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Built for collaboration
Ideas become worlds when the right people find each other.
The Northern Ontario Game Incubation Network was registered as an Ontario not-for-profit corporation in 2026. We are building a stronger game-design ecosystem in the North—and inviting people with different skills to help shape it from the beginning.
Talent is already here.
Sudbury is an education hub, with game, design, and business programs at Cambrian College, Collège Boréal, and Laurentian University. Yet limited local career opportunities often push graduates elsewhere or into different fields.
Independent studios need more than talent.
Local developers with vision and determination quickly discover how difficult it is to gain traction without a strong network, practical support, and a path to sustainable growth.
Timeto explore and build
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Teamto combine capabilities
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Moneyto create momentum
No one resource is enough on its own. NOGIN aims to become the missing link to connecting people, projects, mentorship, and opportunity so Northern ideas can become real experiences.
Meet the team
Different disciplines. One shared mission.
Director of Operations & World Building
John Borowski
John is an environment artist whose love of world building began with LEGO, drawing, and early video games. Access to emerging technology, including a TurboGrafx-16 and an early 3D sandbox landscape that helped turn that curiosity into a lifelong passion for designed spaces.
His studies span Visual Arts, Fashion Business, Logistics, and Architecture. In 2020, he opened New Jack Designs, bringing those disciplines together through a practice rooted in thoughtful, imaginative design.
Director of Marketing & Public Relations
Kyle Vine
Kyle is a Sudbury marketer, filmmaker, entrepreneur, and storyteller with a decade of media experience through Poetry Ghost Productions. He has collaborated with small businesses, non-profits, artists, and community organizations while helping Northern voices share their stories.
His board and committee experience includes CIFS, Sudbury Arts Council, and the Sudbury Manitoulin Children’s Foundation. Away from work, he performs stand-up comedy, skateboards, produces short films, and remains relentlessly curious about creative people.
Creative & Technical Director
Patrick Gervais
Pat thrives in creative chaos and lives to solve complicated problems. A childhood spent immersed in strategy, horror, and role-playing games grew into experience across graphic design, photography, programming, user interfaces, and game mechanics.
After launching Pondersmith Games in 2020, Pat learned firsthand that ambitious games need strong teams. His work embraces contrast: intuitive surfaces with intricate depth, sleek systems with wild visuals, and haunting ideas that can still create space for recognition and healing.
Projects with purpose
Games can entertain, teach, connect, and change lives.
01
Project Nickel City
A high-fidelity digital Sudbury: part game, part community interface, and part learning platform. Explore the city, connect with local experiences, or build new ones while developing real game-design skills.
02
Youth Mentoring & Rehabilitation
Young people can learn game design while contributing to Project Nickel City and completing volunteer hours. Nogin also aims to create a constructive path for youth seeking mentorship, community service opportunities, or a positive new direction.
03
Surviving Opioids
A role-playing game about overcoming addiction and taking control of mental and physical health. Nogin has joined Pondersmith Games to help this ambitious, long-running project move toward completion.
Contact Nogin
What say you?
Questions, ideas, introductions, critiques, and strange-but-promising possibilities are welcome.