Have you heard of DemoNights? Join us from February 20 to 22, 2025, for three evenings of play broadcast live on Loto-Québec’s Twitch Channel, highlighting 15 never-before-seen Quebec games and their developers. DemoNights has been attracting hundreds of thousands of online viewers for several years, making this event, in tandem with the Quebec Games Celebration on Steam, an essential showcase for our local talent.

Since 2024, the event is coproduced by La Guilde du jeu vidéo du Québec and Loto-Québec.

While some are from well-known AAA studios, others are indie projects from passionate creators. Three spotlight studios will also be interviewed and discuss their inclusive practices as part of the Spotlight segment, presented by the Canada Media Fund.

DemoNights is held in parallel with the Quebec Games Celebration Sale on Steam, which this year runs from February 17 to 24, 2025, and features over 200 games made or published in Quebec, an incredible opportunity for our studios. The Quebec Games Celebration is an initiative of Indie Asylum, in collaboration with La Guilde du jeu vidéo du Québec.

On the 2oth of February, five studios will showcase a demo of their next game :

Illogika Studios with 7 Days Blood Moons

Paper Cult with Tears of Metal

Woodrunner Games with Croak

Oneiric Games with Shadowborn

Jeux Boréalys with Echoes of Mystralia

 

On the 21st of February, the showcase continues for five more studios :

Shishis Studios with Mecha

Clever Endeavour Games with Ultimate Sheep Raccoon

Le Catnip Collective with Jumping Jazz Cats

TREBUCHET with Prison Boss Prohibition

Double Stallion Games with Surfpunk

 

On the 22nd of February DemoNights concludes in style with :

Studio Imugi with Bonaparte : A mechanized revolution

Studio Moka with Citadrill

Signal Space Lab with Killbot General

Nine Dots Studio with Lost In Prayer

Exnilo Studio with Strand

 

In addition to the 15 studios that will present their games in development during the DemoNights events, three studio heads will discuss their journey and commitment to creating games focused on equity, diversity, and inclusion themes.

Nora Hébert from Queensguard
Angela Hanna Goulene from Hannagie Productions
Olivier Bouchard from BonjourBorzoi

These interviews are presented by the Canada Media Fund

According to our archives, the first edition of DemoNights took place in 2006. Originally managed by the Montreal chapter of the International Game Developers Association, it was taken under the wing of Gameplay Space in 2017, and has been organized by La Guilde since 2024; Loto-Québec has been an official partner of DemoNights since 2018.

In total, nearly 175 games were presented at DemoNights, including some particularly noteworthy ones such as :

• One of the first public presentations of indie star Fez
• The initial prototype of Ultimate Chicken Horse
• A preliminary version of Mass Effect 3
• The moving Papo & Yo demo
• Kitfox Games’ first game, Shattered Planet (and all the games that followed: Boyfriend Dungeon, Moon Hunters, The Shrouded Isle, Lucifer Within Us)
• GNOG when it was called Gnah!
• Child of Light, Ubisoft’s first independent game
• All Thunder Lotus games to date: Jotun, Sundered, Spiritfarer
• KatanaZer0, developed by a student during his studies at McGill University
• We Happy Few before Gearbox or Xbox offers
• A very early version of Tribes of Midgard, which sold a million copies in its first month of release.
• Kickstarter success Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan
• Journey to the Savage Planet the DAY before launch
• Lucky Me, inspired by rap videos
• … and much, much more!

Game submissions generally begin in the fall and close in early December. Calls for submissions are announced in La Guilde’s newsletter, on our Discord and on La Guilde’s social networks. If you are considering submitting your game for a future DemoNight, please read the eligibility rules:

• ⚜️ Studios/developers must be based in Quebec, and be members of La Guilde du jeu vidéo du Québec.
• 🎮 Your game must not be released before the day after DemoNights (closed betas, early access or games launched by Geolock are acceptable).
• 📽️ Your game must be sufficiently developed to record 5 minutes of gameplay.
• 🕹️ Your game can be shipped on any platform, but you must be able to record gameplay for the stream
• 🛑 The game must not be under NDA or banned from public access
• 🎙️ You must be available for all DemoNights and technical rehearsals. Dates will be communicated when the submission form is available for the next edition.