New year started with a Unity Special on 10th of January. We organized IGDA Finland Presentations event focusing on Unity and IGDA Finland Gathering at Cuba bar was sponsored by Unity and Umbra. We have had more and more people attending both IGDA Finland Gatherings and Presentations events. Thus we are looking for bigger venues for the events. If you attended IGDA Finland Presentations event in January and would like to share your opinion about the venue, we are all ears.

At the IGDA Finland Presentations: Unity Special! we had Unity Evangelist Carl Callewaert & Sales Director Nick Jovic giving a hands on presentation of Unity. Next speakers were Sampo Lappalainen and Thomas Puha from Umbra, Finnish company specializing in rendering optimization middleware. Their presentation discussed what Umbra’s technology is and does and what kind benefits it offers. A version of Umbra’s technology is integrated into Unity. Thomas and Sampo gave some best practice advice on how to best take advantage of Umbra’s occlusion culling in Unity. Arto Koistinen from Dicework Games shared his tips and tricks and Damien Morello (Recoil Games / Colossal Order) shared lessons learned from Rochard project. Fantastic presentations! On top of all we had a special guest star Julie Heyde from Bandello. They focus on assisting independent developers from all corners of the video game industry, providing insight and know-how in the go-to-market process. If you are indie developer and need marketing help, talk to Julie.

Slides from the presentation session & Unity show reel:

• Arto’s slides
• Damien’s slides

Nick from Unity sent the showreel and this message – thanks to all IGDA Volunteers and everyone who attended (over 130 persons attended Presentations event!)!

“Unity would like to say a big thank you to Sonja for organising fantastic event and to everyone who attended the presentations and Cuba Bar! It was a great pleasure to present alongside, Recoil Games, Colossal Order and Dicework Games – thank you for providing such varied and inspiring content. The organisation and popularity of IGDA Finland is certainly impressive. I can’t wait for our next visit and to see you all again!”

After Presentations event we headed to Cuba where Unity and Umbra sponsored drinks. Thanks for those 185 who attended, great night!

Other IGDA Finland events in January:

• Pelinrakentajat exclusive screening
• Insider’s Insights
• Finnish Game Jam – public lecture event

Traditional IGDA Finland Little Xmas party was held on 13th December at Cuba bar. The party was organized together with Remedy Entertainment. Remedy had just announced the release of Alan Wake’s American Nightmare in February 2012. Along with a Alan Wake’s American Nightmare trailer, Remedy’s EVP Aki Järvilehto delivered their Holiday wishes to the whole Finnish game developers’ community.

Remedy also sponsored IGDA Finland Hoodies which means that from now on it is easier for you to recognize IGDA Finland staff at Cuba! Please come to talk to us if you have questions, suggestions regarding IGDA Gatherings, Presentation topics…

As a special gift, we had a band, Time Flux Invaders playing brilliant versions of game themes throughout the decades. Remedy treats, Holiday spirit, fantastic game music by Time Flux Invaders and latest news from Finnish game industry made the evening. This time there were 214 of us present! Wow! Thanks for 2011 and see you in 2012!

IGDA Finland is organizing Insider’s Insights – The Gaming Industry event with Aalto Entrepreneur society. The event is targeted at students but you are all welcome to join.

Where: Aalto Venture Garage, Otaniemi Espoo
When: 26th (see Link for details)

This is your change to put up a stand for FREE (!), make your game studio more known and/or do some recruitment! After presentations we’ll do mingle with game devs. We offer a possibility to put up a stand. All you need is to bring your laptop, game, extension cord, roll up… that’s all! Of course you are most welcome to bring other deco with you. Reserve your free table NOW: email sonja . kangas (at) igda . fi.

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Haluatteko esitellä yritystänne ja peliänne tapahtumassa? Puheosuuksien
jälkeen on tarjolla ruokaa, seurustelua ja pelifirmoihin tutustumista.
Tämä on hyvä tilaisuus tavoittaa etenkin potentiaalisia työntekijöitä.

Aalto Venture Garage:lla on kaikille valmiina pöytä, tarvittava määrä
tuoleja, langaton verkko ja sähköpistoke. Esittelyständien ei tarvitse
olla monimutkaisia siihen riittää vaikkapa:
- Rollup juliste
- Läppäri / iPad / kännykkä tai muu laite jossa peliänne voi demota
- Oma jatkojohto varalle mukaan, etenkin jos tarvitsee sähköä useammalle
kuin yhdelle laitteelle.
Toki muutakin rekvisiittaa voi olla, mutta esimerkiksi flätti näyttöjä
tai TV:eitä ei ole tarjolla kaikille jotenkin nämäkin tuodaan itse jos
niitä tarvitaan.

Paikalle mahtuu useita firmoja esittäytymään. Kerrothan meille pian jos
olet kiinnostunut tai sinulla on lisäkysymyksiä tilan suhteen.
Toteutamme demoalueen jos ainakin viisi firmaa on tulossa, jotta saadaan
sopivasti pöhinää aikaiseksi. Varaa pöytä HETI: sonja . kangas (@) igda . fi.

Happy New Year! IGDA Finland had a fantastic season 2010-2011 and we expect 2012 to be even better. We’ll start the year with a bang!

NOTE! IGDA Finland Presentations venue has changes: NEW VENUE
Aalto University building called Chydenia. The address: Runeberginkatu 22-24.

The first IGDA Finland Presentations and Gathering is on January 10th. Unity Evangelist Carl Callewaert will talk about the latest from Unity. On top of that we’ll hear presentations from Umbra, Recoil Games/Colossal Order and DiceWorks Games on utilizing Unity.

Sulake is sponsoring the IGDA Finland Presentations in 2012. The Presentations event will take place at: Lapuankatu 6. It is a bit further away from Cuba but you can either walk or take 3T tram from Kauppakorkeakoulu to Aleksanterinkatu stop.

The evening continues at the Cuba bar from 7PM onwards. Besides Carl, also Nick (Sales Director), Tomas (Unity XBox Lead Engineer) and Akouvi (Education licensing) from Unity will be joining us! Drinks will be offered by Unity & Umbra! Additionally Unity will have special program at Cuba. If you want to win a t-shirt and see something cool, better not to miss the party!

IGDA Finland January Presentations
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 5-7PM
Kauppakorkea auditorium, Chydenia, Runeberginkatu 22-24, Helsinki Finland
SIGN UP: Eventbrite

IGDA Finland January Gathering
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 7PM
Cuba Bar, Erottaja 4, Helsinki Finland

Other IGDA Finland activities in January:

YLE Teema “Pelinrakentajat” exclusive screening for IGDA Finland on 18th January. Andorra movie theatre, Eerikinkatu 11

Global Game Jam, various locations in Finland (Finnish Game Jam) 27th-29th January

YLE Teema provides an exclusive opportunity for the Finnish game developers community to see Pelinrakentajat documentary before the masses. The documentary film is in Finnish.

When & where: January 18th at 7PM, Andorra movie theater, downstairs of Corona Pub, at Eerikinkatu 11.

Register to the event: / rekisteröidy tapahtumaan täältä: http://pelinrakentajat.eventbrite.com/

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YLE Teema ja IGDA Finland kutsuvat teidät seuraamaan Pelinrakentajat dokumenttifilmin ekslusiivista ennakkoesitystä. Päivämäärä on 18. tammikuuta, kello 19. suomalaiset pelikehittäjät ovat lämpimästi tervetulleita Andorraan, Eerikinkatu 11 (alakerta).

Pelinrakentajat on YLE Teeman peli-illan avaava dokumentti. Suomalaisesta pelintekemisestä kertova tarina lähtee 90-luvun alun demoscenestä ja kulkee suurien konsolipelien ja pienempien kännykkäpelien kautta aina tähän päivään. Ennen kaikkea siitä tinkimättömyydestä ja intohimosta, minkä avulla Suomen peliteollisuus on noussut 20 vuodessa lähes tyhjästä merkittäväksi teollisuudenhaaraksi.

Dokumentissa on haastateltu kymmentä pelialan vaikuttajaa mm. Remedyltä, Housemarquelta,Bugbearilta, RedLynxiltä ja Roviolta.

Toimittaja Kaj Laaksonen
Ohjaaja Tommi Mattila
Tuotanto Markku Mastomäki
YLE Kulttuuri ja viihde 2012
Kesto 54 minuuttia
 
Tervetuloa! Welcome!