November Gathering: Presentation Afterparty

Cuba Café was bustling once again with people from the game industry joining the afterparty of another IGDA Finland Presentation held earlier on June 17th. A total of 102 visitors attended the gathering and the main topic of discussion was hard to miss - many of the visitors had just seen the presentation about Global Game Jam brought to us by Gorm Lai, and what a thought-provoking concept it was! Both experienced senior developers and fresh interns alike showed plenty of interest in it. Another point of discussion was of course the presentation about presentation techniques given to us by Remedy Entertainment and hosted by Jay Ranki and Sam Lake. The example used in the presentation was conveniently close at hand, as Alan Wake made an appearance on the big screen with a new demo of the game.

A small gaming rig was put up on the higher platform in Cuba Café where people could try out some of the excellent titles created in Game Jams around the world. Especially the game 'Make My Head Grow' was popular. More games from Global Game Jams can be found from the GGJ Archives

We got some good feedback from the audience and visitors about IGDA Finland presentations held so far. People clearly want the audience more involved. We greatly appreciate all feedback from you and encourage posting your comments on IGDA Finland Chapter Forums, or to send it by email to webmaster@igda.fi.

Next up in early December, little Christmas party brought to you by IGDA Finland and sponsored by Futuremark. Read more from the announcement here.

October Gathering: More good times at Cuba Cafe

Cheerful group of game developers gathered once again to Cuba Café. In October 112 attendees joined the Gathering. Finnish game companies are doing nicely despite the slight economic downturn. Still bad news from Sulake, the company behind Habbo Hotel, definitely was the topic of the evening. There was a constant flow of people through the evening and besides Sulake discussions went around Nordic Game applications. Many have applied development funds from Nordic Game Program and hopefully more than few will get some. More about that in December! During last spring and this fall we have had an interesting trend in the attendance records. Every month we get new visitors, warmly welcome! We have also increasing number of anonymous visitors. Why is that? Don't people want to be informed (aka to be in the mailing list) or do they prefer other channels like Facebook to keep on track of what's up within Finnish Game Development scene? If anyone is willing to open up your reasoning for anonymity, I would be very interested to hear.

We have also got feedback that you like IGDA Finland Presentations sessions but there could also be more something to do and play at the bar. We hear you and have already done some improvements. IGDA Finland Game League is slowly starting and it is basically up to you what you would like it to be. If you have good ideas and suggestions talk to the main organized Kari Perho! Also we are inviting all game studios to present their games at the Gatherings. We can organize playing sessions, short presentations, surveys, discussions... again it is up to you what you would like IGDA events to be like! Please contribute :)

We have had very good start of the season. We hope to see many of you again at the Presentations and at Cuba Cafe on 17th of November. We will have kick-ass program for you!

igda_oct09 Here are more good moments from October Gathering.

September Gathering: The future of gaming according to Everyplay and drinks!

[Fanfare] It is time for IGDA Finland season start! Everyplay will talk about game development for social network services, show Kamu World community and offer some drinks. Wohoo! IGDA Finland Game League will start, too. The game league will be run by Mr. Kari Perho at the back of the bar. Kari will give you more detailed information about the league at the September gathering. On top of all - we will have special price drawing going on later in the evening. See you at Cuba on Tuesday September the 8th!

IGDA FINLAND SEPTEMBER GATHERING Place: Cuba Bar, Erottajankatu 4, 00120 Helsinki (map: http://igda.fi/?page_id=5) Time: Tuesday, 8th of September, doors open at 19:00

In June IGDA Finland wanted to thank our volunteers by providing movie theater gaming. Sello Bio Rex was all ours from 11PM until next morning. NES, PS3 and Xbox 360 games were impressive on big screens and people enjoyed the experience so much that we'll organize another session this fall. This time we might have 3D-gaming as well! If you want to attend, follow Igda.fi to learn more.

IGDA Finland staff joined several games related events also in August. IGDA Finland was well represented at Assembly 09. We didn’t have any special IGDA agenda at the event but enjoyed quality demos, music and graphics compos. Also we started collaborating with Jolly Dragon, the organizer of Social Gaming nights. Their concept is to bring gaming to the pubs and show that gaming is social and fun. Social Gaming nights take place at Willi Wäinö every Tuesday, starting at 7PM. So far gaming has mainly focused on Nintendo Wii games and poker. Follow

Social Gaming Facebook group if you want to know more.

At the end of August IGDA Finland organized a picnic at Sinebrychoff Park. That was the first time for such outdoor activity and we learned good lessons.

Lesson nr. 1: weather-wise it is too risky to organize a picnic at the end of August. Lesson 2: We need a bigger flag! It had been raining for the most of the week so the grass was soaking wet. Instead of sitting on the puddle, we moved the picnic to the benched at the side of the park. And there we have it - lesson 3: don’t pick a spot which is famous for being a drunkards place. It was totally ok except that it totally changed the atmosphere from picnic chill out to shady hangout. The rest of the evening was well spent at Punavuoren Ahven. Despite of bad luck with the weather, we had a blast - thanks to all who joined us!

We have learned our lessons and will organize IGDA Finland picnic also next summer. Yes, earlier in the summer, with sunny weather, super cool canopy, music and huge IGDA flag :)

Season Start Picnic & September Gathering Invitation

IGDA Finland pub nights start rolling from 8th of September. Before that we'll arrange a picnic at the Sinebrychoff park. See you there on Thursday! To catch the waning summer warmth, join us at the IGDA Finland picnic on Thursday the 27th of August. Spawn point at Sinebrychoff Park will trigger around 18:00. Bring your own drinks, snacks and friends who haven’t been introduced to IGDA yet.

IGDA Finland will provide some blankets and we’ll have an IGDA flag on location to help you to find us. Check the blog and Facebook group for weather updates. You can still RSVP on Facebook.

After the picnic, the first IGDA Finland pub night will be on September the 8th at Cuba. The evening is sponsored by Everyplay. Everyplay will present Kamu World and provide drinks! IGDA Finland Game League will also start running from September. Join us at Cuba on 8th of September to learn more about gaming in social networks and IGDA Finland Game League!

IGDA FINLAND SEASON START PICNIC Place: Sinebrychoff Park, Bulevardi 40, Helsinki Time: Thursday, 27th of August, starts around 18:00

IGDA FINLAND SEPTEMBER GATHERING Place: Cuba Bar, Erottajankatu 4, 00120 Helsinki (map: http://igda.fi/?page_id=5) Time: Tuesday, 8th of September, doors open at 19:00

Time for a Change

As I announced in the June gathering, I will be stepping down as the Lead Chapter Coordinator for IGDA Finland at the end of the month. But as all activities for this season are already done, in practice my successor Sonja Kangas is already acting in that role in preparing for the next season. The main reason for this decision was that I've noticed I just don't have the time and energy to put into IGDA activities as I used to. That's largely due to my day job keeping me super busy in trying to wake Alan. :) And now that we've announced the launch window, I'll be even busier in the future.

But part of the reason is that the time is right. 4 years is a long time doing something like this voluntarily after a full day of work at the office. I also have a great successor that is more than capable of taking our chapter even further. She's already been part of the coordinator group for 2 years so she knows the chapter activities inside & out. I am confident the transition will go super smoothly. So congrats Sonja, new IGDA Finland Lead Chapter Coordinator!

It has been fun and eventful 4 years that I've been acting as the Lead Chapter Coordinator. Over those years, we've hosted 52 events that served over 5800 people, switched gathering venues twice, had our first sponsored events, our first presentation events, introduced drink discounts, redesigned our logo twice, redesigned our website twice over & added a lot of features to it, etc. We've also enjoyed great international recognition as one of the most active and succesful chapters, even receiving an MVP award in spring 2007 from the main body of IGDA.

But most proud I am of the fact that I've managed to grow IGDA Finland team from 1 coordinator and the advisory board into a team of 6 coordinators, loads of volunteers and the advisory board. This enables us to do so much more as a chapter than any one man or woman ever could alone. It also makes it easy for me to move on, confident that there are others to carry on the work. This has also been the key factor why we have been able to grow every single year: bigger attendance averages as well as more and better events and activities.

But I am not fully done with IGDA Finland just yet! I will be joining the advisory board and as Lasse Seppänen steps down from the advisory board, I've promised to take over as the Advisory Board Chair. That's just a fancy way of saying I will now be one of the guys giving annoying advice instead of one of they guys trying to follow their advice. :)

I still believe very strongly in everything IGDA Finland stands for and will support it in the future as well, just from a more passive role, that's all. I wish the new coordinator team best of luck! And to the rest of you: So Long and Thanks for all the Fish! (And the PS3 + games!)

Signing off,

Jay