March gathering – full house celebrating Bugbear’s birthday

Bugbear was celebrating its 8th anniversary at the IGDA.fi party. In addition to free drinks the party goers were treated with a slot car racing track and T-shirts. Bugbear's birthday party speech proudly proclaimed Bugbear's as the worlds leading independent driving game developer [as all the other good ones had been bought off by publishers ;-)], and had a few interesting tidbits about Bugbear's next projects.

More photos from this event

Bugbear said that it is working on its biggest action driving game ever, which combines "FlatOut on steroids" with all new original stuff. The company also revealed its long term vision of expanding beyond pure driving. IGDA Finland gang is making virtual waves to Bugbear and wishing good luck for the future!

The birthday party attracted regular visitors from Helsinki area and Tampere but also several first-timers even as far as from Rovaniemi which is over 800 kilometers (nearly 520 miles) away! Besides the exciting news from Bugbear also GDC08 was well on view. Finnish game developers were again well represented at the GDC. The total turnout was close to (if not over) 100. Many interesting contacts and possibilities were kick started there and IGDA pub night at System Rock was an excellent place to celebrate the promising opportunities and good deals.

There was a steady flow of developers through the evening, with the total turnout as high as 210! The night lasted well over 3 am!

Next time we will start the night with IGDA Finland Presentations. See you all on 8th April!

March Gathering - 11th Tuesday

Greetings fellow developers!Yay! The long winter darkness is starting to fade slowly but surely with even occasional direct sunlight. :)

This month we have something special for the Finnish Game Industry! Bugbear is celebrating it's 8th birthday by sponsoring free drink tickets at March gathering!! So come, find out what the night has to offer and have couple free beverages while at it!

*IGDA FINLAND MARCH GATHERING* Place: System Rock, Keskuskatu 4, 00100 Helsinki (map: http://igda.fi/?page_id=5) Time: Tuesday 11th March, doors open at 19.00

See you there!

February Gathering -- tshuh! the flu season is here

Long and dark winter is getting to the bones of Finnish game developers. It is the flu season in Finland and that surely shows! In February IGDA pub night attendees were a bit few in number but strong in spirit! This time there was only about 80 attendees.Except pre-GDC chatting and local game industry news, the attendees filled out a questionnaire about the venue. There has been a discussion whether IGDA Finland should find a better venue for the pub nights. What do you think? Are you satisfied with System Rock? Don't be shy to share your opinions at the discussion forum. The results of the survey will be available soon and naturally we’ll share the details with you.

This time we would like to give props to long distance travelers from Tampere and industry activists from Universomo, Recoil, Sumea and Remedy!

Next pub night will take place on 11th of March. We shall be sharing the latest news from GDC and perhaps a little surprise for all of you from some of us :)

February Gathering - 5th Tuesday

Hey there! It's time for the second gathering of 2008! Winter seems to have skipped on us but IGDA Gathering has not! This time it's back to the basics, no presentations and sponsoring. So, come and enjoy couple beverages with your friends and just have good time - afterall "Tipaton Tammikuu" is officially over by 5th February! Or you can also come and bring in your Nintendo DS for some WiFi fun with fellow developer friends!! It's the same place and same time as usual.

*IGDA FINLAND FEBRUARY GATHERING* Place: System Rock, Keskuskatu 4, 00100 Helsinki (map: http://igda.fi/?page_id=5) Time: Tuesday 5th February, doors open at 19.00

See you there!

January gathering – Intimate and Interactive despite “tipaton tammikuu”

Year 2008 got a kick start on 8th of January when there were both IGDA Finland Presentations and a pub night in snowy Helsinki. This time IGDA Finland Presentations in association with Remedy was held at Papa Giovanni Showroom just opposite System Rock. The room was fully booked with 56 persons. It was especially good to see new people joining as well as individuals who usually don’t visit the pub nights -- something for all that is!

Pub night was in line with "tipaton tammikuu" (Alcohol-free January) with slightly less people than usual. This time 106 developers reached SystemRock. Both lectures and pub night attracted new faces which is always super! There were also regulars from Bugbear, Housemarque and Sumea. Also a group from Tampere were there again which can be seen as a challenge to fellow developers from other bigger towns like Oulu, Jyväskylä and Turku! Next time I am hoping to see other towns' strike forces joining the party!

For more photos of the events, Click here

The topic of IGDA Finland Presentations was "Tools". Kai Auvinen (Art Director) and Lassi Leppinen (Technical Director) from Digital Chocolate and Sami Vanhatalo (Lead Technical Artist) from Remedy talked about their design and development tools. The key lessons learned from the sessions were that mobile developers deal with short development cycles and broad range of handsets. Efficient tools shorten the production times and help to retain the quality. Sami Vanhatalo focused on Alan Wake and tools utilized in the development of the game. Sami showed some pretty impressive stills of their landscape texture tool and talked about the proper mix of public and internal tools. Check out Teemu Haila’s liveblog for details!

It was also delighting to see that not only Nokia but also game studios attract foreign talent to Finland. Sulake and Sumea have been doing pretty nice work with international recruitment – this time Recoil Games brought their foreign guests who were in Helsinki for an interview to the IGDA gathering. It was another cozy night with good discussions and a lot of hopes and wisher for the New Year!