Toronto-made North Shore explores the ‘beauty and danger’ of skating in Canadian nature

Whereas hockey is a well-liked sport, particularly in Canada, there aren’t many video video games that really characteristic ice skating as a central mechanic. Probably the most outstanding instance, after all, could be EA Vancouver’s NHL games, however even then, they’re relegated to the inflexible framework of enjoying hockey inside a rink.

That’s a part of what makes North Shore so notable. The debut title from Toronto-based Ravine Studios is a top-down skating recreation, placing gamers within the sneakers of a kid who explores the mysterious and exquisite titular expanse that’s based mostly on Southern Ontario and Quebec landscapes.

It’s an intriguing premise for a recreation, and it’s one that pulls heavy inspiration from the Ontario upbringing of Ravine co-founder Nick Counter.

“I began skating once I was, like, three years previous, but it surely was at all times on ponds after which additionally [in] hockey rinks,” says Counter, who grew up in numerous components of the province resulting from having household in each the Lake Huron and Rideau Lakes areas. “I continued to skate ceaselessly, after which simply hung out in areas in nature, skating in nature.”

But it surely wasn’t till he studied illustration at OCAD the place he realized he needed to do one thing creative that channelled his lifelong love of hockey and video video games. And after assembly programmer Dante Camarena at a tech firm a number of years in the past and dealing on a recreation referred to as Little Learning Machines, they’d ultimately determine to department out and make one thing of their very own collectively.

“We needed one other shot at attempting to make one thing [to make] the participant really feel and have this explicit expertise, and we wish to do it with integrity from starting to the tip,” says Camarena. “And with that in thoughts, that’s how we ended up beginning the studio.”

As they seemed via Counter’s previous sketchbooks, they each preferred an idea that he’d had for a battle royale recreation involving skating and hockey sticks. However as they performed round with the precise mechanics of skating, they determined they might do one thing extra distinctive by pivoting to a extra exploration-centric gameplay loop that drew from Counter’s experiences within the Canadian wilderness.

The Backdrop and prints on the sales space had been made by @seanislewis.bsky.social.

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— North Shore – Ravine Studios (@ravinestudios.ca) January 15, 2026 at 4:38 PM

“I’ve at all times been involved in skating, as a result of if you’re on the ice, particularly at night time in these totally different locations out of town into the Canadian Defend — until you’re a boater, which lots of people aren’t — you don’t see the panorama from this angle,” says Counter. “We went with a top-down perspective for various causes, however simply seeing this sort of house that’s usually inaccessible with velocity is cool, as a result of it’s like a secret place with velocity and confidence.”

Counter says the top-down view additionally affords the sport some novel presentational components.

“This house permits for a lot as a result of we will take care of ice reflections. If it’s completely reflective, you may be skating the clouds, mainly. If it’s tough, then it’s distorted. You even have the feel of the ice, after which you have got the transparency of the ice,” he says. “So due to this angle, you possibly can see the whole lot under, probably, if we mean you can, after which the whole lot above, so that you truly are collapsing the peak right into a single layer, which was a giant inspiration for us early on.”

Via that POV, Ravine is pulling inspiration from most of the items of Canadian art work that Counter noticed as an OCAD pupil whereas visiting the Artwork Gallery of Ontario (AGO). Particularly, he says he was in awe over the “non secular” high quality of Indigenous artwork and the works of artists just like the Group of Seven and Cornelius Krieghoff. “I simply wish to be in that house on a regular basis, and so I made this recreation so I may be on the market extra,” he says.

He additionally credit a instructor whereas he was at OCAD, the Toronto-born, London, England-based painter Stephen Appleby-Barr, for creating what he likens to “Canadiana Dungeons & Dragons” that actually spoke to his nerdier pursuits. “Seeing fantasy, which I really like a lot, and Canadiana, merged into these actually 10-foot tall oil work which can be lovely — that was the primary huge affect.”

These creative influences, plus his experiences exploring Canadian nature, finally formed what Counter needed to seize in North Shore.

“Coming from a nerdy recreation childhood, minimalism is necessary in video games. It’s truly a rendering model. And the work’s already type of been achieved, and it’s culturally related,” says Counter. “I adore it a lot. We see the Canadian panorama painted on the AGO and on the Nationwide Gallery and stuff. However I don’t know what number of video games — there’s a couple of of them — that seize that in the identical type of approach.”

The great previous skating recreation

However after all, it’s not sufficient to only have a reasonably, painterly recreation — you need it to truly be entertaining to play. Curiously sufficient, Counter says one of many early inspirations for the “enjoyable” of North Shore got here from a maybe surprising supply: Mario Kart.

“I used to work at a studio earlier than [Dante and I] met, the place each night time after we labored, we performed Mario Kart, and we turned actually good — like execs, mainly,” he says with amusing. “And when it got here as much as the thought of [North Shore], we needed to make one thing quick and reactive.”

From there, Camarena would report Counter skating on the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC) in Toronto to higher perceive the physics of his particular person actions, on high of finding out skating footage from different skilled references. “I didn’t know what crossovers are!” admits Camarena, referring to the stroking technique for gaining velocity whereas moving into a curve or circle.

“Should you’ve seen the Olympics not too long ago, a lot of the routines are simply managing weight, so we had been like, ‘Ought to we management that?’ There’s a sure stage of complexity you possibly can handle, and I may see the complexities in it,” he says.

“Proper now within the demo individuals have been enjoying [at events like GDC], there’s a button that allows you to flip backwards, and swiftly you’re skating backwards, after which you possibly can flip forwards […] However then, you faucet the button, you begin spinning, after which the course you spin is determined by which approach you’re going through or which approach you’re turning. So all of it turns into this sort of fluid dance that’s bizarre for an journey recreation.”

Finally, he realized that it was necessary to not simply concentrate on ahead momentum. “It’s not like a automobile the place you’re going ahead, or strolling, which simply appears like going ahead. Skating has this kick to it, so within the demo, each time you press A, you kick. However then, if you happen to maintain A, you retain your foot up,” he says.

“Controlling your acceleration with a single button was the early revelation,” provides Counter.

However carefree skating isn’t the one a part of North Shore. The sport’s official description mentions “scenes of pure magnificence and hazard,” which Camarena breaks right down to emotions of roughly “80 per cent cozy, 20 per cent horror.” In direction of the tip of the trailer, you may get a glimpse at that because the participant should fend off mysterious enemies with a looking rifle. This feeds into a bigger story that Ravine isn’t fairly prepared to speak about. However the overarching concept behind all of it, Camarena explains, comes from an “completely terrifying portray” that he discovered whereas trying via Counter’s portfolio.

“It speaks to a few of these tales that [Nick’s] been telling about being out within the woods, and enjoying with your mates, and so they’re enjoying with sticks, possibly swords or no matter, and one child factors the stick on the different child, and ‘Bam!’ After which the portray itself exhibits the opposite child on the bottom. There are issues we do as children which can be darkish,” says Camarena.

He likens this to biking round within the streets of Mexico as a boy.

“I feel that’s a common expertise; if you’re a child, the world feels secure, and there are locations you discover, and swiftly, issues shift as an grownup. All of the locations you had been left alone in as a child are very scary,” he says. “And never solely that, the best way you and your mates possibly performed throughout that point — was that actually that secure? The environments you had been in — had been they actually that secure?” he says.

The purpose, Camarena notes, was to discover the “inherent brutality” behind the world.

“There’s a deep darkness within the Canadian house that’s very distinctive. It’s not simply the darkness of nature, however there’s a historical past of the best way that this house has been developed over time,” he says. “And a part of that may be a very human darkness. And having the ability to contact on a few of that is essential. There’s issue there, however we’re attempting to hit it in the correct approach.”

North Shore doesn’t but have a launch date, however you possibly can wishlist the sport on Steam.

Picture credit score: North Shore