Finnish chapter of the International Game Developers Association
IGDA Finland is the local Finnish chapter of the International Game Developers Association, our goal is to connect game developers, promote professional development, and advocate for the interests of the community.
A message from Jyri ‘Jay’ Ranki of Remedy Chair of IGDA Finland's Advisory Board:
As announced sometime ago IGDA Finland has a new Advisory Board. Â I wanted to take this opportunity to share with those interested the whys and hows of the IGDA Finland Advisory Board.
Our chapter's lead coordinator Sonja Kangas, chair of our previous advisory board Lasse Seppänen and myself had a conversation where we agreed that we should re-invigorate the advisory board with some fresh blood and get it going again after a long passive period.
When doing so, we felt strongly about following guiding principles:
- Affiliate studios should be well represented in the advisory board
- All board members should be active contributors, this should not be some sort of status thing
- We need a clear mission statement for the advisory board that supports the mission statement of the chapter itself to give it purpose and focus
For those of you who haven't been actively following igda.fi, here’s the full list of the new Advisory Board:
The studio affiliates are represented through Elina from Tribe Studios, Tuomo from Rovio and myself from Remedy. Osma and Sulake have been chapter’s close partners in organizing the presentation events and we all know Koopee and his important work to further Finnish game industry as a whole. Wili represents continuity as he was part of the previous board as well. Wili and Koopee also represent links to organizations we want to have closer cooperation with, namely Siggraph and  ‘Suomen Pelinkehittäjät Ry’.
In order to focus the work of the advisory board we agreed on a mission statement:
The mission of the IGDA Finland Advisory Board is to help the chapter remain one of the most active IGDA chapters in the world by advising and supporting the chapter coordinators.
The following are examples of activities the advisory board will be doing:
- Help lead coordinator find funding when needed
- Provide suggestions for presentation topics and help secure speakers through their contacts
- Offer ideas for new initiatives lead coordinator to consider
- Act as a sounding board for the lead coordinator's new ideas
This mission statement will be found on the 'About Us' section of the website in near future.
As our first act, we revisited the chapter mission statement a bit by expanding the definition of "people under the chapter's banner" to include developers working in industries closely related to game development. This slightly revised mission statement should soon be up on 'About Us' - page as well.
Last Tuesday's January Gathering was delightfully sponsored by Grey Area creator of Shadow Cities the world's first real-location MMORPG for the iPhone.  IGDA Finland had a chance to catch up with CEO Ville Vesterinen and chat about Grey Area and what he calls "the next step in Social Gaming," Shadow Cities.
What's Grey Area's story? How did it get started and what was the motivation for starting the Grey Area?
The company was founded in 2008 by three friends, Andreas Karlsson, Mikko Hämäläinen and Teemu Tuulari. All avid gamers, they had been talking about a game they would love to play, but which nobody had yet made. A game which would understand cities as game boards and social games in their larger context as part of our day to-day wherever we might be roaming. This would not only change the gaming space, but would impact our everyday behavior around our very own neighborhoods. And since not knowing any better, Teemu, Andreas and Mikko decided to make one. Read more about the Grey Area crew.
A game which would understand cities as game boards and social games in their larger context as part of our day-to-day wherever you might be roaming.
Your new game Shadow Cities is a MMORPG for the iPhone. You call it the "Next step in step Social Gaming." Can you explain a little bit about why you think that?
"Next step in Social Gaming" in the Shadow Cities context means that it changes the way you connect with people around you, whether at home or at work. It gives a new meaning to the neighborhoods through new social connections that build around these locations. These social connections are not anymore limited to the neighbor downstairs and your family members, but there are teams members and enemy mages all around. There's the cunning Level 12 enemy mage just next door and a friendly team member up the street who always engage in fierce battles right around dinner time and again after they have put the kids to sleep. Or the fierce Fire mage who's always defending his Dominator towers during your walk back from the local grocery store.
It [Shadow Cities] gives a new meaning to the neighborhoods through new social connections that build around these locations.
You mentioned that the plan is to launch Shadow Cities in the US by the end of Q1 of this year, any comments on your move to the US market?
Yes, we are currently in the process of closing funding to be able to bring in more super skilled game developers to ramp up the game at the same time preparing for the US launch. Â There's already tons of pent up demand in the US and Asia and people have been writing to us from day one wanting to try out the game. We want to make sure we have everything ready when we start to roll out in the US, thus we released the game first to Finland so we can balance the gameplay. We are really happy how it has played out and are now making the last tweaks.
For those who have not tried the game and have an iPhone what would you say to persuade them to give Shadow Cities a try?
I would challenge them to try out a gaming experience that they have never tried before. It ties in the familiar locations and daily commutes into a whole new experience. It's really an MMORPG at it's best, but still so fresh. A word of warning though, once you get in, it's very hard to stop ;)
Anything else you would like to mention about Grey Area?
Yeah, since we are growing very rapidly, we are also currently hiring and looking for talented game developers to join us that look for new adventures to embark on. Grey Area is a very fast growing game company, where you can change the way mobile games are played for all of us, globally. If you have the passion, this is a very exciting opportunity to make a dent in the universe. We'd love to hear from you at greyarea@greyarealabs.com. Check out jobs available.
Well there you have it, special thanks to the Grey Area crew for partnering with us and helping to create another great IGDA Finland Gathering!
If your in Finland and have an iPhone don't forget to check out Shadow Cities in the iTunes App Store.
If YOU or YOUR COMPANY would be interested in sponsoring an IGDA Finland Gathering send an email to sonja . kangas @ igda.fi.
Additionally if you would like to be featured in an IGDA Finland Industry Spotlight email collin . foss @ igda.fi.
Happy New Year! The first IGDA Finland Gathering in 2011 will take place on
January 11th. After crazy New Year parties we will take a bit slower in January... or... not really :) Grey Area - company behind Shadow Cities LBS game will sponsor the night, talk about Shadow Cities and LBS-gaming! This and a lot of more good times coming, we can assure you! See you next Tuesday!
Come to Cuba bar on January the 11th at 7PM to meet fellow developers and share your plans for 2011!
IGDA FINLAND JANUARY 2011 GATHERING
Place: Cuba Bar, Erottajankatu 4, 00120 Helsinki (map)
Time: Tuesday, 11th of January, doors open at 7PM
As the new year approaches it is with great pleasure we welcome new Advisory Board Members to the IGDA Finland team.
Jyri Ranki, Remedy
Koopee Hiltunen, Neogames Elina Arponen, Tribe Studios Mikael Hed, Rovio
Ville Miettinen, Lots
Osma Ahvenlampi, Sulake
Bold denotes new advisory board members.
A special Thank You goes to the outgoing advisory board members for their service in making IGDA Finland one of the best Game Developer organizations out there. Your help was greatly appreciated! :)
With special guest DJ Joonas Mäntynen (certainly welcome back anytime :D) rockin the house with retro-game styled music and Mr.Goodliving's newly released Bad Air Day driving the humor and big laughs IGDA Finland's Xmas Xstravaganza was certainly a night to remember and a perfect way to finish off a great year.
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Mr.Goodliving would personally like to thank everyone for coming – visitors, gamers and the IGDA from the bottom of their heart.
In case you were interested just who won the iPod Touch Mr.Goodliving gave away as a prize for the best score playing Bad Air Day the winner was Sini Haapanen who scored 61,676 points which was by far more than anyone else – including the Mr.Goodliving guys. Nice going Sini, now you can tell your family and all your friends that you are the world's best at Bad Air. :D
A night highlighted by the release of Bad Air Day also featured special drinks, T-shirts and snacks provided by Mr.Goodliving as well as many rockin out in the Lipshack.
All in all 163 people enjoyed the Xmas bash many of whom were from our affiliate studios such as Digital Chocolate, Remedy, Tribe Studios (IGDA Finland's new Studio Affiliate!), Redlynx, Sulake, Recoil.
Thanks again everyone for attending and making the IGDA Finland one of best international game organizations on the planet!
IGDA Finland
The Finnish chapter of International Game Developers Association.
