Once again Finnish developers sheltered from our awful December weather in the warm and cozy Cuba bar at Erottaja. Imagine the surprise as on sign up they were transformed as Santa’s little helpers with free hats, cookies, drinks and gaming! In a moments of notice we had 154 little fellows running around and cherishing the magic of christmas games rush. Pictures say more than words, so browse our gallery for some insider feed on what everyone was talking about the next day.
Our generous sponsor for the evening was once again Nokia who needs little introduction with their new N-Gage platform pushing onward full steam and as a long time developer of mobile gaming solutions. Even more, the December gathering saw Little Big Planet enchanting visitors as kindly provided by Sony! There was a constant flow of people itching to dress up their character and have fun with three other players at a time. They probably spent more time waving their arms and making funny faces to each other than actually advancing in levels!
As a part of christmas magic we got a healthy bunch of new voluteers to join our ranks and held secret meetings for more awesomeness during the upcoming second half. Speaking for the whole IGDA Finland chapter team, we wish everyone a merry christmas and a lot of games for presents. You have earned it!
The IGDA Student Scholarship Program for GDC09 is now underway! If you’re a student interested in the field, be sure not to miss out the opportunity to meet the big guys of the gaming industry in San Francisco, California next March!
Through this program, if selected, you will receive a main conference pass with access to all sessions, roundtables and keynotes, an industry mentor that will introduce you around and a chance to visit a local studio and an orientation session as well. This is a big opportunity for anyone who is interested in getting his or her career off the ground! 
If you want to know more about what’s ahead, check out reports from previous winners, including Liz’s report from 2007. It’s also worth mentioning that there’s a forum post from one of the judges, Mr. David Weinstein, giving an insight in the judging process. The deadline for all applications is Thursday, January 15th, 2009.
Published on
December 5, 2008 in
News.
Everyone!
Welcome to the second part of this season report. You can find the previously published first part of the season report here.
During last season, which ended in summer 2008, IGDA Finland once again grew nicely. We didn’t quite reach the 30% yearly growth as previous season, but that just might be because we’re pretty much reaching the majority of the Finnish game industry by now. The latest published figures put the amount of jobs game industry jobs in Finland at around 1200-1300 (although this figure is from 2006 – we really need more up-to-date figures). During the season, our invitation mailing list grew 34% reaching 945 people and by the time of writing, we’ve already exceeded the 1000-mark!
Continue reading ‘2007-2008 Season Report, part 2: IGDA Finland Growth Continues’
