IGDA Finland & Unity special

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:

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:

IGDA Finland Little Xmas party with Remedy

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 Proudly Presents: Unity special on January 10th!

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

Epic IGDA Finland November Gathering with Supercell!

On November 8th something historical happened. IGDA Finland Gathering was organized together with Supercell and if something is hot in Finnish game industry, it’s gotta be Supercell! What was historical was the record audience! Supercell attracted nearly 300 partygoers to Cuba bar and made us to consider whether we should be moving to a bigger place! Thumbs up! Evening started with IGDA Finland Presentations session at MJK Auditorium just around the corner. Ilkka Paanenen, CEO of Supercell, gave a presentation of the company, Gunshine.net and company's upcoming titles. Session was quickly fully booked and the rest had to wait until Cuba bar to hear what's going on at Supercell. The bar was packed throughout the night. Mikko Kodisoja, Creative Director of Supercell, gave a presentation of their upcoming titles. What I heard, people would have loved to spend several seconds more per project. Impressive art! Clearly lots of quality titles in the pipeline. Supercell also announced their upcoming game Pets vs Orcs. To celebrate that they offered pink and green snaps to the brave ones who took their photo in front of Supercell logo wall. Supercell was generous enough to offer drink coupons also for those who didn’t take part in the photo shoot. IGDA Finland November Gathering together with Supercell was relaxed, record breaking and super fun night. One of those epic IGDA Finland nights that will be remembered for sure.

Traditional IGDA Finland Little Xmas Party with Remedy, December 13th!

There's still hard work to be done and games to be made before the Xmas holidays but worry not, there's also time to have some fun. IGDA Finland's traditional Little Xmas party sponsored by Remedy is only 13 nights away!

Silent night will be less silent when the Finnish game's industry invade the Cuba bar.

Remedy will be giving a sneak peak of their new upcoming title! We have a live band playing game music! You will of course bring in the great Xmas spirit! And if that's not enough for you...Remedy is also sponsoring drinks & snacks!

Hey, and if you've all been nice... Even Santa might visit us!

IGDA Finland December Gathering Tuesday, December, 13, 2011 at 7PM Cuba Bar, Erottaja 4, Helsinki Finland