As title. How do we define what a Canadian game is?
My gut says that the physical studio (if there is one) should be located within Canada. But there are a lot of situations where this can get muddied.
Example being: Rimworld.
Founded & owned by Canadian Tynan Sylvester, but according to Ludeon Studios’ (Tynan’s gamedev studio) website, they’re based in New York. According to Tynan’s LinkedIn, he works from Ottawa, however.
Does this count as a Canadian game studio, or a Canadian game? Or just a studio that happens to be owned by a Canadian? Or started Canadian, and quickly grew – but in the US. I don’t think a studio being owned by a Canadian inherently makes it Canadian. By that logic, twitter is a Canadian company because Musk hold Canadian citizenship.
I’ve emailed the Rimworld support address seeking more info, but I think its a worthwhile discussion to have early on in this community so we can come to some kind of consensus on what exactly is a Canadian game.
Remote work and outsourcing make this tricky.
I’d define it as 51% of the cost associated with creating it, being spent on Canadians.
That is hard to quantify and verify, as most of these studios are privately owned and not required to publicly disclose that type of information.
I’d agree this would be the way, if only we could actually verify this. I think a physical studio/space in Canada is the best compromise because that is something we can actually verify with simple online sleuthing. Remote work is only increasing, and does make this complicated.