Kajaani Industry Beer, now also an IGDA Finland Hub!

Industry Beer gathering had been active for two years until last February we got the title of IGDA Finland Kajaani Hub! We are really excited to have Kajaani as one of the hubs of IGDA Finland.

Game scene has been active in Kajaani since 2007, when Kajaani University of Applied Sciences started Finland’s first professional game industry degrees. Our community has been growing and working together since the beginning.

Industry Beer started in 2011 as a local game industry gathering, where people could catch up and discuss their ideas. First there were less than 10 people and the event was organized irregularly, but others showed interest and the gathering exploded. Past two years the event has been a monthly event open for everyone interested.

Starting left, Lauri Komulainen, Mikko Romppainen, Janne Remes, Jermu Joki and Aku Mähönen at Rock House Kulma

Our organizers are actively putting Kajaani scene on the map, it is important for us that the young talent that starts in the small city like Kajaani, gets discovered when the time is right.

Visions of the theme presented by Ilkka Leino from Supercell.

Visions of the theme presented by Ilkka Leino from Supercell

Ilkka talked us about how their teams are self-guided at Supercell and how important it is to have someone holding the vision of the product. He also studied in Kajaani among us and it has been great to follow a young man moving forward on his career.

We had 100 visitors at the event which is a local record, and according to official statistics 40 of them became IGDA Finland members on the site. This clearly shows how active our local developers are, and if you would like to meet them come and visit us.

Contact one of the organizers below to plan your visit to Kajaani.

IGDA Finland Kajaani Hub Facebook Group
Linkedin Aku Mähönen
LinkedIn Janne Remes
LinkedIn Lauri Komulainen
LinkedIn Mikko Romppainen

IGDA Finland March Gathering with Next Games

Spring is slowly making it’s way to Finland. The weather is warming up and so are the monthly IGDA Gatherings!

Loads of guests showed up to El Jefe on Tuesday 10th March for the IGDA Finland March Gathering. Our sponsor, Next Games, brought the party to town! Thank you again for providing a free cloakroom service and drink tickets to our awesome guests.

During the “official” part of the evening Studio Head Jay Ranki told us a little about the history of Next Games but Executive Producer Sami Nurmio stole the show and had a grand surprise up his sleeve, because the crowd got to see a clip from “The Compass Point: West”, the first part of a new mobile game series from Next Games. If you would like to be a gunslinger in the Wild West, you can pick up the app for free on the App Store.

The rest of the night was spent socializing and of course talking about “The Compass Point: West”.

Thanks to everyone for a great night. We will see you again in April!

IGDA March Gathering with Next Games

March is near and so is the next IGDA Gathering! Join us and our sponsor for a very special event, as they show us what they've been up to.

It's exciting time for Next Games with Compass Point: West launch just around the corner! At the March IGDA gathering, Next Games wants to share the excitement with all of you and give you a sneak peek of what the game is all about.

IGDA Finland March Gathering Time: 10.03.2015 at 19:00 Place: El Jefe, Erottaja 15-17, Helsinki Finland

As usual, the cloakroom service is offered free of charge on behalf of El Jefe. Please note that to attend you need to be 18 years or older.

IGDA Finland February Gathering with Rovio

El Jefe was the place to be on Tuesday night when enthusiasts of the Finnish games industry gathered once again to share learn and most of all have fun at the monthly IGDA Gathering in Helsinki. A big thank you once again to our wonderful sponsor Rovio who brought the party to town! Volunteers hard at work at the registration desk.

In the midst of satisfying their sweet tooth with some Angry Birds candy, guests had the opportunity to hear more about Rovio’s cloud services and Rovio’s own cloud platform and SDK, Hatch, which has been in development for three years. Rovio has also soft-launched an in-game video channel called Ruffle that aims to bring new elements to fan interaction. During the evening’s presentations Rovio’s Jyri Partanen also gave some insight to the company’s success story and concluded that social features and F2P is the way forward.

Jyri Partanen

IGDA Finland would also like to congratulate Rovio for celebrating their 5^th Bird Day! Since its launch in 2009, Angry Birds has captivated and impacted hundreds of millions of fans around the world and has expanded from games into much, much more.

Some lucky guests went home with huge plushies!

Thank you to everyone for a fantastic time and we will see you again on March 10th!

IGDA Finland February Gathering with Rovio

Time to warm up February by gathering at El Jefe on Tuesday 3rd February with all your favourite friends! Rovio has kindly sponsored our event, and not only that, we have a great presentation for the night!

Jyri Partanen from Rovio Entertainment will be speaking about great games and Rovio's cloud services: how to grow a fan-base, engage your fans, and help fans pay you. He'll offer you a sneak peek into how Rovio's cloud services reach hundreds of millions of fans globally. He's going to hatch the story on Hatch: a tool built for Rovio developers.

IGDA Finland February Gathering Time: 03.02.2015 at 19:00 Place: El Jefe, Erottaja 15-17, Helsinki Finland

As usual, the cloakroom service is offered free of charge on behalf of El Jefe. The event is limited to adults only.