Games First Helsinki 2015 & IGDA Finland May Gathering

Hundreds of game devs flocked to Cable Factory on Tuesday, May 12, as Games First 2015 took place. The event, hosted once again by Supercell, consisted of hours of talks and lots of good times with like-minded industry professionals. Sufficient supplies of coffee, candy and cola kept the spirits high throughout the day and when the clock hit 7 PM we were treated to some delicious drinks while mingling.

The day started with veteran game designer Rob Pardo offering his insight on designing multiplayer games. He’s had his hands on major Blizzard titles such as World of Warcraft, Diablo series, Starcraft and Hearthstone so obviously we were quite thrilled to hear what he had to say on the topic.

Pardo’s talk was followed by Karoliina Korppoo’s presentation on the hugely successful Cities: Skylines. As the lead designer of the game she told us a bit of how it all came together and why it became a Steam blockbuster.

In the afternoon Thomas Puha took us down the memory lane as we were shown some of the defining moments in Finnish gaming history. Looking through the slides it was an excellent reminder that we’ve got a great thing going on here!

The last but not least presentation was held by Chief Pat and Galadon, two of the most renowned Clash of Clans YouTubers. They spoke about the mutually beneficial relationship game companies and YouTubers can have; about why it’s good for both parties and how to get the community excited and creating content about your game.

After all the talks were done it was time for the grand finale: a few dozen studios from Finland and around the world showed what they were working on in 3-minute pitches. The pitching sessions included a very wide array of different types of games in terms of genre – platform-wise the trend was clearly more focused on mobile devices.

The day was brought to an end by a feast appropriate to the festive spirit of the event. With bellies full from the delicious dinner everyone was ready to rock in a true afterparty fashion, and I believe I can say on behalf of all guests: thank you Supercell for another awesome event and we hope there’s many more to come!