.
Although both Aric and Leslie moved away from the Sault for school about two decades ago, they still come back home fairly often to visit their parents, Paul and Laurie McBay.
Aric said his parents were “very excited” about the recent grand prize finish. Even though they’re “outdoorsy people who don’t play a lot of video games,” Aric and Leslie have been getting their parents to play the games they’ve created so far.
“They’re extremely excited and proud of us, of course,” said Aric. “I think they’re also very glad to see us working together.”
The trio that make up Polyvale believe they’re in a good position for a small studio. They’re already looking at developing Diem further, in addition to developing some other projects they’ve conceptualized.
“I expect that we’ll be very busy for the foreseeable future,” Aric said.
Aric said that growing up in the Sault helped them as video game developers, as there were many times where they “had to make fun for ourselves.”
“We had to be a little bit more creative just from being in a smaller town,” he said. “I think that creativity and that kind of initiative that we developed growing up has really served us well in this work.”