Ten Kens defines its sound as “thinking man’s heavy rock.” Its songs are energetic, quirky, and slightly aggressive rock tunes that tend to fracture in the middle and fray around the edges. The band has always been interested in exploring the erosion of genre boundaries, and its third full-length release, Namesake, continues in that vein.

While the record first appeared in digital-only format last fall, Namesake is now getting a full, physical release that includes four new, previously unreleased tracks. It comes out on May 21.

For its first two releases, Ten Kens worked with Last Gang and Fat Cat records. For Namesake, the band has struck out entirely on its own. Core duo Brett Paulin and Dan Workman, who have always been responsible for all the songwriting, also handled all of the recording and production this time around. This pulling inward and holding close has paid off, as Namesake is not only more dense and complex than Ten Kens’ previous releases, but also more musically varied. Layers of composition and production can create a hazy, almost dream-like effect on some tracks, whereas others are more spare and bright, broken apart by gleaming drums.

Some of the tracks on Namesake have a stoner rock, even vaguely psychedelic vibe, like “Whatever Man” and the crisp-but-chill “Take Me To Your Leader.” “Above the Ego” is a much more upbeat and classically positive rock track, with just enough flaunt and flourish to keep it the tiniest bit weird. “Calm of the Car” and “When A Door Opens” are more plaintive and atmospheric, even haunting, with carefully picked chords dovetailing with the emotive vocals.

It’s when Ten Kens is at its most aggressive, however, that Namesake really shines. “Death In The Family” has a crunchy, glorious heaviness to it that keeps the pulse up, and “Bliss” is easily an album highlight. (You can listen to “Bliss” by clicking the sample, above.) Featuring some of the heaviest riffs on the record, as well as remarkably effective duelling vocals and organic, pulsing drums, it showcases the band at its finest and fullest. While some acts falter when they eschew label support in favour of complete creative control, Ten Kens has thrived and produced its finest work yet.

Canadian Sepctrum is unique among the 11 programmes on this year’s Hot Docs schedule, because it features only films by Canadian documentarians, be they veterans or first-timers. Hot Docs’ mandate is to promote our national film culture, so the docs that fall under this heading are particularly important components of the festival.

Click any of the images below for more information about a particular Canadian Spectrum film. Or, check out our nifty Hot Docs 2013 hub for a list of all our reviews to date.

TALES FROM THE ORGAN TRADE DIRECTED BY RIC ESTHER BIENSTOCK

NCR: NOT CRIMINALLY RESPONSIBLE DIRECTED BY JOHN KASTNER

THE GHOSTS IN OUR MACHINE DIRECTED BY LIZ MARSHALL

CHI DIRECTED BY ANNE WHEELER

BUYING SEX DIRECTED BY TERESA MACINNES AND KENT NASON

ALIAS DIRECTED BY MICHELLE LATIMER

15 REASONS TO LIVE DIRECTED BY ALAN ZWEIG

Born Paul Hayden Desser, the internationally recognized singer-songwriter Hayden has been composing lyrics about sadness, heartbreak, and loss for a full two decades. His soul-baring, gritty tunes and emotion-choked baritone have helped define Canadian indie rock since his first song, “Take,” hit the airwaves in 1993. With his latest release, Us Alone, Hayden continues to refine his unique blend of of alternative rock, folk, grunge, and country.

Us Alone shows off a few shifts in Hayden’s sound, and it hints at a new direction for his career. After a long relationship with Universal, Hayden put out this latest record on the Toronto-based independent label Arts & Crafts. His first release in four years, Us Alone is in many ways a far lonelier album than those that came before. It’s bare and sparse, with fuzzy, layered production. Hayden recorded it in his home studio and also played all of the instruments, which increases the record’s sense of isolation. Us Alone hovers somewhere between plaintive minimalism and nebulous drowsiness, which is to say that it’s not always successful, but it’s always atmospheric and emotionally authentic.

It’s often the unexpected elements that make tracks on Us Alone stand out. Lou Canon’s ethereal, expressive voice gives “Blurry Nights” a more dynamic and energetic feel, while the organ in “Oh Memory” adds swelling emotion and a strange note of dignity. It’s the most straightforward Hayden song that ends up being the core of the album; “Almost Everything” is part original story, part clear-eyed musing on aging and changing priorities. It’s a song by an artist who still loves writing and playing more than almost everything in the world. There is a warmth and maturity now beneath the aching melancholy. It suits Hayden extremely well, and makes Us Alone a welcome step forward.

DIRECTED BY JOHN KASTNER (Canada, Canadian Spectrum)

SCREENINGS:

Sunday, April 28, 9:30 p.m.
Elisabeth Bader Theatre (93 Charles Street West)

Tuesday, April 30, 3:30 p.m.
Scotiabank Theatre (259 Richmond Street West)

Sunday, May 5, 1 p.m.
TIFF Bell Lightbox (350 King Street West)

In 1999, Sean Clifton, who was suffering from severe untreated mental illnesses, stabbed and nearly killed Julie Bouvier in front of a Walmart in Cornwall, Ontario. Not Criminally Responsible finds Clifton 12 years later, as he makes incredible strides towards recovery after spending years in a psychiatric hospital.

The documentary follows Clifton through the process of applying to a review board for a conditional release, which would allow him greater freedom. His quest for healing and forgiveness is juxtaposed with the still-raw pain of his victim. This is the real strength of Not Criminally Responsible: it manages the audience’s sympathies with subtlety and grace, shifting fluidly between Sean and Julie as the narrative unfolds.

Writer, director, and producer Jon Kastner presents an incredibly complete portrait of Clifton and the vast support and monitoring network set up around him. Where Not Criminally Responsible suffers are moments when it strains to be dramatic. It succeeds where it lingers over moments of human awkwardness: Clifton in his bathrobe, Julie’s father overcome with emotion in the middle of his interview, Clifton’s roommate demonstrating his martial arts moves to an outreach nurse. The film is surprisingly quiet and thoughtful, despite the violence at its centre.

It’s expected that a band will evolve over time, refining its technique, becoming more confident in its aesthetic, and getting more creative in its approach. Individual members will become more proficient with their instruments, band chemistry will increase, and songwriters and lyricists will take more mature approaches to crafting records. But sometimes, a band will suddenly leap forward, leaving fans breathless and winning over detractors. With Birthmarks, a new release on Paper Bag Records, Born Ruffians has achieved this.

After the Ruffians’ first record, Red, Yellow & Blue, the Toronto-based indie band stumbled a little with its sophomore release, Say It, which cooled the group’s precocious reputation by merely maintaining the status quo. Rather than becoming frustrated or flailing, Born Ruffians’ members took the opportunity to re-evaluate and collect themselves, returning to a dynamic that had worked for them in the past. Living and working together, the four of them holed up in a Stratford farmhouse to write together, and emerged with their finest work to date.

Born Ruffians have traded their anxious, spare sound for a more lush and full instrumentation—something with just as much energy but a great deal more confidence. The bubbling-over urgency that spoke of a kind of desperation is replaced by the ecstatic, feedback-drenched maturity of “Rage Flows,” the groovy good vibes of “Oceans Deep,” and the rich, thick, layered “So Slow.”

It is “Needle,” however, that stands out on an incredibly strong album. Fresh and verdant, with a palpable, trembling vulnerability, it is nonetheless defined by a strong chorus and an incredibly hooky, infectious structure. (You can listen to it by clicking the sample, above.) Smart, catchy, and wholly authentic, Birthmarks is a breath of fresh air.

Detail of Cléo‘s first cover image.

In 1962, French director Agnès Varda released Cléo de cinq à sept, a film that remains greatly respected for its sophisticated ways of approaching existentialism and mortality, all through a strong feminist lens. It’s from this film—and in response to its vivid and varied depiction of how women perceive and are perceived—that Cléo, a new journal of film, film culture and feminism, has drawn its name.

The editor and founder of Cléo, Kiva Reardon is the staff film writer at TheLoop.ca and has written for publications like Cinema Scope, Reverse Shot, and NOW Magazine (and also, incidentally, Torontoist). Cléo, however, has a different mandate than any of those outlets: first, to allow for a sophisticated and in-depth discussion of film, far beyond a review, through a feminist lens. And then, to provide opportunities for both emerging and established writers to publish their work. Other people involved in the project include managing editor Julia Cooper and contributing editor Mallory Andrews.

The journal will be published online on a quarterly basis, and so far there’s no charge for readers. The inaugural Spring 2013 issue is currently available. The theme of the issue, “flesh,” is explored in various ways. One essay examines body politics and biology in Zero Dark Thirty; another looks at the radical (and often extremely uncomfortable) ways that intimacy is portrayed in 1997′s Gummo and 2012′s Spring Breakers, both written and directed by Harmony Korine. Somewhere between an academic journal and mainstream film review, Cléo’s first issue artfully walks the line between accessibility and in-depth, well-researched inquiry.

The journal is currently accepting submissions for its second issue, the theme of which will be “home.” 200-word abstracts are due by May 1st 2013. As the editors explain: “for our second instalment we are interested in the ways space is rendered both onscreen and off. The topic of home is an opportunity to critically engage with gendered spaces.”

Just three months in, 2013 has already been an excellent year for Toronto-based indie-pop musician Maylee Todd. The video for “Baby’s Got It,” one of the singles off her sophomore album, was nominated for the inaugural Prism Prize, which celebrates Canadian music videos. And now that album, the breezy and soulful Escapology, has been released by Do Right! Music.

Todd comes from an impressive musical pedigree, and has been associated with several of Toronto’s most beloved (and most delightfully weird) pop and indie-rock acts—for instance, The Bicycles, Woodhands, and Henri Fabergé and the Adorables. More recently, she contributed vocals to Bob Wiseman’s conceptual album, Giulietta Masina At The Oscars Crying.

An eclectic performer and songwriter, Todd is drawn to a variety of styles and influences, including jazz instrumentation, soul vocals, and even brassy, energetic bossa nova. And yet it’s her disco influence that stands out on Escapology, though the record never succumbs to mimicry. The song structures are employed cleverly enough that the sound never feels retro.

Todd’s voice is a highlight. She’s capable of producing a smooth, sleek, almost buttery tone for the more lighthearted numbers, or committing to a more gravelling, insistent croon at moments of longing or rebuke.

As well as the previously mentioned “Baby’s Got It,” Escapology also includes the single “Hieroglyphics,” a heavily disco-inspired number with an irresistible sweetness. Another album highlight is the more spirited and cosmic “Do You Know What It Is,” which comes across as the best kind of high-energy, no-nonsense telling off and dressing down of a badly behaved lover. (You can listen to “Do You Know What It Is” by clicking the sample, above.) Escapology is at times giddy and even frivolous, but its powerful, clear voice remains its core strength.

Music videos, often seen as indispensable for promoting an album, are seldom appreciated as an art form in and of themselves. While the videos are often creative and powerful, containing strange, sometimes psychedelic imagery and complex, unconventional narratives, all constrained by the length of a single song, it’s a form of filmmaking often confined as an auxiliary product to the music itself. The Prism Prize, founded in 2012, seeks to counteract this by becoming the first “national juried award recognizing the artistry of the modern music video in Canada.”

The winner of the first annual prize was announced last night, with the honour going to the video for “Brian Wilson is A.L.I.V.E.” by Halifax-based indie rock musician Rich Aucoin, off of his Polaris-Prize-long-listed record We’re All Dying To Live. The video, directed by Noah Pink, forms a biography of legendary Beach Boys singer and band leader Brian Wilson. The video includes seminal moments in Wilson’s life and career while also recreating classic Beach Boys album covers. At the video’s climax, Aucoin, who portrays Wilson, lies in a bed in a fat suit surrounded by floating pill bottles. Then he is transformed and renewed, returning to stage to perform as an older man. In addition to the critical acclaim that the award brings, the winning video also earns a $5,000 cash prize.

The Prism Prize also gave out an Audience Award, the winner of which was based on a public poll gathered by media partners Exclaim! and the Grid. This award went to Arcade Fire for their video for “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains).”

The Prism Prize was founded by current Executive Director Louis Calabro, who is the manager of the Canadian Screen Awards for the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Calabro has also founded Goin’ Steady Productions and the performance series The End of the Internet. The prize’s creative director position is occupied by Neil Haverty, perhaps best known for being a member of the band Bruce Peninsula. Videos released from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012 were eligible for this year’s award, and a winner was chosen by over 90 jurors who went through two rounds of voting. Other nominees for the award included “Two Reasons” by Young Rival, directed by John Smith; “Genesis” by Grimes, directed by Claire Boucher; “Hoshi Neko” by Yamantaka // Sonic Titan, directed by Ruby Kato Attwood and Emily Pelstring; “HYFR” by Drake, directed by X; “The Sticks” by Mother Mother, directed by Chad VanGaalen; “Oblivion” by Grimes, directed by Emily Kai Bock; “Baby’s Got It” by Maylee Todd, directed by Reynard Li; and “Wet Blanket” by METZ, directed by Scott Cudmore.

The Highest Order formed in early 2012 after its members found good fortune in an unfortunate situation: while alternative-country band One Hundred Dollars was on tour, drummer Dave Clarke was unable to participate in one leg. The band recruited Simone TB (Ell V Gore) as a replacement. She had such great chemistry with the group that vocalist and guitarist Simone Schmidt, vocalist and guitarist Paul Mortimer, and bassist Kyle Porter started a new project with with her.

Since then, The Highest Order has been making a name for itself by composing and performing spacey, psychedelic country that’s as strange at it is soulful. The group’s debut, If It’s Real, was just released by Toronto-based Idée Fixe Records on March 19. It’s remarkable for its unusual juxtaposition of pliant, plaintive country aesthetics with cosmic song structures and subject matter. It’s equal parts hard Western and Carl Sagan, trailing as much stardust as tobacco smoke.

While there are certain points of overlap between One Hundred Dollars and The Highest Order, there’s no doubt that The Highest Order is a distinct entity. It’s true that If It’s Real has a pleading, yearning quality that fans of One Hundred Dollars will recognize, and Simone Schmidt’s powerful, moving voice is again a keystone to the sound, but that’s where the similarities end.

In The Highest Order’s music, Mortimer’s guitar work comes to the fore, bringing with it a bit of psychedelia. The biggest difference is Simone TB’s drumming style, which doesn’t sound like country it all. It has more in common with noise rock and even garage punk. She brings a riotous, heavy, cacophonous quality that keeps the tone from becoming too smooth and chill, reminding the listener that amoung those serene stars and black holes are supernovae.

Listen to “The Crying Game” off If It’s Real by clicking on the sample above.

Canadian Music Week has many things for many different types of music fans. Those who love indie rock, roots, or electronic dance music will find their musical preferences well represented. Even alternative and hard-rock showcases are relatively plentiful. But for fans of more aggressive music—namely heavy metal, hardcore, and punk (when not watered down with a heavy dose of pop)—the pickings are considerably slimmer.

Even so, thanks to some touring packages becoming a part of CMW and a few small-but-mighty showcases, headbangers and moshers alike will have some reason to attend this year’s festival.

Soilwork

When: Wednesday, March 20, doors at 6 p.m.
Where: The Opera House (735 Queen Street East)

Swedish melodic death-metal veterans Soilwork headline CMW’s first major metal event. Also on the bill is legendary Nevermore guitarist Jeff Loomis, who will doubtless provide metal fans with some blistering solo work. Supporting acts Bonded by Blood and Hatchet will supply some thrash-metal intensity early on, while hardworking epic-metal regulars Blackguard will bring a touch of the fantastical.

Coheed and Cambria

When: Thursday, March 21, 9:45 p.m.
Where: Sound Academy (11 Polson Street)

For those who like it rough, there’s always progressive rock and post-hardcore giant Coheed and Cambria. Taken together, all the band’s albums form a unified science-fiction epic, written by vocalist Claudio Sanchez. Coheed is still perhaps best known for “Welcome Home,” from the album Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star, which was included in the original Rock Band video game. Also playing at this show are punk acts Mockingbird Wish Me Luck and A Place to Bury Strangers.

Protest the Hero

When: Friday, March 22, 9:30 p.m.
Where: The Hoxton (69 Bathurst Street)

While CMW is light on pure metal acts, there are several lineups that include metal, punk, and hardcore influences, one example being Protest the Hero’s headlining show. The bill has plenty of metallic weight and crunch surrounding a hard-rock core. Punk, metal, and metalcore support will be provided by Waster, and Machines.

As I Lay Dying

When: Saturday, March 23, doors at 6 p.m.
Where: Sound Academy (11 Polson Street)

Metalcore heavyweights As I Lay Dying will be playing Sound Academy, with support from The Devil Wears Prada, For Today, and mathcore band The Chariot.

Long Winter Festival, Hosted by Fucked Up

When: Saturday, March 23, doors at 8 p.m.
Where: The Great Hall (1087 Queen Street West)

Beloved Toronto hardcore-punk darlings Fucked Up will be hosting the most recent edition of their winter-long multi-arts festival, Long Winter. The musical lineup includes hardcore warriors Burning Love. In addition to the music, the event will feature art installations, film screenings, and even video games.

Canadian Music Festival Closing Party

When: Sunday, March 24, doors at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Bovine Sex Club (542 Queen Street West)

By this point in the week, a normal person would have succumbed to sheer exhaustion and ear fatigue, but for those metal fans still hungry for more, a metal showcase starts off the festival’s closing party. Canadian thrash metallers Razorwire, Untimely Demise, and and Mastery will lay waste to the crowd before the show switches gears. A set defined by house music and EDM will take over into the small hours.

CORRECTION: March 19, 2013, 11:55 PM This article originally misstated the name of the band Mockingbird Wish Me Luck.

Revealing the Early Renaissance
Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas Street West)
March 16 to June 16
$25 adult admission (includes admission to the rest of the gallery)

As black smoke billowed from the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday, indicating that the conclave of cardinals had yet to choose a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, a little bit of the Vatican was unveiled at the Art Gallery of Ontario. A new exhibit, called “Revealing the Early Renaissance: Stories and Secrets in Florentine Art,” features work from the very beginning of the Renaissance, in 14th-century Florence. It opens to the public on Saturday.

The art featured in the exhibit—which includes altar pieces, panel paintings, sculptures, and illuminated manuscripts—was produced in a city that had recently become a trade hub. Suddenly populated by a wealthy merchant class, Florence was also wrestling with newfound anxiety. Its people created a great deal of extraordinary devotional art as a result.

The exhibit, over ten years in the making, was the product of a vast network of negotiations and generous lending agreements with other institutions. The Getty Museum, in Los Angeles, partnered with the AGO in order to bring it all to Toronto. (Many of the pieces that are now at the AGO recently appeared in the Getty’s exhibition, “Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance,” which ran until February 10.)

One of the highlights of the exhibit is the work of an anonymous artist known only as The Master of the Codex of Saint George, who created both panel paintings and illuminated manuscripts that are considered to have been over a century ahead of their time. The crown jewel of the exhibit may very well be the Codex of Saint George itself, an exquisite manuscript from the Vatican library that is appearing in North America for the very first time. In fact, the book only arrived at the AGO Tuesday morning, much to the joy and great relief of the curators.

Another highlight is a room that houses 24 pages from a song book known as the Laudario of Sant’Agnese. Commissioned by a group of wealthy merchants and traders, the book was a hymnal—a collection of songs of praise. The beautifully illustrated book includes scenes from the life of Christ as well as the stories of some of the saints (including a few gruesome martyrdoms). There are even illustrations of the merchants themselves. The book was eventually split apart, because each page was invaluable in and of itself. For the AGO’s exhibit, 24 of the pages have been brought together. Recordings of songs of praise from the book, as interpreted by the choral chamber group Lionheart, are played softly in the background while visitors wander through the space. On April 6 at 2 p.m., Lionheart will perform songs from the Laudario live.

A rich and varied show, “Revealing the Early Renaissance” will appeal to a broad range of art fans, especially those of a literary bent. While each piece is stunning on its own (don’t miss the beautiful, illuminated copy of Dante’s Inferno), the rich, jewel-like pieces truly shine as a group.

CORRECTION: March 14, 2013, 2:05 AM This post originally contained a number of inaccuracies. It said, incorrectly, that works in “Revealing the Early Renaissance” date from the the 13th and 14th centuries. In fact, only 14th-century works are included. The post also mentioned “marble reliefs,” none of which appear as part of the exhibit. Also, the post originally claimed that the Codex of Saint George has never before been seen outside the Vatican library. In fact, it has, on rare occasions, traveled to other institutions. This is the first time it has come to North America.

Several photo captions contained incorrect information. Image five depicts not a “scene from the last judgement,” but St. Michael slaying a dragon. Image 15 is a picture of a vinyl reproduction of Pacino di Bonaguida’s Tree of Life, not a picture of the original work. Image 16 is not from the Laudario of Sant’Agnese; it’s from another work. The caption on image 17 misspelled Maestro Daddesco’s name.

Image courtesy of Ubisoft.

Torontoist has had many reasons to be proud of Jill Murray over the years. First, the former staffer broke into the publishing world with the release of her first book in 2008—a YA novel entitled Break On Through, about a young breakdancer in Toronto. Five years later, after another book (Rhythm and Blues) and a career change, Murray is now writing for video games at Ubisoft, one of the world’s most respected gaming companies. Recently, Murray’s script for the Playstation Vita game Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, which she co-wrote with Richard Faresse, won the Writer’s Guild of America award for Outstanding Achievement in Video Game Writing.

Murray, who now lives in Montréal and frequently travels to Bulgaria, where Ubisoft also has offices, took the time to chat with us about making a career in games, her YA writing career, and opportunities that exist for budding games writers right here in Toronto.

Torontoist: How did your professional writing career begin? Where were you first published and how did you go about making writing your career?

Jill Murray: I’m more of a worker bee writer than a “just love to write” writer, so I’ve never really written anything without the intention of some kind of publication or performance. The visible arc of my career began in 1997, when I wrote and produced a musical for kids at the Montreal Fringe Festival. Then I felt burnt out and didn’t write anything but school assignments for the next five years or so. After finishing theatre school and working in web development for a while, my life lacked anxiety, so I started writing novels and blogging. I found an agent and had two books published by Doubleday Canada in 2008 and 2010. Finally, I started writing for games in 2011, and that brings us to now.

You’ve written two YA novels, both related to the entertainment industry. Why R&B and breakdancing?

While toiling away in obscurity before writing Break On Through, I used breakdance lessons with shebang! (and later at Street Dance Academy, where I eventually launched Break on Through) to keep from becoming a sedentary lump. The dance itself, and the tenacity of the people who do it well, inspired me to write Break On Through. Rhythm and Blues takes a character from the first book on a new adventure. Since all through Break On Through, she loved the worst kind of auto-tuned pop-R&B, the music industry is where that book went. Thankfully, though, there is no auto-tune in reading.

Your novels are set in Toronto. What about the city makes it an interesting setting for a YA novel?

In Break On Through, the character Nadine lives in a fictional suburb of Toronto and spends more than half the book complaining about it. She wants to get back to Parkdale, where she grew up, and where her old crew is, and everything is familiar and she knows how to fit in. This was for mostly the wrong reasons, since in the book those guys in her old crew are jerks. But the energy of the city, the mix of people, and the ability to almost decide who you want to be by choosing your neighbourhood are inspiring to her. I grew up in the suburbs, so the city was always aspirational to me.

When did you develop an interest in writing for video games, and how did you make the leap into the industry?

In 2010, I came home exhausted and deflated from a difficult research trip to Ethiopia. I guess burnout is a recurring theme. A long time prior, when I decided to write novels, I intentionally uninstalled every game from my PC, because it was obvious that I could either be a novelist, or have Civilization installed in my work environment. Burnout removed this compulsion for discipline, and drove me to the couch, where I sat about wearing the Xbox down into a molten plastic lump, one game at a time. I think it was about 48 hours into the Mass Effect series that I suddenly realized, in all-caps, WAIT! SOMEBODY IS WRITING THESE! Since I was living in Montréal by then, someone was probably writing them like, DOWN THE STREET which meant THAT PERSON COULD BE ME. So I started learning as much as I could about the industry and meeting people at events and on Twitter. This industry is incredibly welcoming, and the right project came along quickly at Ubisoft.

You’ve shipped two games so far, one of which was Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, with Ubisoft. How were you able to acquire such a coveted assignment early on in your games-writing career?

My first game, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012, shipped in November 2011. From there, the story is incredibly boring. I had finished my work on Your Shape, and was waiting to find out what else I might be able to work on, when my colleague Richard Faresse asked if I wanted to help him out on this project with this 18th century Hatian/French girl assassin. I thought maybe it was because of my books, which also have that multicultural-girl-adventure thing happening, but he hadn’t read them. So basically, I got to work on that project because I was there. Just getting in the building is the most important step in a game writing career.

What kind of response have you received to your work on Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation?

You tend not to get many responses directly to your writing when you work on a game, which is exactly as it should be. A game is the sum of so many things, and although game writers love game writing, most of us actually prioritize gameplay, and how it can be harnessed for storytelling. We did win this nifty Writer’s Guild of America Award, though. And people seem to really enjoy playing as Aveline. I’ve also been invited to give a talk on writing diverse game characters at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco at the end of March.

What were some of the challenges of writing the script? What are you most proud of?

The biggest challenge on Liberation was the distance in time and space between Ubisoft Montréal, where I work, and Ubisoft Sofia, in Bulgaria, where the game was actually developed. I was joking the other day that I’ve never finalized a mission without the influence of jet lag.

I am most proud of Aveline’s voice and character, which we were ultimately given a lot of trust and freedom to develop as fully as we hoped. I am also proud of Ubisoft for producing the game, and the team in Sofia for coming up with Aveline as a character in the first place. Female protagonists and characters of colour are rare to see, and it’s heartening that she has been so widely embraced

What does the award mean for your career?

I love the award. It’s heavy and shiny, and it let me go to a nice party, and also speak on a game-writing panel with some really excellent writers, and most of all it means someone read our script. But I’m already working on the next game (I’m like a foreign correspondent for the recently announced Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, so it’s back to jet lag for me), and nothing changes there. Work is work and I like it that way.

What advice would you give someone who was interested in making the leap into writing for games?

Play, write, and read as much as possible. Make some games. Get to know the industry as well as you can. In Toronto, start with the IGDA, the Hand-Eye Society, Gamercamp, and Dames Making Games. Online, use Twitter to branch out and find people working in your own niche. The people in this industry are overwhelmingly warm, enthusiastic, and helpful, and we will happily absorb you into our orbit the moment we detect you’re sincere and genuinely interested in making great games, whatever that means to you.

Thanks to Jonathan Goldsbie (also a former contributor!) who alerted us to Murray’s WGA win.