Apple features Saskatoon's Noodlecake as 1 of 'Canada's best game makers'

Noodlecake's Ryan Holowaty says the best thing about being a featured developer in an Apple celebration of Canadian video game makers is that it helps put Saskatoon on the map in the gaming world.

"Games are being made here in Saskatoon and people don't necessarily realize that," said Holowaty, the vice-president of marketing and business development for NoodlecakeStudios.

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"A lot of them think everything is done either in Vancouver or Toronto ... there's actually some really amazing tech work going on in Saskatchewan and this kind of helps put Saskatchewan on the map a little bit more nationwide."

Recognition is part of Canada 150 feature

The tech giant iscurrently featuring Canadian game developers at the Apple App Store in recognition of Canada's 150th anniversary of Confederation.

Noodlecake is the first of "Canada's best game makers" to be featured, putting them on the front page of Apple's Canadian app store.

The feature includes a profile of the company andrecognition that it is based in Saskatoon.

Holowaty said it was important to spread the word that it's not essential to leave Saskatchewan for a career in the tech industries.

Not just oil and gas in Sask.

"Everybody just assumes around here that you have to be in agriculture or oil and gas and those industries," said Holowaty.

"The computer science programs and things at the university are doing great work and there's different industriesin the tech side that people can get into, especially from a career standpoint."

Noodlecake's work is a combination of creating its own games and helping to publish games made by other developers around the world.

The company was founded by Jordan Schidlowsky and Ty Haugen and most of the people who are involved with Noodlecake are University of Saskatchewan graduates.Its latest game, Invert, was created by a team in Denmark.

Holowaty hopes that the industry in Saskatchewan will begin to grow.

"This gives a lot of interest to young students who are coming up and can realize that this is a career that they can have here in Saskatoon, and not necessarily something they maybe thought that they could even do without moving," he said.